BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, signaled a shift in how large investors view crypto, pointing to artificial intelligence (AI) as a more meaningful driver than the expansion of new tokens.

Speaking about client behavior, Mitchnick described a market that has moved away from broad exposure to smaller assets. He said the turnover among top tokens has been “pretty ferocious,” with only bitcoin BTC$70,215.47 and, later, ether (ETH) maintaining consistent positions. Many newer tokens, he suggested, fail to hold long-term relevance.

That pattern has shaped investor demand. “The majority of that is nonsense,” Mitchnick said at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on Tuesday, referring to the vast number of tokens in circulation. As a result, clients now focus on a narrow set of assets rather than building wide portfolios. Bitcoin and Ethereum dominate allocations, with limited interest beyond those names.

Against that backdrop, Mitchnick pointed to AI as a more significant force shaping crypto’s future role. He stressed that AI is a larger theme than digital assets, but said the two intersect in ways that could matter.

“AI agents are very unlikely to use, you know, Fedwire and SWIFT,” he said. “What is crypto? Crypto is computer-native money… AI is computer-native data and intelligence. And so there’s a natural symbiosis there.”

That framing casts crypto less as a speculative asset class and more as infrastructure. A growing number of bitcoin miners have begun shifting resources toward AI workloads, drawn by steadier revenue and rising demand for computing power. Several listed miners, including Hut 8 (HUT), Core Scientific (CORZ) and Iren (IREN), are either repurposing data centers or signing hosting deals tied to AI and high-performance computing. Others have signaled similar plans, even if mining remains their core business.

Mitchnick also linked AI-driven disruption to bitcoin’s appeal. As new technologies reshape industries and create uncertainty, he suggested bitcoin may serve as a stabilizing allocation. It can act as a diversifier during periods of rapid change.

“There are intersection points that are relevant… there’s clearly an advantage and an opportunity to play a role in the AI economy,” he said.

Circle is expanding the use of its USD Coin (USDC) across Africa through a strategic partnership with Sasai Fintech. The collaboration aims to weave USDC into Sasai’s payments fabric, covering cross-border transfers, enterprise payments, and consumer wallets, with the goal of lowering costs and shortening settlement times for users across multiple markets.

In a Business Wire release, Circle and Sasai described integrating USDC into Sasai’s infrastructure to unlock practical on-chain use cases for the stablecoin within Sasai’s network. Sasai operates digital payments services across several African markets, and the partnership would connect Circle’s on-chain rails with Sasai’s cross-border and mobile-payment ecosystem.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire framed the collaboration as part of the company’s broader focus on high-growth payment corridors in emerging markets, while Cassava Technologies Chairman Strive Masiyiwa highlighted the potential to broaden access to digital financial services for both businesses and consumers.

Data from DefiLlama shows USDC remains the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, at roughly $78.6 billion, trailing only Tether’s USDT, which sits around $184.1 billion. The size of USDC liquidity underscores the potential scale that could flow into Africa’s payments rails as the ecosystem grows.

The rise of crypto and stablecoins in Africa

Africa has witnessed a notable uptick in crypto activity, with Sub-Saharan Africa showing a 52% year-over-year increase in on-chain activity in the 12 months through June 2025, tallying more than $205 billion in on-chain value, according to Chainalysis data cited in recent market coverage. Nigeria accounted for the largest share of that activity—over $92 billion—followed by South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Remittances, cross-border payments, and hedging against currency volatility are among the leading use cases driving this surge.

The region’s crypto expansion is drawing attention from global players expanding into Africa. For example, Blockchain.com announced Ghana-focused expansion as part of its broader push across the continent, reflecting growing demand for retail and institutional access to digital assets and stablecoins as a payment and settlement layer.

Regulatory developments are also beginning to mature alongside growth. Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 crypto trading platforms to operate within a regulatory sandbox framework under the country’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, signaling a structured pathway for crypto services to scale with oversight.

Beyond the technology itself, policymakers and industry participants emphasize stablecoins as a faster, lower-cost alternative to traditional remittance routes. The World Bank continues to highlight an urgent cost challenge: while the global target is to bring average remittance costs below 3%, many economies in Sub-Saharan Africa still register higher levels. A World Bank analysis noted that in 2023 several economies, including Sierra Leone, Uganda, Angola, Botswana, and Zambia, faced remittance costs above 7%.

What this partnership signals for investors and users

The Circle–Sasai collaboration arrives as Africa’s payments ecosystem matures, with an emphasis on onboarding more people into digital finance through stablecoins and mobile-first services. For investors, the deal highlights a growing preference among builders and operators to anchor on-chain liquidity with regionally relevant rails. By anchoring USDC into Sasai’s breadth of services—cross-border transfers, enterprise payments, and consumer wallets—the collaboration could reduce settlement times and processing costs for a broad set of use cases, from small-business payments to worker remittances.

For users, the on-ramp to digital finance in Africa can become more accessible and affordable as stablecoin rails are integrated with everyday payment flows. The combination of Sasai’s regional reach and Circle’s global on-chain platform could create a more seamless experience for individuals and businesses moving money across borders or paying suppliers in other countries, with USDC serving as the common settlement asset.

On the regulatory front, the Ghana sandbox move demonstrates how governments are approaching crypto infrastructure with a combination of oversight and opportunity. This framework can help standardize participation for exchanges and wallets while preserving consumer protections, a development that could encourage broader adoption and more predictable interoperability between on-chain assets and traditional payment rails.

Another dynamic to watch is the broader regional push by established crypto firms into Africa. The combination of rising adoption, improving regulatory clarity, and the entry of global players into local ecosystems could accelerate the velocity of stablecoin use, especially in corridors where remittances and cross-border payments have historically been costlier and slower. If the trend continues, we could see more enterprise-grade solutions built on USDC that specifically target Africa’s fragmented payment landscape, potentially unlocking new business models for remittance corridors, supplier payments, and consumer wallets alike.

The next few quarters will be critical for measuring impact. Key questions include how quickly Sasai can operationalize USDC rails across its markets, what the actual cost savings look like for end users, and how regulators across the region balance supervision with innovation. Market participants will also be watching for concrete usage metrics—volume, settlement times, and cross-border transaction costs—as real-world adoption begins to take hold. As Africa’s crypto infrastructure evolves, collaborations like Circle and Sasai’s could lay the groundwork for a more inclusive digital economy where stablecoins help bridge traditional finance and mobile-first financial services.

Readers should watch for updates on deployment milestones, regulatory progress, and early usage data from Sasai’s network as USDC-enabled services begin to roll out across the continent. The collaboration represents more than a single partnership; it signals a notable shift toward scalable, on-chain payment rails tailored for Africa’s distinctive market dynamics.

The Ethereum Foundation on Tuesday launcheda dedicated website consolidating the organization’s post-quantum (PQ) security work into a single public resource.

The site represents the public-facing culmination of what the EF describes as an 8-year effort that began with early STARK-based signature aggregation research in 2018.

“Ethereum is designed to serve as resilient, self-sovereign infrastructure — not for decades, but for centuries,” the site reads. The EF frames the transition as an opportunity to strengthen the protocol’s security, simplicity, and decentralization rather than simply swapping one primitive for another.

The resource brings together several strands of work. It breaks down how post-quantum cryptography affects each protocol layer — execution, consensus, and data — and maps out a phased migration across named forks onthe EF Architecture team’s living draft roadmap.

The team’s current assessment places Layer 1 (L1) protocol upgrades as potentially complete by 2029, with full execution-layer migration taking additional years beyond that.

On the threat timeline, the FAQ states that most engineering roadmaps place cryptographic relevance in the early-to-mid 2030s, but that upgrading decentralized global infrastructure will take many years, making early preparation essential.

The PQ milestones are part of the EF’s broader strawmap. Post-quantum L1 is one of five “north stars” alongside fast L1, gigagas L1, teragas L2, and private L1. The strawmap outlines seven forks through 2029 on a roughly six-month cadence, though the document notes that AI-accelerated R&D could compress timelines.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

TLDR:

• RHEA Finance integrates TRON, giving 370 million users access to cross-chain liquidity via one wallet.
• NEAR Intents and Chain Signatures power seamless cross-chain execution without extra wallets or bridges.
• TRON processes over $20 billion daily and holds $85 billion in USDT, making it a key DeFi target.
• Intent-based architecture lets users state financial goals while solvers handle all cross-chain execution.

RHEA Finance has announced its integration with the TRON network, extending chain abstracted liquidity to one of blockchain’s most active ecosystems.

Built on NEAR Protocol’s intent-based architecture, the cross-chain DEX and lending protocol now enables TRON users to trade, lend, and borrow across multiple chains.

Users can do this without bridges, extra wallets, or technical knowledge of underlying chain mechanics.

TRON Users Gain Seamless Multi-Chain Access

The integration is powered by NEAR Intents and NEAR Chain Signatures. Together, these tools allow TRON users to express financial goals, such as lending USDT or swapping TRX. A decentralized solver network then handles execution across supported blockchains automatically.

Users sign transactions using only their existing TRON wallet through the RHEA PassKey experience. This removes the need for NEAR, EVM, or any additional wallet setup. The process is designed to be straightforward and accessible to users of all experience levels.

TRON has built a strong presence in global stablecoin payments over the years. The network holds over $85 billion in circulating USDT supply and supports more than 370 million user accounts.

Additionally, TRON processes over $20 billion in daily transfer volume, making it a natural fit for cross-chain DeFi.

RHEA Finance aggregates liquidity across multiple blockchains through its core architecture. By adding TRON, the platform extends its infrastructure to a vast and active user base. Assets can now move between blockchains without fragmentation or added complexity.

Intent-Based Architecture Addresses Long-Standing DeFi Challenges

NEAR Protocol Co-Founder and RHEA Finance advisor Illia Polosukhin spoke directly to the value of the integration. “With RHEA’s TRON integration, the massive user base of TRON gains access to broad cross-chain liquidity through a single wallet,” he said.

He further noted, “This is the power of NEAR Intents and chain abstraction. The user states their intent and it just works, no need to think about infrastructure.”

TRON DAO Community Spokesperson Sam Elfarra also weighed in on the development. “RHEA Finance’s integration represents a meaningful step in further driving cross-chain DeFi accessibility to TRON’s global user base,” Elfarra stated.

He added that users can now transact across ecosystems without leaving TRON, enhancing interoperability across the broader Web3 landscape.

The integration directly addresses fragmented liquidity and complex bridging workflows in DeFi. It also removes the persistent need for multiple wallets when operating across chains. Users simply express their desired outcome, and the infrastructure manages execution on the backend.

Native settlement workflows are designed to keep collateral and proceeds within the TRON ecosystem. This approach maintains the security and familiarity that existing TRON users expect.

As blockchain interoperability grows, intent-based systems like this show how decentralized finance can scale to meet the needs of a global user base.

Strategic Waterway at Risk

The Strait of Hormuz is also one of the most important routes of oil transit in the world, and its interruption has already attracted international attention. The US stance has been supported by several nations such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which have put pressure on Iran to allow normal shipping activities. Furthermore, the Gulf countries have also highlighted the necessity to maintain the energy routes steadily to avoid the broader economic impact in case the US attacks. Iran has replied that any assault by the US will be met with attacks on the infrastructure in the region that benefits the US. Energy plants, technology systems, and desalination plants may serve as targets in the case of further escalation, according to the officials. This was also in response to an alleged missile attack associated with Iran on the Haifa refinery in Israel that fueled more tension in the region.

Oil markets responded swiftly to the events, with oil prices rising to approximately 98 dollars per barrel, indicating the increasing supply fears. The traders considered the possibility of extended unrest in the Gulf region, which would constrict global supplies. In addition, analysts observed that strategic reserves might fail to counter lasting supply shocks in the event that the conflict spreads to international markets. The cryptocurrency market revealed a new vulnerability as geopolitical risks rose amidst global markets. Major digital assets suffered losses with investors moving to less risky assets due to uncertainty. The larger risk-off mood thus persisted to press crypto prices even though they have tried to recover in the recent past.

The situation in the financial markets is delicate to any additional update, with each group taking a strong stand. On another indicator, investors are keeping a close eye on any diplomatic happenings that will reduce tensions or avert escalation. Nevertheless, with additional uncertainty surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, volatility can be expected to continue in the near term in both oil and digital asset markets.

Robinhood’s (HOOD) board has approved a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program, according to an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

It adds more than $1.1 billion to existing buyback capacity.

The company said it expects to carry out the plan over about three years starting in the first quarter of 2026, though it is not required to buy a fixed amount.

Alongside the buyback, Robinhood also strengthened its access to funding. Its subsidiary, Robinhood Securities, entered into an updated credit agreement with lenders led by JPMorgan. The deal expands a revolving credit facility to $3.25 billion, up from $2.65 billion, with the option to increase total commitments to $4.875 billion.

One of last year’s hottest stocks, in large part thanks to the boom in crypto-related trading, HOOD has lost more than 50% of its value since bitcoin topped in early October. Shares are up 1.4% in after hours trading.

Bitcoin (BTC) holders are gradually becoming less prone to panic selling and instead building up cash buffers to deploy during discounted BTC buying opportunities. Onchain data supports this view, highlighting a large surge in stablecoin activity, with USD Coin (USDC) and Tether’s USDt (USDT) transfers reaching a combined $440 billion on March 22. 

This shift in investor behavior aligns with the increasing risk-off approach seen in markets as the United States Federal Reserve dismissed near-term interest rate cut expectations, amid rising energy prices due to the ongoing US and Israel-Iran war.

Bitcoin realized volatility expands, but investors are cool headed

Bitcoin’s recent price action highlights a volatile market. It dropped 3.75% to $67,300 on Sunday before rebounding above $71,700 on Monday, with the move largely driven by news around the US and Israel-Iran war.

As a result, BTC’s realized volatility, which measures how much the price has actually moved over a given period, remains elevated across multiple time frames. The three-month and six-month realized volatility measures have climbed to 107% and 148%, respectively, up from 60% and 94.5% over the past six months. 

However, the long-term one-year realized volatility has remained unchanged near 180% during this period. That suggests the market isn’t in full panic mode, and it is dealing with uncertainty without widespread forced selling.

Stablecoin flows provide important context for this environment. On March 22, the total number of USDC tokens transferred surged to 368 billion, marking a roughly 2,081% daily increase to an all-time high, while USDT transfers on the Ethereum network reached 72 billion.

These stablecoin flows point to a rapid capital rotation and repositioning. The market participants are actively moving funds into stablecoins as a temporary store of value, creating a “cash buffer” that can be redeployed quickly.

This dynamic often emerges in volatile conditions, where traders may prioritize monitoring the price over high exposure.

Related: What happens to Bitcoin if US bond yields soar above 5%?

Spot and futures activity remain below bull market highs

Futures data further reinforces the current sidelined sentiment. BTC open interest (in USD) is down $19 billion over the past six months, indicating a steady reduction in leveraged exposure. This unwind reflects a market that is de-risking rather than building aggressive positions.

Aggregated funding rates have cooled to 0.01% from overheated levels near 0.1% in July-August 2025, occasionally flipping negative, while the perpetual futures premium continues to trade at a discount to spot.

Together, these signals point to subdued leverage demand and a market lacking strong directional conviction, with a slight bearish tilt.

The spot market activity paints a similar picture. Cointelegraph reported that Binance is on track to record its lowest monthly spot volume since September 2023, with volumes hovering near $52 billion.

The current participation levels align more closely with periods of reduced engagement seen during prior bear market cycles in 2022-2023.

Thus, the crypto market has strong liquidity, with capital actively moving through stablecoins, but it isn’t being deployed into Bitcoin yet, and BTC holders continue to observe the current market.

Related: Bitcoin value ‘off the chart’ as BTC price metric hits record lows in 2026