Stripe and Paradigm launch Tempo’s mainnet and the Machine Payment Protocol, targeting high-speed, stablecoin-based payments for AI agents and global enterprises.

Tempo has been positioned from inception as a purpose-built alternative to general-purpose chains like Ethereum or Solana, targeting the specific demands of high-frequency, real-world payments. According to Paradigm’s own documentation, the chain is designed to process tens of thousands of transactions per second with sub-second deterministic finality — performance comparable to, or exceeding, traditional card networks. Unlike most blockchains, Tempo does not require a native token to pay gas fees; instead, users can settle transaction costs in any major stablecoin via an integrated AMM, using the TIP-20 standard. No token is being issued at launch, with the team citing the need for greater regulatory clarity before any such move.

The MPP’s release is arguably the more forward-looking element of Wednesday’s announcement. Developed jointly with Stripe, the protocol establishes an open standard for payments between machines — software agents, AI systems, and automated processes — without requiring human intermediaries. As AI agents increasingly execute real-world commercial tasks autonomously, proponents argue that a dedicated payment rail becomes essential infrastructure. Tempo’s architecture was explicitly designed with this use case in mind, with Stripe’s CEO previously describing the chain as a “decentralized, internet-scale SWIFT” for next-generation settlement.

The practical scope of Tempo’s ambitions is substantial. Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025, a 34% year-on-year increase, while global stablecoin volumes doubled over the same period to $400 billion, with 60% now attributable to B2B activity. Tempo targets the $190 trillion annual cross-border payment market, where traditional correspondent banking can impose settlement delays of one to three days and unpredictable fees. The chain’s ISO 20022 compliance — the international financial messaging standard used by banks — is designed to allow enterprises to integrate with existing reconciliation systems without wholesale infrastructure overhauls.

Early ecosystem commitments have been notable. Klarna announced plans to launch a stablecoin on Tempo’s mainnet, while Visa, Nubank, and Shopify were cited among early adopters during the testnet phase. Developers can build on Tempo through public RPC endpoints, with the chain’s EVM compatibility lowering the barrier for teams already familiar with Ethereum tooling.

The mainnet launch arrives at a moment of acute market turbulence, with crypto and risk assets broadly under pressure from geopolitical tensions and resurgent inflation. Yet for Tempo, the timing may be immaterial — its proposition is structural rather than speculative, betting that the next wave of blockchain adoption will be driven not by token appreciation, but by settlement infrastructure that actually works at scale.

PI sellers return in force and threaten to reverse most of the recent gains.

PI Network (PI) Price Predictions: Analysis

Key support levels: $0.15

Key resistance levels: $0.20, $0.28

PI Turns Bearish

With the bullish momentum gone, sellers have returned and have been extremely aggressive, pushing the price under 20 cents this week. Since the recent top at around 30 cents, the price has dropped by over 40%!

The spike above the 28-cent resistance was short-lived and turned into a bull trap since the price failed to hold there and quickly reversed course. This was a key weakness signal that encouraged sellers to push harder and the price gave in soon after.

Sell Volume Spiked

During the recent rally, the sell volume spiked, which was a key reversal signal. Since then, the price has been making lower highs and lower lows. The most likely support level to stop this downtrend is at 15 cents.

It is critical for PI bulls to defend the $0.15 support, as any failure there would erase all recent gains and even open the way for new lows later on. In the near future, this support is likely to be tested. Wait for that moment to gain insights into where PI will be headed next.

Daily MACD Turned Bearish

Another key signal that momentum was shifting bearish was seen on the daily MACD, which turned negative last Sunday. Since then, the downtrend has intensified, and there are no signs that it will stop anytime soon.

Keep a close eye on the support at 15 cents for any possible reversal. An early signal would be if the daily MACD histogram stops making lower lows. That would indicate sellers are becoming exhausted, and buyers have an opportunity to return.

[PRESS RELEASE – George Town, British Virgin Islands, March 18th, 2026]

Aster, a trading ecosystem backed by YZi Labs, today announced a major expansion of its collaboration with World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

The collaboration introduces USD1-denominated perpetual contracts and new trading incentives, including WLFI token rewards and reduced fees on USD1 pairs, while also allowing users to earn additional rewards on their holdings.

The integration is intended to support USD1 liquidity on the platform, laying the groundwork for Aster Chain, the project’s newly-launched Layer 1 blockchain.

Building a Diverse Foundation for Aster Chain

Adding USD1 as collateral and USD1-denominated perpetual markets reduce Aster’s reliance on any single stablecoin, giving users greater flexibility as the Aster Chain launches.

WLFI’s global community helps support Aster’s efforts to expand access to USD1 markets within DeFi.

“Aster Chain’s success depends on the depth of its underlying liquidity,” said Leonard, CEO at Aster. “By bringing USD1 into our core trading engine during this phase, we’re building the trading foundation for the Aster Chain launch. Our 0-bps maker fees are designed to encourage participation in USD1 markets on Aster as the mainnet launch.”

“Perpetual markets are where a significant portion of trading volume lives. Aster listing USD1 perps pairs and matching USDT collateral ratios means traders can use USD1 in a manner similar to any major stablecoin. That’s the bar we set: functional parity, rather than positioning USD1 a secondary option.” said Zak Folkman, Co-founder & COO of World Liberty Financial.

Establishing the USD1 Trading Hub

Aster supports USD1-denominated perpetual contracts, launching with BTC, ETH, and SOL pairs, with an additional 10+ pairs planned in the coming weeks.

To encourage market participation, Aster is offering zero-bps maker fees and a competitive 0.5-bps taker fee. USD1 is also supported as a core margin asset and collateral, with a collateral ratio on par with USDT – allowing traders to maximize capital efficiency.

Rewards for Early Adopters

This partnership introduces several incentives as part of Aster Chain’s mainnet launch:

• USD1 Perp Trading Rewards: Up to 2.5 million WLFI tokens distributed monthly through the USD1 perpetual trading incentive program based on trading activity, with rewards distributed weekly. WLFI reserves all rights regarding program interpretation and distribution.
• USD1 Holding Incentives: Users holding USD1 on Aster may be eligible to participate in platform incentive programs.
• Reduced Trading Fees: Zero maker fees and 0.5-bps taker fees on all USD1 pairs, a significant reduction compared to USDT pairs.*

Aster will also launch tracking tools including integrated Points Program entry points across web and mobile, allowing users to monitor their progress and participation in early Aster Chain market activity.

*Aster’s standard taker fee on USDT pairs is 4 bps. USD1 taker fee is 0.5 bps, representing an approximate 87.5% reduction. Maker fees on USD1 pairs are 0 bps. All fees are set by Aster and subject to change. See Aster’s fee schedule at Aster fee page for current rates.

About Aster

Aster is a privacy-first onchain trading platform backed by YZi Labs, featuring innovations like Hidden Orders to shield user trading activity. It offers perpetual contracts across crypto, stocks and commodities, as well as crypto spot trading, and is powered by Aster Chain, a Layer 1 blockchain built to power the future of decentralized finance.

Users can learn more about Aster on the official website or follow Aster on X.

About World Liberty Financial (WLFI)

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) operates at the intersection of traditional financial infrastructure with blockchain innovation, creating accessible, transparent, and scalable solutions for a new era of digital finance. This documentation is intended for developers, integrators, researchers, and community members seeking to understand the World Liberty Financial ecosystem.

Uniswap price risks a drop to $3.3 in the coming sessions if it confirms a break below a key trendline support on charts.

According to data from crypto.news, Uniswap (UNI) price fell 3.8% on Wednesday, March 18, to $3.85 at the time of writing. The token fell after a series of failed attempts by bulls to break past $4.20, a resistance level that held firm at least three times this week.

Beyond the price action, Uniswap has been struggling with a significant slump in network activity. Data from DeFiLlama shows that the total value locked on the platform has plummeted to $3.31 billion, which is significantly below the $6.3 billion record set in August last year.

At the same time, the weekly fees generated by the DeFi protocol on the network have shrunk to nearly one-fourth of the levels recorded in October.

Demand in its futures market has also dropped, leading to a visible cooling of investor sentiment. According to data from CoinGlass, the open interest in Uniswap futures has dropped 5.8% over the past 24 hours.

The altcoin also tanked as investors turned cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve rate decision scheduled for later today. At press time, the broader crypto market had dropped 1.8% to $2.56 trillion, while Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other major coins also printed red.

On the daily chart, the Uniswap price is on the cusp of breaking below an ascending trendline that has been acting as a dynamic support for the token since early February this year.

A break below this trendline support could lead bears to push for lower prices, potentially triggering a drop to the $3.3 support area where bulls previously managed to stage a recovery.

Technical indicators seem to support such a bearish outlook as they show bears gaining momentum. Notably, the Supertrend indicator has flashed red while the MACD lines are moving closer toward a bearish crossover, suggesting that the path of least resistance is currently to the downside.

However, a more nuanced outlook comes from the fact that the ascending trendline forms a part of an ascending triangle pattern on the chart with a horizontal resistance at $4.1. If Uniswap price manages to rebound above this level, it could confirm the bullish pattern and potentially end the current correction by sparking a fresh rally toward previous highs.

Ethereum Foundation deploys 3,400 more ETH into Morpho vaults, cementing its shift toward active, on-chain DeFi treasury management instead of selling ETH to fund operations.

The Ethereum (ETH) Foundation announced Wednesday via its official X account that it has deployed an additional 3,400 ETH to Morpho Vaults, with 1,000 ETH directed specifically into Morpho Vaults V2. At current prices, the deployment represents approximately $7.6 million — but its significance extends well beyond the dollar figure. It marks the latest installment in an accelerating institutional pivot by the world’s most prominent blockchain foundation toward active, yield-bearing DeFi treasury management.

The move is not without precedent. In October 2025, the Foundation had already deployed 2,400 ETH and approximately $6 million in stablecoins into Morpho yield vaults, citing the protocol’s “commitment to Free/Libre Open Source Software principles” and its release of both Morpho Vault V2 and Morpho Blue V1 under open GPL 2.0 licenses. That deployment was itself part of a broader strategic overhaul initiated earlier in 2025, when the Foundation committed an initial tranche of up to 50,000 ETH to various decentralized finance platforms — including Compound and Spark (the lending arm of the Sky/MakerDAO ecosystem) — in a deliberate shift away from the previous practice of periodically selling ETH to fund operations.

The rationale is both financial and philosophical. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, the Ethereum Foundation holds total assets exceeding $820 million, of which approximately $735 million is denominated in ETH. Rather than leave that capital idle or convert it to fiat, the Foundation has positioned Morpho as a core pillar of a responsible liquidity management approach — using DeFi tooling to generate yield while simultaneously reinforcing the open-source infrastructure it has long championed.

Morpho itself has grown substantially into this role. The protocol scaled from 67,000 users to over 1.4 million users across 2025, with deposits rising from $5 billion to $13 billion and active loans reaching $4.5 billion by year-end. Total real-world asset (RWA) deposits on the platform grew from near zero at the start of 2025 to $400 million by the end of Q3. Morpho Vaults V2, which launched in November 2025, introduced an expanded curator model designed to give asset managers and institutions greater flexibility in structuring on-chain lending strategies.

Wednesday’s allocation to Vaults V2 is particularly notable. The newer architecture enables more sophisticated curation, compliance integration, and programmable liquidity conditions — features that align with the Foundation’s need to manage a large, institutionally sensitive treasury. With Morpho’s total value locked reported around $5.8 billion as of early March 2026, the protocol sits among the most battle-tested lending infrastructures in DeFi.

The deployment also carries a signalling dimension. As Ethereum faces ongoing questions about its competitive positioning against faster, cheaper chains, the Foundation deploying material ETH into its own ecosystem’s DeFi stack is a statement of confidence — one that comes at a moment of broader market stress, with ETH trading around $2,239, down 3.49% on the day. The message, whether intentional or not, is clear: the foundation is not just building Ethereum, it is putting its own balance sheet to work within it.

PlayNance, a unified on-chain infrastructure specifically engineered to power the entire world of gaming, betting, and prediction, has launched its highly anticipated native cryptocurrency, GCOIN.

This represents a massive milestone when it comes to the expansion of its Web3 entertainment ecosystem.

GCOIN Deposits at MEXC Now Live, 200K Holders Already

GCOIN will start trading on one of the most popular altcoin-oriented exchanges in the industry – MEXC, and deposits are already open. Speaking on the matter was the CEO of PlayNance, Pini Peter, who said:

“Today marks a defining moment for Playnance. […] We identified early the opportunity to bring real scale into Web3 entertainment, and we’re building one of the leading ecosystems to support it. With GCOIN now live, we’re opening the door to what comes next – a new wave of users, new models, and a much larger shift in how entertainment moves on-chain. This is just the beginning.”

The coin has already attracted over 200,000 holders, with the presale selling over 14 billion tokens.

It’s worth noting that the project’s entire ecosystem has built its token model around rewards, linking the value distribution directly to platform activity rather than relying on fixed emissions.

Playnance already hosts more than 10,000 on-chain games and processes more than 2 million on-chain transactions per day, which reflects a strong user engagement, as well as growing adoption across the entire network.

GCOIN: Powering an Impressive Ecosystem

GCOIN represents the utility token that powers the economic execution across the protocol’s ecosystem. It’s used as a unit for value movement and settlement, and it incentivizes distribution across the PlayBlock layer-3 solution and applications powered by Playnance.

By design, it is intended for high-frequency and real-time use.

That said, the team has also highlighted principles of wallet-based ownership and execution. This means that users hold the cryptocurrency directly in their wallets. Balances and state changes are written on-chain for complete transparency, while users can also verify all network activity through the explorer.

In terms of functionality, GCOIN is designed as a shared utility layer across all applications on Playnance.

This means:

• One wallet balance per user
• One token standard across the ecosystem
• No user-side bridging to move value between supported applications
• Gasless user experience

It’s also worth noting that the team recently launched GCOIN staking, providing yet another mechanism for users to earn rewards simply by staking their tokens. Naturally, the longer the staking period, the larger the reward. This model has proven to attract considerable interest, with more than 250 million tokens staked within hours.

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A Coinbase–EY survey of 351 institutions finds 74% expect crypto prices to rise and 73% plan to increase allocations, with stablecoins and tokenisation driving the next wave.

Despite a brutal Wednesday for digital asset prices — Bitcoin (BTC) sliding to $72,300 and a broad market selloff driven by Middle East conflict and hot inflation data — a major new institutional survey published this week tells a strikingly different story about where the smart money is heading. A joint report by Coinbase and EY-Parthenon, based on a survey of 351 institutional investors conducted in January 2026, found that 74% of respondents expect cryptocurrency prices to rise in the future, while 73% plan to increase their digital asset allocation before the end of the year.​

The findings represent a significant institutionalisation of crypto conviction. The survey, which polled decision-makers at asset managers, hedge funds, private banks, venture capital firms, family offices, and asset owners globally, found that exchange-traded products (ETPs) and other regulated instruments have now become the preferred exposure vehicle for two-thirds of respondents. That shift — from direct on-chain holdings toward regulated wrappers — reflects both the maturing product landscape and the compliance imperatives of institutional capital, following the landmark approval and uptake of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. over the past two years.

Amid widespread bullishness, the survey also captured the scars of recent volatility. Nearly half of respondents — 49% — said that recent market fluctuations had led them to place greater emphasis on risk management, liquidity, and position control, rather than reducing their holdings outright. That distinction matters: institutional capital appears to be recalibrating its approach rather than retreating, a posture that may prove consequential as markets navigate the current geopolitical shock.​

The juxtaposition between Wednesday’s price action and the survey’s conclusions encapsulates the central tension facing institutional crypto allocators in 2026: near-term macro headwinds severe enough to test conviction, set against a structural adoption thesis that continues to broaden quarter by quarter.

Key takeaways:

• Robert Kiyosaki’s $750,000 Bitcoin target implies a 95% discount versus gold, which is lower than the 2024 peak.

• $750,000 Bitcoin might not be that significant if daily expenses, housing and energy rise in like kind.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series, stated in a social media post on Monday that a massive financial “bubble burst” is imminent. The financial educator suggests this unprecedented economic crisis will eventually lead to a $750,000 Bitcoin (BTC) rally within one year of the crash. 

While Kiyosaki’s estimate seems extremely bullish at first sight, a more granular view gives deeper meaning to his price prediction.

For a prediction to be valid, one needs a timeframe, even if it is stretched out over the next 12 months or more. Even if the Bitcoin price eventually reaches $750,000, the measure of success will largely depend on average US house prices or the annual cost of living for a typical family.

Accelerated expansion of the global monetary supply, such as the period between 2020 and 2021, tends to trigger a surge in demand for scarce assets, regardless of official government inflation metrics. For instance, the S&P 500 gained 52% between July 2020 and December 2021, while average home prices in major US capital cities surged by 38% in two years.

Kiyosaki anticipates that gold prices will surge to $35,000 per ounce one year after the financial “bubble burst,” which would be a 546% gain from its highest-ever daily close. As a comparison, Bitcoin’s optimistic $750,000 target stands 500% above its $124,724 record daily close.

Kiyosaki predicts gold will subjugate Bitcoin as a store of value 

Kiyosaki’s target for gold yields a $243.2 trillion market capitalization, which is 4.4 times larger than the current aggregate market cap for the entire S&P 500.

Kiyosaki believes the Bitcoin-to-gold ratio should reach 21.5, far below the 40 all-time high from December 2024. More concerningly, the current 200-day moving average for the ratio stands at 22, making Kiyosaki’s estimate far from bullish for the cryptocurrency. Additionally, gold’s annual output should grow considerably if its price surges to such levels.

Kiyosaki has reportedly been predicting great economic crashes since at least 2011 without much success, according to US News. In a September 2015 post, Kiyosaki said, “I’ve been predicting since ’02 that we would see a stock market crash in ’16,” while the S&P 500 actually gained 9.5% in that year. Trying to time market moves more than 10 years in advance seems rather unconventional.

In May 2024, Kiyosaki posted that the biggest crash in history had begun, advising followers to “not get greedy” and avoid catching “falling knives.” The suggestion came five months after a prior warning about a bank credit sell-off similar to 2008. More than 20 months later, nothing remotely similar has occurred.

Related: Lyn Alden tips Bitcoin outperforming gold over next ‘two to three years’

In May 2024, Kiyosaki recommended saving in gold and silver, although Bitcoin was also mentioned. However, the S&P 500 rallied 16% over the following 8 months, while gold prices gained 15% and silver traded up 11%. Ultimately, Kiyosaki has a less-than-favourable track record and has been skewed toward favoring market collapses.

Even if Bitcoin hits $750,000, it does not mean the cryptocurrency will emerge as a top-5 asset by market capitalization, especially as Kiyosaki expects silver to surpass $11 trillion after the so-called “bubble burst.” Ultimately, the bold prediction is far from bullish for Bitcoin investors despite Kiyosaki’s high target price.