Ondo Finance said it will work with Franklin Templeton to bring tokenized versions of traditional investment products to blockchain users, a step that reflects a broader push to merge conventional finance with crypto infrastructure.

The effort centers on Ondo Global Markets, a platform that issues blockchain-based tokens backed by real-world assets such as publicly traded stocks and exchange-traded funds. These tokens track the value of underlying securities and can be held in digital wallets, allowing users to gain exposure without opening a brokerage account.

Franklin Templeton, which manages about $1.7 trillion in assets, will provide investment products and support the rollout. The firms also plan to launch education programs aimed at crypto-native users who may be unfamiliar with long-term portfolio strategies.

The partnership builds on a growing trend where large asset managers are testing blockchain rails to distribute products. Franklin Templeton has already developed digital asset tools, while others, including BlackRock, have explored tokenized funds and onchain settlement.

Ondo Global Markets, launched in September 2025, reports over $620 million in total value locked and more than $12 billion in trading volume across 60,000 users. The company says demand is coming from users who want exposure to traditional markets without the friction of cross-border accounts, currency conversions or trading hours.

The implications reach beyond convenience. Tokenization could reshape how assets move and who can access them. Traditional markets run on limited hours and layers of intermediaries. Blockchain systems, by contrast, operate round the clock and allow direct ownership through wallets.

Still, the shift will test how far tokenized securities can go within existing rules. Regulators have yet to fully address how these instruments should be treated when they move across borders and wallets rather than brokerages.

Competition is also building. A growing list of firms now offer tokenized funds, and major financial players are weighing how to defend their role as gatekeepers. If blockchain-based

distribution gains traction, it could chip away at the advantage long held by banks and brokers that control access to markets.

For Ondo and Franklin Templeton, the bet is that investors will prefer a model that blends familiar assets with new rails.

Binance Bahrain is expanding its onboarding framework by integrating Beyon Connect’s eKey 2.0 national identity solution to verify users during transactions. The announcement describes a collaboration that ties a government-backed digital identity to a leading crypto platform, aiming to improve security and streamline verification while preserving user convenience. By leveraging biometric authentication and 3D facial recognition, the solution seeks to reduce reliance on OTP-based methods and support a secure, compliant customer experience. The move reflects Bahrain’s ongoing digital transformation and its push to enable trusted private-sector access to regulated digital services through national identity infrastructure.

Key points

• eKey 2.0 integration will be used for secure digital verification during Binance Bahrain onboarding and transactions.
• The platform uses biometric authentication and 3D facial recognition, replacing OTP-based verification and aiming to reduce fraud.
• Beyon Connect holds exclusive reseller rights and the eKey 2.0 app is accessible via the Bahrain eGovernment App Store.
• The initiative is a national government product ready for wider use by government entities and the private sector.

Why it matters

This partnership links Bahrain’s national identity framework to a major financial service, potentially speeding secure onboarding for Binance Bahrain users and raising the bar for digital verification in regulated services. By relying on government-backed identity data and biometric authentication, the arrangement aims to improve security, reduce fraud risk, and simplify KYC without extensive infrastructure investment. The move aligns with Bahrain’s digital transformation goals and could influence how financial institutions and other sectors adopt national identity tools as part of everyday service delivery.

What to watch

• Rollout timeline and progress of the eKey 2.0 integration within Binance Bahrain onboarding.
• Real-world uptake by citizens/residents and any changes to the verification flow.
• Expansion of eKey 2.0 adoption across financial, telecoms, and government sectors in Bahrain.

Disclosure: The content below is a press release provided by the company or its PR representative. It is published for informational purposes.

Binance Bahrain Partners with Beyon Connect to Integrate eKey 2.0, Enhancing Secure and Seamless User Onboarding

March 25 2026, Bahrain: Binance Bahrain has announced a strategic partnership with Beyon Connect, enabling the integration of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s eKey 2.0 National Identity solution into the Binance Bahrain to enable secure digital verification of users when conducting transactions with Binance Bahrain . The collaboration marks a significant step in enhancing secure, seamless, and user-friendly digital verification for residents and nationals of Bahrain.

Through this partnership, Binance Bahrain is leveraging Beyon Connect’s exclusive reseller rights as an authorised reseller of the eKey 2.0 system, and the enhanced eKey application available through the eGovernment App Store (bahrain.bh/apps), operated by the Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA), to access reliable, verified government-backed user information required for Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The integration allows eligible users to log in to Binance Bahrain’s services using eKey 2.0, enabling easy digital verification while maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance.

The enhanced eKey 2.0 National Identity solution is a cornerstone of Kingdom of Bahrain’s digital transformation journey and is a national government product ready for wider use by various government entities and the private sector. The solution supports reducing costs for current and future entities by enabling identity-matching mechanisms with high levels of information security, data protection, and user experience, without the need for investment in technologies or infrastructure. Powered by biometric-based authentication and 3D facial recognition (facial recognition), the platform replaces traditional OTP-based systems, significantly reducing fraud risks while enhancing convenience and overall user experience.

Trarik Erik, MENAT Lead, Binance,, commented: “We are proud to partner with Beyon Connect to integrate eKey 2.0 into Binance Bahrain’s onboarding journey. This collaboration reflects our commitment to supporting Bahrain’s innovation-driven digital vision, while delivering a seamless, secure, and efficient experience for users. By leveraging trusted national digital identity infrastructure, we are enabling citizens and residents to access regulated digital services with confidence.”

Beyon Connect CEO Chris Hild stated: “Trust and security are the foundations of financial services. Through eKey 2.0 we are enabling financial institutions to meet regulatory requirements with confidence, protect customers, and deliver faster and smarter services. This step represents an important advancement toward building a sophisticated and future-ready financial ecosystem in the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

The service is available to all citizens and residents of the Kingdom of Bahrain, accelerating registration processes and reducing barriers, while ensuring compliance with local regulatory and security requirements.The eKey 2.0 platform plays a vital role in empowering individuals and institutions by simplifying access to digital services, strengthening national security, and fostering private-sector innovation Its growing adoption across the financial, telecommunications, and government sectors reflects Bahrain’s ambition to establish its position at the forefront of the global digital economy.

About Beyon Connect

Beyon Connect, a subsidiary of the Beyon Group, is a leading provider of digital trust solutions and the developer of eKey 2.0 — Bahrain’s official platform for digital identity, secure authentication, and consent-based KYC.For more information visit: https://beyonconnect.com/

About Binance Bahrain

Binance Bahrain is part of Binance, a leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users. Binance is trusted by more than 260 million people in over 100 countries for its industry-leading security, transparency, and comprehensive suite of digital asset products and services. Binance is committed to supporting responsible innovation and building an inclusive crypto ecosystem that increases financial access and freedom.

For more information, visit: https://www.binance.bh

Key Highlights

• The memory chip manufacturer submitted a confidential filing to the SEC for a U.S. ADR listing, with plans to finalize the process by 2026
• SK Hynix aims to generate between $6.7 billion and $10 billion through this capital raising initiative
• Capital will be directed toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, including the Yongin HBM production cluster and an advanced packaging plant in Indiana
• During the annual shareholder gathering, CEO Kwak Noh-Jung announced plans to amass over 100 trillion won in net cash for strategic long-term investments
• Shares of SK Hynix climbed more than 5% in Seoul trading on Wednesday; the stock has appreciated approximately 60% since the beginning of the year

Shares of SK Hynix experienced a significant rally of over 5% during Wednesday’s trading session in Seoul following confirmation that the memory chip manufacturer had submitted a confidential filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a prospective Wall Street debut. The stock’s year-to-date performance shows an impressive gain of approximately 60%, building on a remarkable 274% surge recorded in 2025.

The South Korean chipmaker intends to introduce American Depositary Receipts on U.S. exchanges and is working toward finalizing this offering before the end of 2026. According to company statements, precise details surrounding the offering’s magnitude and timeline remain under development.

According to reports from Korean financial media outlets, the company has set a fundraising target in the range of 10 trillion to 15 trillion won — equivalent to approximately $6.7 billion to $10 billion based on prevailing exchange rates.

SK Hynix initially revealed its intentions to pursue a U.S. stock market presence in December of last year. This strategic initiative aims to secure additional capital necessary for manufacturing capacity expansion as the appetite for AI-optimized memory chips remains exceptionally strong.

As the global frontrunner in high-bandwidth memory chip production, SK Hynix supplies critical components for AI processing units manufactured by major clients including Nvidia. The surge in HBM demand has intensified dramatically, contributing to a worldwide shortage of memory products and upward pressure on pricing.

Major Infrastructure Investments Underway

The capital secured through this offering is anticipated to support the company’s high-bandwidth memory semiconductor manufacturing complex in Yongin, South Korea, including a $15 billion production facility, along with its sophisticated packaging operations in Indiana. Management is also evaluating the establishment of an AI-focused investment division based in Silicon Valley.

During Wednesday’s annual meeting with shareholders, Chief Executive Kwak Noh-Jung outlined the company’s objective to accumulate more than 100 trillion won in net cash reserves to support long-range strategic initiatives.

The company’s recently completed M15X fabrication plant in Cheongju, South Korea, reached operational status earlier than originally projected. Development work continues on both the Yongin manufacturing cluster and the Indiana advanced packaging facility.

A communication distributed to shareholders highlighted “unprecedented growth” occurring within the memory market, characterizing memory as “a key-value product that determines the performance of AI systems.”

Massive Equipment Procurement Agreement

Merely one day prior to announcing the SEC filing, SK Hynix revealed plans to acquire 11.95 trillion won ($7.97 billion) in cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing equipment from ASML — representing one of the largest publicly disclosed procurement contracts for such technology on record.

The coordination between the ASML equipment purchase and the SEC filing submission signals a company acting decisively to cement its dominant position in the HBM marketplace ahead of competitors Samsung and Micron.

Samsung has been working aggressively to regain market share in the HBM segment, while Micron continues expanding its footprint as a domestically-based option for AI memory requirements in the United States.

SK Hynix indicated it will provide additional disclosures once specific parameters of the U.S. listing have been determined, or no later than six months following the initial submission.

The company’s ADR offering will utilize currently outstanding shares rather than issuing new equity, a structure that maintains value for existing shareholders.

Key Takeaways

• Amazon has finalized its purchase of Fauna Robotics, a humanoid robot company based in New York and established in 2024 by former engineers from Meta and Google.
• The startup’s flagship product, Sprout, is a bipedal humanoid robot measuring 3’6″ tall with a $50,000 price tag, operating on NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin technology.
• The transaction was completed last week, with no public disclosure of the acquisition price.
• Approximately 50 Fauna employees will transition to Amazon’s Personal Robotics Group in New York, functioning under the brand “Fauna, an Amazon company.”
• This acquisition follows closely on the heels of Amazon’s purchase of Rivr, a Swiss robotics company, indicating an aggressive expansion into consumer and delivery automation.

On Tuesday, Amazon publicly confirmed the completion of its acquisition of Fauna Robotics, a startup focused on humanoid robots that was launched in 2024 by engineering veterans from Meta and Google. The transaction reached its conclusion last week, although the purchase price remains undisclosed.

$AMZN has acquired Fauna Robotics marking its entry into the consumer humanoid market after the deal closed last week.

Fauna is developing a compact 42-inch humanoid called Sprout that can walk, grip objects, interact with people and even dance. pic.twitter.com/ibRfxcIOuT

— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) March 24, 2026

With this strategic purchase, Amazon enters the increasingly competitive arena of humanoid robotics, a sector that has witnessed substantial growth and innovation in recent years.

The flagship offering from Fauna is Sprout — a two-legged robot that stands at 3 feet 6 inches and tips the scales at 50 pounds. The design philosophy emphasizes accessibility and consumer appeal rather than industrial warehouse applications.

Amazon.com, Inc., AMZN

Priced at $50,000, Sprout is packaged with integrated software, gripper attachments, and a replaceable battery providing approximately 3 hours of operational time. The robot leverages NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin robotics computing platform and features memory capabilities that develop over time.

Sprout’s capabilities include walking, dancing, door manipulation, name recognition, and engaging in two-way conversations. Notable early adopters include Disney and Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics division.

The entire Fauna team of approximately 50 personnel will relocate to an Amazon facility in New York, maintaining operations under the designation “Fauna, an Amazon company.” Both co-founders, Rob Cochran and Josh Merel, will remain with the organization.

The integration places Fauna within Amazon’s Personal Robotics Group — a distinct division separate from the company’s warehouse automation operations.

Amazon’s Robotics Evolution

Amazon’s involvement in robotics extends over ten years. The company’s $775 million purchase of Kiva Systems in 2012 established the foundation for Amazon Robotics, which currently powers the company’s warehouse automation infrastructure.

Amazon previously ventured into the home robotics market with Astro, a $1,600 mobile household robot introduced in 2021 that continues to operate on an invitation-only basis. Sprout represents a more targeted consumer-focused initiative.

The Fauna acquisition arrives mere days after Amazon revealed its purchase of Rivr, a Swiss enterprise developing robotic solutions for last-mile delivery.

Intensifying Competition in Humanoid Robotics

Amazon enters an increasingly saturated marketplace. Tesla is advancing its Optimus humanoid robot at its Fremont manufacturing facility, with CEO Elon Musk projecting annual production of 1 million units.

Additional competitors in this domain include 1X, Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, and China-based Unitree.

Amazon has indicated intentions to leverage its robotics knowledge, retail infrastructure, and devices division expertise to investigate potential applications for personal robots in consumer settings.

According to an Amazon spokesperson, the company is “excited about Fauna’s vision to build capable, safe, and fun robots for everyone.”

AMZN shares concluded Tuesday’s trading session with a 2.28% increase, gaining $4.73.

Solana price rises back above $90 with multi-billion-dollar volume as traders bet on congestion fixes, the Alpenglow upgrade, and SOL’s role as a leading high-throughput layer-1.

Solana (SOL) price is changing hands around $92.39 today, up 0.62% in the last hour, 3.27% over the past 24 hours and 2.78% in the past week, giving it a market capitalization of about $52.88 billion and 24-hour trading volume near $4.18 billion. External dashboards place SOL’s current price in the $92.02–$92.64 band, with a circulating supply of roughly 572.25 million tokens, a market cap of around $52.65–$52.89 billion and 24-hour volume between about $4.34 billion and $4.39 billion. Over the past several sessions in March, daily closes have clustered roughly in an $86–$94 range, confirming a consolidation phase after a volatile start to the month.

That performance is unfolding in a firm market: the total crypto market cap stands near $2.45 trillion, up about 1.31% over the last day, putting Solana among the stronger large-cap performers over the same period. In earlier March snapshots, SOL traded around $84.56 with a market cap of $48.18 billion and 24-hour volume of $5.40 billion, then climbed toward the mid-$90 area with a market capitalization near $54 billion and daily volume described as “moderate,” highlighting a steady recovery rather than a single spike. Together, these figures point to a liquid, actively traded market where price is being driven by both spot demand and derivatives positioning.

Solana is a high-throughput layer-1 blockchain that combines a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism with a timing technique called proof of history, which allows validators to order transactions more efficiently and target tens of thousands of transactions per second. The network has become a core venue for decentralized finance, NFTs, and consumer apps, with SOL serving as the native asset for transaction fees, staking and collateral, firmly placing it in the layer-1 smart contract platform category rather than a DeFi protocol or AI token. Historically, this speed-focused design has come with a trade-off: Solana has experienced multiple outages and congestion episodes, including several multi-hour network halts in 2023 and earlier, which pushed developers and validators to prioritize stability improvements.​

More recently, the project has been preparing a major core protocol overhaul known as Alpenglow, described as the most significant reconsideration of Solana’s architecture to date and expected in the first half of 2026. Community governance records show that about 98% of participating token holders backed the upgrade in a 2025 vote, indicating broad internal support for changes aimed at improving decentralization, throughput and fee dynamics. In parallel, client teams have rolled out updates such as version 1.17.31 and follow-on releases to mitigate persistent network congestion and transaction failures that surfaced during recent periods of high meme-coin and NFT activity.

Although detailed whale transaction feeds for Solana are spread across multiple analytics sites, available market metrics demonstrate heavy participation by larger traders and leveraged players. Historical data shows that on March 25, 2026, SOL traded in a $90.82–$93.21 band with daily volume around 4.43 billion units, corresponding to multi-billion-dollar turnover at current prices. Another dataset cites a volume-to-market-cap ratio near 8.2–8.3%, based on roughly $4.34–$4.39 billion in volume against a market cap just above $52.6 billion, a level of activity consistent with ongoing directional trading and derivatives hedging rather than solely passive holding.

Sector-wide, Solana is part of a cluster of alternative layer-1 networks that includes Ethereum, Avalanche and Sui, all of which compete on smart contract capacity but with different trade-offs in fees, security models and decentralization. Today, Ethereum trades around $2,180 with a market cap of about $263.11 billion and 24-hour volume near $19.19 billion, while Avalanche changes hands around $9.74 with a market cap of $4.21 billion and $262.28 million in daily volume, and Sui trades near $0.969 with a market cap of $3.78 billion and $382.72 million in 24-hour volume. This positions Solana as one of the most valuable and actively traded non-Ethereum smart contract platforms, a status that has persisted despite its checkered stability history and now rests heavily on the successful delivery of congestion fixes and the Alpenglow upgrade.

Within that broader landscape, Solana’s latest push back above $90 looks like a textbook consolidation rally in a flagship layer-1: price grinding higher in a defined range, supported by billions in daily volume and a clear catalyst path in the form of protocol upgrades and congestion relief.

Led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the U.K. government has announced an immediate moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties, citing concerns that digital assets could be used to hide the origins of foreign money in British politics, according to the Press Association.

The move puts crypto at the centre of a wider crackdown on foreign interference, signaling that regulators are increasingly treating anonymous digital payments as a democratic risk rather than just a financial one.

The ban, triggered by the government-commissioned Rycroft review, covers donations of any size and takes effect today. Parties have 30 days from now to return any crypto received once legislation is passed, after which criminal penalties apply. Overseas donations from British expats will also be capped at £100,000 a year.

The review’s author, former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, stopped short of calling for a permanent ban — framing the moratorium as a pause for regulation to catch up with reality. But with the rules written into the Representation of the People Bill currently going through Parliament, the bar to lift them is high.

“I wasn’t here to look out for the interests of any political party,” Rycroft said. “I was here to look out for the interest of our democratic processes.”

Members of Reform U.K., which currently leads polling data, walked out of Parliament during the announcement. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took a pointed swipe at Reform leader Nigel Farage, suggesting he would “say anything, no matter how divisive, if he is paid to do so.”

Quick Overview

• Nvidia shares advanced 1.6% in premarket hours Wednesday, trading at $177.97
• Arm Holdings unveiled the Arm AGI CPU for data centers, projecting $15B yearly revenue by 2031
• The Arm chip doesn’t directly challenge Nvidia’s GPU dominance but may overlap with Nvidia’s Vera CPU lineup
• Amazon Web Services committed to acquiring 1 million Nvidia GPUs for AI inference workloads, valued above $50 billion
• Nvidia restarts H200 chip manufacturing and develops China-compliant Groq 3 variants, potentially adding $32B in annual sales

Nvidia shares moved higher during early Wednesday sessions, brushing aside concerns about Arm Holdings’ entry into the AI chip arena. The development coincided with two significant revenue opportunities that had escaped widespread attention.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

Arm revealed its inaugural data center CPU on Tuesday evening—the Arm AGI CPU—identifying Meta Platforms and OpenAI among its initial clients. During an after-hours investor presentation, Arm outlined aggressive financial targets, forecasting approximately $15 billion in yearly CPU revenue by 2031 as part of a comprehensive $25 billion revenue objective.

Arm shares surged 12% in premarket activity following the disclosure.

However, industry observers were swift to clarify that this new processor doesn’t directly challenge Nvidia’s flagship GPU offerings.

Benchmark Research’s Cody Acree noted that Arm’s strategy is “less about catching up to the accelerator wave and more about inserting itself deeper into the architecture that governs how AI infrastructure actually runs.”

Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, appeared in Arm’s promotional content, characterizing their nearly twenty-year collaboration as the backbone for “one seamless platform, from cloud to edge to AI factories.”

The competitive dynamic becomes more nuanced regarding Nvidia’s recently launched Vera CPUs, introduced during last week’s developer conference. J.P. Morgan’s Harlan Sur highlighted potential overlap between Arm’s chip and that product category. He additionally noted Meta’s existing agreement with Nvidia for Arm-architecture CPUs—complicating the competitive landscape.

Amazon Web Services Makes Massive Nvidia Commitment

Separately, Amazon Web Services revealed plans to procure 1 million Nvidia GPUs dedicated to AI inference capabilities. The announcement caught many off guard—AWS had previously promoted itself as housing “the largest cluster of non-Nvidia chips in the world” following its October 2025 Indiana data center deployment.

The agreement encompasses a “broad mix” of six supplementary Nvidia chip variants, including the recently announced Groq 3 inference processors, alongside Nvidia networking equipment. Industry estimates place the complete package well beyond $50 billion, with completion targeted by late 2027.

This singular agreement accounts for approximately 25% of Nvidia’s total 2025 annual revenue.

Chinese Market Revenue Resumes

CEO Jensen Huang confirmed last week that Nvidia is resuming manufacturing of its H200 processor—engineered to meet U.S. export control requirements—specifically for Chinese customers. Industry sources suggest a China-compliant Groq 3 variant is also under development.

Nvidia had incorporated zero Chinese data center sales into its Q1 projections. Throughout 2025, those revenues approximated $8 billion quarterly—roughly $32 billion on an annualized basis, representing about 15% of total 2025 revenue.

Together, the AWS contract and China market reentry represent over $82 billion in revenue streams absent from Nvidia’s current financial forecasts.

Nvidia shares traded 1.6% higher at $177.97 during premarket hours Wednesday, rebounding from a 0.3% decline in the previous session.

Key Insights

• Circle shares fell nearly 20% as draft rules threaten stablecoin reward models and user incentives
• Proposed limits on yield could reduce USDC adoption and weaken exchange-driven demand
• Tether audit plans and wallet freezes added pressure to Circle’s market position

Shares of Circle Internet Group fell sharply on March 24, dropping nearly 20% in one session. The stock declined from about $127 to near $102. This marked one of its steepest recent losses. The decline came after a good surge in March where shares soared below $60 to over $130.

Source: TradingView

The trading volume rose through the downturn, signaling intense selling pressure. The action implied a swift change in investor mood. Market participants reacted to emerging concerns around stablecoin regulation.

The decline also affected related firms. Shares of Coinbase fell nearly 10% during the same session. Analysts linked the broader sell-off to uncertainty in the stablecoin sector.

Draft Proposal Targets Reward Structures

Reports indicated that draft legislative language could restrict how platforms offer stablecoin rewards. The proposal would prohibit yield for simply holding stablecoins. It would also ban incentives that resemble traditional interest payments.

The rules would apply to exchanges, brokers, and related services. However, the proposal allows activity-based rewards tied to user behavior. These include loyalty or promotional programs that do not function like interest.

Analysts noted that such restrictions could reduce the appeal of holding USD Coin. Rewards are used by many platforms to attract deposits and keep users. In absence of these incentives, stablecoins can be less competitive with bank products.

Competitive Pressure and Additional Developments

At the same time, Tether announced plans for a full financial audit. The move could improve its transparency profile. This development may narrow Circle’s perceived advantage as a compliant issuer.

Separately, reports indicated that Circle froze USDC balances linked to several wallets. The action related to an ongoing U.S. civil case, though details remain limited. These developments added further uncertainty for investors.

Analysts stated that limiting rewards could weaken long-term demand for USDC. Exchange-driven incentives currently support a significant share of stablecoin activity. Any reduction in these programs may affect user behavior and revenue models.