Shares of Japanese investment firm Metaplanet Inc declined Thursday despite the company unveiling a major expansion of its digital asset strategy, including a ¥4 billion venture initiative focused on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The company’s stock closed around ¥352, down roughly 4.6% on the day, according to market data, even as management outlined plans to deepen its involvement in crypto infrastructure and financial services.

In a statement posted by CEO Simon Gerovich on social media, Metaplanet said its board approved the creation of two wholly owned subsidiaries: Metaplanet Ventures and Metaplanet Asset Management.

Metaplanet Ventures will focus on investing in companies building financial infrastructure around Bitcoin in Japan. The firm plans to deploy ¥4 billion over the next several years across sectors such as lending, payments, custody, derivatives, compliance tools and stablecoin infrastructure.

“Metaplanet Ventures is our commitment to Japan’s Bitcoin ecosystem. We’ll be investing ¥4 billion over the next few years into companies building Bitcoin financial infrastructure in Japan,” the post said.

The venture arm will also launch an incubator for early-stage founders and provide grants for open-source developers and researchers working on Bitcoin-related technologies.

Gerovich said Japan already has one of the world’s strongest regulatory frameworks for digital assets but still needs more companies building the infrastructure required for institutional adoption.

The first investment from the new venture unit will be up to ¥400 million into JPYC, which operates Japan’s first licensed yen-denominated stablecoin.

The company is also launching Metaplanet Asset Management, a Miami-based platform designed to connect Asian and Western capital markets through digital credit and Bitcoin-linked investment strategies.

According to the CEO, the new unit will focus on products tied to yield, equity, credit and volatility strategies within digital asset markets.

The expansion reflects Metaplanet’s broader ambition to position itself as a bridge between traditional finance and the emerging Bitcoin capital markets ecosystem.

Metaplanet stock market reaction remains cautious

Despite the strategic announcement, the market reaction appeared muted. The company’s shares fell during the trading session after initially rising earlier in the day.

The decline suggests investors may be waiting for clearer details about the revenue potential of the new initiatives or how quickly the venture investments could translate into returns.

Metaplanet has increasingly positioned itself as a corporate advocate for Bitcoin adoption in Japan, mirroring strategies seen in other publicly traded companies that integrate digital assets into their broader financial strategy.

[PRESS RELEASE – Victoria, Seychelles, March 12th, 2026]

BYDFi announced the integration of its perpetual futures market data into TradingView, enabling traders to access real-time pricing and crypto market signals directly within TradingView charts. The integration supports more efficient workflows by bringing BYDFi derivatives data into a familiar charting environment used by traders worldwide for crypto futures analysis.

Market Signals in View, Strategy in Sync

With BYDFi perpetual futures data available on TradingView, users can monitor price action, volume dynamics, and market structure signals on TradingView while keeping their chart workflow anchored to BYDFi as the data source, ranging from BTCUSDT perpetual futures price action to broader trends across crypto derivatives markets. This reduces context switching for active traders who rely on technical indicators, pattern tools, and multi-timeframe analysis.

BYDFi, Built for Active Derivatives Traders

• Derivatives Depth and Execution: With a derivatives lineup designed for different risk preferences and trading approaches, BYDFi supports 500-plus perpetual contracts with leverage options up to 200x, backed by advanced execution and risk controls for high-leverage crypto trading, helping users approach perpetual contracts trading in a more structured way.
• Global Scale and Responsible Participation: Founded in 2020, BYDFi serves over 1,000,000 users across 190+ countries and regions. BYDFi holds MSB licenses in the U.S. and Canada and is a member of South Korea’s CODE VASP Alliance, reflecting an ongoing focus on operational transparency and responsible market participation.
• Support and Safeguards for Users: Maintaining over 1:1 Proof-of-Reserves with periodic public reporting, BYDFi prioritizes transparency alongside an 800 BTC Protection Fund. 24 by 7 multilingual customer support and timely responses across official channels, including social media, reinforce BYDFi’s user first service standard.

How to Access BYDFi Perpetual Futures Data on TradingView

Users can view BYDFi perpetual futures market data on TradingView in a few quick steps:

1. Open Symbol Search on TradingView and enter BYDFi.
2. View the full list of available perpetual futures contracts.
3. Select a trading pair to view live price data and use TradingView’s analysis tools to refine your market view and timing.

Michael, Co-founder and CEO of BYDFi, commented: TradingView is one of the most widely used charting platforms for traders. Bringing BYDFi perpetual futures market data into TradingView helps traders streamline analysis and stay closer to the signals that matter. BYDFi will continue improving infrastructure, product depth, and user protections to support more informed decision making in fast moving markets.

About BYDFi

Established in 2020, BYDFi is a global crypto trading platform that combines the power of a centralized exchange (CEX) with its on-chain trading engine, MoonX. BYDFi is Newcastle United’s Exclusive Official Crypto Exchange Partner. Recognized by Forbes as one of the Best Crypto Exchanges in Canada for 2026, BYDFi offers intuitive, low-fee trading across Spot and Perpetual Contracts to Copy Trading, and Automated Crypto Trading Bots, empowering both new and experienced traders to navigate digital assets with confidence.

BYDFi is dedicated to delivering a world-class crypto trading experience for every user.

BUIDL Your Dream Finance.

• Website: https://www.bydfi.com
• Support email: cs@bydfi.com
• Business partnerships: bd@bydfi.com
• Media inquiries: media@bydfi.com

Twitter( X ) | LinkedIn | Telegram | YouTube | TikTok | How to Buy on BYDFi

Meanwhile, the two top gainers from the largest 100 alts today are HYPE and SKY.

Bitcoin failed at over $71,000 once again yesterday after the latest volatile session prompted by the developments in the Middle East, and now struggles below $70,000.

Most larger-cap alts have posted minor gains on a daily scale. ETH has managed to defend the $2,000 level, while HYPE has jumped to $37 after an 8% increase.

BTC Beneath $70K Again

After last Wednesday’s rejection at the monthly peak of $74,000, bitcoin headed straight south in the following days. Although it remained around $68,000 over the weekend, it dipped to $65,600 on Monday morning when most legacy financial markets opened.

The bulls finally intervened after this decline and helped the asset recover over five grand by Tuesday, when it jumped to nearly $72,000. However, it couldn’t keep climbing and dipped to $69,000 on Wednesday. The US CPI numbers came out, matching expectations, and BTC remained relatively still below $70,000.

A few hours later, though, it jumped above $70,000 and even $71,000 briefly after the POTUS said there’s “practically nothing left to target” in Iran. That was a short-lived bounce, though, as bitcoin has lost the $70,000 since then and now struggles just below it.

Its market capitalization remains inches below $1.4 trillion on CG, while its dominance over the alts is still beneath 57%.

PI, HYPE, SKY Jump

Most larger-cap alts have remained relatively sluggish daily, with the big news coming from ETH, which managed to remain above the coveted $2,000 support. HYPE has outperformed its competitors, skyrocketing by over 8% daily to a local peak of $8.50. TAO and SKY are the other notable gainers from this cohort of alts.

Pi Network’s native token received major adoption news from Kraken, as the veteran exchange said it would enable PI trading as of March 13. The asset remained flat at first, but it has gained almost 5% daily and peaked at $0.24 minutes ago. It’s among the few alts with massive double-digit gains over the past week and month.

The total crypto market cap has remained relatively still since yesterday, currently sitting at just over $2.450 trillion on CG.

US prosecutors have asked a federal judge to deny a new trial for Sam Bankman-Fried, arguing that the disgraced crypto entrepreneur has not shown any legal basis for overturning his conviction tied to the collapse of FTX.

According to a report by Bloomberg, prosecutors told the court that Bankman-Fried’s motion fails to demonstrate that his original trial was unfair or that new evidence would meaningfully alter the verdict.

Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the downfall of FTX and is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.

In February, Bankman-Fried filed a motion requesting a new trial, arguing that newly available testimony from former FTX executives could undermine the prosecution’s narrative about the exchange’s financial condition.

The filing claimed that additional witnesses might refute the government’s argument that customer funds were misused and that the exchange faced a multibillion-dollar deficit.

Bankman-Fried also alleged that some testimony presented during the original proceedings was misleading and said the new evidence could demonstrate that FTX was experiencing a temporary liquidity crisis rather than insolvency.

The retrial request was submitted under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which allows courts to order a new trial if it is deemed necessary “in the interest of justice.”

Prosecutors say arguments lack merit

Prosecutors pushed back strongly in their latest filing, stating that Bankman-Fried’s arguments do not meet the legal threshold required for granting a new trial.

They argued that the proposed witnesses either do not qualify as new evidence or would not materially change the outcome of the case. Prosecutors also maintained that the original trial included extensive testimony and documentation demonstrating that billions of dollars in customer funds were misappropriated.

As a result, they concluded that there is no justification to reopen the case, urging the judge to reject the request.

The dispute marks the latest chapter in the legal battle surrounding the dramatic collapse of FTX in 2022, which triggered one of the largest scandals in the history of the crypto industry.

Key Takeaways

• A trademark application for “WFUSD” was submitted by Wells Fargo to the USPTO between March 9 and March 10, 2026, encompassing digital wallets, cryptocurrency payment systems, trading infrastructure, and asset tokenization capabilities.
• While the application doesn’t guarantee a product release, it indicates the financial institution may be developing a blockchain-based payment token or U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin.
• Three distinct classification categories are included in the trademark: technology software, financial service offerings, and technical infrastructure solutions.
• The bank has previous experience with blockchain initiatives, including a 2019 “Wells Fargo Digital Cash” pilot program, plus strategic investments in cryptocurrency companies such as Elliptic and Talos.
• This trademark filing arrives during ongoing congressional efforts to establish stablecoin regulations, while competing institutions like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup develop their own blockchain settlement systems.

A recent trademark filing by Wells Fargo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for “WFUSD” has ignited discussions about the banking institution’s potential plans to launch a stablecoin product.

Documented under serial number 99693533, the application was filed between March 9 and 10, with public records becoming visible on March 11, 2026. The official applicant is listed as Wells Fargo & Company.

This represents a standard character mark submission without any accompanying visual design or logo elements. The designation “WFUSD” follows familiar patterns seen in dollar-backed stablecoin naming structures, capturing interest from both cryptocurrency enthusiasts and traditional finance analysts.

Three international classification categories are encompassed by this trademark filing. The first addresses downloadable software applications designed for digital asset management, cryptocurrency transactions, and wallet operations, alongside blockchain infrastructure capable of facilitating stablecoin transfers.

The financial services component encompasses cryptocurrency trading platforms, digital asset brokerage operations, virtual currency payment processing systems, settlement services using blockchain technology, cryptocurrency staking programs, and oracle services providing financial data to smart contracts.

The third classification addresses technical infrastructure components, featuring software-as-a-service solutions for asset tokenization, blockchain-powered trading network operations, plus security and verification systems for decentralized application environments.

Wells Fargo’s Previous Blockchain Initiatives

Wells Fargo has established experience working with distributed ledger technology. The institution introduced “Wells Fargo Digital Cash” in 2019, a tokenized deposit platform utilizing the R3 Corda blockchain designed for internal international payment transfers.

Additionally, the bank invested in Elliptic, a blockchain intelligence company, during 2020 and contributed to Talos’ 2022 funding round, an institutional cryptocurrency trading platform. A Wells Fargo Investment Institute publication from 2025 characterized digital assets as worthy of investment consideration.

Industry reports from 2025 indicated Wells Fargo engaged in conversations with JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup regarding a collaborative stablecoin project aimed at tokenized transaction settlement.

Current Status of Stablecoin Oversight

Congressional representatives have been developing stablecoin regulatory frameworks to establish comprehensive supervision standards for dollar-backed digital currencies. Given Wells Fargo’s status as a federally regulated banking institution, launching a stablecoin would necessitate regulatory clearance from both the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The existing stablecoin ecosystem is primarily controlled by Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT. PayPal introduced PYUSD, its dollar-pegged digital token, in 2023. JPMorgan previously developed JPM Coin for enterprise-level blockchain payment systems.

The WFUSD trademark application remains in preliminary stages without assignment to a reviewing attorney. The registration process typically requires twelve months or longer, contingent upon examination procedures and demonstration of actual commercial deployment.

Wells Fargo has issued no official communications regarding this trademark submission.

In the 1840s, thousands of investors funded unproven rail lines during the Great British Railway Mania because they believed the steam engine was an overnight breakthrough. And it was. But what followed was an enormous market crash based on the fact that the tracks were still disconnected, built in isolation from each other, and lacked the standardization needed for interoperability. It wasn’t until the government stepped in and managed the railways at a national level that this was resolved. This is exactly what happened in decentralized finance, or DeFi.

Investors and developers built DeFi protocols in isolation from one another, leading to fragmented liquidity and assets that cannot be moved easily from one chain to another. They built exceptional tracks, but these do not work well together. What we are now witnessing, as a result, is the start of a new era of government involvement in the sector, synthesising law, code, assets, and capital into sovereign-grade blockchain rails capable of unlocking trillions in value. We call this programmable finance, or ProFi. 

The institutional disconnect 

Leaders in the web3 space have consistently argued that institutions were simply too slow or legacy-driven to adopt digital assets. However, in reality, governments and large companies are not famous for building on rocky foundations. The structural limitations of early blockchains were their lack of sovereign alignment — a permissionless ledger could be a powerful tool for quickly transferring value across the globe, but it does not work for regulating the ownership of national assets. 

No government will ever concede control of its essential assets, such as homes, commodities, or bonds, to a market it does not control. As such, companies wanting to work within the confines of the law have had to be naturally conservative about bringing their assets on-chain. 

A token without legal alignment is just a digital shadow. To a serious investor, holding a tokenized asset on an unregulated chain is comparable to holding a blank deed. They do not seek a workaround to the law, but rather the protection of it.

Tokenization pilots

For years, the tokenization of real-world assets was where good ideas got derailed by un-compliant execution. A graveyard of high-profile tokenization projects backed by the world’s largest institutions failed. 

The Australian Securities Exchange’s $250 million tokenization project failed because it couldn’t adhere to the market’s non-functional requirements and existed in a regulatory vacuum. IBM and Maersk’s platform TradeLens failed because it operated as a private venture without government involvement, where competitors were reluctant to cede control of their valuable data. Private real estate tokenization wasn’t integrated with National Land Registries and was illegally invisible to courts. When disputes arose or platforms failed, investors found themselves holding “digital shadows.”

The list goes on. These projects, typically built on permissionless blockchains, operated in a regulatory vacuum. They were platforms attempting to bring entire industries onto a single, privately-controlled ledger without Sovereign oversight. 

With Standard Chartered forecasting a $30 trillion market for tokenized assets by 2034, the industry is moving aggressively away from speculative projects. Compliance is no longer a retrospective task but the very infrastructure that tokenization runs on. This is what BlackRock CEO Larry Fink describes as the repotting of TradFi assets into a digital ecosystem, a transition that only ProFi can facilitate by providing the necessary order of operations for global finance.

Enter ProFi 

The past two decades have defined digital transformation as the migration of paper records to static databases. While this made processes faster, it failed to make them smarter. We are now entering the programmable economy where the asset itself holds intelligence. The true evolution is not moving records to a ledger, but authoring the technical standards that govern how assets are created, transferred, and settled at the protocol level. 

This is where sovereigns can translate their rulebooks into executable code. They can ensure their national assets, ranging from energy infrastructure to real estate, stay protected under local jurisdiction while still attracting global capital through a unified, regulator-native stack. This is programmable finance. 

ProFi solves what DeFi could not. It replaces fragmented liquidity with unified settlement rails. It substitutes regulatory ambiguity with enforceable compliance at the protocol level. It trades speculative hype cycles for institutional-grade infrastructure that can withstand market stress. Where DeFi is built in isolation and collapses under pressure, ProFi builds with sovereign alignment and compounds trust.

The current leader of the ProFi race

Wall Street is replete with tokenized ETFs, but a more profound revolution is unfolding in developing economies, particularly across the Middle East. Nations are finally unlocking the ability to monetize their entire balance sheets through the construction of sovereign real-world asset rails, effectively upgrading the operating system of their entire national economy into programmable finance. 

Saudi Arabia has just started approving tokenization at the government level, leading to an explosion of multi-billion-dollar projects. Major real estate projects are already being tokenized, including a 10 million square meter industrial zone, numerous premium Riyadh skyscrapers, and master-planned communities. Energy giant EDF is also looking to tokenize the Kingdom’s massive energy infrastructure, from utility-scale solar and wind farms to thermal power plants.

At the government level, Saudi Arabia is transforming its real estate into a liquid and programmable asset class for global institutions, all while ensuring the national registry remains under absolute sovereign authority. This sovereign moat creates trust where doubt lingers, and turns blockchain from a tool of disruption into a tool of national alignment. Now, Saudi Arabia sets its sights on achieving Vision 2030 and tapping into the tokenization of numerous asset classes across its economy.

Whilst other jurisdictions are making progress, none have approached tokenization at the sovereign level quite like how Saudi Arabia has. And this approach has led to an explosion of RWA tokenization in the nation, proving that programmable finance is the catalyst needed to make tokenization truly work.

With ProFi, tokenization is set to explode at record levels. The infrastructure makes the entire pipeline compliant, liquid, and programmable from day one. When an institution can tokenize an asset with the knowledge that that token will carry the same legal weight as its TradFi alternative, and a government can tokenize its assets without ceding its sovereignty, everyone’s needs are met. Whilst Saudi Arabia is leading the charge, other jurisdictions will quickly follow. 

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) may reach the 1 million Bitcoin (BTC) milestone faster than expected, potentially overtaking BlackRock in total holdings.

Key takeaways:

• STRC share sales have generated cash to acquire over 3,500 BTC so far this week.

• Strategy’s implied buying power could rise to roughly 5,700 BTC per day at Tuesday’s record pace.

Rising STRC demand implies 1,940 BTC of daily buying power

Strategy currently holds 738,731 BTC, including the 17,994 BTC purchase announced on Monday. Meanwhile, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) holds 775,156 BTC, or roughly 36,500 BTC more than Strategy today.

But a relatively new instrument, Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, is helping close that gap faster.

STRC currently pays an 11.50% annual dividend, distributed monthly in cash.

The dividend rate adjusts every month to encourage the stock to trade near its $100 par value, which helps limit volatility. Strategy uses the proceeds from the share sales to buy Bitcoin.

Just this week, Strategy is estimated to have purchased over 3,500 BTC after selling roughly 6 million STRC shares through its at-the-market (ATM) program, data resource STRC.LIVE shows.

Among the top STRC buyers is Bitcoin investment firm Strive.

On Wednesday, chief risk officer Jeff Walton said they acquired $50 million in STRC, noting that the allocation would generate about $5.75 million in annual income at STRC’s current yield.

That is higher than roughly $1.85 million from 13-week T-bills, a difference of about $3.90 million per year.

On Tuesday, STRC logged a record $409 million daily volume and a $138.5 million 30-day average.

Using the $138.5 million average daily trading volume and a Bitcoin price near $71,000, STRC could theoretically buy roughly 1,940 BTC per trading day, more than four times Bitcoin’s daily mined supply.

On days when STRC trading approaches its $409 million record, the implied buying power rises to around 5,700 BTC, or nearly 13 times daily mining supply.

At this rate, Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings can surpass the 1 million BTC mark by August, likely leaving behind BlackRock as well.

MSTR may tap $145.1 trillion fixed-income market

STRC may soon start competing with the traditional fixed-income markets, according to analyst Adam Livingston.

Global fixed-income markets outstanding reached $145.1 trillion in 2024, and US fixed income outstanding was $48.9 trillion as of Q3 2025, Livingston said in a Wednesday post, adding:

“If products like STRC eventually attract even 0.1% of global fixed income outstanding, that is $145.1 billion. At $71.2K per Bitcoin, that amount of capital would be enough to buy roughly 2.04 million BTC, purely as a scale illustration.”

STRC still carries risk for investors

In its disclaimer, Strategy warned that STRC doesn’t guarantee returns, noting that it is “neither a bank deposit, nor FDIC insured, nor regulated in the same way.”

Additionally:

“It does not have the same regulatory and other protections as bank accounts, money market funds, treasuries, or similar instruments and as a result may not be a comparable investment.”

Strategy Analyst ColinTalksCrypto also warned that STRC can cut the dividend, its share price can fall below its $100 par value, and Strategy can issue more shares that dilute existing holders.

I’ve been seeing a lot of euphoric bullposting about $STRC.

It’s an interesting financial product, but I will be the black sheep and state that I personally feel it’s too risky of an investment.$STRC doesn’t really give you any guarantees (despite seeming like guaranteed fixed…

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— 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚜 𝙲𝚛𝚢𝚙𝚝𝚘 🪙 (@ColinTCrypto) March 10, 2026