Crypto World
Why Do Big Entities’ Payroll Demands Account Abstraction Crypto Wallets?
AI Summary
- In 2024 and 2025, the adoption of crypto payroll and stablecoin payouts by enterprises increased significantly, driven by the need for faster settlements, lower costs, and enhanced transparency
- Account abstraction wallets emerged as a solution, enabling companies to pay employees in stablecoins without requiring them to hold native chain gas
- These wallets automate multi-party approvals, batch-settle payroll events, and provide traceable on-chain tax and payroll records
- The blog post outlines the challenges faced by large entities in existing payroll systems and explains how account abstraction wallets streamline payroll processes by offering gas abstraction, smart policy-driven wallets, batch operations, native support for stablecoins, and improved auditability
- The post also details an enterprise-grade implementation pattern for account abstraction wallets and highlights the importance of compliance, legal, and regulatory support when developing such wallets
“Efficiency without control is chaos. Control without efficiency is waste.”
In 2024 and 2025, enterprise adoption of crypto payroll and stablecoin payouts accelerated sharply as treasury teams and global HR leaders sought faster settlement, lower cross-border costs, and better financial transparency. According to recent industry research, the share of professionals receiving any portion of their salary in digital assets rose materially, with stablecoins increasingly dominating employer-led payouts. This shift is not a fringe curiosity. It is a structural market signal: entities that want global, low-friction payroll must rethink crypto wallet architecture, gas mechanics, and compliance. Account abstraction wallets solve multiple technical and operational pain points by bringing programmable logic, sponsored gas, multi-sig governance, and token-denominated fee models into payroll flows. For serious investors evaluating infrastructure plays and enterprise SaaS for payroll modernization, understanding account abstraction is now table stakes.
Executive Summary
Account abstraction (AA) takes smart contract wallet patterns into production-friendly form, enabling payroll systems to: pay employees in stablecoins or tokens without users holding native chain gas, automate multi-party approvals, batch-settle payroll events, and provide traceable on-chain tax and payroll records. These capabilities open new revenue and product pathways for payroll orchestration platforms, treasury management systems, and white label wallet development companies. The rest of this article explains the technical mechanics, maps AA to payroll use cases, lists enterprise pain points solved by AA, outlines a practical implementation pattern, and describes a full-service AA wallet offering you can confidently invest in.
Challenges Big Entities Face In Existing Payroll Systems
Here are the persistent operational and technical problems large employers face today that AA smart crypto wallets can meaningfully resolve:
1. Cross-border settlement friction, currency conversion delays, and high remittance fees.
2. The need for multiple approvals and role-based controls across treasury, payroll and legal teams.
3. Employees must hold native chain tokens to pay gas, creating onboarding friction and compliance gaps.
4. Poor auditability for on-chain payroll records and reconciliation against fiat ledgers.
5. Fragmented payroll rails across chains and token standards, increasing integration complexity.
6. Vendor and contractor payouts that require atomic multi-payments and batch settlement.
7. Difficulty enforcing corporate policies like minimum fiat thresholds or mandated vesting.
8. Legal and tax reporting complexity when payroll touches dozens of jurisdictions.
How Does Account Abstraction Crypto Wallets Make Payroll Easier?
Account abstraction transforms the wallet from a passive keypair to an active, programmable account that enforces policy, pays fees flexibly, and supports advanced onboarding. Practically, this yields:
- Gas abstraction and paymaster sponsorship. Companies can sponsor transaction execution fees or accept fees in an ERC-20 stablecoin so employees do not need native chain tokens. This removes a major operational blocker for mass payroll adoption.
- Smart, policy-driven wallets. Employer policies such as vesting schedules, spending limits, whitelists, multi-approvals, and emergency recovery can be enforced at the account level rather than relying on off-chain governance.
- Batch operations and gas-efficient settlement. Payroll events can be bundled and executed via batching or meta-transactions to reduce per-transaction overhead and improve throughput.
- Native support for stablecoins and tokenized payroll. Wallets can accept, custody, and disburse payroll in institutional stablecoins, simplifying treasury operations and reducing FX risk. Recent market data shows stablecoins, particularly USDC, are dominant in crypto payroll use cases.
- Better audit logs and traceability. Every payroll transaction can include metadata, on-chain receipts, and signatures that feed reconciliations and tax reporting workflows.
Deploy Secure & Compliant AA Crypto Wallets at Enterprise Scale
How Does an Account Abstraction Wallet Work For Payroll Management?
An account abstraction payroll wallet is a smart contract-based account that replaces the traditional externally owned account. The employer provisions a wallet template for each employee or contractor and deploys or sponsors the wallet via a factory pattern. Payroll runs trigger a sequence: the payroll engine batches net-pay calculations, converts fiat to the chosen stablecoin using liquidity rails if necessary, and submits signed meta-transactions to a bundler or relayer. A paymaster contract verifies policy conditions and sponsors the gas or accepts payment in stablecoins. The wallet enforces company policies such as vesting, tax withholdings, and multi-sig approval before releasing funds to the employee’s wallet or custodial off-ramp. All events emit standardized on-chain records that integrate with accounting systems via event listeners and indexed logs. This flow removes the need for employees to hold native gas tokens, automates compliance controls, and enables atomic, auditable settlement across jurisdictions.
Enterprise-Grade Implementation Pattern
1. Wallet template and factory: Deploy a modular smart wallet factory supporting plug-in modules: multi-sig, recovery, timelock, vesting, and payroll hooks.
2. User onboarding and identity layers: Integrate enterprise KYC and identity proofs for employees. Tie corporate roles to on-chain permissions.
3. Paymaster and gas rules: Implement a paymaster strategy: sponsor gas for onboarding, accept payment-in-token for execution, and set sponsor policies for whitelisted payroll operations.
4. Bundler and relayer network: Use bundlers/relayers to aggregate UserOperations and submit to the EntryPoint layer, optimizing gas and batching payroll transactions.
5. Treasury connectors: Integrate with custody providers, stablecoin rails, and FX providers for seamless fiat-to-crypto conversion and vice versa.
6. Reconciliation and reporting: Build event-driven listeners that mirror on-chain transactions into ERP and payroll ledgers with tax withholding and country-specific metadata.
7. Legal and compliance hooks: Add on-chain proof artifacts to satisfy audit requests and enable automated tax reporting pipelines.
Antier’s AA Crypto Wallet Development Offerings
Being one of the leading blockchain wallet development companies, our team develops end-to-end, compliance-first AA wallet solutions designed for large enterprises. Our offering includes:
- Requirements and architecture consulting for treasury and payroll teams.
- White-label cryptocurrency wallet app development, including factory deployment and modular plugin architecture.
- Paymaster design and implementation to enable gas sponsorship and token-denominated fee mechanics.
- Multi-chain connectors and token bridges to support stablecoins across EVM-compatible and non-EVM rails.
- Custody and custody-integration services, including hot wallet policies and secure key management.
- On-chain payroll orchestration modules for batching, scheduling, automated vesting, and tax withholding.
- Compliance automation: on-chain receipts, audit trails, and reporting connectors for ERP and payroll software.
- Role-based access control, hardware HSM integration, and enterprise-grade multi-sig governance.
- Performance engineering and gas optimization for enterprise-scale payout volumes.
- Security audits, formal verification where needed, and third-party pen testing.
- Managed relayer and bundler services or turnkey integration with vendor networks.
- Post-launch managed services and SLAs for 24/7 support, monitoring, and upgradeability.
For an enterprise investor, this package reduces technical risk and shortens time to market while capturing recurring revenue from SaaS, managed services, and compliance tooling.
AA Crypto Wallet Development: Compliance, Legal, and Regulatory Support
Global payroll touches many regulatory domains. It is important for a visionary investor or enterprise that is planning for account abstraction-based cryptocurrency wallet development that they hire a certified and skilled team of experts who are adept at providing an integrated legal and compliance stack that supports launches across jurisdictions.
- Jurisdictional analysis for wage law, payroll regulations, and allowable crypto compensation structures. We map per-country constraints such as mandatory fiat wage components and minimum wage rules.
- KYC and AML integrations at the employer, payroll processor, and beneficiary levels to satisfy local financial regulations.
- Tax reporting templates and workflows that capture on-chain metadata suitable for local tax authorities and auditors.
- Licensing and counsel coordination. If a jurisdiction requires a payment license, crypto license, or trust entity, we coordinate with local counsel and white-label partners to secure compliant pathways.
- Stablecoin and reserve risk advisory to ensure employers use institutional-grade, regulated stablecoins for payroll. Recent regulatory momentum and institutional issuance have strengthened USDC’s role in payroll rails.
Make sure that you partner with an experienced company that engages regional legal partners to deliver country-specific playbooks and operational checklists, reducing regulatory friction for enterprise deployments.
Current Market Trends
Enterprise payroll providers and fintech payroll players are actively building crypto rails or integrating stablecoin payouts. Various providers demonstrate mature product-market fit, processing large volumes and integrating with payroll systems. Meanwhile, market research shows the number of professionals receiving crypto pay rose materially, and stablecoins lead employer-denominated payouts. These trends indicate a growing TAM for AA-enabled payroll tooling, especially for global workforces and distributed organizations.
Hire The Industry Leading Crypto Wallet Experts!
Account abstraction wallets are the natural evolution of wallet architecture for enterprise payroll. They remove the classical barriers that limited large-scale payroll innovation: native gas requirements, limited policy enforcement, and poor auditability. For serious investors seeking exposure to enterprise-grade Web3 infrastructure, AA crypto wallet solutions present a practical, near-term commercialization vector.
Connect with the vast blockchain team of Antier to share your thoughts and project planning. We build these solutions end to end: from wallet templates and paymasters to custody and country-level legal playbooks. Our Web3 crypto wallet development, security, and legal teams guide you through architecture choices, compliance checkpoints, and managed deployment, ensuring you capture the market opportunity while minimizing operational and regulatory risk. If you are evaluating infrastructure investments that help enterprises modernize treasury and payroll, account abstraction is no longer experimental; it is a core strategic capability.
For a technical deep-dive, deployment timeline, or a tailored investor pack with market sizing and revenue models, we can help you with our demo.
Connect today!
Frequently Asked Questions
01. What is account abstraction (AA) in the context of payroll systems?
Account abstraction (AA) is a technology that transforms smart contract wallet patterns into a production-friendly format, enabling payroll systems to automate processes like paying employees in stablecoins, managing multi-party approvals, and providing traceable on-chain records without requiring users to hold native chain gas.
02. Why are enterprises increasingly adopting crypto payroll and stablecoin payouts?
Enterprises are adopting crypto payroll and stablecoin payouts to achieve faster settlement times, lower cross-border costs, and enhanced financial transparency, addressing the need for efficient global payroll solutions.
03. What challenges do large employers face with existing payroll systems that account abstraction can resolve?
Large employers face challenges such as cross-border settlement friction, the need for multiple approvals, onboarding friction due to gas fees, poor auditability of payroll records, and fragmented payroll rails across different chains, all of which can be effectively addressed by account abstraction.
Crypto World
BTC posts modest Monday gain, remains tied to Middle East developments
Bitcoin held onto gains Monday after an early surge above $70,000, but the rebound’s fate now hinges on what’s next between the U.S. and Iran.
The move followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a five-day pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure, citing “productive” diplomatic talks.
Iranian officials denied the existence of talks, but markets largely brushed it off, with risk assets holding firm through the session.
Bitcoin hovered just below $71,000 later in the session, up 3.8% over the past 24 hours. Altcoins outperformed, with ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and each gaining around 5%.
Crypto-linked equities also rallied, led by bitcoin miners, which have increasingly traded in line with AI infrastructure plays. Hut 8 (HUT) jumped more than 11%, while Bitfarms (BITF), Cipher Mining (CIFR), CleanSpark (CLSK), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and TeraWulf (WULF) advanced 6%-7%.
Traditional markets joined the move higher, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closing about 1.2% up.
While the temporary pause has eased pressure in energy markets, traders should treat the rebound cautiously in risk assets.
“The macro ceiling has shifted,” said Jasper de Maere, OTC trader at Wintermute. “How much room opens up depends on the next five days.”
If oil stabilizes and shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz normalize, he said, inflation concerns could ease, allowing rate-cut expectations to return and removing a key headwind for crypto.
In that scenario, bitcoin could make another run at the $74,000–$76,000 range, the level that has capped rallies in recent weeks, according to de Maere.
A breakdown in talks or renewed disruption to energy supply would have the opposite impact, he said. It would likely push oil higher again, reinforcing inflation risks and sending markets back into risk-off mode that could pull bitcoin back toward the mid-$60,000s.
Crypto World
Russell 2000 snaps back 2% as risk-on bid spills into altcoins
The Russell 2000’s 2% rebound after a 10% correction signals a tentative risk‑on turn in U.S. stocks, giving Bitcoin and altcoins fresh “permission to breathe.
Summary
- The small-cap Russell 2000 index jumped about 2% after a bruising correction, signaling a tentative return of risk appetite in U.S. equities.
- Traders say the move is part of a broader “relief rally” that has also lifted high‑beta crypto and altcoins after weeks of macro and geopolitical stress.
- Rising stock–crypto correlation means small‑cap strength is increasingly viewed as a green light to rotate from cash into higher‑volatility tokens and perps.
The Russell 2000’s roughly 2% intraday surge comes just days after the index fell 10% from its recent peak and formally entered correction territory, capping a four‑week losing streak for U.S. stocks. U.S. small‑cap stocks staged a sharp rebound in New York on Monday as traders reassessed recession odds and war‑risk pricing, shifting from outright de‑risking toward a tentative risk‑on stance.
Analysts frame Monday’s bounce as a classic “risk‑on” rotation after weeks of selling tied to Middle East tensions and surging oil, with West Texas Intermediate futures having spiked toward $100 per barrel and Brent above $113 in recent sessions. “What you’re seeing is positioning, not euphoria,” one equity strategist said, arguing that investors who were underweight small caps are now “grudgingly adding beta back into the book” as worst‑case scenarios get priced out.
For crypto traders, the Russell’s move matters less as a stock story and more as a liquidity signal. Research highlighted by CME Group shows that in 2025 and into 2026, on days when U.S. stocks rise, “crypto assets tend to rise, but not by as much, and on days when U.S. tech stocks are selling off, crypto assets tend to fall by even more.” A recent macro explainer on crypto bitcoin rotation makes the same point more bluntly: “Most big crypto moves don’t start with a whitepaper. They start with a change in the cost of money and the price of risk.”
Correlation data backs that up. The 30‑day correlation coefficient between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 has climbed to about 0.74, its highest level this year, meaning the two now trade in close step as “an extension of broader risk sentiment.” When breadth improves in equities — first in mega‑caps, then small caps like the Russell 2000 — crypto often responds with its own breadth shift: dominance falls, majors and then mid‑caps start to participate, and liquid altcoins outperform long‑tail names.
Recent coverage has already documented how macro swings drive spillovers into digital assets, from early‑2025 fragility that pushed traders into Bitcoin (BTC) as a macro hedge alternative, to later phases where easing conditions triggered broad rallies across altcoins and crypto‑linked stocks. As one macro‑focused fund manager told crypto.news in an earlier note on rotation, “When small caps catch a bid and the dollar stops ripping, crypto finally gets permission to breathe.”
Crypto World
Solana Price Prediction: Are We Ready For What’s Coming?
Solana (SOL) is trading in a suffocating consolidation zone, hovering just above the $90 price area, but could blast above $100 if our prediction comes true.
The technical setup is precarious; the asset is down nearly 69% from its January 2025 peak of $295.91, and DEX volumes have collapsed from $118 billion to just under $50billion in a single week, a staggering contraction of on-chain activity. While bulls point to the upcoming Alpenglow upgrade for sub-second finality, the immediate price action suggests exhaustion.
The market is holding its breath and bags around the critical $80 support level. A breakdown here completes a bearish head-and-shoulders pattern on the 3-day chart. On-chain data signals heightened risk, with capital appearing to rotate out of large caps into speculative volatility. As the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting looms, traders are forced to ask: Is this the bottom for SOL, or a rest stop on the way to $59?

Solana Price Prediction: Can it Hold or Will It Crash to $59?
The fierce defense of the $80 level defines the current market structure. Bears have tested this floor repeatedly, weakening the buy wall. Technical indicators paint a conflicted picture; the 14-day RSI sits at a neutral 55.21, while the 50-day and 200-day moving averages have formed a death cross, typically a prelude to deeper correction.
If bulls can reclaim momentum, the first major hurdle is $93, followed by stiff resistance at $96 and $105. Clearing these levels invalidates the bearish thesis. Analysis suggests a decisive break below $80 unlocks a measured move toward $59–64. Conversely, Standard Chartered maintains a long-term target of $2,000 in 5 years, viewing this sub-$100 range as an accumulation zone for institutional infrastructure plays.
Short-term traders should watch the $86.14 pivot. Price action above this level keeps the recovery hope alive, while sustained trading below it favors the bears. Current volumes do not support a V-shaped recovery, suggesting a “chop and drop” scenario is more likely than an immediate moonshot.
Maxi Doge Offers High-Leverage Culture as SOL Consolidates
With Solana trapped in a low-volatility tightrope walk, active capital is fiercely rotating into presale environments where multipliers, not mere percentage points, are the target. While SOL struggles to gain 10%, early-stage memes are capitalizing on the “degen” appetite for leverage and community power. This shift is evident in the traction of Maxi Doge.
Maxi Doge ($MAXI) positions itself as the antidote to boring price action. Marketing itself as a 240-lb canine juggernaut, the project embodies the “1000x leverage” mentality with viral gym-bro humor.
The presale has already raised a total of more than $4.6 million, signaling robust demand despite broader market fears. Priced at $0.000281, $MAXI also offers 66% APY of staking rewards for early buyers.
The ecosystem includes a “Maxi Fund” treasury for liquidity and holder-only trading competitions, gamifying the grind of the bull market. Liquidity in meme sectors is thinning, yet projects with strong cultural narratives like “Never skip leg-day” continue to draw volume. However, presales carry inherent risks regarding launch volatility and vesting schedules.
The post Solana Price Prediction: Are We Ready For What’s Coming? appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
DJT Stock Jumps 6% After Trump Signals Iran Progress
TLDR
- DJT stock rose 6% and traded at $9.15 during Monday’s session.
- President Donald Trump said the United States held productive talks with Iran over two days.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1,117 points, or 2.4%, after the announcement.
- The Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.4% as markets reacted to the headlines.
- The S&P 500 recorded a $3 trillion market value swing within one hour.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. shares climbed on Monday after President Donald Trump announced progress in talks with Iran. The rally followed a broader U.S. stock market surge that lifted major indexes. DJT stock gained 6% and traded at $9.15 during morning activity.
The advance tracked gains across Wall Street as traders responded to headlines from Washington. President Trump said the United States held productive discussions with Iran over two days. His comments triggered swift moves across equity markets and lifted risk sentiment.
DJT Stock Jumps as Markets React to Iran Developments
DJT stock rose 6% on March 23 and reached $9.15 in early trading. The Florida-based media company moved in line with major U.S. indexes. However, the stock remains down 30% year-to-date.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., DJT
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1,117 points, or 2.4%, during the session. At the same time, the Nasdaq Composite also advanced 2.4%. The rebound followed a week when both indexes fell about 2%.
President Trump addressed the situation on Truth Social early Monday.
He wrote that the United States and Iran held “very good and productive conversations” over two days. He added that the talks aimed at “a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
His statement lifted equity markets within minutes of publication. However, Iran later denied that officials held any contact with Washington. That denial led to rapid market swings during the same hour.
Trump Comments Trigger $3 Trillion S&P 500 Swing
The S&P 500 Index recorded a market capitalization swing of about $3 trillion within one hour. The move followed Iran’s response that rejected claims of direct talks. Markets reacted quickly to both the president’s statement and Tehran’s denial.
Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management, spoke with CNBC about the rally.
He said, “The market has been desperate for any good news.” He added that the update appeared to be “the best news we can expect.”
Equities had declined sharply in the prior week before Monday’s rebound. The Dow and Nasdaq both posted losses of roughly 2% during that period. Monday’s gains reversed part of those declines across major benchmarks.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., listed under the ticker DJT on Nasdaq, moved alongside the broader market. The company operates Truth Social, the platform where the president shared his statement. Shares traded at $9.15 at the time of reporting and reflected the 6% daily gain.
Crypto World
Bitcoin Dips Below $70K as Regulators Signal Long-Term Growth
This release reports a shift in Bitcoin trading as macro momentum and evolving U.S. regulation intersect with market infrastructure updates. The price moved below $70,000 after a brief rally to about $76,000 last week, reflecting broader expectations for higher-for-longer interest rates and addressable inflation risks. At the same time, the issuing authorities outlined a framework that places major crypto assets under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s jurisdiction, while signaling the potential for faster spot ETF approvals. The document also notes licensing developments in DeFi and ongoing policy discussions that could shape near-term market activity and long-term confidence.
Key points
- Bitcoin traded below $70,000 after a peak of about $76,000 last week, with macro data and a hawkish Fed stance contributing to the move.
- A US regulatory framework designates major crypto assets as digital commodities under CFTC jurisdiction, alongside existing listing standards that may quicken spot ETF approvals.
- Advances on the CLARITY Act address stablecoin yield structures, signaling potential limits on passive yields while allowing returns tied to transactional activity.
- S&P Dow Jones Indices has licensed Trade[XYZ] to launch the first officially licensed S&P 500 perpetual derivative on the Hyperliquid blockchain, expanding access for non-US investors.
Why it matters
Taken together, the release frames near-term volatility as tied to macro conditions while underscoring how regulatory clarity could attract institutional participation over time. The digital-commodity designation and broader listing standards may speed spot ETF approvals, widening the pathway for mainstream exposure. Moves on the CLARITY Act and DeFi licensing signal potential shifts in how crypto markets are structured and accessed, particularly for non-US investors leveraging cross-market products. Investors and builders should watch regulatory updates, ETF timelines, and licensing milestones to gauge how policy progress may translate into market dynamics.
What to watch
- Regulatory: track progress and potential enactment of the CLARITY Act and its stablecoin yield framework.
- ETF timelines: monitor whether spot crypto ETF approvals accelerate in light of the new framework.
- Licensing milestones: observe developments around the S&P 500 perpetual derivative on Hyperliquid and related licensing deals.
Disclosure: The content below is a press release provided by the company or its PR representative. It is published for informational purposes.
Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 Amid Macroeconomic Pressure; Regulatory Developments Signal Long-Term Growth Potential
Abu Dhabi, UAE – March 23, 2026: Bitcoin has retreated below the $70,000 mark following a recent peak of $76,000 last week, as macroeconomic headwinds weighed on investor sentiment. The decline was primarily driven by higher-than-expected US Producer Price Index (PPI) data, alongside a more hawkish tone from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who highlighted rising oil prices as a potential inflationary risk.
Markets are now increasingly pricing in a prolonged period of elevated interest rates, with expectations that the Federal Reserve could hold rates steady through 2027. Continued geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and sustained high oil prices could further fuel inflation, potentially prompting additional rate hikes—historically a negative backdrop for cryptoasset performance due to tightening financial conditions.
Despite short-term volatility, regulatory developments in the United States are providing a more constructive long-term outlook for the crypto sector.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have jointly introduced a comprehensive cryptoasset classification framework. Under this framework, major cryptoassets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP have been designated as digital commodities, placing them primarily under CFTC jurisdiction rather than the SEC.
This classification, alongside previously approved generic listing standards, is expected to accelerate the approval timeline for spot crypto ETFs. Such developments could unlock significant institutional inflows and support long-term price appreciation across the sector.
In parallel, progress is being made on the proposed CLARITY Act, with reports indicating that US lawmakers and the White House have reached a tentative agreement on stablecoin yield structures. The proposed framework would restrict passive yield generation while allowing returns tied to transactional activities such as payments and trading. If enacted, the legislation could represent a major milestone in establishing regulatory clarity and fostering growth within the crypto market.
In the decentralised finance (DeFi) space, S&P Dow Jones Indices has announced a landmark licensing agreement with Trade[XYZ], enabling the launch of the first officially licensed S&P 500 perpetual derivative contract on the Hyperliquid blockchain. This innovation allows non-US investors to gain 24/7 leveraged exposure to the S&P 500 via a decentralised platform, supported by real-time index data.
Following the announcement, Hyperliquid’s native token, $HYPE, rose 6% and is now up over 55% year-to-date, significantly outperforming major cryptoassets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which remain down over the same period. The performance reflects growing demand for decentralised infrastructure offering continuous access to both crypto and traditional financial markets.
Meanwhile, higher-risk assets such as memecoins—including $TRUMP, $PEPE, and $PENGU—were among the hardest hit during the recent market downturn, with declines of up to 20%, highlighting their elevated sensitivity to broader market movements.

Simon Peters, Crypto Analyst at eToro, commented: “While macroeconomic pressures have driven short-term volatility in crypto markets, the evolving regulatory landscape in the US represents a significant step forward. Greater clarity around asset classification and market structure could pave the way for increased institutional participation and long-term growth in the sector.”
Crypto World
Amber Group-Backed Perp DEX edgeX to Launch Token on March 31
The derivatives platform has already opened airdrop claims and pre-market trading ahead of its long-anticipated token generation event.
Decentralized perpetuals exchange edgeX has confirmed that the token generation event (TGE) and listing for its native EDGE token will take place on March 31.
EDGE has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. At TGE, 25% of the supply will be airdropped, with up to an additional 5% for participants in the Pre-TGE Season points program. The remaining 70% is allocated to Ecosystem & Community, Core Contributors, and Foundation.
The token is already changing hands ahead of the official launch, with pre-market trading opening on Binance on March 19. EDGE is trading around $0.70, implying a fully diluted valuation of roughly $700 million.

The airdrop claim window also opened on March 19, according to an announcement from edgeX.
edgeX, which is incubated by Amber Group, has grown rapidly since launching in November 2024. The exchange processed roughly $4.4 billion in 24-hour trading volume across 176 trading pairs, with nearly $1.1 billion in open interest, according to CoinGecko, making it the third-largest perpetual DEX after Hyperliquid and Aster.
The TGE coincides with the platform’s transition from a single-product perp DEX to what it calls EDGE Chain, a purpose-built Ethereum Layer 2 for high-throughput financial applications.
In February, edgeX received a strategic investment from Circle Ventures alongside native USDC integration.
Crypto World
MoonPay Unveils Wallet Standard for AI Agents
The Open Wallet Standard aims to fill a gap in the rapidly growing agentic payments stack by giving AI agents a universal, non-custodial way to hold funds and sign transactions across blockchains.
MoonPay on Monday released the Open Wallet Standard (OWS), an MIT-licensed, open-source specification that defines how AI agents interact with crypto wallets, including key storage, transaction signing, and cross-chain account derivation, without ever exposing a private key to the agent process or the large language model driving it.
The standard launched with contributions from over 15 organizations spanning payments, exchanges, and blockchain infrastructure, including PayPal, OKX, Ripple, Tron, TON Foundation, Solana Foundation, Ethereum Foundation, Base, Polygon, Sui, Filecoin Foundation, LayerZero, and Circle.
“The agent economy has payment rails. It didn’t have a wallet standard,” MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said in a statement.
The release arrives as the infrastructure for agentic payments is rapidly developing, yet remains fragmented across competing protocols, each assuming agents already have a wallet without specifying how that wallet should work.
As The Defiant reported last week, two protocols are racing to become the foundation of AI payments: x402, backed by Coinbase, and the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), launched by Stripe and Tempo. Tempo’s payments-focused Layer 1, which went live on mainnet on March 18, shipped with MPP’s “sessions” primitive, allowing agents to set a spending limit upfront and stream micropayments continuously without an on-chain transaction per interaction.
On the same day, Coinbase dropped a significant upgrade to x402, adding support for virtually any ERC-20 token via Uniswap’s Permit2 and new gas sponsorship extensions.
Meanwhile, Visa entered the arena with its own approach. Visa Crypto Labs launched Visa CLI, a command-line interface payment tool targeting AI agent payments, currently in closed beta. And Circle launched Nanopayments on testnet, built on the x402 standard and designed for sub-cent, gas-free USDC transactions for AI agents paying for pay-per-call APIs.
But as MoonPay frames it, all of these systems share a common assumption: the agent already has a wallet. None defines where the wallet lives, how keys are stored, or how one agent discovers a wallet created by another.
In practice, MoonPay says, this means a user running three different AI tools today could have their funds scattered across three separate wallets with no way to access a unified balance.
How It Works
The Open Wallet Standard is structured as seven sub-specifications covering storage, signing, policies, agent access, key isolation, wallet lifecycle, and supported chains. Each module can be adopted independently.
The core design principle is zero key exposure. Keys are encrypted, decrypted only to produce a signature, held in protected memory that cannot be swapped to disk, and wiped immediately after signing. The private key is never accessible to the agent, the LLM context, or any parent application.
A single seed phrase derives accounts across eight chain families — EVM, Solana, Bitcoin, Cosmos, Tron, TON, Spark, Filecoin, and XRP Ledger — with a unified signing interface and CAIP-2 chain identifiers.
There’s also a pre-signing policy engine that evaluates every transaction before any key material is touched. Operators can set spending limits, contract allowlists, chain restrictions, and time-bound authorizations. The standard ships with native SDK bindings for Node.js and Python, a CLI, and an MCP server interface compatible with frameworks including Claude, ChatGPT, and LangChain.
The launch positions OWS not as a competitor to x402 or MPP but as a complementary layer. When x402 returns a payment request, OWS produces the signed authorization. When MPP opens a session and streams micropayments, OWS signs each payment within the agent’s authorized limits.
Whether MoonPay’s open standard gains traction will depend on whether competing agent frameworks adopt a shared wallet layer or continue building proprietary key management.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Crypto World
Polymarket Updates Standards to Prevent Market Manipulation
TLDR
- Polymarket updated its market integrity rules to address manipulation and insider trading risks.
- The company introduced stricter market design standards and clearer resolution criteria for contract outcomes.
- Polymarket enhanced surveillance systems to detect suspicious trading activity across its platforms.
- The platform banned and reported users who pressured a journalist over a $17 million prediction market.
- Reports showed that six newly created accounts earned about $1 million from bets on US strikes on Iran.
Polymarket updated its market integrity rules to address manipulation and insider trading risks. The company announced stricter standards for market design and resolution criteria on Monday. It also expanded surveillance controls as regulators increase scrutiny of event-based contracts.
Polymarket Updates Market Standards and Compliance Framework
Polymarket said it aligned its global platform rules with regulatory standards, and it strengthened oversight on its US exchange. The US platform operates under Commodity Futures Trading Commission compliance, and the company confirmed tighter monitoring systems. It stated that clearer resolution criteria and defined data sources will govern contract outcomes.
The company said it will limit markets that it considers easily manipulated or ethically sensitive, and it will restrict certain event contracts. It confirmed enhanced surveillance tools to detect suspicious trading patterns and insider activity. Polymarket said, “We are enhancing monitoring and surveillance measures to detect suspicious trading activity.”
Enforcement Actions and Regulatory Scrutiny Intensify
Polymarket said it banned and reported users who pressured an Israeli journalist over coverage of an Iranian missile strike. The disputed article related to a $17 million prediction market tied to the strike. The company confirmed it acted after users issued death threats to influence reporting tied to contract outcomes.
Bloomberg reported that six newly created accounts generated about $1 million in profits from bets on US strikes on Iran. All six accounts opened in February and placed wagers only on whether the strikes would occur. The trading activity raised questions about insider trading and market fairness.
Several US states have taken action against prediction platforms, and they allege unlicensed gambling operations. Regulators have increased oversight as prediction markets expand across political and global events. Polymarket operates its US exchange under CFTC oversight, and it said it supports integrity protections.
Growth Strategy and Partnership Agreements
Polymarket raised $200 million in July, and reports said it seeks a valuation of up to $10 billion. Prediction markets have attracted active traders who wager on political and economic outcomes. The company continues to expand its regulated presence while adjusting its compliance framework.
Major League Baseball signed a partnership agreement with Polymarket, and the league confirmed the arrangement last week. The deal includes integrity protections, and it aligns with a separate agreement involving the CFTC. The agreements outline cooperation on monitoring and compliance standards for event-based contracts.
Polymarket said the updated framework will apply to both its decentralized platform and its US exchange. The company confirmed that it will implement stricter data standards and clearer outcome definitions. Monday’s announcement detailed the new rules as the latest step in its compliance roadmap.
Crypto World
Kalshi and Polymarket CEOs Back $35M Prediction Market Venture Fund
Former Kalshi employees are raising capital for 5c(c) Capital, a venture firm focused on prediction market infrastructure.
Two early Kalshi employees are raising up to $35 million for what may be the first venture fund dedicated to prediction market startups, according to a pitch document seen by Fortune.
The fund, called 5c(c) Capital, is led by Adhi Rajaprabhakaran, the second trader hired at Kalshi’s affiliated market maker, and Noah Zingler-Sternig, Kalshi’s former head of operations, Fortune reported. The fund’s name references Section 5c(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act, the clause that grants the CFTC oversight of event contracts offered by Designated Contract Markets.
Notably, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, whose companies are locked in a multibillion-dollar valuation war and have a well-documented public rivalry, have both invested in the fund.
Other backers include Marc Andreessen through Moneta Luna, Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka, and former Multicoin Capital managing partner Kyle Samani. Bloomberg reported that the fund has more than 20 investors.
The fund plans to back roughly 20 companies over the next two years, targeting market makers, prediction market index providers, and other infrastructure-layer businesses, per Fortune.
The launch comes as prediction market valuations have surged. Kalshi raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation in a round led by Coatue Management, roughly doubling its $11 billion November mark, as The Defiant reported. Polymarket is eyeing a similar valuation of around $20 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Crypto World
Polymarket Tightens Rules to Curb Manipulation and Insider Trading
Polymarket has rolled out a refreshed set of market integrity rules for its prediction platforms, tightening standards to align with regulatory expectations and bolster its status as a regulated trading venue. The update covers both its global decentralized finance platform and its US exchange, which operates under oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The move comes as regulators and lawmakers intensify scrutiny over risks linked to insider trading, market manipulation, and the use of event-based contracts.
Polymarket described the overhaul as a comprehensive upgrade to market design, settlement criteria, and data sourcing, while expanding its monitoring and surveillance to detect suspicious activity. The company also signaled a pragmatic stance by curbing certain market types that it views as easier to manipulate or ethically fraught. The changes underscore an industry-wide push to improve integrity as prediction markets gain broader attention from regulators and the public.
In a separate note, Polymarket highlighted a recent internal action in which it banned and reported users who pressured an Israeli journalist to amend a news article about an Iranian missile strike, a case that drew significant attention to how trading platforms may be used to influence reporting or profit from real-world events. More on that episode is discussed below as part of the broader context for the policy shift.
Key takeaways
- Polymarket updates its market integrity rules for both its DeFi platform and US exchange, with CFTC oversight reaffirmed as a central feature.
- New measures include stricter market design, clearer outcome-resolution criteria, better-defined data sources, and enhanced surveillance to flag suspicious activity.
- The platform will limit certain markets that are deemed highly manipulable or ethically sensitive, signaling a targeted risk-management approach.
- The move arrives amid ongoing regulatory scrutiny and a series of partnerships aimed at legitimizing prediction markets, including a high-profile MLB deal and an explicit integrity framework with the CFTC.
Polymarket’s rule overhaul and regulatory alignment
Polymarket’s leadership framed the rule updates as a necessary step toward stronger compliance and greater transparency for participants. By detailing resolution criteria—how and when outcomes are settled—and tying those outcomes to verifiable data sources, the platform aims to reduce disputes and ambiguity that have historically plagued event-based markets. The enhanced monitoring and surveillance functions are designed to detect patterns indicative of manipulation or insider trading, a concern repeatedly raised by policymakers as prediction markets expand.
Crucially, the update frames Polymarket’s operations in the context of its CFTC oversight for its US-facing exchange. While the global DeFi platform operates with broader jurisdictional considerations, the company emphasizes that its compliance program is built to meet regulatory expectations across its product spectrum. The policy shift is portrayed not merely as a cosmetic update but as a foundational change intended to support sustainable growth in a space that regulators are still learning to evaluate.
In the same vein, Polymarket has signaled limits on markets that could invite manipulation or raise ethical red flags. While the specifics of restricted categories were not disclosed in comprehensive detail, the stance aligns with broader regulatory caution around high-stakes bets tied to real-world events and public interest.
Regulatory push, partnerships, and the market backdrop
The timing of Polymarket’s policy refresh sits within a broader pattern of regulatory scrutiny and industry responses. Prediction markets have surged in popularity, attracting large communities of traders betting on real-world developments. That momentum has attracted investment, with reports suggesting Polymarket raised hundreds of millions and eyed a multi-billion-dollar valuation in a recent fundraising phase. Still, the regulatory environment remains unsettled in many jurisdictions, with several US states taking action against prediction platforms accused of functioning as unlicensed gambling services.
Publicly, Polymarket has pointed to partnerships as a pathway to legitimacy. Notably, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a deal with Polymarket, paired with a separate CFTC-focused agreement aimed at “integrity protections.” The collaboration signals regulators’ interest in embedding guardrails and oversight into prediction-market ecosystems while enabling mainstream adoption through established institutions. In parallel, coverage of the broader market has included attention to how these platforms handle ethics and fairness, especially as they scale and attract mainstream users.
As a backdrop, Polymarket also faced controversy tied to its markets. A widely reported incident involved a small cluster of accounts that reportedly generated substantial profits by timing bets related to U.S. strikes on Iran. Bloomberg’s coverage noted that the six accounts were newly created in February and had limited prior betting activity, sparking concerns about possible insider information advantages and the fairness of rapid-fire conclusions. While not a formal verdict on manipulation, the episode has intensified calls for stronger guardrails and clearer compliance standards across prediction markets. For readers tracking this thread, the Bloomberg report provides a contemporary data point illustrating the tensions between high profitability and the need for robust market integrity tools.
These developments occur alongside a broader debate about the accountability of platform operators in DeFi and hybrid models. Critics argue that even well-intentioned systems can be exploited to shape outcomes or reward certain information asymmetries, while proponents contend that regulated, transparent marketplaces can outperform opaque or unregulated alternatives. The latest Polymarket update is a tangible effort to tilt the balance toward the former, with concrete reforms designed to reduce manipulation vectors and improve user confidence.
What readers should watch next
Polymarket’s integrity refresh offers a clearer blueprint for what investors and users should expect from regulated prediction markets: stronger governance around how bets are structured, settled, and monitored; explicit data provenance; and a deliberate stance on market types that pose outsized manipulation risk. The company’s ongoing partnerships with sports leagues and regulators will be critical to watch, as they may set a precedent for how other platforms negotiate the line between innovation and compliance.
Equally important is the evolving regulatory landscape in the United States and abroad. As enforcement actions and legislative proposals continue to shape the permissible scope of prediction markets, continued transparency from operators and a demonstrated commitment to preventing abuse will determine whether these platforms can sustain momentum and broader participation.
In the near term, observers will be looking for concrete outcomes from Polymarket’s enhanced compliance framework: measurable reductions in manipulation indicators, clearer settlement standards, and more robust disclosures around data sources. The next wave of updates could also reveal how the company balances market openness with risk controls—a balance that will influence investor confidence, user participation, and the overall trajectory of event-based prediction markets.
As the market evolves, readers should keep an eye on regulatory announcements, enforcement actions by state authorities, and any clarifications from the CFTC or other regulators regarding the treatment of prediction markets. The convergence of corporate partnerships, formal integrity protocols, and regulatory oversight marks a pivotal moment for the sector—one that could shape how these platforms exist within the broader crypto and financial ecosystem.
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