In the 2026 election cycle, the crypto industry recorded a major political setback in Illinois as Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton defeated pro-crypto Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi in the Democratic Senate primary. Fairshake, a crypto-aligned super PAC, spent nearly $10 million opposing Stratton and still holds a broader $221 million war chest, while BTC is trading around $72k. The outcome underscores that local political support can outweigh industry money and may shape how digital asset advocates deploy funds in other races.

On March 18, 2026 in George Town, British Virgin Islands, Aster announced an expanded collaboration with World Liberty Financial (WLFI) that brings USD1‑denominated perpetual contracts and new trading incentives to its platform. The upgrade adds USD1 as collateral with fee discounts on USD1 pairs and WLFI token rewards, aiming to strengthen USD1 liquidity and prepare the ecosystem for the Aster Chain Layer 1 mainnet. Early users of USD1 markets can access reduced maker and taker fees and may qualify for additional incentive programs linked to Aster Chain's launch.

On March 18, 2026 in George Town, British Virgin Islands, Aster announced an expanded collaboration with World Liberty Financial that adds USD1-denominated perpetual contracts and new trading incentives. The update introduces BTC, ETH and SOL USD1 perp pairs, WLFI token rewards of up to 2.5 million per month, and significantly lower fees on USD1 markets to support liquidity for the newly launched Aster Chain Layer 1.

On March 18, analyst Ali Martinez highlighted that XRP has broken out of a symmetrical triangle after weeks of consolidation, lifting the price above the $1.50 region and projecting a potential target around $1.85. Around the current level near $1.5, roughly $14.6 million in XRP options open interest is clustered at the $1.40 strike ahead of the March 27 expiry, a zone that may act as a key liquidity magnet and support. By press time, XRP traded at $1.49, stayed above its 50-day SMA at $1.47 but remained below the 200-day SMA at $2.15, with a 14-day RSI of 59.9 indicating moderate, but not overextended, bullish momentum.

On 18 March 2026, U.S. Producer Price Index data showed a 0.7% month‑on‑month jump for February, well above the 0.3% forecast and alongside a 3.4% annual gain. With the Federal Reserve expected to keep rates at 3.5%–3.75%, traders pushed risk assets lower, sending Bitcoin, Ethereum and major altcoins into the red and trimming the total crypto market value.

On March 18, 2026, SEC Chair Paul Atkins outlined a crypto "safe harbor" framework that would let token projects develop without immediate securities registration. The proposal carves out digital commodities, collectibles, tools, and payment stablecoins from securities rules and introduces a grace period for other assets to work toward decentralization. It also contemplates easier registration for security tokens and new custody rules for broker-dealers, changes that could significantly affect U.S. issuers, exchanges, and token valuations.

Binance has decided to remove trading support for eight altcoins, including A2Z, FORTH, HOOK, LRC, IDEX, NTRN, SXP, and RDNT, with spot pairs scheduled for delisting on April 1 and Spot Copy Trading ending on March 25. Deposits of these tokens will no longer be credited after April 2, withdrawals will stop after June 1, and some delisted assets may later be converted to stablecoins, while prices of the affected coins have already dropped sharply, led by a 33% daily decline in IDEX.

On March 17, AxLabs released two TypeScript SDKs for the NeoFS decentralized object storage network, adding native tools for JavaScript and TypeScript developers. The neofs-sdk-ts-core package offers shared cryptographic utilities, while neofs-sdk-ts-node delivers full NeoFS API coverage for Node.js, including container, object, and access control operations. Both libraries are open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license and aim to make NeoFS more accessible for Web3 application development.