Since January 2024, Bitwise has contributed a total of $383,000 to open-source Bitcoin developers, including a second donation of $233,000 announced on Wednesday. The latest payout, equal to 10% of gross profits from the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, will be distributed by Bitcoin Brink, OpenSats and the Human Rights Foundation, while BITB has recorded $2.2 billion of inflows and remains third among U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Blockchain infrastructure provider Zerohash disclosed on Wednesday that it submitted an application on Feb. 27 for a US national trust bank charter, seeking an OCC-issued license to broaden its stablecoin and custody services for banks, brokerages and fintech clients. Since the GENIUS Act was signed into law in July, several crypto firms, including Circle, Ripple, Bridge and Stripe, have obtained conditional approval for similar banking charters, while others such as Coinbase and World Liberty Financial are still awaiting decisions.

Elon Musk's X Money payment app has entered a limited external beta, featuring cashback on selected card purchases and a 6% annual percentage yield on deposits. Actor William Shatner was among the early testers, sharing screenshots that also highlighted FDIC-insured deposits held at Cross River Bank up to $250,000 per user. Shatner later worked with X to auction a total of 208 beta invitations at $1,000 each to raise funds for charity.

Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said a recent Israel-Iran flare-up showed how quickly capital can move into 24/7 on-chain markets such as Hyperliquid when traditional exchanges are closed. He noted that tokenized crude oil, gold and prediction markets saw heavy weekend activity and now expects traditional finance to adopt blockchain-based rails sooner than his previous five to 10 year timeline. Hougan added that investors seeking to stay competitive may need to use stablecoin wallets and crypto derivatives venues while the NYSE works on its own around-the-clock tokenization platform.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio told the All-In Podcast on Tuesday that Bitcoin should not be relied on as a long-term store of value or safe-haven, stressing that central banks overwhelmingly favor gold. He questioned Bitcoin's privacy, its vulnerability to future quantum computing, and its correlation with tech stocks, while reiterating gold's role as the most established form of money in times of geopolitical and economic stress.

Nasdaq MRX has applied to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to list cash-settled, yes-or-no Outcome Related Options tied to the Nasdaq-100 and Nasdaq-100 Micro indexes, with contracts priced between $0.01 and $1. If approved, the product would let traders take binary positions on stock index-related events for companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and Tesla.

On Saturday, crypto outflows from Iran's largest exchange Nobitex jumped more than 700% to over $500,000 within minutes of US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, later nearing $3 million in a single hour. Elliptic linked the spike to possible capital flight as funds moved to overseas exchanges, while TRM Labs argued the broader crypto ecosystem in Iran is instead slowing amid severe internet blackouts. The turmoil follows a major Iranian bank collapse, mounting risks for several other lenders, and an $81 million hack at Nobitex in June.

Aave said it has exceeded $1 trillion in cumulative lending as CEO Stani Kulechov outlined plans to deepen bank and fintech integrations. The protocol secures over $27.2 billion in TVL and generated $83.3 million in fees in the past 30 days, while AAVE holders debate a package of up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE for Aave Labs.

Prediction market platform Kalshi said on Wednesday it banned a former California gubernatorial candidate for five years and fined him $2,000 after he bet on his own race in violation of insider trading rules. The same platform also penalized a YouTube editor who traded about $4,000 on creator stream markets in 2025, issuing a two-year suspension and roughly $20,000 fine, while the CFTC has created a prediction markets advisory to pursue insider trading cases.