On March 2, 2026, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna outlined a bill to introduce an annual 5% federal wealth tax on individuals with more than $1B in net worth. The proposal projects $4.4T in new revenue over ten years, which would be directed toward cash payments to lower-earning households, healthcare funding, expanded Medicare, and a national minimum salary for public school teachers. The plan also situates the U.S. debate within wider global moves on taxing unrealized gains, including a February decision in the Netherlands and a possible California ballot measure.

TD Securities vice president Reid Noch views the New York Stock Exchange’s proposed tokenized-equities alternative trading system as a pivotal market-structure development. The planned venue would allow 24-hour trading with near-instant settlement of tokenized stocks and ETFs while remaining within existing U.S. rules, signaling growing institutional focus on onchain real-world assets.

Bitfinex Securities plans to restart USDt-denominated tokenized bond issuances on Bitcoin's Liquid Network for Luxembourg-based fund ALTERNATIVE, after four earlier offerings totaling $6.2 million since 2023. The new sales are expected to surpass $10 million, with onchain fundraising, coupon payments and principal repayments, while the broader move coincides with an ongoing U.S. policy debate over yield-bearing stablecoin products.

On March 2, 2026, Elliptic reported that crypto outflows from Iran's largest exchange Nobitex surged 700% following US and Israel airstrikes. Elliptic's co-founder Tom Robinson says the spike may signal capital moving out of Iran via crypto channels. Nobitex, which has over 11 million users and handled $7.2 billion in transactions last year, has seen repeated outflow surges in response to protests, internet outages and new US sanctions.

On March 2, 2026, U.S. stock futures fell more than 1% as traders reacted to weekend military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran and a sharp move in oil. Crude prices jumped about 8%, boosting defense and energy shares while pressuring airlines and cruise lines, and raising concerns that an extended energy shock could undermine expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026. Gold advanced and long-term Treasury yields slid to an 11‑month low as investors shifted toward perceived safe‑haven assets.

On March 2, 2026, Nasdaq submitted a proposed rule change to the US SEC to introduce and trade Outcome-Related Options. The contracts would pay a fixed amount between $0.01 and $1.00 depending on whether the underlying settlement price finishes relative to a preset strike, mirroring structures used by prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi. The initiative comes as other derivatives venues explore similar all-or-nothing products and as regulators weigh jurisdictional questions around prediction markets.

Northern Trust Asset Management has introduced a tokenized share class for its NIF Treasury Instruments Portfolio, entering the digital assets arena with a blockchain-based ownership mirror. The fund continues to invest in short-term US Treasurys and seeks to maintain a $1.00 per-share value, while nearly $11 billion in US Treasury debt is now represented on public blockchains. The new share class will initially be available via BNY's LiquidityDirect platform, which runs on Goldman Sachs' Digital Asset Platform.

CME Group reported that with the launch of Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar token futures in February 2025, its crypto derivatives now reference more than 75% of total market capitalization. The firm said average daily open interest in its broader cryptocurrency suite, which also includes BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP contracts, was close to $25 billion in 2025, alongside a record average daily volume of 278,300 contracts worth about $12 billion notionally.