Bitcoin fell close to 2% in about 15 minutes on Sunday, slipping to around $66,272 after earlier strength during the recent US-Israel strikes on Iran. Over the same period, oil prices surged from $95 to $113.7 per barrel before easing to $105, amid warnings that roughly 3 million barrels per day could be disrupted in the Strait of Hormuz. Crude is now trading at its highest level since April 2022, while Bitcoin has logged four consecutive days of decline after reaching $73,770 last Wednesday.

Solv Protocol reported that one of its Bitcoin-based token vaults was exploited for $2.7 million and has proposed a 10% bounty if the attacker returns the assets. The platform said fewer than 10 users were affected, it will compensate the loss of 38.05 SolvBTC, and it is working with several security firms to investigate a smart contract vulnerability allegedly used for excessive token minting.

Quantum firm PsiQuantum has begun constructing a 1 million-qubit facility in Chicago, a scale some scientists say could break Bitcoin's cryptography. The company raised $1 billion with Nvidia to build the site, while co-founder Terry Rudolph stated in July it has no intention of using its machines to attack Bitcoin, and CoinShares research estimates only 10,230 BTC is currently at direct quantum risk.

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.