Ondo Finance said on March 25 it partnered with Franklin Templeton to offer tokenized exposure to five ETFs through Ondo Global Markets, with Franklin Templeton continuing to manage the underlying funds. The setup issues wallet-held tokens that mirror ETF share ownership, enabling continuous trading outside traditional market hours and potential use in DeFi. The five ETFs span growth equities, large-cap stocks, gold, high-yield corporate bonds, and income-focused equities.

On March 25, 2026, Ondo Finance said it partnered with Franklin Templeton to offer onchain exposure to tokenized stocks and ETFs via Ondo Global Markets, alongside a broader industry push to tokenize traditional assets. The same day, Bitpanda said it is building Vision Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 using Optimism's OP Stack designed to support regulated issuance under frameworks including MiCA and MiFID II, while Startale Group announced a $63 million Series A to expand tokenization and stablecoin infrastructure.

Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. said Tuesday it has launched options trading for its PURR common shares on the Nasdaq Options Market. The firm said the move is aimed at improving liquidity and price discovery for PURR while giving institutional and retail participants additional ways to hedge and express directional views tied to the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said political parties will be barred with immediate effect from taking cryptocurrency donations. The move follows a review that also proposes limiting annual donations from British citizens living abroad to between £100,000 and £300,000, alongside tighter checks on funding sources.

Tether and Circle blacklisted an Ethereum hot wallet tied to Iranian exchange Wallex on March 25, 2026, freezing about $117,000 across USDT, USDC, and smaller tokens. A related consolidation move left roughly $2.49 million in Binance-Peg BSC-USD stuck on BNB Smart Chain after funds reached a separate address but remained unusable.

The White House said on March 25 that President Donald J. Trump appointed the first members to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), created by executive order to guide U.S. science and technology strategy. The roster includes Marc Andreessen, Sergey Brin, Safra Catz, Michael Dell, Fred Ehrsam, Larry Ellison, Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, Mark Zuckerberg and others, with David Sacks and Michael Kratsios set to co-chair. The council’s remit includes emerging-tech impacts on the workforce and economy, and the structure includes a Special Advisor for AI & crypto as a standing member and co-chair.

The SEC and CFTC released 68 pages of interpretive crypto guidance last week, outlining a token taxonomy for stablecoins, digital commodities and "digital tools" that the agencies said are not securities. Officials and industry lawyers said the update could lift near-term confidence, but may be easier to unwind than legislation if a future administration changes course. Several speakers argued only a comprehensive market-structure bill passed by Congress can deliver durable regulatory certainty.

The author argues that central banks and governments should actively promote CBDCs to reduce the cash-to-digital divide affecting more than 1.3 billion unbanked adults. The piece says CBDCs can provide a low-cost, trusted on-ramp to formal financial services, including payments and access to savings, credit and insurance. It also cites data suggesting many countries prioritize financial inclusion in CBDC motivations and highlights recent gains in phone, account and digital payment adoption.