U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would not allow the banking sector to undermine America's crypto agenda, urging Wall Street to reach a deal with the crypto industry to advance the Digital Asset Market Structure Act in the Senate, POLITICO reported on March 5. The legislation has stalled over a dispute between banks and crypto firms on whether exchanges should be allowed to pay yields on stablecoins, with banks concerned such products could draw deposits away from traditional accounts and weaken their lending base. Market participants broadly expect Trump's comments will not materially shift the Senate's voting landscape, and Senator Thom Tillis said the president's remarks will not change banks' stance on risk. Some in the crypto camp argue Trump's intervention could pressure banks to compromise, and Senator Cynthia Lummis warned that if banks are too inflexible on stablecoin yields they may face government pressure in other regulatory areas.

Uniswap secured a decisive court victory on March 2, 2026, when Judge Katherine Failla dismissed the Risley class action lawsuit with prejudice, ruling that creators of open smart contract code are not legally responsible for users trading scam tokens on the protocol. The case alleged that Uniswap Labs and founder Hayden Adams facilitated fraudulent tokens by building the marketplace, but the court found it "defies logic" to hold code writers liable for how others use permissionless infrastructure. Data show Uniswap has processed over $3.566 trillion in cumulative trading volume, with $67.671 billion in the last 30 days, around $2.039 billion in recent 24-hour volume, annual fees near $883 million, and total value locked of about $3.115 billion across multiple blockchains, including roughly $2.184 billion on Ethereum, $341 million on Base and $272 million on Arbitrum. The ruling allows the leading decentralized exchange to continue rolling out upgrades such as Version 4 hooks, expected 15% gas savings, and a fee mechanism that burns about 4 million UNI per year, while the UNI token was reported trading 3% higher day-on-day at press time.

Kraken Financial has obtained a Federal Reserve master account, becoming the first digital asset bank with direct access to the U.S. central bank's core payment infrastructure, including Fedwire, after more than five years of regulatory engagement involving Payward and U.S. supervisors. Operating as a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution, Kraken Financial is required under Wyoming's framework to maintain a full-reserve model in which liquid assets equal or exceed one hundred percent of client fiat deposits, integrating regulated fiat liquidity into digital asset operations managed by Payward. The bank plans a phased rollout of its new payment capabilities, initially targeting institutional clients on the Kraken platform and expanding services over time in coordination with federal authorities and Wyoming regulators.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said in its latest report that peer-to-peer transfers of stablecoins, especially via unhosted wallets without regulated intermediaries, have become a key money laundering risk in the crypto sector, BlockBeats reports on March 5. The watchdog noted that stablecoins are now the most commonly used virtual assets in illicit crypto activity and, citing Chainalysis data, reported that about 84% of the $154 billion in illegal crypto transactions in 2025 involved stablecoins. The FATF recommended that jurisdictions require stablecoin issuers to be able to freeze, destroy, or blacklist assets tied to suspicious addresses and to build allowlists and denylists into smart contracts, highlighting that Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are increasingly used by criminal networks compared with more volatile assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The report also said North Korea-linked hacker groups and Iran-associated entities are using stablecoins to launder cybercrime proceeds through over-the-counter dealers or peer-to-peer platforms, and called for tighter oversight of issuers along with wider deployment of blockchain analytics and anti-money laundering tools including the Travel Rule.

Japan's $3 trillion banking group MUFG plans to deploy artificial intelligence to support loan assessment processes, according to an update on its latest initiatives. The financial institution has launched a proof-of-concept project for a stablecoin in collaboration with three major banks, testing the digital currency framework alongside its broader technology strategy.

Law enforcement agencies led by the FBI and Europol shut down LeakBase, a cybercrime forum with over 142,000 registered members and more than 215,000 messages, on March 3 and March 4, international authorities said. The platform, used to trade stolen personal data, financial credentials, leaked databases, and hacking tools, was replaced with seizure banners as investigators in 14 countries executed search warrants and made arrests. Officials seized user accounts, private messages, credit details, and IP logs to support ongoing investigations and trace financial activity tied to the forum, while continuing cross-border efforts to identify additional suspects. The takedown follows recent data breaches affecting the cryptocurrency sector, including a May 2025 incident in which criminals allegedly bribed overseas contractors to access Coinbase internal systems, a breach of LockBit's dark web affiliate panel exposing nearly 60,000 Bitcoin addresses linked to a ransomware network, and a February 23 extortion attempt against trader TraderSZ reportedly tied to a former Revolut employee.

Kraken became the first crypto-focused bank to obtain a Federal Reserve master account on Wednesday, according to the original report. The move has drawn discontent from parts of the traditional banking industry, which described itself as not pleased with the decision.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has submitted interpretive guidance on applying federal securities law to certain crypto assets, with the proposal under White House review and expected to outline a "token taxonomy" for assets under its jurisdiction, Bloomberg reports. An SEC spokesperson said the Commission will consider guidance around a token taxonomy in line with market structure legislation so investors and innovators better understand their regulatory obligations, noting this effort is separate from the SEC's pending rulemaking proposal on crypto asset offerings. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has submitted a rulemaking proposal for multibillion-dollar prediction markets, and its Chairman Mike Selig has pledged to publish guidelines on crypto perpetuals by next month.

Stablecoin markets recorded weekly net inflows of $1.7 billion last week, a 414.5% increase from the prior week that lifted the 30-day average to roughly $162.5 million in daily inflows and coincided with about a 6.3% rise in onchain activity, Messari data show. Average transaction size declined as volumes grew, pointing to broader retail participation, after a period that included only about $249 million in weekly inflows two weeks earlier and roughly $4.4 billion in net outflows over the 30 days ending February 18. The policy backdrop includes the CLARITY Act advancing in the House in July 2025 to outline a digital-asset framework and the GENIUS Act enacted in July 2025 to regulate stablecoins and restrict issuers from paying yield solely for holding a token while allowing third-party rewards tied to balances, with President Trump publicly criticizing banks for slowing progress. Messari notes that ongoing debate over yield-bearing stablecoins and broader market-structure legislation, alongside demand for settlement assets such as USDC and USDT, is keeping market participants focused on how regulatory clarity could shape future issuance, user incentives, and overall crypto liquidity.