Escalating U.S.-Iran tensions rattle oil, gold, and equities as UBS projects limited energy disruption and stronger broad commodities gains into 2026, led by metals amid elevated geopolitical risk. UBS Flags Iran Escalation but Forecasts Stronger Broad Commodities Gains Into 2026 UBS Chief Investment Office (CIO) published a daily update titled “US-Iran escalation adds to geopolitical […]
Anchorage Digital and Tether Release First USAT Stablecoin Reserve Report
Anchorage Digital Bank and Tether’s U.S.-focused stablecoin venture released their first reserve report this week, showing the stablecoin token USAT fully backed by dollar-denominated assets with a modest surplus cushion as of Jan. 31. Tether’s U.S. Stablecoin USAT Posts Overcollateralized Reserves in First Report Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally chartered national trust bank regulated by […]
NEAR token jumps 17% after ‘Confidential Intents’ launch, outpaces privacy tokens sector
NEAR token climbed as much as 17% after launching “Confidential Intents,” a new private execution layer designed to shield trades from public view, extending a 40% weekly rally and outperforming both the CoinDesk 20 Index and the broader privacy token sector.
The feature was first unveiled last week at NEARCON in San Francisco, as previously reported by CoinDesk, and officially went live today.
It routes transactions through a private shard linked to NEAR’s mainnet, according to technical documentation on NEAR’s blog, allowing users to toggle into confidential accounts to avoid front-running and sandwich attacks.
Unlike privacy coins such as Monero or Zcash, which are designed to hide transaction details by default, NEAR’s system offers optional confidentiality focused on trade execution, keeping only specific transfers and positions out of public view while preserving auditability for law enforcement.
NEAR wrote that the product is aimed squarely at institutions wary of broadcasting trading strategies on transparent ledgers.
Onchain transactions are visible before they settle, exposing order size, timing, and direction to bots that can trade against users.
That dynamic has long enabled so-called maximal extractable value, or MEV, strategies that act as a hidden tax on traders. By shifting execution of trades into a less visable environment, Confidential Intents is designed to keep transfers and cross-chain position management out of the public mempool
Unlike fully opaque privacy chains, NEAR’s system offers selective disclosure within a compliance-aware framework, positioning the product as a bridge between traditional finance expectations and onchain settlement.
Still, onchain data curated by DeFiLlama shows NEAR’s base-layer fees remain limited relative to its roughly $1.8 billion market capitalization.
That suggests investors are betting the confidential execution layer could draw institutional-sized flow onto the network, rather than responding to a sharp increase in current revenue.
US Senate Bill Seeks to Ban the Fed From Issuing a CBDC
An amendment has been proposed to the Federal Reserve Act to ban the US central bank from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) until 2030.
The amendment was found toward the end of the 300-page “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” (HR 6644) released by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Monday.
Section 10 of the proposed legislation states that the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System or a Federal Reserve bank “may not issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency directly or indirectly through a financial institution or other intermediary.”
The bill also contains an exception for stablecoins, stating that the Fed “shall not prohibit any dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private,” and fully preserves the privacy protections of the physical currency.
The proposed prohibition includes a sunset clause that expires on December 31, 2030, after which new legislation would be needed to maintain the ban.
The White House was quick to issue a statement supporting the Act and opposing a CBDC, which it said could “pose significant threats to personal privacy and liberty.”
The Senate advanced it overwhelmingly on a procedural cloture vote (84-6) on Monday, limiting debate and moving forward, clearing the way for full floor consideration.
Not the first attempt at blocking CBDCs
This version of the housing bill revives language from prior failed attempts to prevent a US CBDC and is not the original legislation.
The “No CBDC Act” (S 464) is a standalone bill introduced by Senator Mike Lee in February 2025 that would prohibit the Fed or Treasury from issuing a CBDC; however, it stalled in Congress.
Related: ‘No privacy’ CBDCs will come, warns billionaire Ray Dalio
Further legislation prohibiting the Fed from issuing a CBDC was introduced in June 2025 by Congressman Tom Emmer under the “Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act” (HR 1919).
The bill passed a House vote on July 17, but has yet to pass full Senate approval.
China, Russia and India are testing CBDCs
Only three countries have officially deployed a CBDC: Nigeria, Jamaica, and The Bahamas, according to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker.
A further 49 nations are actively testing CBDCs, including China, Russia, India and Brazil, while 20 nations have CBDCs in development and 36 are still researching them.
In February, Germany’s central bank president, Joachim Nagel, touted the benefits of CBDCs for the European Union, which is in the pilot phase.
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Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
Nasdaq Joins Wall Street Push For Prediction Markets
One of Nasdaq’s options exchanges, Nasdaq MRX, has filed to offer cash-settled, binary-style contracts on the Nasdaq-100 Index, adding to a wave of Wall Street firms testing the prediction market waters.
Nasdaq, the firm behind the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization, is looking to offer “Outcome Related Options” for yes-or-no bets, priced between 1 cent and $1, according to its filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
The offering would allow traders to take binary positions on events linked to the Nasdaq-100 and Nasdaq-100 Micro indexes — not on outcomes related to other events, such as sports, culture, or politics.
Some of the most notable stocks in the Nasdaq-100 include Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL), Meta (META) and Tesla (TSLA).
SEC approval could see it enter a booming market alongside the likes of Polymarket and Kalshi, while crypto trading platforms like Coinbase and Crypto.com are also integrating prediction markets.
Other Wall Street players, such as the Intercontinental Exchange, CME Group and Cboe Global Markets, have also invested in the space or signaled an intention to launch their own prediction market-style offerings.
CME Group’s partnership with American gambling company FanDuel will enable traders to bet on markets outside of finance, while Cboe’s offering will be focused on finance and economic contracts.
Crypto asset manager Bitwise also filed with the SEC last month to launch “PredictionShares” exchange-traded funds that seek to hold event contracts tied to the 2028 US presidential election, while GraniteShares and Roundhill also made similar filings in February.
Related: Kalshi founder provides update on Iran’s Khamenei market carveout
Prediction markets became one of the hottest use cases in crypto last year and have consistently surpassed $10 billion in monthly trading volume. Polymarket and Kalshi have been aggressively marketing their products to retail users in recent months despite some regulators seeking to restrict the industry.
Nasdaq wants its prediction offering on several platforms
Nasdaq is also looking to offer Outcome-Related Options on other Nasdaq options exchanges, including Nasdaq NOM and Nasdaq PHLX.
Nasdaq MRX uses a first-come, first-served system and does not pay trading incentives. In contrast, Nasdaq NOM and Nasdaq PHLX incorporate pricing models that can reward participants for adding liquidity.
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Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
Aave’s “Aave Will Win” Proposal Passes Temp Check, Advancing Governance Shift
The “Aave Will Win” governance proposal has successfully passed the Temp Check vote, garnering 52.58% support, and is now progressing to the Aave Request for Final Comment (ARFC) stage, marking a significant step for Aave’s future development.
In a closely watched governance decision for one of DeFi’s largest protocols, the “Aave Will Win” framework has passed its initial Temp Check vote, moving the proposal forward in Aave DAO’s multi-stage governance process.
The off-chain Snapshot vote, designed to gauge community sentiment ahead of more binding stages, closed with approximately 52.58% in favor, 42% against, and roughly 5% abstaining. This approval clears the first formal hurdle and advances the framework to the Aave Request for Final Comment (ARFC) phase, where structural and implementation details will be refined based on community feedback before any on-chain vote occurs.
A Token-Centric Model
The “Aave Will Win” framework proposes a fundamental shift in how Aave’s economic value is distributed and how Aave Labs is funded: it would direct 100% of product revenue generated by Aave products to the AAVE token and DAO treasury, aligning incentives between token holders and the protocol’s builders.
Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave and long-time steward of the protocol, confirmed the result on social media shortly after the vote closed, framing the outcome as a step toward a fully token-centric model for the ecosystem.
“Temp Check for the Aave Will Win proposal has passed,” Kulechov wrote. “This brings Aave Labs closer to a fully token-centric model, directing 100% of product revenue to the $AAVE token,” he wrote, underscoring the strategic shift.”
Kulechov followed up with additional remarks reaffirming the protocol’s direction and the DAO’s role in shaping the final structure as the proposal progresses.
Governance Debate and Split Vote
Despite the ultimate approval, the vote exposed ongoing tensions within Aave’s governance community. The margin was relatively narrow, and earlier debate on the forums and in governance reports highlighted deep divisions over funding levels, the size of token allocations to Aave Labs, and how decentralized authority should evolve.
Following the vote, Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, published a detailed post-mortem analyzing the Temp Check results, noting that when excluding votes from several large Aave Labs–linked addresses, the broader community actually tilted against the proposal.
Zeller’s analysis argued that while many delegates support the general direction of “Aave Will Win,” concerns remain about fiscal guardrails, capital deployment phases, and independence from Labs’ influence.
What Comes Next
With the Temp Check cleared, the Aave Will Win proposal now enters the ARFC stage, where community feedback will be folded into a more detailed governance proposal that may ultimately be put to an on-chain Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP) vote. Only through an AIP vote would any commitments become binding.
If the framework ultimately garners approval in that final vote, it could reshape Aave’s economic and governance model, formalizing revenue alignment with token holders and setting V4 as the long-term technical foundation for future growth.
With the proposal’s advancement, the focus now shifts to the ARFC stage, where further community input will shape the final outcome. The proposal’s progress is a testament to the robust governance framework that empowers Aave’s community to steer its future direction.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI workflows.
Nasdaq Seeks SEC Approval to Launch Prediction-Style Index Options
Nasdaq is seeking SEC approval to list fixed-payout Outcome-Related Options tied to the Nasdaq-100 indexes, a move that could expand binary-style derivatives in U.S. markets under securities oversight. Nasdaq Plans Fixed-Payout Binary Outcome Contracts Across Flagship Indexes A new regulatory filing could broaden the scope of binary-style derivatives available on U.S. options markets. Nasdaq MRX […]
Australia could unlock A$24 billion in digital finance gains, OKX report finds
Australia is home to just 26 million people, but OKX is betting the country could become one of the most important digital finance markets in the developed world if policymakers move fast enough.
A new report backed by the exchange estimates that Australia could unlock A$24 billion ($17 billion) in annual economic gains from tokenized markets, payments and assets provided lawmakers modernize licensing and market infrastructure rules.
The study by the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre argues that digital finance innovation could deliver gains equal to roughly 1% of GDP, driven largely by more efficient foreign exchange, capital markets, and cross-border payments.
Yet on its current regulatory trajectory, Australia is expected to capture just A$1 billion of that potential by 2030, missing out on the vast majority of the so-called digital finance dividend. The gap between A$24 billion and A$1 billion forms the core of the industry’s pitch to the government.
“It’s particularly important in Australia, where productivity is the No. 1 issue that the government is trying to track,” OKX Australia CEO Kate Cooper told CoinDesk in an interview, noting that national productivity growth has been largely flat for the past decade.
Cooper said the idea in the report came from policymakers repeatedly seeking data quantifying crypto’s impact on Australia’s economy.
OKX’s focus on Australia may seem counterintuitive at a time when many exchanges are prioritizing the U.S. — rival exchange Gemini recently left the country, as well as the U.K. and European Union — but Cooper argues the country offers a different kind of advantage.
“We have a broad strategy that is focused on what we call strategic markets, which are markets where there is a competitive advantage to entering the market onshore,” Cooper said.
The strategy hinges on regulation as a moat. In markets like Australia, where licensing standards are strict and compliance costs high, operating onshore can create a defensible position that offshore-only platforms cannot easily replicate.
For OKX, that means investing in local approvals and infrastructure to position itself for institutional flows, particularly as tokenized bonds, stablecoins and digital market infrastructure scale.
In a country with one of the world’s largest pension capital pools, Cooper explained, being regulated and embedded locally is less about retail trading volume and more about long-term access to concentrated capital.
If lawmakers enact appropriate legislation, that capital could help push Australia into the acceleration phase of digital finance adoption.
If not, Australia risks remaining in what Cooper describes as the “death spiral of proof of concepts,” capturing just a fraction of the modeled A$24 billion opportunity while the industry — and its capital — flows offshore.
Strategy ($MSTR) Buys $204 Million In Bitcoin
Strategy purchased more than $200 million in bitcoin last week, lifting its total holdings to 720,737 BTC valued at more than $47 billion.
The company, led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, disclosed in their usual Monday filing that it acquired 3,015 bitcoin between Feb. 23 and March 1 for approximately $204.1 million. The average purchase price was $67,700 per coin.
The company now holds 720,737 BTC acquired for about $54.77 billion, or an average price of roughly $75,985 per bitcoin.
With bitcoin trading near $65,500 on Monday morning, the company’s position reflects an unrealized loss based on its aggregate cost basis.
Measured against bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap, the company controls more than 3.4% of the total eventual issuance, reinforcing its position as the largest publicly traded corporate holder of the asset.
The latest purchases were funded through at-the-market sales of common and preferred stock. According to the filing, Strategy sold 1,730,563 shares of its Class A common stock, MSTR, generating approximately $229.9 million in net proceeds. As of March 1, about $7.6 billion in common shares remained available for issuance under the program.
The company also sold 71,590 shares of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, STRC, raising about $7.1 million after commissions. Billions of dollars in preferred stock capacity remain available across multiple programs.
Strategy’s capital markets activity forms part of its “42/42” plan, which targets $84 billion in equity offerings and convertible notes through 2027 to fund additional bitcoin acquisitions. The firm maintains several perpetual preferred instruments with varying dividend structures and risk profiles, including STRK, STRF and STRD.
The disclosure marks Strategy’s 101st bitcoin purchase since it began accumulating the asset in 2020. The company has financed its buying strategy through a mix of equity issuance, convertible debt and preferred stock offerings, tying its corporate treasury strategy to bitcoin’s long-term price performance.
Last week, Strategy reported the purchase of 592 BTC for approximately $39.8 million at an average price of $67,286 per coin, bringing its total at that time to 717,722 BTC. The newest acquisition adds to that position amid a period of price consolidation for bitcoin.
Strategy’s STRC dividend increase
Strategy said its board approved an increase to the annual dividend rate on STRC shares, raising it to 11.5% from 11.25% for monthly periods beginning March 1. The move marks the seventh straight dividend hike since July 2025, as the company seeks to bolster the preferred stock’s appeal and draw in income-focused investors.
Shares of Strategy, which trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker MSTR, were down 1.5% in early trading Monday.
Saylor signaled the pending purchase on Sunday, Mar. 1, by posting an update to the company’s bitcoin acquisition tracker, continuing a pattern of social media hints that precede formal disclosures.
Strategy Makes Largest Bitcoin Purchase Since January
Bitmine also continued adding to its crypto holdings with a fresh ETH purchase in the past week.
Strategy, formerly Microstrategy, announced today, March 2, that it has acquired an additional 3,015 Bitcoin (BTC), according to an X post from the firm. The purchase totalled approximately $204.1 million, at an average price of $67,700 per Bitcoin.
This latest BTC buy marks Strategy’s largest since January and brings its total Bitcoin holdings to 720,737 BTC, further solidifying its status as the largest corporate Bitcoin holder globally, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries. The firm, which pioneered the digital asset treasury (DAT) strategy as far back as 2020, has continued to make weekly BTC purchases in recent months.
Last week’s purchase is its largest since Jan. 20, when Strategy bought 22,305 BTC for an average cost of $91,519, according to its website, which marked its largest single purchase since late 2024.
Bitmine Also Buys ETH
Meanwhile, Bitmine Immersion Technologies continues to hold onto its position as the largest Ethereum DAT company, also announcing a fresh purchase today, according to a press release from the firm. The company accumulated nearly 51,000 ETH in the past week alone, bringing its holdings to 4,473,587 ETH, per the release. Bitmine also noted that it is staking a total of 3,040,483 ETH as of March 1.
The continued accumulation from the two largest DATs comes as BTC and ETH both post 24-hour gains in a broad crypto market rally today, despite the escalating military action in the Middle East, after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran this weekend, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
BTC rallied back over $69,000 and ETH pushed over $2,000 today, supported by renewed inflows into spot crypto ETFs at the end of last week.
The DAT trend exploded last year, as an increasing number of publicly traded firms began accumulating not only BTC and ETH, but smaller cap assets. Experts, however, expressed concerns about the risks and questioned the viability of the DAT structure as a long-term strategy, especially for smaller, more volatile crypto assets.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI workflows.