🔖 Prospera's Future in Jeopardy After Supreme Court Ruling

⚖️ Prospera, a self-governing city in Honduras that utilizes bitcoin as legal tender, faces significant uncertainty following a recent ruling by the Honduran Supreme Court. The court declared the Zone for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDE) law, which enabled Prospera's establishment, unconstitutional. This decision was made by a majority vote and has raised questions about the governance of such operating zones.

➡️ The ZEDE law allowed for the creation of autonomous zones with their own political, judicial, economic, and administrative systems, while still being subject to the Honduran government. However, the new administration under President Nasry Asfura may approach Prospera differently due to its connections with former President Donald Trump and his administration.

💼 Prospera has filed a dispute with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), seeking billions in damages as it navigates this changing legal landscape. The city has attracted significant investment from U.S. figures like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, who would benefit from a favorable outcome that allows Prospera to continue operating as it has.

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💼 Peter Thiel's Founders Fund Exits ETHzilla Corp Amid Crypto Downturn

📉 Billionaire investor Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund have completely divested from ETHzilla Corp., as revealed in a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. This marks a significant shift from their previous 7.5% stake reported in August. ETHzilla, based in Palm Beach, Florida, transitioned from a biotech firm to a digital asset treasury focused on ether holdings in 2025.

🔄 At its peak, ETHzilla held over 100,000 ETH tokens. However, the recent downturn in the crypto market forced the company to liquidate assets, selling $40 million worth of ether in October and an additional $74.5 million in December to support buybacks and repay debts. This situation reflects the broader challenges faced by digital asset treasuries since the historic flash crash on October 10, 2025, which resulted in a significant contraction of the crypto market.

📉 Following this event, the total valuation of the crypto market has decreased by more than 40%, now standing at approximately $2.4 trillion. This prolonged compression has put immense pressure on institutional players and digital asset treasuries, including Strategy, the world's largest bitcoin treasury firm, which is currently facing unrealized paper losses exceeding $6 billion.

✈️ In response to these challenges, ETHzilla is shifting its focus towards a new strategy: tokenizing real-world aviation assets. Through its subsidiary, ETHzilla Aerospace, the firm is offering blockchain-based access to equity in leased jet engines. This move represents a significant departure from its original crypto-treasury model and positions ETHzilla as a pioneer in integrating digital assets with tangible infrastructure.

🌍 FATF Strengthens Global Crypto Oversight Amid Rising Illicit Finance Concerns

🔍 The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has intensified its global oversight of cryptocurrencies, announcing new measures during its fifth Plenary under the Mexican presidency on February 20. The FATF, which sets international standards for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, highlighted digital asset risk reports, country evaluations, and specific actions regarding Iran.

📌 Two key reports were approved for publication:

the first assesses and proposes ways to mitigate illicit finance risks posed by the misuse of stablecoins and unhosted wallets

and

the second report is on good practices and challenges associated with mitigating risks associated with offshore digital asset service providers

Additionally, Mutual Evaluation Reports for Austria, Italy, and Singapore were adopted, showcasing peer review findings on their legal frameworks and implementation effectiveness.

🚫 Addressing geopolitical risks, the FATF reiterated Iran's status on its blacklist due to ongoing concerns over terrorist financing. The organization urged all jurisdictions to impose

additional countermeasures to restrict correspondent banking, digital asset transactions, and business relationships with Iran

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📈 Bitcoin ETFs Lead a Rare All-Green Day for Crypto Funds

📌 A significant wave of buying activity swept through the crypto ETF market on Tuesday, resulting in a total inflow of $258 million across major U.S. crypto ETFs, marking a rare all-green day. Spot bitcoin ETFs were at the forefront with $257.71 million in net inflows, indicating widespread demand across six funds. Fidelity’s FBTC led the pack with $82.81 million, followed by Blackrock’s IBIT at $78.94 million and ARK Invest & 21shares’ ARKB with $71.14 million. Additional contributions came from Vaneck’s HODL ($12.76 million), Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust ($8.56 million), and Bitwise’s BITB ($3.50 million).

📈 Ether ETFs also performed well, with a net inflow of $9.23 million despite a small outflow from Fidelity’s FETH. This was primarily driven by Grayscale’s Ether Mini Trust, which pulled in $11.08 million. The trading activity for ether totaled $550.23 million, bringing net assets to $10.47 billion. XRP ETFs joined the positive trend with $3.04 million in net inflows, largely due to Bitwise’s XRP product, while trading volume was $13.24 million.

📊 Solana ETFs continued their upward trajectory with $3.78 million in inflows, led by Bitwise’s BSOL ($2.62 million) and supported by Fidelity’s FSOL ($1.16 million). The total value traded for solana reached $26.11 million, increasing net assets to $697.12 million.

Tuesday marked a rare all-green session across bitcoin, ether, XRP, and solana ETFs.

💪 Overall, the broad-based inflows and healthy trading volumes suggest that investors are returning to crypto exposure with renewed confidence rather than making isolated tactical moves.

🔔 Bitcoin's Resilience Amid Middle East Tensions

📈 On Saturday, Bitcoin experienced significant fluctuations as tensions escalated in the Middle East and U.S. airstrikes targeted Iran. The cryptocurrency rose from an intraday low of $63,176 to $67,152 by 3:45 p.m. Eastern time, marking a 2% increase against the dollar and approaching the $67,000 threshold.

Bitcoin is now up on bad news, having fully reversed the initial crash,

the economist Alex Krüger told his 218,700 X followers.

First time this happens since March 2023,

he added.

📉 Earlier in the day, Bitcoin dipped to around $63,000 due to reports of U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran, which created a risk-off mood and led to nearly $250 million in Bitcoin derivatives positions being liquidated. This included $124.88 million in long bets.

🤔 The reason for Bitcoin's rebound is unclear. However, some suggest that the absence of an immediate escalation into a broader regional conflict following the strikes may have restored some confidence in the crypto markets.

Feel like, BTC has had a number of opportunities to go down the past couple weeks and hasn’t. When it stops reacting to news, good or bad, you typically end up with a move in the opposite direction more often than not,

wrote the X account Pentoshi.

🚫 Whether this recent bounce signifies the beginning of a broader upward trend or just a temporary pause remains uncertain. However, Bitcoin's ability to recover from geopolitical shocks has been noteworthy. As of 4:30 p.m. EST, Bitcoin was trading at $66,444 per unit, showing a more measured response to the surrounding uncertainties.

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🛡 VeryAI Secures $10 Million to Revolutionize Online Security with Biometric Technology

💰 VeryAI, a "proof of reality" platform, has successfully raised $10 million in seed funding, led by Polychain Capital with contributions from the Berggruen Institute and Anagram. This funding will be used to enhance its infrastructure and develop tools aimed at maintaining a human-centric internet.

📱 The announcement coincides with the launch of VeryAI's biometric verification system, which transforms a standard smartphone camera into a high-precision palm scanner. This innovative approach eliminates the need for specialized hardware, offering a seamless "human-only" layer for online interactions.

🔒 Traditional security measures like facial recognition and CAPTCHAs are becoming less effective due to advanced AI technologies. Zach Meltzer, founder and CEO of VeryAI, emphasized the need for updated solutions:

Privacy is a human right. But deepfakes and synthetic content present weaknesses that current systems simply can’t keep up with.

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🆕 Hashi: A New Era for Bitcoin-Backed Lending

🌐 The Sui Foundation has announced the upcoming launch of Hashi, a decentralized platform that integrates native bitcoin (BTC) into on-chain financial services. This initiative aims to create compliant lending and yield opportunities for both institutional and retail participants. Major industry players such as Bitgo, Bullish, FalconX, and Ledger have already committed to the platform, which seeks to enhance capital efficiency in the $1.4 trillion bitcoin market.

🔒 Hashi employs multi-party computation (MPC) and the ERC-3643 standard to facilitate lending and borrowing against BTC without the need to sell the asset. The protocol is backed by institutional-grade insurance from Soter and has undergone formal verification by security firms like Certora to ensure the safety of collateral and mathematical certainty.

🚀 After the devnet phase, Hashi will transition to mainnet, where partners such as Wave Digital plan to issue secured, rated bonds collateralized by bitcoin. Additionally, native Sui protocols like Navi and Scallop will offer immediate access to BTC-backed stablecoin loans for the wider community.

💬 Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and CPO of Mysten Labs, stated,

Think of Hashi as the unlock for developers to design solutions opening access to trillions in BTC liquidity.

🔍 In summary, Hashi represents a significant step forward in the integration of bitcoin into decentralized finance, providing a framework for secure and efficient lending and yield generation.

🔔 Ledger Expands in NYC with New Strategic Hub

📌 Ledger, a leading hardware wallet manufacturer based in Paris, has announced the opening of its new office in New York City on March 23, 2026. This marks a significant expansion in its largest global market and establishes a primary hub for Ledger Enterprise, the company's infrastructure platform for financial institutions adopting digital assets.

💰 The multi-million dollar investment will create numerous local jobs in marketing and enterprise functions to meet the increasing demand. Currently, Ledger secures over 30% of dollar stablecoins held by retail investors and aims to strengthen its relationships with U.S. banks and asset managers.

🔒 This expansion also supports Ledger's transition into an artificial intelligence (AI) accelerated security firm, merging hardware security with cryptographic expertise. This move follows a multi-year global partnership with the San Antonio Spurs to enhance the brand's presence in the American market.

By opening our New York office, we are placing Ledger Enterprise at the epicenter of the financial world to meet the growing demand for secure infrastructure,

says Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger.

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🔔 Oil Prices Plummet Amid Middle East De-escalation

📉 Oil prices fell sharply on Monday, with Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures dropping over 10% following President Trump's announcement of a ceasefire amid progress in negotiations between the Iranian regime and the US government. However, Iranian media denied this information, claiming that Trump had "surrendered."

Very good and productive negotiations have taken place between the two countries over the complete and final settlement of our military actions in the Middle East,

Trump stated on Truth Social, leading to a significant market reaction. Brent futures, which had reached a session high of $114.43, plummeted to $96 immediately after the announcement. WTI futures also mirrored this trend, dropping from around $101 to a session low of $84.37.

❗️ Prices stabilized after Iranian media reported that Trump's statements were false and that no negotiations had occurred. According to the Fars news agency, even intermediaries were not involved in these supposed talks, and an unnamed source claimed that Trump retreated after threats from the Iranian regime to strike power plants in US ally countries.

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