Gate Cryptocurrency News and Market Analysis

Pi Network completed a mainnet upgrade to Protocol 20 on March 18, providing a smart contract execution environment to support upcoming NFT and escrow functionalities. Smart contracts will be rolled out in phases, with the first phase featuring subscription contracts, followed by escrow contracts and NFT tools in subsequent phases. Each step requires security audits and community verification to ensure safety and stability.

The HIP-3 market of Hyperliquid has reached a milestone with open interest surpassing $1.43 billion. Significant trading activity, particularly in perpetual WTI contracts, indicates growing user interest in tokenized traditional assets.

Blockchain data platform Allium has partnered with Walrus to introduce over 65TB of historical data to the Walrus platform for access by institutions and AI agents. The collaboration leverages Walrus's verifiable technology to ensure data authenticity and security during transmission. This is significant for AI agents and institutional decision-making, as it provides a trustworthy and programmable data infrastructure. Both parties stated that this is just the beginning of a long-term partnership, with plans to continuously expand data services in the future.

A TikTok influencer with over 800,000 followers is suspected of manipulating a MEME coin through account renaming tactics, publicly promoting it before dumping at high prices, causing the token to spike sharply and then crash rapidly. This behavior triggered investor losses and prompted multiple user reports. The influencer attempted to delete evidence but faces high legal risks and potential violation of multiple criminal charges.

Pi Network's latest upgrade to Protocol 20 establishes foundational support for smart contracts, focusing on real-world applications. The rollout emphasizes careful testing and community feedback while improving tools like Pi Wallet and SDK, marking a significant advancement for the ecosystem.

Vietnam currently has five companies vying for the first batch of compliant cryptocurrency exchange licenses, including major banks and large enterprises. Regulatory authorities plan to ban citizens from using overseas exchanges and are beginning to draft tax schemes that treat crypto trading as formally regulated assets. Vietnam is concerned about capital outflows, and crypto startups that fail to meet standards are excluded, with regulators favoring traditional financial institutions.

XRP is trading around $1.50, hovering just above a critical $1.40 options strike on Deribit where approximately $14.6 million in open interest is concentrated—nearly 25% of all XRP options on the exchange, with the majority set to expire March 27.

In brief The joint committee called crypto donations an "unnecessary and unacceptably high risk" and wants a binding moratorium written into the Representation of the People Bill. The report demands a new national Political Finance Enforcement Unit inside the National Crime Agency and

Cryptocurrency e-commerce platform Bitrefill was attacked by hackers on March 1st. The attackers gained access to hot wallet credentials by compromising employee laptops and accessed 18,500 purchase records. Bitrefill has implemented security measures to strengthen defenses and stated that services have returned to normal, with no confirmed signs of large-scale data breaches. The incident is related to North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.

Litecoin (LTC) recorded a slight pullback on Wednesday, returning to test a key support zone around the $57 mark after completing a breakout from the accumulation phase. Although technical signals still lean toward a bullish scenario,

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is moving to reduce years of ambiguity around a broker-dealer reporting rule that had limited which assets could be quoted on the over-the-counter (OTC) market. Rule 15c2-11, originally adopted in 1971 to curb penny-stock fraud, requires broker-dealers to ke

The recent collaboration between ChainAware.ai and the Ispolink game platform Ispoverse is focused on enhancing security and intelligence among Web3 communities of gamers. The partnership will include the integration of high-level on-chain behavioral analysis and fraud detection software into the

In brief Connecticut has suspended Bitcoin Depot's state money transfer license, without which it cannot run its kiosks. Regulators said some users were overcharged, while those that fell to scams weren’t fully refunded. Observers said the order could mark a tougher compliance test for th

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced on March 17, 2026, a new fast confirmation rule mechanism that enables users to obtain a hard guarantee that transactions will not revert after just one slot (12 seconds), significantly improving upon the current 16-minute finality window.

New York-based platform Theo announced the completion of a $100 million funding round and launched thUSD, a yield-bearing stablecoin backed by gold. It creates two independent sources of income through arbitrage between the gold token thGOLD and gold futures, aiming to provide hedging and returns in unstable markets. Unlike Tether Gold and PAX Gold, thUSD not only tracks gold prices but also actively generates additional yield. The platform plans to open in 200 countries worldwide and is compatible with various lending protocols.

Meta announced the removal of Horizon Worlds, shifting focus toward AI infrastructure and wearable devices, with Reality Labs losses approaching $80 billion over five years. The company's strategy is pivoting from immersive VR toward gaming and mixed reality, emphasizing that AI's commercialization potential exceeds that of the metaverse. Horizon Worlds will still run on mobile devices, but this adjustment demonstrates that user adoption of VR social platforms fell short of expectations.

Hong Kong-based stablecoin payment unicorn RedotPay is in talks with multiple institutions to raise up to $150 million in new funding, just months after completing over $150 million across two rounds in 2025, as it targets a valuation exceeding $4 billion through a US listing as soon as this year.

Coin Center sent a letter to the SEC, calling for an end to no-action letter case-by-case processing and urging stronger systemic rulemaking for the crypto market. The letter emphasized that no-action letters favor well-resourced large projects, resulting in regulatory fragmentation and industry inequality, while contradicting the nature of crypto public goods. The U.S. Congress is also advancing the CLARITY Act to provide a clear digital asset jurisdiction framework and promote unified regulation.