Trump Attacks Banks Over Crypto Legislation

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ US President Trump says banks are undercutting the Genius Act & holding the Clarity Act hostage; calls on Congress to pass legislation; Polymarket projects ~72% chance the Clarity Act is signed into law in 2026.

• ⭐️ Kraken granted US Federal Reserve master account; can now settle payments itself instead of relying on partner banks; marks the first digital asset bank with direct access to the US payments system.

• Morgan Stanley $MS files updated S-1 with US SEC for upcoming Bitcoin $BTC ETF; selects Coinbase $COIN & BNY Mellon $BNY as custodians; BNY to also serve as fund administrator, transfer agent, & cash custodian.

• US SEC asks leveraged-ETF (3x, 4x, & 5x) issuers to NOT move forward with new wave of planned funds; renews SEC push against aggressive fund structures.

• ⭐️ MARA Holdings $MARA revises digital asset management strategy to allow potential sales of Bitcoin $BTC held in its Bitcoin reserves; currently holds 53,822 BTC (~$3.9B).

• American Bitcoin $BTC increases Bitcoin $BTC holdings in its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to 6,500 BTC (~$472M); now the ~17th largest public Bitcoin company in the world.

• YZi Labs commits $100M to Hash Global's $BNB Holdings Fund, the institutional version of its BNB Yield Fund; fund launched in June 2025.

• Aave Chan Initiative $AAVE to leave Aave DAO amid governance tensions; cites recent BGD Labs departure as the primary reason for the decision; to wind down over four months.

• ⭐️ A16z Crypto (Andreessen Horowitz) reportedly targets $2B for Crypto Fund 5; reportedly aims to close the raise in H1 2026; previously raised $3.5B for Crypto Fund 4 in 2022.

Alpha

• Backpack $BACK partners with Superstate to launch onchain IPOs; access IPO share allocations through tokenized equities; users can join the waitlist for "priority access."

• MetaMask $MASK to close MetaMask LINEA Rewards Season 1 claim in ~1 week; to potentially launch Season 2 soon; Polymarket projects ~31% chance MetaMask launches token by end of 2026.

• Predict[.]fun acquires Probable, an onchain prediction platform incubated by PancakeSwap & YZi Labs; early Probable users to be "recognized"; Probable Points to convert to Predict Points.

• Euphoria $MEGA testnet trading competition 'Tapathon' ends; to launch on MegaETH mainnet soon; users can DM Euphoria on X for a testnet access code.

• Elon Musk teases upcoming 'X Money' feature; shared screenshots show 'X Card' with cash back, direct deposit support, optional KYC, & more.

Airdrops

• Avantis $AVNT to launch airdrop #2 claim on March 5th; Avantis Season 3 Points holders will be eligible.

• Opinion $OPN to launch airdrop claim soon; airdrop eligibility & allocation checker is live; Opinion points holders are eligible.

• Reya $REYA teases "airdrop claim loading ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░ 51%" on X; to launch airdrop soon; 45% of REYA token supply is allocated for the community.

• ICYMI Ink Foundation $INK teases "something’s loading in the deep… INK"; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon; Nado & Tydro points holders and more will be eligible for the airdrop.

• ICYMI OpenMind $ROBO launches airdrop claim; OpenMind points holders, community members, & more were eligible to register; claim closes on March 13th.

Finance News

• Global Stock Markets show high volatility as Brent Oil prices surge; South Korea's KOSPI plunged ~20% over two days before recovering ~12% today; Dubai's DFM fell ~5% after two-day closure.

• ⭐️ Anthropic (Claude) reportedly back in talks with US DoW to reach compromise on military use of its AI models; recently designated a "supply chain risk" after refusing demands for unrestricted access.

• OpenAI (ChatGPT) launches GPT-5.3 Instant; "delivers more accurate answers, richer and better-contextualized results when searching the web, and reduces unnecessary dead ends..."; recently raised $110B at $730B valuation.

• Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, & xAI sign Ratepayer Protection Pledge; agree to cover cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for data centers.

• Tether invests in Eight Sleep at $1.5B valuation; strategic investment amount is undisclosed; to collaborate to integrate Tether's QVAC into Eight Sleep products and research.

• ICYMI Key US Events This Week: February ADP Employment data on Wednesday (March 4th); Initial Jobless Claims data on Thursday (March 5th); January Retail Sales data & February Jobs report on Friday (March 6th).

Security and Exploits

• 'Sillytuna' extorted for $24M of AUSD; most of the stolen funds have since been converted into DAI; other stolen funds have since been bridged to Arbitrum & deposited into Hyperliquid to buy Monero.

• Tether releases first reserve report for $USAT; shows $17.6M in reserves backing 17.5M tokens in circulation; reviewed by Deloitte & prepared by Anchorage Digital Bank.

• Google releases Android March 2026 security updates; patches ~126 vulnerabilities, including one zero-day in Qualcomm’s graphics drivers.

Token Unlocks

• Ethena $ENA / ~$20M / MAR 05th
• Hyperliquid $HYPE / ~$5.5M / MAR 06th
• Wormhole $W / ~$1M / MAR 06th
• Optimism $OP / ~$2.5M / MAR 07th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• ARQ raises $70M in funding from Sequoia Capital & Founders Fund.

• Crossover Markets raises $31M in Series B funding led by Tradeweb.

• Interstate raises $1.5M in funding from several investors.

• Cyclops raises $8M in Strategic funding from Castle Island Ventures, F-Prime, & Shift4.

The Degen Farmer