Wallet in Telegram, a third-party wallet embedded in Telegram, is introducing perpetual futures trading through the Lighter DEX, letting users take leveraged long or short positions inside the app. The rollout, set to launch Thursday, supports up to 50× leverage across more than 50 assets spanning crypto (including Bitcoin and Toncoin) plus tokenized stocks and commodities.

Standard Chartered said stablecoin velocity has doubled over the past two years, allowing higher transaction volumes without requiring supply to expand at the same pace. In a Tuesday report, the bank said it still expects the stablecoin market to reach $2 trillion by late 2028 despite faster turnover. The report added that USDC has driven much of the velocity increase, while USDT remains more associated with lower-velocity savings use.

Crypto exchange-traded products took in $230 million last week even after $405 million in outflows following the US FOMC meeting. Bitcoin led with $219.2 million of inflows, while Ether products flipped to $27.5 million of outflows, ending a three-week run. The four-week inflow streak continued, but the pace fell from the prior week's $1.06 billion.

On March 9, the Connecticut Banking Commissioner’s Consumer Credit Division issued a temporary cease-and-desist order against Bitcoin Depot, suspending its money transmission license in the state. The crypto ATM operator has since cut its 2026 revenue guidance after reporting a 56% year-to-date stock drop, staff layoffs and a sharp share price decline from its mid-2025 peak.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded seven straight days of inflows totaling about $1.2 billion, their longest streak since October 2025. That run still trails the roughly $6 billion accumulated over nine days in October 2025, while XRP, Ether and Solana ETFs also saw renewed demand despite mixed year-to-date flows.

Singapore-based MetaComp announced on Friday that Alibaba took part in its Pre-A+ funding round, lifting the stablecoin firm's total capital raised over the past three months to $35 million. MetaComp plans to use the new funds to scale its StableX Network for compliant, real-time cross-border payments across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

The European Central Bank has presented its Appia roadmap as a long-term framework for tokenized wholesale financial markets based on central bank money, with the Pontes distributed ledger settlement solution targeted for launch in the third quarter of 2026. The plan outlines how market DLT infrastructures will connect to the Eurosystem's TARGET Services and is accompanied by a public consultation open until April 22.

Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, bought 17,994 Bitcoin for $1.28 billion last week, increasing its total reserves to 738,731 BTC. The latest purchase, executed at an average price of $70,946 per BTC, came while the asset was trading below the firm's overall average acquisition cost of $75,985.

Nasdaq announced on Monday that it is working with U.S. crypto exchange Kraken, its parent Payward, and Backed, the issuer of xStocks, to build an equities transformation gateway for tokenized shares. The initiative follows Nasdaq's tokenization filing with U.S. securities regulators in September 2025 and Kraken's acquisition of Backed in December, with full issuer services expected to start in the first half of 2027.