Gnosis co-founder Dr. Friederike Ernst argues that the US Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act risks pushing crypto activity back through large, licensed financial intermediaries. She acknowledges the bill's attempt to divide oversight between the SEC and CFTC and to safeguard peer-to-peer transactions and self-custody, but warns it may undermine open, permissionless blockchain infrastructure and DeFi while debate in Congress continues.

Venus Protocol, a decentralized lending and borrowing platform, reported suspicious activity in its Thena (THE) and Cake (CAKE) pools tied to a suspected supply cap exploit exceeding $3.7 million. The attacker allegedly accumulated about 84% of THE’s market cap and then used the tokens as collateral to borrow multiple assets, prompting Venus to pause borrows and withdrawals for THE and some low-liquidity tokens.

On a Saturday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin submitted a proposal to merge the consensus-layer and execution-layer client software into a single backend codebase, aiming to make running Ethereum nodes simpler for users. He argued that operating personal infrastructure should be easy and accessible, and linked this effort to his May 2025 concept of partially stateless nodes that reduce storage demands by keeping only necessary blockchain data.

Andrei Grachev of DWF Labs argues that classic altseasons have ended, with excess tokens, constrained liquidity and ETF flows concentrating capital in Bitcoin, Ether and RWAs. Altcoin valuations have dropped sharply since the October 2025 crash, with $209 billion leaving the sector over 13 months and 38% of tokens trading near record lows, while analysts foresee shorter narratives and more aggressive capital rotations across select sectors.

Basel III bank capital rules are scheduled for revision in 2026, and analyst Nic Puckrin argues that a lower risk weight for Bitcoin could release substantial liquidity into the asset. Under the current framework, BTC carries a 1,250% risk weight, forcing banks to fully back their holdings with reserves and making crypto services uneconomical. Other industry figures say this regime misprices risk compared with assets like corporate bonds, gold and government bonds, and acts as an indirect constraint on banks' participation in the crypto sector.

Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme with less value than Pokémon cards in an opinion piece. He cited a case of a friend who lost 20,000 British pounds over three and a half years to a BTC investment scheme, arguing collectibles are more tradable. Bitcoin advocates and industry figures pushed back, highlighting Bitcoin's decentralized design and criticizing debt-based fiat systems instead.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute is targeting a window between March and August 2026 to advance a de minimis tax exemption for smaller Bitcoin transactions in the United States, warning that legislative time is limited. The group has engaged 19 Congressional offices to build bipartisan backing for exempting low-value BTC payments from capital gains reporting, following an earlier, stalled bill that proposed a $300-per-transaction threshold with a $5,000 annual cap.

The Ethereum Foundation published a formal mandate on Friday, setting out its mission to keep Ethereum decentralized and ensure users retain ultimate control over their onchain assets and data as the protocol scales. The document states that the foundation will prioritize core protocol upgrades, long-horizon research, cybersecurity and developer tooling while aiming to reduce its own role over time so Ethereum can function even if the foundation disappears.

On Thursday, the United States Senate approved an amendment to the 21st Century Road to Housing Act that blocks the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until Dec. 31, 2030. The measure, which passed by an 89–10 vote, allows dollar-linked digital assets that are open, permissionless and private, while critics in Congress and finance argue CBDCs could enable intrusive financial surveillance.