Pakistan’s parliament has passed the Virtual Assets Act, 2026, turning the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority into a permanent federal regulator for digital assets with licensing and supervisory powers. The law, which takes effect upon publication in the official Gazette, introduces criminal penalties for unlicensed crypto operations, including fines up to PKR 50 million and prison terms of up to five years, and sets conditions for market entry for global firms.

Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority on Thursday ordered four entities operating under the KuCoin brand to halt all virtual asset services in or from Dubai, citing a lack of required authorization under Law No. (4) of 2022 and Cabinet Resolution No. 111/2022. The regulator also stated that KuCoin's promotions and advertising had not been approved and warned residents against engaging with the exchange. Austria's Financial Market Authority separately barred KuCoin's European unit from new business despite an existing MiCA license, due to missing compliance staff.

Russia's central bank has proposed letting banks and brokerage firms run crypto exchanges via a simplified notification regime tied to their existing licenses. The draft framework would cap banks' exposure to digital assets at 1% of capital and classify cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as tradable currency assets while keeping them banned for domestic payments. Under the planned law, qualified investors would face no purchase limits, but non-qualified investors could buy up to 300,000 rubles annually through one intermediary, with the core rules expected to start applying on July 1, 2026.

A study by the Bitcoin Policy Institute tested 36 frontier AI models from six major developers across 9,072 monetary scenarios and found bitcoin was chosen in 48.3% of responses overall, including 79.1% of long-term store-of-value cases. Stablecoins led payment-related questions with 53.2% of responses compared with 36% for bitcoin, while 90.8% of all answers favored digital instruments over fiat and none of the models ranked fiat as their top overall preference.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies reported holding 4,473,587 ETH as of March 1, representing 3.71% of the 120.7 million ether supply and valuing its combined crypto, cash and equity positions at $9.9 billion. Around 3,040,483 ETH is currently staked, generating an annualized $172 million based on a 2.86% seven-day yield, while the company also disclosed a $200 million investment in Beast Industries and a $14 million stake in Eightco Holdings.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that confirmed crypto hacking losses in February 2026 totaled $26.5 million across 15 incidents, marking a 98.2% drop from the $1.5 billion stolen in February 2025. The five largest exploits, led by a $10 million attack on Stellar-based YieldBlox and an $8.8 million breach of IoTeX’s ioTube bridge, made up more than 98% of the monthly total.

STS Digital said Thursday, according to a statement shared with The Block, that it raised $30 million in a strategic round led by CMT Digital with participation from Payward and other investors. The firm plans to expand market‑making and scale its institutional spot and options platform, which offers access to more than 400 tokens across spot, "vanilla and exotic options," and structured products.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sold 17,196 ETH since the beginning of February, totaling roughly $34.96 million and surpassing his January 30 allocation of 16,384 ETH by 4.9%. He previously framed that allocation as his personal contribution to an austerity plan aimed at funding open-source infrastructure over several years, while recent sales have coincided with ether's price rising instead of falling.

On Monday, ZeroLend founder "Ryker" said the DeFi lending protocol will be wound down after around three years of operation, following sustained losses and ecosystem challenges. Total value locked has fallen 98% from a November 2024 high near $359 million to $6.6 million, while the ZERO token has lost almost all its value since peaking at $0.001 in May 2024.