On Wednesday, World Liberty Financial proposed a governance staking framework requiring at least 180 days locked and offering a 2% APR conditional on two votes. The plan adds USD1 usage incentives, plus conversion and off-ramp access for large holders. USD1’s market cap is $4.7 billion, while USDT and USDC lead the stablecoin sector.

Matt Western, who chairs the UK's Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, urged a temporary moratorium on crypto donations in a Monday letter to minister Steve Reed. He asked for the pause to be added to the Representation of the People Bill until Electoral Commission guidance is issued; the bill was introduced on Feb. 12 and has a second reading on March 2.

Bitcoin Depot, the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in the United States, began rolling out a requirement in February for users to verify their identity for every transaction at its crypto ATMs. The company first introduced ID checks for all new users in October and is expanding this to all transactions to detect suspicious activity and curb misuse such as scams and identity theft. The move comes as multiple U.S. state attorneys general pursue lawsuits and settlements alleging the firm failed to implement sufficient protections against fraud.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in an X post on Sunday that AI-powered personal assistants could help users navigate DAO governance by handling routine votes and surfacing context. He pointed to participation rates of roughly 15%–25% and warned of centralization risks. Near Foundation researcher Lane Rettig described similar "digital twins" last year.

ETHZilla said on Thursday it launched the Eurus Aero Token I via its ETHZilla Aerospace unit, offering access to equity in two commercial jet engines leased to a leading US airline. Each token costs $100 with a 10-token minimum, and the firm targets an 11% return if held through leases that run into 2028 after buying the engines for $12.2 million in January.

Crypto-focused super PAC Protect Progress plans to allocate $1.5 million to campaign against Representative Al Green in the upcoming Democratic primary in Texas, citing his opposition to key digital asset bills. Green will face Christian Menefee in the March 3 primary for the reshaped Houston-area district, where advocacy groups rate Green as strongly anti-crypto and Menefee as strongly pro-crypto.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation AI lead Davide Crapis proposed a zero-knowledge–based system to keep AI API calls private while enabling payment and anti-abuse controls. Users would fund a smart contract (e.g., 100 USDC) and make unlinkable requests, with dual-staking penalties deterring double-spends and policy violations.

Circle Internet Group plans to spend 2026 strengthening its payments network and Arc, its institution-oriented layer-1 blockchain, to support broader corporate and institutional stablecoin adoption. The company aims to move Arc from testnet to production and extend the reach of USDC, EURC, USYC and partner-issued stablecoins across more chains while simplifying their everyday use.

In 2025, Bybit's trading volume climbed to a total of $1.5 trillion and its market share rose to 8.1%, even after a $1.5 billion hack in February. CoinGecko's report added that average trading volumes across the top 10 exchanges increased by 7.6% over the year, while Binance remained the largest exchange with $7.3 trillion in volume.