Charles Schwab has launched a waitlist for "Schwab Crypto," a new account designed to let clients buy and sell bitcoin and ether directly, with a first-half 2026 target for launch. CEO Rick Wurster has said the rollout is expected to begin with a limited release in Q2 before expanding, while the product will not be available in New York and Louisiana at the start. Fees and custody details have not been disclosed, and the bank says crypto transfers in or out will not be supported at launch.

The IMF said in a report published Thursday that tokenized finance could make market stress unfold faster by removing traditional settlement delays that give regulators time to intervene. The paper warns that instant settlement, automated margining and feedback loops may strain crisis tools designed for business-day cycles, and it flags stablecoins as run-prone structures similar to money market funds.

Lido’s Ecosystem Operations team has put forward a governance proposal to let the Lido Growth Committee spend up to 10,000 stETH (about $20 million at roughly $2,000 ETH) to purchase LDO as a one-off buyback. LDO set a new all-time low near $0.27 on Mar. 7 and is trading around $0.31; at current levels, the plan could take in roughly 65 million tokens, or about 8% of circulating supply.

NYSE Arca and NYSE American filed SEC rule changes to remove the 25,000-contract position and exercise limits on options tied to spot bitcoin and ether ETFs, with the changes effective immediately. The update covers options on 11 crypto ETF products and also permits these contracts to trade as FLEX options with customizable terms. With these filings, major U.S. exchanges now treat crypto ETF options the same as other commodity-based ETF options.

Indian media reports say CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal were detained and sent to police custody until March 23 in a case tied to an alleged investment fraud. The complaint alleges a loss of about 71.6 lakh rupees (roughly $85,000) connected to a scheme promising high returns and CoinDCX-linked franchise rights. CoinDCX rejects the allegation, saying the fraud was executed via impersonators operating copycat websites rather than its platform.

Resolv’s dollar-pegged USR stablecoin depegged after an exploit let an attacker mint about 80 million unbacked USR and pull roughly $25 million. USR fell to $0.025 on Curve and later rebounded to around $0.85, while the attacker accumulated 11,409 ETH worth about $23.7 million and another address held about $1.1 million in wstUSR. Resolv Labs said it paused all protocol functions and that its collateral pool remains fully intact with no underlying assets lost.

Bitcoin's mining difficulty fell 7.76% to 133.79 trillion at block height 941,472, leaving it roughly 10% below the level at the start of the year. Hashrate estimates have slid to about 903–948 EH/s, while hashprice is near $33.30/PH/s/day, a range some miners cite as close to breakeven. Several public miners have also outlined plans to shift infrastructure and capital from BTC mining toward AI and high-performance computing.

CFTC staff on Friday released an FAQ explaining how futures commission merchants, clearinghouses and swap dealers can operationally use digital assets as derivatives collateral under existing staff no-action guidance. The document aligns capital charges with recent SEC haircut guidance, applying a minimum 20% charge to bitcoin and ether and a 2% charge to payment stablecoins, while limiting how FCMs can use crypto in segregated customer accounts.

A forensic review of crypto lobbyist Mauricio Novelli's seized phone uncovered a February 11, 2025 note outlining an alleged $5 million, three-stage payment plan linked to Argentine President Javier Milei's promotion of the Solana-based Libra token. The document and accompanying call logs describe coordination involving Milei, his sister Karina and advisers around the February 14 launch, subsequent price collapse and crisis messaging as wider investigations into the project continue.