ChainCatcher news, BNB Chain announced the winners of its $4.4 million Meme token liquidity support program for the first week, with 10 projects awarded: Broccoli (f3b), KOMA, SIREN, BANANA, PERRY, TST, 4, Broccoli (714), Broccoli (f2b), TUT.BNB Chain stated that daily rewards have been fully distributed, and weekly winners' rewards will be issued within 10 days. The final rankings have excluded wash trading behaviors identified during the trading competition, and projects that did not meet the award criteria have been removed.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the blockchain asset risk management platform Lockchain.ai has announced the completion of a $5 million Series A funding round, led by White Star Capital, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Arrington Capital, and Sonic Boom Ventures. Lockchain.ai plans to use the new funds to enhance its significant event detection capabilities for sharper market intelligence, accelerate data discovery, simplify due diligence, build an automated compliance framework that meets regulatory requirements, and launch regulatory compliance automation for initiatives like MiCA.It is reported that Lockchain.ai is a blockchain asset risk management platform that utilizes generative AI for real-time portfolio risk analysis and monitoring.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the oracle service provider RedStone Oracles has partnered with World Chain to provide oracle services.RedStone stated that its oracle has now begun to provide the highest quality data support in the market for DeFi applications on World Chain. World Chain is an L2 solution built on the OP Stack, designed to prioritize human user needs and scalable to billions of users.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement from BNB Chain, BNB Chain has officially launched an open upgrade hackathon competition themed around AI. This competition has no fixed deadline, allowing developers to work on opBNB or BSC mainnet and testnet.Highlights of this AI-themed season:Unlimited development time: Breaking the traditional time constraints of competitions;Boundless tracks: Fully opening up AI + blockchain innovation scenarios;Continuous building: Creating a closed-loop ecosystem for on-chain AI model training, deployment, and profit.It is reported that this event is an important part of BNB Chain's strategy to build an "AI-first" blockchain ecosystem.

ChainCatcher message, according to DefiLlama data, ETH is at $1919.49 and may face approximately $127.3 million in large on-chain liquidations.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, on-chain compliance solution provider Forte has acquired the cryptocurrency trust platform Sealance Corp. Through this acquisition, Web3 developers can utilize the ZK strategy engine and Forte's rule engine for compliant KYC verification, and manage on-chain identities across real-world assets (RWA), stablecoins, DeFi, and institutional use cases, while managing privacy through Sealance's ZK technology.It is reported that Sealance Corp is the creator of the first zero-knowledge (ZK) strategy engine, aimed at facilitating regulatory compliance in decentralized blockchains.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, Binance will support the token swap of Ethernity Chain (ERN) and the brand upgrade to Epic Chain (EPIC). Binance will stop trading and remove all existing ERN spot trading pairs (ERN/USDT) on March 10 at 11:00, and will automatically cancel all open orders, and will open EPIC/USDT spot trading on March 13 at 16:00.

ChainCatcher news, Optimum announced the completion of its angel round financing, with investors including the CTO of Polychain, the founder of DeFiance Capital, the CEO of Bitget, the co-founder of Wormhole, the co-founder of Polygon, and managing partners from Jump Crypto, among other well-known figures in Web3.Optimum was co-founded by Professor Muriel Médard, the NEC Chair of the MIT Department of Computer Science, Dr. Kishori Konwar, and Kent Lin, the president of the Harvard Blockchain Association. It is based on MIT's research achievements in Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) and aims to create the world's first full-chain scalability solution—high-performance memory for the World Computer.Optimum provides high-performance memory infrastructure for L1/L2 blockchains and node operators, including a P2P data communication layer and a decentralized memory layer (deRAM), breaking through the scalability bottleneck of blockchain to achieve fast data transmission, efficient storage, and real-time access. The financing will be used to accelerate product development and bring infrastructure upgrades to the Web3 ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bluefin's announcement, it has acquired a majority stake in InsideX, the on-chain trading terminal for Sui. InsideX is an integrated trading terminal on the Sui Network that offers multifunctional trading tools.

ChainCatcher news, THORChain core developer Pluto announced his immediate departure from the project, ending his four years of contributions. Pluto stated that he will continue to support Nine Realms to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities. Meanwhile, community member TCB also expressed that if THORChain does not quickly take measures to stop the flow of funds from North Korea, he will also withdraw.TCB pointed out that there is a disconnect between the beliefs of the THORChain community and the actual operational situation, stating, "For a long time, those responsible for communication and those maintaining the network have held different views." TCB questioned the level of decentralization of THORChain, arguing that the infrastructure and user traffic of THORChain are primarily controlled by a few participants, making it difficult to achieve true decentralization and censorship resistance, "The company running the development team is an American company, and most of the developers are Americans, who are also the largest infrastructure providers. Other large infrastructure providers are also North Americans."TCB warned that when most of the funds flow are from stolen money from North Korea, it will become a national security issue, "To achieve credible decentralization, you need a network composed of over 1,000 unique validators." He mentioned that competitor Chainflip has quickly addressed similar issues at the network level, with all front ends implementing review measures.

ChainCatcher news, according to monitoring by Spot on Chain, the Bybit hacker has successfully laundered 50% of the stolen ETH.In the past 5 and a half days, the Bybit hacker has laundered a total of 266,309 ETH (approximately $614 million), accounting for 53.3% of the 499,000 ETH stolen, averaging 48,420 ETH laundered per day, mostly converted to BTC through THORChain. At the current rate, the remaining 233,086 ETH could be fully laundered in just 5 days.

According to ChainCatcher news reported by CoinDesk, Paul Brody, the global blockchain leader at EY, expressed the view that tokenizing physical assets through blockchain can create daily, transparent price information for market data traditionally limited to a few asset classes, thereby redefining the way portfolio management is conducted.Brody pointed out that modern portfolio theory originates from Eugene Fama's efficient market theory in the 1960s. Although this theory has its flaws, the index fund strategies developed from it have become the default choice for managing pension and retirement accounts. Currently, about 80% of institutional investors' portfolios are concentrated in stock and bond index funds, while alternative investment strategies account for only 15-20%.The emergence of tokenized assets will expand the range of investable assets, allowing investors to access asset classes and regions that have been overlooked due to data scarcity or lack of liquidity. For example, by tokenizing physical assets such as real estate in Thailand, oil leases in Nigeria, or taxi medallions in New York, continuous and transparent price data can be generated, enabling these assets to be compared on equal footing with traditional assets like U.S. stocks.Brody anticipates that this transition will take about a decade, including the establishment of a broad portfolio of tokenized assets and the accumulation of 5-7 years of daily data records. With the proliferation of AI-driven automated investment tools, this transition may occur more rapidly than historical shifts in investment patterns. EY will host a global blockchain summit from April 1-3 to discuss the role of digital assets in portfolios.

ChainCatcher news, according to Arkham data, as of now, wallets marked as Lazarus Group have transferred over $240 million in ETH through THORChain. These funds have mainly been exchanged for native BTC.In addition, THORChain's chief developer @Pluto9r announced his departure (after 4 years in office). THORChain network core validator TCB (@1984_is_today) revealed that most of THORChain's activities stem from the largest financial heist in human history, involving money laundering activities by North Korean hackers, which will become a national security issue.Previously reported, THORChain is currently facing insolvency, with savings and loan functions suspended, and plans to address a $200 million debt crisis by issuing equity tokens.

ChainCatcher news, global investment firm Sixth Street has invested $200 million in Figure Technology Solutions, a U.S.-based lending company that leverages blockchain technology to enhance the efficiency of the lending market and reduce costs. This investment will enable Figure to issue up to $2 billion in new loans and help the company expand into other lending markets.Figure Technology primarily offers home improvement loans but also provides commercial loans and debt consolidation services. It also operates a personal loan business that allows cryptocurrency investors to borrow against their holdings. The Figure website claims to have served over 100,000 households from 47 states in the U.S.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the "Crypto Crime Report" released by Chainalysis for 2025 shows that crypto crime has entered a specialized era dominated by AI-driven scams, stablecoin money laundering, and efficient cybercrime groups, with illegal transaction volumes reaching $51 billion in the past year, breaking previous records.Preliminary estimates indicate a decline in crypto crime in 2024. However, a deeper analysis suggests otherwise: criminals have adopted advanced money laundering techniques, relying on stablecoins, DeFi, and AI-driven deception, creating a false appearance of reduced crime.

ChainCatcher news, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) founder Michael Saylor posted on social media, "On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet with members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee and its chairman French Hill to discuss digital assets and how to make the U.S. a global leader in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and I presented a digital asset framework at the meeting."

ChainCatcher news, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju posted on social media, "Bitcoin on-chain indicators show that we are currently at the tipping point between a bull market and a bear market.I expect this to be the longest bull market in history, but I could be wrong. We need at least another month of data to confirm whether we are entering a bear market. If demand does not recover, the indicators may completely show a downward trend.According to typical cycles, the bull market should last until April 2025------I mentioned this back in May 2024. The next month or two will be a critical turning point for the Bitcoin market.If every indicator confirms a downward trend, I will admit I was wrong and publish relevant content. But as I said before, I believe the probability of Bitcoin falling below $77,000 is low. Even in the worst-case scenario, I think Bitcoin will consolidate around $77,000 for a few months before rising again.I believe that heavily leveraging directional bets------whether long or short------is not a good choice right now."

ChainCatcher news, according to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the hacker involved in the Bybit theft incident laundered ETH into BTC through THORChain, bringing THORChain a trading volume of $2.91 billion and $3 million in fee revenue.Data shows that the hacker began the money laundering operation on February 22, contributing a significant amount of transactions to THORChain over a period of 5 days. Prior to this, THORChain's average daily trading volume was about $80 million, which surged to $580 million during the hacker's activity.

ChainCatcher message, Ethereum Layer2 network Mint Blockchain announces the MINT token economic model, with a total economic volume of 1 billion MINT tokens. The distribution is as follows: 50% for the Mint DAO organization, 12% for community airdrops, 20% for early supporters and contributors, and 18% for the MintCore team. The initial unlock supply is 16.8%, with 83.3% of the community airdrop unlocking at TGE, and an additional 16.7% used to incentivize Mint Forest V3 users, to be airdropped in 2026.The initial incentives for Mint will reward real users, including: MintID NFT stakers, real users of Mint Forest, Mint Expedition MP and NFT holders, Mint Big Bang champions, NFT Legends Season - Unboxed, as well as holders of Mint x OKX Pioneer Explorer NFT and winners of the Mint x GoPlus Christmas joint event.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the autonomous Star Polaris in the Sky (formerly MakerDAO) ecosystem agent framework (Agent Framework) will connect with Berachain, with the initial focus on expanding Sky's stablecoin USDS across chains, which means USDS holders can participate in Berachain's DeFi products, such as lending, trading, or liquidity mining. Most of Sky's infrastructure (including the Sky protocol) is still running on Ethereum.