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The Federal Court for the Northern District of California recently dismissed Coinbase user Roger Metz's attempt to block the IRS subpoena.Metz claimed that the IRS's subpoena requiring Coinbase to hand over financial records related to its 2022 tax audit violated his privacy rights and procedural rules, and stated that he had discovered errors and paid additional taxes before the subpoena was issued. The court ruled that Metz's failure to notify the U.S. Attorney General within 90 days constituted "insufficient service," dismissing the case but allowing him to resubmit the application in the future.

Meta announced that starting June 15, users will no longer be able to build, publish, or update virtual reality worlds on Meta Quest headsets, nor will they be able to access Meta Horizon Worlds through Quest headsets. This virtual world feature will continue to be available on the Meta Horizon mobile app.A Meta spokesperson cited a blog post from February of this year, which mentioned that the company is shifting the focus of Worlds to "almost entirely mobile-centric." Earlier in January of this year, Meta had cut about 1,000 jobs from the Reality Labs division and closed several virtual reality game and content studios. Andrew Bosworth, head of Reality Labs and Chief Technology Officer, stated in a memo to employees that Meta will primarily focus on mobile experiences rather than immersive virtual worlds accessed through headsets.This move marks Meta's further retreat from the metaverse strategy previously championed by Mark Zuckerberg. Resources in Reality Labs have shifted from VR gaming to advancing wearable products aimed at AI goals, including Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

According to The Block, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit voted 7 to 3 to deny Custodia Bank's request for an en banc review, upholding the October 2025 panel's ruling that the Federal Reserve has the authority to approve or deny master account applications from eligible institutions.Notably, just days ago, the Kansas City Fed granted Kraken its first limited cryptocurrency master account, while the Federal Reserve is also developing a broader "streamlined master account" framework.Custodia is a Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution founded by Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long. The company first applied for a master account in October 2020. The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank confirmed in early 2021 that there were "no significant issues" with the application, but ultimately denied it in January 2023 due to concerns about the bank's focus on a cryptocurrency business model.Custodia filed a lawsuit in June 2022, initially regarding a 19-month delay in approval, and later argued that the Currency Control Act grants any eligible depository institution the right to obtain a master account by law. Courts at all levels dismissed the lawsuit.

According to the Financial Times, victims of investment fraud in China are challenging a compensation arrangement involving approximately 61,000 bitcoins in a UK court. Representatives of the victims have filed an application with the High Court of England, seeking to overturn the proposal for compensation through the Chinese compensation mechanism, arguing that this plan may allow UK authorities to retain significant asset appreciation gains.These bitcoins were seized by the UK police during a money laundering investigation in London and are currently valued at around £3.2 billion (approximately $4.3 billion). It is reported that the law firm Candey represents about 5,700 victims in opposition, claiming that the current compensation scheme fails to ensure fair compensation.The fraud case is led by Qian Zhimin and involves over 128,000 Chinese investors, with the proceeds of the fraud converted into bitcoins and transferred overseas between 2014 and 2017. The UK prosecution has stated that some claims may result in a few victims and litigation funders receiving compensation exceeding their actual losses.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. prosecutors stated that FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried's request for a retrial should be denied because he failed to prove that his conviction was unjust.SBF is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in 2023.

According to Bloomberg, this week, the lawyer of Chen Zhi, who is accused of being the head of a large-scale "pig butchering" scam gang, filed a motion in a New York federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's seizure of a batch of Bitcoin related to him. The lawyer argued that the prosecution's allegations regarding Chen Zhi's oversight of the scam operation lack specific evidence and are merely a vague description of the overall situation in Cambodia. They also questioned the timeline of the cryptocurrency seizure, stating that these Bitcoins could not possibly be the proceeds of fraud or money laundering.The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of 127,271 Bitcoins controlled by Chen Zhi last October, which were valued at approximately $15 billion at the time. Chen Zhi had his nationality revoked by Cambodia in January this year and was extradited to China. Following sanctions from the U.S. and the U.K., over $1 billion in assets have been frozen or seized in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. Human rights organizations pointed out that after the closure of the scam operation, thousands of trafficked workers have flowed out from places like Sihanoukville, facing the risk of being sold again.

"1011 Insider Whale" agent Garrett posted on platform X, stating that the current trend of Brent crude oil is still in the first phase, and multiple narratives in the market have not led to substantial changes. For example, the G7's statement that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is "ready to release" more is more of a gesture than a real solution, and expectations regarding a ceasefire remain largely at the narrative level.There is a lot of noise in the current market, but there is only one truly critical question: Is the Strait of Hormuz open? The answer remains negative. If this key shipping chokepoint continues to be restricted, its duration will become the core variable affecting energy market trading.

According to Reuters, Anthropic filed a lawsuit on Monday attempting to prevent the Pentagon from placing it on a national security blacklist, escalating the high-stakes confrontation between the AI lab and the U.S. military over restrictions on the use of its technology.The Pentagon officially designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk last Thursday, restricting a technology that, according to insiders, is being used for military operations in Iran. Anthropic claims in the lawsuit that this designation is illegal and infringes on its rights to free speech and due process. The documents submitted to the federal court in California request that the judge overturn the designation and prevent federal agencies from enforcing it.Anthropic stated, "These actions are unprecedented and illegal. The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its immense power to punish a company for its protected speech."Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listed Anthropic as a national security supply chain risk last week after the company refused to remove restrictions on its AI for use in autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. This designation poses a significant threat to Anthropic's government business, and the outcome could affect how other AI companies negotiate restrictions on the military use of their technology.However, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei clarified on Thursday that the designation has a "limited scope," and the company can still use its tools in projects unrelated to the Pentagon.

A bill has been proposed in New York State, USA, aiming to prohibit AI from answering questions in professional fields such as medicine, law, dentistry, nursing, psychology, and engineering.According to relevant interpretations, this action is essentially not about protecting the public, but rather "an industry that charges $500/hour is using politicians to protect its knowledge monopoly." Lawyers do not want users to know that AI can draft contracts in 30 seconds, doctors do not want users to know that AI can interpret blood reports better than residents, and engineers do not want users to know that AI can review your design sketches overnight. The intention behind New York State's proposed ban on AI answering professional questions is not to protect users, but to protect their businesses.

According to Cointelegraph, the UK House of Lords questioned Coinbase's Vice President of International Policy, Tom Duff Gordon, on Wednesday, focusing on whether stablecoins could lead to a loss of bank deposits and pose new risks to the UK financial system.Gordon stated that fully reserved and regulated stablecoins are "safer than uninsured bank deposits" because they are backed 1:1 by cash and high-quality government securities and can be redeemed at face value. He emphasized that stablecoins can significantly reduce payment costs and accelerate cross-border payments.Members of the UK House of Lords questioned the redemption risks of stablecoins during a crisis, their potential impact on banks, and their role in criminal activities. Gordon countered that concerns about disintermediation from banks are "greatly exaggerated" and emphasized that Coinbase strictly enforces KYC and anti-money laundering measures.Adam Jackson, Chief Strategy Officer of Innovate Finance, warned that the UK could establish a regulatory regime "stricter and less competitive than the EU's MiCA framework," causing the UK to fall behind the US and Europe in the competition for stablecoin innovation.

According to The Block, a16z Crypto criticized the colloquial use of the term "ZK" in certain developer environments in a blog post about its Jolt zkVM. The article pointed out that most zkVMs do not actually possess zero-knowledge properties unless expensive "wrapping" programs are applied. The author also mentioned that "zk" often becomes synonymous with "conciseness," meaning "short proofs that verify quickly," rather than true zero-knowledge privacy.As the community's focus on privacy grows, the misuse of this terminology is becoming a real issue. a16z's open-source Jolt zkVM launched a major upgrade on Tuesday, natively supporting zero-knowledge proofs. Jolt employs the NovaBlindFold folding scheme to create blinded proofs to prevent information leakage, making it suitable for privacy applications, with the zero-knowledge proofs generated after the upgrade only increasing by about 3 KB compared to the original non-ZK proofs.

According to Jin Ten, ECB Governing Council member Nagel stated that the role of the dollar as the preferred traditional currency during uncertain times is increasingly being questioned, leading to its weakening exchange rate. He pointed out that there is growing skepticism about the dollar's status as a safe-haven currency, and the trend of dollar weakness is expected to continue, as the decline in international investors' confidence may persist.

Eleven U.S. senators have sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pamela Bondi, requesting a comprehensive review of Binance's compliance with U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering requirements, as well as an assessment of its adherence to the 2023 settlement agreement.The letter cites reports indicating that approximately $1.7 billion in digital assets flowed through Binance to entities linked to Iranian terrorism, including organizations associated with the Houthis and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Investigators also found that over 1,500 accounts were accessed by Iranian users, along with potential activities related to evading sanctions against Russia. The letter further notes that some compliance personnel at Binance who identified suspicious transactions were subsequently dismissed, and law enforcement agencies have indicated that Binance's cooperation in providing customer information has declined. Senators Chris Van Hollen, Ruben Gallego, and nine other senators co-signed the letter, expressing concerns about Binance's payment card launched in the former Soviet region and its partnerships related to stablecoins, believing these products could be used to evade sanctions. The senators have requested that the relevant agencies report on the review's progress by March 13. Additionally, Senator Richard Blumenthal initiated a congressional investigation into Binance this Tuesday, requesting relevant documents and internal records from Binance CEO Richard Teng. Binance denies the allegations, stating that it has identified and reported suspicious activities to authorities and does not allow Iranian users to access its platform.

YZi Labs issued a statement claiming that based on the disclosures from CEA Industries (BNC), 10X and its affiliates may exceed the 5% threshold for 13D filing by the end of 2025 due to large warrant exercises, but no corresponding disclosure has been observed; it also questioned whether the board's "poison pill" and other concerted actions and affiliations constitute an undisclosed "group," demanding immediate supplemental disclosure to the SEC.

According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan dismissed Binance's request, rejecting the demand to resolve claims from customers who accused the trading platform of illegally selling unregistered tokens and causing significant losses through arbitration.Judge Andrew Carter of the Manhattan U.S. District Court stated that customers could file lawsuits in court for claims arising up to February 20, 2019, because Binance failed to adequately notify users that it had modified its terms of use, requiring disputes to be resolved through arbitration and waiving the right to sue collectively.A Binance spokesperson, in response to Judge Carter's ruling, stated, "Binance will vigorously defend the remaining limited claims in this case, which are baseless." Customers who suffered losses due to the seven tokens ELF, EOS, FUN, ICX, OMG, QSP, and TRX accused Binance of failing to warn about the "significant risks" associated with purchases as required by federal and state securities laws, and are seeking to recover the amounts paid.

According to the WSJ, on February 24, the court-appointed bankruptcy administrator of Terraform Labs has sued Jane Street in the federal court in New York, accusing it of engaging in front-running trades and profiting from non-public insider information provided by Terra insiders during the Terra collapse. The lawsuit reveals that Jane Street established a secret communication channel with Terraform Labs employees through former intern Bryce Pratt to obtain non-public confidential information. On May 7, 2022, Terraform Labs withdrew 150 million TerraUSD (UST) from the Curve liquidity pool without prior announcement, and Jane Street followed suit by withdrawing approximately 85 million UST through affiliated wallets in less than 10 minutes, completing the "front-running" trade before a massive market panic and the complete de-pegging of UST, which not only resulted in illegal profits but also accelerated the collapse of Terraform Labs and the Terra ecosystem.A spokesperson for Jane Street responded to the accusations from the Terraform Labs bankruptcy administrator, stating that the lawsuit is an attempt to extract money from Jane Street, and that Jane Street will vigorously defend its rights against "baseless and opportunistic allegations." In addition to the Terraform lawsuit, Jane Street was accused of market manipulation in India last year, resulting in the freezing of assets worth approximately 4.843 billion rupees (about 565 million dollars) and a ban on trading in the Indian securities market. There are also rumors that Chinese regulators are reviewing Jane Street's trading patterns in the Chinese ETF market.The crypto community has noted that since Jane Street was sued, the daily "10 AM crash" of Bitcoin (Eastern Time) has suddenly disappeared, with Bitcoin rising by 10% and its market capitalization increasing by approximately 120 billion dollars, marking the first green weekly candle for BTC after five consecutive red ones. During the same period, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market also increased by nearly 200 billion dollars. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated, "This 'threat' has disappeared, which is the atmosphere felt today in CT and price movements. I also understand that the previous significant intraday drops nearly destroyed every rebound and undermined everyone's confidence. But is simply eliminating it enough to support a sustained rebound? We shall see."Speculation surrounding Jane Street has reignited discussions about the trading mechanism of Bitcoin spot ETFs. Analysts point out that the share creation and redemption of spot ETFs can be completed by authorized participants (APs) under a regulatory exemption framework, and does not necessarily require immediate buying and selling of Bitcoin in the public market; in cases of futures contango, APs may also hedge and protect through derivatives such as futures, leading to a time lag between ETF fund inflows and spot buying and short-term price performance.As a leading global quantitative trading giant, Jane Street has a broad presence in the cryptocurrency sector, primarily focused on infrastructure, DeFi, and crypto mining. Public information shows that Jane Street has invested in several crypto-native projects, including: ZetaChain, Arbitrum, 1inch, Euler Finance, Membrane Labs, Kaito, Vest Exchange, and others.In terms of equity, Jane Street significantly increased its holdings in several crypto mining companies through the secondary market between 2024 and 2026, including: approximately 5.4% of Bitfarms (BITF); approximately 5% of Cipher Mining (CIFR); and approximately 5% of Hut 8 (HUT). Additionally, Jane Street participated in multiple rounds of Kraken financing last year. Jane Street is also one of the main liquidity providers and stockholders of Coinbase.

The founder of the Aave ecosystem contribution organization ACI, Marc Zeller, released a public report disclosing that Aave Labs has received approximately $86 million in capital support since 2017, including ICO, VC financing, and direct grants from the DAO. Meanwhile, the founding team retained 23% of the LEND tokens during the 2017 ICO (which were later migrated to AAVE at a ratio of 100:1).The report points out that Labs had a capital base of about $48.7 million before receiving DAO funding, and subsequently received approximately $37.4 million in grants from the DAO. They are currently applying for an additional $51 million through the "Aave Will Win" proposal.The report critically questions the past performance of Labs' products, stating that six independent products launched apart from the core protocol have either failed or not achieved profitability. Among them, the RWA project Horizon once claimed to have surpassed $1 billion in scale, but the actual RWA collateral scale is about $135 million, highly concentrated in a single asset. Since its launch in 2025, Horizon has generated approximately $216,000 in cumulative revenue for the DAO, while incentives and related costs amount to about $5.25 million, resulting in a return on investment ratio of about 24:1.The report also notes that early core developers of Aave V1, V2, and V3 left Labs between 2021 and 2022, with V3 being seen as the last major protocol version led by Labs. Subsequent versions have primarily been advanced by DAO service providers. In related governance votes, a single large delegated address played a key role in passing the Horizon proposal, sparking community discussions about the concentration of governance power and the efficiency of fund usage.This controversy comes at a time when a new proposal for a $17.5 million product growth grant is under review, further intensifying discussions within the Aave community regarding fund allocation, performance disclosure, and governance transparency.

The chief Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee's investigative panel, Richard Blumenthal, has launched an investigation into Binance due to reports that the platform may be involved in sanction evasion related to Iran.In a letter to Binance CEO Richard Teng, Blumenthal requested documents regarding records of Iranian users using Binance, internal compliance investigation materials, and information on related employee terminations. Media reports indicate that Binance's compliance team had found that partners Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust were used as money laundering intermediaries and provided trading channels for entities related to the Iranian government, while employees involved in the investigation faced disciplinary actions or termination. Binance has denied the related allegations.

IoTeX announced a 10% white hat bounty (approximately $440,000) for the hacker who attacked its ioTube cross-chain bridge, provided that the hacker returns the approximately $4.4 million in stolen assets within 48 hours.IoTeX co-founder and CEO Raullen Chai stated that if the funds are returned, the team will not pursue legal action and will not disclose the identity to law enforcement agencies.