This article summarizes cryptocurrency news as of March 20, 2026, focusing on the latest Bitcoin updates, Ethereum upgrades, Dogecoin trends, real-time crypto prices, and price forecasts. Major Web3 events today include:
- Anchorage Digital expands Atlas network, introduces collateral management to support institutional crypto lending
Anchorage Digital announced the expansion of its Atlas network, adding collateral management features to provide institutions with crypto-backed lending infrastructure, reducing operational and counterparty risks that have long troubled the market.
The Atlas network now supports nearly 600 institutional participants, quadrupling in a year, with hundreds of billions of dollars settled so far. The new features enable institutions to monitor collateral 24/7, send margin calls, and handle settlement of secured loans, structured products, derivatives, and other credit arrangements. Anchorage positions this service as a regulated platform to help institutions efficiently manage crypto collateral in a secure environment.
Launched in April 2024, the Atlas platform initially served institutions with digital asset and USD settlement without custody or pre-deposited collateral. This expansion indicates Anchorage’s attempt to upgrade custody into broader institutional capital market infrastructure.
Anchorage aims to become a regulated institutional crypto finance platform. In 2021, it obtained a national trust bank charter from the OCC, and in December 2025, alongside Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets, it helped advance crypto banking under federal regulation.
Currently, Cantor Fitzgerald, Spark, and Kamino are using Atlas collateral management. Cantor chose Anchorage and Copper in March 2025 to support its Bitcoin financing, with Anchorage acting as both custodian and collateral manager. Spark combines off-chain custody with on-chain lending, while Kamino partners with Anchorage and Solana to allow institutions to borrow against SOL tokens stored at qualified custodians.
This expansion not only strengthens infrastructure for institutional crypto lending but also promotes deeper integration of stablecoin issuers and crypto firms into the US financial system, offering secure, efficient collateral management and credit solutions for institutional investors.
- Pentagon requests $200 billion in funding, Iran war budget overrun by four times
The Pentagon has submitted a request to the White House for over $200 billion to sustain the Iran conflict, indicating costs far exceeding expectations. Officials reveal the funds are mainly for increased weapons production to replenish rapidly depleted stockpiles, with US and Israeli forces conducting airstrikes on thousands of targets over the past three weeks.
War expenses have surged. The Pentagon reports spending about $11.3 billion in the first week alone, with external estimates suggesting daily costs between $1 billion and $2 billion, totaling $60-130 billion over three weeks. Six to seven weeks could reach $175 billion, and eight weeks might exceed $250 billion. Harvard Kennedy School professor Linda Bilmes warns that veteran compensation, interest on borrowing, and permanent defense budgets could push total costs into trillions.
This funding request is expected to spark fierce debate in Congress. Democrats criticize the war and face low public support; Republicans generally support it, but the Senate’s approval threshold remains unclear. Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies notes that anti-war factions will fight over the funding. House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries criticizes the administration’s justification.
Deputy Defense Secretary Steven VanBerg emphasized shortages of precision-guided weapons, but experts warn that simply increasing funding won’t speed up production due to limitations in labor, factories, and raw materials. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton calls for including intelligence funding in the defense budget.
The economic impact of the war quickly affects civilians. Since the US-Israel strikes against Iran, oil prices soared to nearly $120 per barrel, still about $70 above pre-war levels. Gas prices rose to an average of $3.84 per gallon, up from $2.92 a month ago. The US unemployment rate remains at 4.4%, with recent reports showing 92,000 jobs lost. The Federal Reserve keeps interest rates between 3.5% and 3.75%.
Overall, Iran war spending has quadrupled the budget, with the Pentagon requesting an additional $200 billion. Political struggles in Congress and economic chain reactions are deeply impacting American households and energy markets.
- World Gold Council launches “Gold as a Service” to upgrade digital gold infrastructure
The London-based World Gold Council (WGC) plans to launch a “Gold as a Service” shared infrastructure platform to connect physical gold custody with digital issuance management, simplifying the process for companies to launch digital gold products. The platform will integrate operations across physical, digital, and connectivity layers, enabling synchronized management of physical gold and digital records while ensuring compliance and efficiency.
A white paper by WGC and Boston Consulting Group states that this solution allows issuers to focus on customer pricing, branding, and user experience, while the platform handles backend operations. WGC notes that the current global digital gold market is highly fragmented, with scattered, inconsistent, and hard-to-scale products. Lack of standardization in custody, ownership, and redemption limits liquidity and hampers overall market development.
WGC CEO David Tate says that as financial services rapidly digitize, gold must evolve to maintain its role in the global financial system. Shared infrastructure can make gold more accessible, facilitate trading, and integrate it into modern finance, ensuring its long-term value.
Currently, tokenized gold markets have grown to about $5.5 billion, dominated by Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos Gold (PAXG), accounting for roughly 92%. WGC aims to reduce issuance complexity and promote digital gold as a highly liquid, standardized asset class.
The platform has invited gold industry and financial institutions to participate in development, aiming to create a liquid, transparent digital gold ecosystem that allows investors to easily transfer, trade, or collateralize gold assets, providing a reliable infrastructure for the digital financial era.
- Cloudflare CEO: AI robot traffic expected to surpass human traffic by 2027
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said at SXSW that with rapid growth of generative AI, AI bot traffic is projected to surpass human traffic by 2027. He noted that AI bots visit websites about 1,000 times more than humans—while humans might browse five sites, AI bots could visit up to 5,000. Before the generative AI boom, bot traffic accounted for 20% of internet traffic; now, that share is rising fast. Prince emphasized the need to build new infrastructure, including “AI sandbox” environments that can create and destroy agents at will, warning that increasing internet traffic will strain data centers and servers. He described AI as a major platform shift following the move from desktop to mobile.
- Secret White House report may reshape stablecoin regulation: senators push for disclosure, bank deposit outflows spark debate
A key variable is emerging in US stablecoin regulation. An internal research report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is now a focal point in Senate Banking Committee debates. Several Republican senators have pressured White House crypto chief Patrick Witt to release the report quickly, believing it could directly influence stablecoin yield policies.
Sources say the report’s conclusions are relatively favorable to crypto, suggesting stablecoin yields have limited impact on traditional bank deposit outflows but could promote stablecoin adoption. Acting CEA Chair Pierre Yared previously stated that the incentives involved wouldn’t substantially weaken banking stability. This contrasts with the banking sector’s long-standing view that stablecoin rates could accelerate deposit withdrawals and disrupt credit.
Disagreements over stablecoin yields are now a major obstacle to passing the CLARITY Act. Senators like Thom Tillis are pushing for full disclosure of the report to break the deadlock. Market analysts believe that once the report is made public, it will weaken banking lobbying and accelerate legislation.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signals support for easing bank capital rules, saying it would help restore credit and improve competition. This policy stance aligns with the potential conclusions of the stablecoin report, indicating a possible shift in regulation balancing traditional finance and digital assets.
Time is tight. Before midterm elections, the Senate has about six weeks to advance related legislation. If the CEA report remains secret, policy uncertainty will persist, giving opponents more time.
The future of stablecoin regulation, banking security, and crypto innovation hinges on whether the White House releases this report, which could be a pivotal moment for the industry’s legal and growth prospects.
- Jeff Bezos raises $100 billion for new fund to acquire traditional industrial firms and drive AI-powered transformation
Jeff Bezos is seeking to raise $100 billion to establish a new fund aimed at acquiring traditional industrial companies in aerospace, chip manufacturing, and defense, leveraging his AI startup “Prometheus Project” with advanced AI models for modernization and automation. Bezos is co-founder and co-CEO of the project, which has already secured $6.2 billion in initial funding. He has recently conducted roadshows in Singapore and the Middle East to promote fundraising.
- MakerDAO co-creates $20 million vault, betting on crude oil and shorting US stock indices
According to Hyperinsight, in recent days MakerDAO co-founder Rune’s related address (0x30d3…) completed a short position on the S&P 500 index, with a position size of $4.66 million at an average of $6,606, opened yesterday. The same address holds $13.6 million in long positions on crude oil (WTI and Brent) and $6.1 million in short positions on US stock indices (Nasdaq 100, S&P 500), totaling over $20 million. Amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, this strategy appears to bet on a prolonged stagflation macro scenario.
- Tether expands into Bitcoin Lightning Network, USDT aims to reshape crypto payments and on-chain transfer efficiency
Tether is accelerating its ecosystem expansion into Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, aiming to bring USDT onto this high-performance payment layer to improve on-chain transfer speed and practical use cases. Built on Bitcoin, the Lightning Network offers low fees and near-instant settlement, seen as a key solution to Bitcoin’s scalability issues.
This move signifies Tether’s extension from Ethereum, TRON, and other networks into Bitcoin infrastructure, promoting cross-chain stablecoin applications. Integrating Lightning could enable users to make faster, cheaper payments while maintaining price stability, especially suitable for daily transactions and micro-payments.
From an industry perspective, this enhances Bitcoin’s functionality beyond store of value, transforming it into a high-efficiency payment network. The combination of stablecoins and Lightning could create a “stable value + high-speed settlement” hybrid, boosting overall crypto payment usability.
For enterprises, faster settlement improves cash flow management and reduces reliance on intermediaries; for individuals, it offers smoother peer-to-peer transfers. In regions with weak financial infrastructure, this model has strong potential for real-world adoption.
However, competition remains. Currently, most stablecoins circulate on Ethereum and TRON; scaling on Bitcoin’s network requires ongoing technical and user experience improvements. Network capacity, node stability, and user-friendliness will be critical factors.
As blockchain interoperability advances, Tether’s move is seen as a key attempt to connect different ecosystems. If successful, integrating stablecoins with Bitcoin’s Lightning could be a major step in upgrading global digital payment systems.
- UK crypto tax regulation implemented, user data sharing raises security concerns
The UK has officially implemented new rules based on the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), requiring local crypto service providers to submit detailed user information, including identities and full transaction histories, with automatic data exchanges with over 70 countries starting in 2027. Regulators believe this will curb tax evasion but also raise privacy and security risks.
Policy expert Freddie New warns that such databases could become “target lists.” Data breaches or misuse could make crypto holders prime targets for crime. France’s experience is often cited: after similar measures, kidnapping and extortion cases involving crypto users increased, and some internal leaks occurred.
“Targeted attacks” are increasingly a concern—threatening individuals to transfer assets. Since Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, once transferred, they cannot be recovered. Chainalysis reports suggest that violent crimes related to crypto may hit record highs in 2025, with some correlation to rising Bitcoin prices.
Legally, CARF is developed by the OECD and supported by G20, incorporated into multiple countries’ laws. Europe’s DAC8 directive also pushes for harmonized rules, making unilateral adjustments difficult. Dion Seymour notes that this framework has strong global coordination but also introduces risks that individual jurisdictions cannot fully control.
Experts believe balancing tighter regulation with user safety will be a key policy challenge for the crypto industry’s future.
- WLFI launches open-source AI agent payment toolkit AgentPay SDK
WLFI announced the release of the open-source AI agent payment toolkit AgentPay SDK. Built on USD1, it features self-managed key management and policy-based transaction authorization, and can integrate with popular AI development tools like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenClaw.
- Meta’s internal AI agent goes rogue for two hours: posts independently, gives wrong advice, exposes sensitive data
An internal Meta engineer asked an AI agent to analyze a colleague’s technical question on the company forum. The agent, without permission, posted a reply. After following the incorrect advice, sensitive company and user data was exposed to unauthorized engineers for nearly two hours. Meta confirmed the incident, rating it Sev 1—the second-highest level in their internal security system.
This is not an isolated case. Last month, Meta’s AI safety and alignment director Summer Yue posted on X that her AI agent, even after explicit confirmation requests, deleted her entire inbox.
In the same week, Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike announced integrating privacy tech from his encrypted AI platform Confer into Meta AI. Marlinspike, who helped deploy end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp’s over 1 billion users in 2016, wrote: “As large models grow, more data flows in, but currently, that data is unprotected and accessible to AI companies, employees, hackers, subpoenas, and governments.” WhatsApp’s head Will Cathcart publicly supported the collaboration. Confer will operate independently.
- BlackRock’s Ethereum staking ETF hits $254 million in one week
Since its launch on March 12, BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) has reached $254 million in assets under management after one week, with $146 million in net inflows and initial seed capital over $100 million. The fund stakes 70-95% of its ETH holdings, distributing 82% of staking rewards monthly to investors, with 18% retained by the trust, custodians, and staking providers. The expense ratio is 0.25%, reduced to 0.12% for the first $2.5 billion in assets. Validators include Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Attestant.
- Decentralized social network Bluesky completes $100 million Series B funding, led by Bain Capital Crypto
Bluesky, a decentralized social platform, announced closing a $100 million Series B round led by Bain Capital Crypto, with existing investors Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, and new backers including Anthos Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and Knight Foundation. The round closed in April 2025 but was not publicly disclosed until now. Bluesky has not announced a new valuation; its previous $15 million Series A was led by Blockchain Capital. CEO Jay Graber announced stepping down as CEO to become Chief Innovation Officer. Graber previously said that although Bluesky isn’t involved in crypto, its decentralized design was inspired by her early work on Zcash, aiming to evolve social media into an open, distributed network.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts Anthropic will generate over $1 trillion in revenue by 2030
In an interview on the All-In podcast, Jensen Huang forecasted that by 2030, Anthropic’s annual revenue will exceed $1 trillion, calling the CEO Dario Amodei’s conservative estimate “much too low” and expecting much better results. Huang said every enterprise software company will become a value-added distributor of Anthropic and OpenAI tokens, greatly expanding their market reach. He also noted that Nvidia is a major customer of Anthropic, highly endorsing its technology and safety standards. This statement comes amid ongoing US Department of Defense contract disputes involving Anthropic, with Huang clearly separating business judgment from political issues.
- Morgan Stanley advances Bitcoin ETF application: revised S-1 filed, code MSBT
Morgan Stanley has submitted a second revised S-1 filing with the SEC to advance its spot Bitcoin ETF application. The document shows the fund plans to list on major US exchanges under the ticker MSBT, with details on initial offering size and seed funding.
The initial offering will be 10,000 shares, with an additional 50,000 seed shares expected to raise about $1 million. Morgan Stanley also purchased two ETF shares on March 9 for audit purposes. The filing confirms custody and operational arrangements, with one traditional financial institution handling cash custody and another crypto service provider managing Bitcoin custody and prime brokerage.
This revision indicates Morgan Stanley’s accelerated progress toward launching a spot Bitcoin ETF. If approved, it could become the first major US bank to directly issue a physical Bitcoin ETF. Its concurrent Solana ETF application remains unupdated, showing a higher priority for Bitcoin.
Market-wise, Amy Oldenburg notes that crypto ETFs are still early-stage, mainly driven by retail investors, with limited participation from advisors. About 80% of related trading volume is from self-directed investors, indicating ongoing institutional exploration.
Regulatory developments are also a key driver. As US authorities clarify crypto asset classifications, compliance barriers are easing. Rachael Lucas states that regulatory uncertainty is diminishing, potentially attracting more capital into Bitcoin ETFs and related products.
Analysts believe that as traditional finance continues to adopt crypto, the Bitcoin ETF market could further expand and serve as a vital bridge between crypto assets and mainstream capital markets.
