U.S. CFTC Acting Chairman: Enforcement Division Restructured, Refocused on Combating Fraud

Apple announced on March 13 that it will adjust commission rates for iOS and iPadOS apps in the Mainland China App Store starting March 15, 2026. Key changes include: - Standard commissions for in-app purchases and paid apps will drop from 30% to 25%. - Eligible apps under the App Store Small Business Program and Mini Apps Partner Program, plus auto-renewable subscriptions after the first year, will see their rates reduced from 15% to 12%. The update was reported by CCTV News.

March 13 — Coinbase executives denied allegations that the company obstructed a tax exemption policy for small Bitcoin transactions. Earlier, Bitcoin advocates had speculated on social media that Coinbase told lawmakers Bitcoin was not widely used as a medium of exchange, making it ineligible for tax exemption. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called the allegations “completely false,” noting the firm has long lobbied for tax exemptions on small Bitcoin transactions and will continue to do so. The company’s chief legal officer and chief policy officer also reiterated they “never lobbied against Bitcoin.” Currently, U.S. lawmakers are considering tax exemptions for U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins—but Bitcoin is not included in the tax-exempt scope of the draft “Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act” (aka the CLARITY Act).

March 13 — Multiple sources told CNN that the Pentagon and National Security Council (NSC) severely underestimated Iran’s ability to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to a U.S. military strike while planning a recent operation. The sources added that former President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for worst-case scenario consequences. Three individuals familiar with a closed-door meeting said senior Trump administration officials admitted to lawmakers during a recent classified briefing that they did not anticipate Iran would shutter the strait in response to an attack.

On March 13, Circle announced that its tokenized money market fund USYC has topped $2 billion in assets under management (AUM), making it the world’s largest tokenized money market fund. This milestone signals growing global adoption of on-chain cash and collateral. USYC is Circle’s blockchain-powered tokenized version of traditional money market funds, enabling institutional investors to hold, trade, and manage yield-generating assets directly on-chain. The fund primarily invests in short-term U.S. Treasury securities and repurchase agreements (repos) backed by U.S. government securities.

March 13 saw BlackRock’s Ethereum Staking ETF (ticker: ETHB) log roughly $15.5 million in trading volume on its debut trading day. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noted this is a strong launch for an ETF on its first day of trading. ETHB holds spot Ethereum, with a portion of assets allocated to network staking—enabling investors to earn staking rewards while gaining exposure to Ethereum’s price. It marks BlackRock’s third crypto ETF and its first to include a staking feature. BlackRock said the staking component is designed to meet demand from investors seeking returns alongside ETH price exposure, while preserving ETFs’ traditional financial advantages in custody, trading, and asset allocation.

According to 1M AI News (via Telegram at @OneMillion_AI), Anthropic has announced a $1 billion investment in its Claude Partner Network. The company is launching the program to help enterprises adopt Claude’s partner initiatives, with an initial $1 billion commitment to support partners—including training programs, dedicated technical support, and joint go-to-market efforts. Partners joining starting today will immediately receive new technical certifications and be eligible for the investment. Anthropic is focused on ensuring its AI model, Claude, meets enterprise needs. To that end, the company has partnered with multiple firms. Notably, Claude is the only leading AI model available across the three major cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft.