Trump Announces Insurance for Maritime Oil Transport, Navy Will Escort When Needed

**March 4: Vitalik Calls for 'Sanctuary Tech' Ecosystem Beyond Ethereum Finance** Vitalik wrote in a post on March 4 that amid growing government and corporate oversight, Ethereum — despite prioritizing freedom and privacy — has failed to meaningfully enhance users’ real-world freedom and privacy. He called for building a "sanctuary tech" ecosystem: open-source tools that boost resilience against external pressures, stressing Ethereum shouldn’t be confined to finance. Vitalik noted: "Cryptocurrencies shouldn’t aim to be the next Apple or Google. Instead, we need to build our own 'sanctuary tech ecosystem' — a shared, ownerless digital space that does more than just enable open finance. We need to actively develop a full-stack ecosystem: expanding upward to wallets and app layers (including AI as an interface) and downward to operating systems, hardware, and even physical/biometric security layers."

On March 4th, Max Schwarzer—OpenAI’s lead researcher for inference models—announced his departure from OpenAI and move to Anthropic in a post on X. Schwarzer was an early contributor to OpenAI’s o1 inference model. He led post-training for o1 and o3, and over the past year, he has headed the entire post-training team, delivering GPT-5, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3-Codex. Schwarzer stated that upon joining Anthropic, he will focus on reinforcement learning research.

**March 4 — Onchain Lens data indicates Circle minted 1 billion USDC on Solana over the past 10 hours.** **Cumulatively, the firm has minted 23.75 billion USDC on the Solana blockchain since 2026.**

March 4 — Per The Block, Mizuho Bank analysts have raised Circle’s target stock price to $100 (from $90) and maintained a “Neutral” rating, citing geopolitical tensions driving up oil prices and diminished rate-cut expectations. The analysts note that shifts in interest rate expectations may impact Circle’s valuation multiple more than short-term revenue gains. Circle’s primary revenue stems from interest income on its USDC reserve assets. Surging oil prices have stoked inflation concerns, with markets now pricing in no rate cuts in 2026 — a development favorable to locking in stable interest income. Despite the positive macro backdrop, the analysts warn that clarity on stablecoin regulation could intensify market competition and potentially compress industry profit margins over the long term.

March 4th Official Announcement: Coinbase Adds Limitless (LMTS) to Listing Roadmap Trading launch is subject to market making and technical requirements; no specific timeline has been set yet.

As of March 4th, alternative data shows the cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index stands at 10 (down from 14 yesterday). The market has remained in "extreme fear" territory for nearly a month. Note: The Fear & Greed Index ranges from 0 to 100, with components including: Volatility (25%), Market Trading Volume (25%), Social Media Hype (15%), Market Surveys (15%), Bitcoin’s market dominance (10%), and Google Trends Analysis (10%).