WTI Crude Oil Plunges Over 5% Intraday, IEA Proposes Releasing Its Largest-Ever Oil Reserves

On March 11, cryptocurrency firm Ripple announced plans to acquire Australian payment provider BC Payments to secure an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL), with the deal expected to close on April 1. Once the acquisition wraps up, Ripple will obtain the AFSL—a required qualification for some crypto companies to offer financial services in Australia moving forward. Ripple noted that holding the AFSL will enable its Australian payment business to handle end-to-end transaction management locally, covering customer onboarding, compliance, fund settlement, foreign exchange, liquidity management, and final payment—while integrating traditional banking systems with digital asset networks. Over the past year, Ripple has been ramping up its global compliance footprint: it has secured payment-related licenses in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK, plus conditional approval for a national trust bank charter in the U.S. The company has also expanded its business via

March 11th — Per GMGN monitoring, Base ecosystem meme coin MOLT saw its market cap surge above $12 million in early trading today before retracing to roughly $7.6 million. The token is up 260% over the past 24 hours, with $15.1 million in trading volume during that period. This latest rally is mainly driven by Meta’s announcement that it’s acquiring Moltbook. BlockBeats Note: Meme coins are highly volatile, often tied to market sentiment and concept-driven hype. They lack tangible value or real-world use cases, so investors should be mindful of the associated risks.

March 11 — Onchain Lens monitoring shows multiple crypto whales are ramping up crude oil long positions, even as oil prices keep falling and drop below $85 per barrel. Key updates: - Whale address 0x547 has opened a 20x leveraged crude oil long position, while holding a 10x leveraged long position in HYPE. - A newly created wallet (0x7f5) deposited $5 million in USDC and established a 1x leveraged crude oil long position. - Whale address 0x0e0 opened a 7x leveraged crude oil long position, alongside 5x leveraged short positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum.

On March 11, brokerage firm Bernstein said stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) has room for stock price growth, earning it an “Outperform” rating and a $190 price target—representing roughly 60% upside from its current ~$120 level. The stock had already jumped over 100% in the weeks after better-than-expected earnings. Analyst Gautam Chhugani noted stablecoin growth is slowly decoupling from the crypto market cycle. While Bitcoin and the broader crypto market remain below all-time highs, USD Coin’s supply has rebounded to nearly its ~$78 billion all-time high, and total stablecoin market cap sits at ~$270 billion. The report also noted stablecoin trading activity is surging: adjusted trading volume is up over 90% year-over-year, and faster transaction speeds signal their use cases are shifting from crypto trading to payments. On the payments front, stablecoins are integrating into traditional card networks. Visa already supports over 130 stablecoin-linked bank cards across 50 coun

March 11th — EmberCN monitoring indicates that 9 hours ago, a whale/institutional address withdrew 44,888 ETH (valued at $92.97 million) from Kraken at a rate of $2,071 per ETH. Subsequently, the 44,888 ETH was split and transferred to two wallets for storage.

**March 11** Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve Chair, has yet to clear a key hurdle in his Senate confirmation process. Republican Senator Thom Tillis says he will continue blocking the Senate Banking Committee from advancing any Fed personnel nominations until the Justice Department wraps up its investigation into current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Tillis called his meeting with Warsh “pleasant” and noted his professional qualifications. He stressed, however, that the move is not personal toward Warsh but aimed at upholding Fed independence. “If markets believe the Fed chair is merely acting at the president’s behest,” he said, “it could harm financial markets.” With Republicans holding narrow majorities in the full Senate and the Banking Committee, Tillis’s opposition could stall Warsh’s nomination from reaching a floor vote. Warsh is currently actively meeting with lawmakers to rally support, but uncertainty lingers over whether he can secure confirmat