New York Mellon Bank has announced that it is becoming an early adopter of the lending platform EquiLend 1Source and is receiving a minority equity stake in EquiLend.

On March 18th, according to the report in TechCrunch, Elon Musk's xAI has officially acquired the AI video generation startup Hotshot. This startup focuses on developing AI video generation technology similar to OpenAI's DALL-E. Hotshot announced on its website that it has stopped providing new video production services since March 14th. It is currently unclear whether all Hotshot employees will join xAI.

On March 18th, the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini appointed Dan Chen as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), likely in anticipation of an upcoming initial public offering (IPO). Chen previously held the position of Vice President of Capital Markets at Affirm and stated, "Cryptocurrency is the most dynamic industry within the financial sector, and Gemini is at the forefront of this revolution, enabling users to participate in the digital asset market in a straightforward and secure manner."

On March 18th, TRON DAO made an announcement. It stated that the TRON network is expected to generate an annual revenue of more than $2 billion by 2024, with a year-on-year growth rate of 116%. Furthermore, TRON has completely burned the TRX transaction fees, making it one of the few blockchains with deflationary characteristics.

On March 18th, according to Decrypt, the Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms has announced the accomplishment of its acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining. The deal is valued at $175 million, with $125 million in equity. Bitfarms stated that this acquisition will assist the company in optimizing operations by making use of the newly acquired data centers and will provide computing resources to an AI company, thereby promoting its growth in high-performance computing and AI. This acquisition not only raised Bitfarms' market valuation but also made it more difficult for its competitor, Riot Blockchain, to acquire it. Since 2023, Riot has been trying to acquire Bitfarms, and this transaction may enhance Bitfarms' position in the industry consolidation.

On March 18th, the probability on Polymarket that "The Fed will end quantitative tightening before May" has reached 100%, and the total trading volume has exceeded $6.25 million.

On March 18th, Ripple Labs submitted a trademark application for "Ripple Custody." As per the application documents, this trademark encompasses financial services such as the storage and management of cryptographic assets to fulfill financial management requirements. This trademark application comes shortly after Ripple launched custody services in October 2024, indicating that the company is aiming to expand its revenue sources beyond payment settlement. Furthermore, the trademark application also mentions "downloadable cryptocurrency, fiat currency, virtual currency, and digital currency custody, transfer, and storage software," which may imply that Ripple is contemplating launching an official cryptocurrency wallet. Currently, the company has not offered official wallet services. However, if launched, this product may support XRP and other digital assets, creating a new revenue stream through transaction fees. A spokesperson for Ripple declined to comment on the trademark applicatio