The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

On March 12, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Market Surveillance Advisory report on the listing of event contracts for trading. Amid rapid growth in prediction markets, the agency seeks to foster their development and innovation while reminding Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) to meet their regulatory obligations under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC rules.

The advisory highlights DCMs’ compliance obligations tied to CEA Section 5(d), Part 38, DCM Core Principle 3, Appendix C Guidelines, and product submission requirements. It also covers specifics relevant to sports event contracts.

The CFTC’s Market Surveillance Division notes that as front-line regulators, DCMs should take proactive steps to ensure their markets continue to satisfy CEA and CFTC requirements as they expand.

Binance Announces Launch of EWYUSDT Index Perpetual Contract on March 16, 2026 at 21:30 UTC+8, with Up to 10x Leverage

March 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted: “I recently attended Real World Crypto and its affiliated events, which helped me gain a clearer understanding of blockchain use cases. Where can Ethereum create the most value? Based on my experience at these events, the first answer isn’t what you’d expect. It’s neither smart contracts nor payments—instead, it’s what cryptographers call a ‘public bulletin board.’ “Ethereum has significant value. If you step back and look at it from first principles—purely as a technical tool: global shared memory—you can grasp its value. I think the main bottleneck holding this use case back is that the world hasn’t realized we’re no longer in the 2020-2022 era. Today, transaction fees are extremely low, and we have a robust scalability roadmap to ensure fees stay low even if usage surges sharply. The infrastructure is also more mature when it comes to shielding users from fee volatility. “Treating Ethereum’s blobs as a bulletin board, ETH

On-chain analyst Wu Jinyu reported that a whale/institution withdrew 348.3 BTC (valued at $24.55 million) from Binance an hour and a half ago. Over the past nine days, this entity has accumulated a total of 1,720.2 BTC (worth $120 million) via Binance, with an average purchase price of $69,527.

March 12th – Citi Research has raised its Brent crude price forecasts: $75 per barrel for Q1, $78 for Q2, and $68 for Q3, up from prior projections of $73, $70, and $62, respectively. The firm noted oil prices may fluctuate in the $80-$100 per barrel range in the near term. In a report, analyst Eric Lee stated: “We believe neither the U.S. nor Iran wants the conflict to escalate further, as that would likely target regional energy infrastructure and Iran’s domestic public infrastructure. Thus, our base case is the situation will de-escalate shortly after the U.S. achieves its military objectives.” He added, however, that the risk of attacks on regional energy infrastructure remains elevated – a scenario that could trigger an oil shock akin to the 1970s. (Source: FX Street)

March 12 — Binance has officially rolled out four new AI Agent Skills, expanding into derivative trading, leveraged trading, Binance Alpha, and asset management, per an official announcement. The new capabilities include: - Alpha Market Data: Access without an API key required; - USD?-M Futures Trading: 70+ endpoints, with testnet support; - Leveraged Trading: Cross/isolated margin, up to 10x leverage; - Asset Management: One-stop tools for deposits, withdrawals, and balance tracking; Building on its initial 8 skills, AI Agents can now tap into deeper Binance trading infrastructure and broader asset management tools via a unified, standardized interface.