Iran: Seeking an End to the War, Not Just a Ceasefire

**March 25** Iran has rejected a U.S. proposal on ending ongoing conflict, with Tehran insisting the war will conclude on its own conditions and timeline, per Iran’s government-aligned Press TV. A senior Iranian official familiar with the details stated Tehran will not allow former President Trump to dictate when hostilities end, emphasizing Iran’s ongoing defensive posture and determination to deliver “heavy blows” to adversaries until its demands are met. The official outlined five key conditions for ending the war: 1. Full cessation of the adversary’s “aggression and assassination operations” 2. A specific mechanism to prevent future war imposition on Iran 3. Guaranteed, clear definition of compensation and repair costs for war losses 4. End to hostilities across all fronts and within all regional resistance organizations involved 5. International recognition and assurance of Iran’s sovereign right to exercise jurisdiction over the Strait of Hormuz Iran has info

March 25 — An official with Iraq’s Ministry of Energy said the country’s oil production has continued to decline sharply due to the ongoing Iran war, near-full crude oil storage capacity and transport disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz. Data shows output from Iraq’s southern major oil fields has dropped a further 80% to around 800,000 barrels per day (bpd). Earlier this month, production in the region had already fallen from a pre-war level of about 4.3 million bpd to 1.3 million bpd. To ease storage pressures and export bottlenecks, Iraq will further cut production starting Tuesday. Additionally, Iraqi authorities have asked BP to reduce output at the Rumaila oil field from ~450,000 bpd to 350,000 bpd, and Eni to cut production at the Zubair field from 330,000 bpd to 260,000 bpd.

U.S. stocks opened higher on March 25th: the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1%, the S&P 500 rose 0.89%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1%. - Pinduoduo (PDD.O) climbed 2% after its Q4 2025 revenue beat expectations. - Amazon (AMZN.O) rose 2.5% following its acquisition of robot startup Fauna Robotics. - Arm (ARM.O) surged more than 11% as the company will begin selling its own chips for the first time, projecting the business to generate roughly $15 billion in annual revenue within five years. Cryptocurrency-linked equities also posted gains: - MicroStrategy (MSTR) gained 4.57% - Coinbase (COIN) rose 3.73% - Riot Platforms (CRCL) jumped 7.11% - Sports Betting & Gaming (SBET) added 4.04% - Bit Mining (BMNR) climbed 3.73%

**March 25** — The UK’s Labour Party has announced a temporary ban on political groups accepting cryptocurrency donations, pending the rollout of regulatory frameworks to address foreign election interference risks. The move could directly impact the Reform Party’s funding sources. Nigel Farage’s party previously received significant donations from the crypto industry. The UK government says the ban aims to boost transparency in political funding and public trust, and it will apply retroactively to crypto donations from today onward.

On March 25, Kairos Labs—the team behind an interest rate swap protocol—announced it has closed a $2.4 million seed funding round. The round was led by 6th Man Ventures, with participation from Lattice, Advancit Capital, and Compa Capital. Concurrently, Kairos released its technical whitepaper and launched a permissionless, non-custodial interest rate swap protocol built for EVM-compatible blockchains. The protocol is set to go live on Ethereum mainnet and Base in the coming weeks. The tool enables users to create interest rate swap markets, hedge between fixed and floating rates, and strengthen DeFi’s critical infrastructure. Currently, DeFi lending tops $40 billion in scale but remains largely floating-rate, with a gap in robust interest rate risk management tools. Kairos noted the protocol will serve as core infrastructure for on-chain fixed-income systems, accelerating the adoption of traditional financial products like bonds and structured credit in DeFi.

March 25th: Visa and Dune released a report noting that non-dollar stablecoins are gaining traction as actual payment and settlement tools—not just for DeFi yield generation. Data shows the total supply of non-dollar stablecoins hit $1.1 billion as of this February, tripling from early 2023. Transaction volumes surged from $600 million to $10 billion, a jump of over 1,600%. The current number of holding addresses stands at roughly 1.2 million, with active sending addresses seeing a sharp uptick. The report notes these stablecoins are increasingly used for cross-border payments, corporate settlements, and FX management. Funds are primarily held in user wallets, exchanges, and institutional treasuries—not DeFi protocols. EURC accounts for over 90% of transaction volumes, making the euro stablecoin the dominant player in this space. Analysts say as local-currency stablecoins grow, they’re emerging as “operational currencies” in the global payments system, pushing the stablecoin m