Circle minted 250 million USDC on the Solana network 6 hours ago

On March 18, South Korea’s financial regulator announced it will expand its 100-trillion-won market stabilization plan if necessary. (IG)

The Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision at 2am Beijing Time tomorrow (March 18). Markets widely expect the central bank to hold rates steady, shifting focus to Chair Jerome Powell’s post-meeting monetary policy press conference. Key institutional outlooks follow: 1. **Bloomberg**: Further rate cuts have limited room; expects the Fed to deliver the cycle’s final 25-basis-point cut at the June meeting. 2. **Goldman Sachs**: Forecasts 25-basis-point cuts in September and December; earlier cuts possible if the labor market softens more sharply than anticipated. 3. **Deutsche Bank**: Expects rates to stay unchanged this week; rising geopolitical uncertainty and oil-driven inflation are shrinking the scope for cuts. 4. **Nomura Credit**: Sees rates on hold through year-end; some FOMC members may argue to overlook short-term energy-fueled inflation, but most are more cautious. 5. **ING Bank**: The Fed is likely to maintain a wait-and-see stance under Powell;

On March 18, Binance founder CZ took to social media to say: "I will join the DC Blockchain Summit virtually at 9:25 a.m. Eastern Time today (9:25 p.m. Beijing Time). At that time, I’ll share my thoughts on the state of the U.S. crypto industry, where the sector heads next, and some behind-the-scenes personal anecdotes."

March 18th — Meta Platforms announced Tuesday (per Bloomberg) that Meta Quest headset users will lose access to Horizon Worlds — the virtual space for avatar meetups and activities — starting June 15th. This marks another retreat from the company’s once-core "metaverse" push under Mark Zuckerberg. Key changes taking effect June 15: - Quest users can no longer create, publish, or update VR worlds on the headset, nor access them via Horizon Worlds. - Users may still access these virtual worlds through the Meta Horizon app.

March 18th — Per HyperInsight monitoring (via https://t.me/HyperInsight), the leading ZEC short address (0xd475...) took action again overnight and this morning, continuing to average down on its ZEC short position by roughly $1.01 million. The position was initially opened on March 10th. Currently, this 5x-leveraged ZEC short holds ~17,157 coins (valued at ~$4.78 million) with an average entry price of $231.7. The position now sits on an $800,000 floating loss (-84%). This address frequently engages in "short battles" with ZEC positions: it previously began shorting ZEC at the $184 level and continuously rolled over the position. At one point, it endured a massive $21 million floating loss but later turned the losing position profitable through long-term holding and averaging down. The address also holds a $35 million ETH short position, signaling an overall bearish stance.

On March 18th, **HyperInsight monitoring** (via https://t.me/HyperInsight) reported that international oil prices declined—WTI crude oil plunged over 3% intraday, while Brent crude dropped more than 2%. Subsequently, the CL (WTI crude oil) contract on the **Hyperliquid** platform (link: https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/NTOD) fell below the $93 mark, currently trading at $92.4. This latest drop has turned the positions of the largest on-chain oil bear, **Abraxas Capital**, from loss to profit. The firm has been gradually building its position since the night of March 16th, continuing to add to it through last night, with a total position size of $27.8 million. Details are as follows: - **Abraxas Capital’s main address (0x5b5):** 10x-leveraged CL short position, $13.5 million, average entry price $93.1, unrealized gains $120,000. - **Abraxas Capital’s sub-address (0xb83):** 10x-leveraged CL short position, $14.3 million, average entry price $93.3, unrealized gains $170,000.