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According to Bits.media, the Presnensky District Court in Moscow sentenced the former head of Binance Russia and co-founder of the Blum crypto platform, Vladimir Smerkis, to five years in prison. The court found him guilty of "large-scale fraud" as stipulated in Article 159, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.According to the prosecution, in June 2024, trader and crypto blogger Oleg Polunin requested Smerkis's help to drive traffic to his social media. Smerkis promised to bring in about 2 million new users but failed to fulfill his obligations after receiving over 8.8 million rubles, misappropriating the funds for personal use. The verdict has not yet taken effect and can be appealed.Smerkis was arrested a year ago. He served as the regional head of Binance from early 2022 until September 2023, and later announced the launch of the clicker game Blum with another former Binance regional manager; on the day of his arrest, the Blum team announced his departure.

According to The Block, Bitcoin mining company IREN Limited has agreed to acquire cloud infrastructure software company Mirantis for approximately $625 million in an all-stock transaction to enhance its AI cloud business layout.This acquisition will bring critical software and "orchestration" capabilities to IREN, helping it better monetize its expanding GPU and data center resources. Mirantis focuses on Kubernetes-based cloud infrastructure tools that enable automated deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.Analysts point out that the transaction values Mirantis at about 4 to 5 times its revenue, aimed at helping IREN catch up with AI cloud competitors like CoreWeave and build a complete "full-stack new cloud" capability.This merger is also an important step for IREN in its transformation from a Bitcoin mining company to an AI infrastructure platform. Previously, the company had raised approximately $3.6 billion through equity and convertible bond financing to expand its GPU and data center capacity, with total construction investments expected to exceed $9 billion. After the transaction is completed, Mirantis is expected to operate as an independent subsidiary.

SOL Treasury Company Solana Company has completed a targeted issuance, issuing 3,076,922 shares of Class A common stock at a price of $2.6 per share, expecting to raise approximately $8 million (net fundraising of about $7.9 million), with Mirae Asset leading the investment and HashKey Capital participating.The company plans to use the raised funds to increase its holdings of SOL and for daily operations. In addition, the company has signed a put option agreement with the subscribers, stipulating that when certain conditions are triggered, the subscribers have the right to request the company to repurchase shares at the original subscription price plus an annualized internal rate of return of 7%.

According to Cointelegraph, Admiral Samuel Paparo of the U.S. Navy stated at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Bitcoin is a "valuable computer science tool," and its proof-of-work technology has significant applications in cybersecurity, increasing the cost of attacks for adversaries and can be used to protect data, information, and command signals, helping to support U.S. national security interests.Paparo noted, "Beyond the economic aspect, it has very important computer science application value in cybersecurity." Previously, Jason Lowery, a member of the U.S. Space Force, also made similar points in 2023.

According to Jin Shi reports, "Fed mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos stated that the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes show that "the vast majority" of officials believe that the pace of inflation relief may be slower than expected, mainly due to three intertwined concerns: the impact of tariffs on commodity prices may take longer to dissipate; the transmission effect of oil prices on core inflation; and the years of inflation rates being above the target level, which makes inflation expectations more susceptible to new shocks.

According to Jinshi reports, "the Federal Reserve's mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos stated that even if the conflict never occurs, the possibility of a federal funds rate cut is gradually diminishing. The labor market is performing better than expected, while the pace of inflation decline in terms of PCE has not met officials' expectations.

According to the official announcement, OpenClaw's AI agent Skills library platform ClawHub has officially launched a mirror site in China, with the domain mirror-cn.clawhub.com. This infrastructure is sponsored and supported by BytePlus, a subsidiary of ByteDance.

A fire broke out at a fuel tank facility near Dubai International Airport (DXB) on March 16 local time, initially identified as a drone attack. Flights at Dubai International Airport were temporarily suspended, and Emirates Airlines announced the suspension of operations, with some flights originally scheduled for today being canceled.Today, several flights from China to Dubai were diverted to other airports, including flight EK363 from Guangzhou to Dubai, flight EK303 from Shanghai to Dubai, and flight EK329 from Shenzhen to Dubai, which were diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC). Flight EK307 from Beijing to Dubai was diverted to Muscat. Previously, Chinese airlines had suspended flights to Dubai until the end of the month, with only Emirates Airlines continuing to operate.

According to Jinshi reports, "the Fed's mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos stated that the core PCE annualized for 1 month is 4.5%, for 3 months is 3.7%, and for 6 months is 3.1%; the overall personal consumption expenditures annualized for 1 month is 3.4%, for 3 months is 3.5%, and for 6 months is 3.2%.

According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha will remove the following tokens from the recommended list on March 12, 2026, at 20:00: MIRROR (Black Mirror Experience), SHARDS (WorldShards), FST (FreeStyle Classic), DGC (DecentralGPT), COA (Alliance Games), ULTI (Ultiverse), TGT (TOKYO GAMES TOKEN), AGON (AGON Agent), BNB Card (BNB Card), AFT (AIFlow), PFVS (Puffverse), SGC (SGC), RDO (Reddio), ELDE (Elderglade), MILK (MilkyWay), TAT (Tell A Tale), BOT (Hyperbot), SSS (Sparkle), SUBHUB (SubHub), PLANCK (Planck), OOOO (oooo).Users can still sell these tokens on Binance Alpha.

According to Jinshi reports, European Central Bank Governing Council member Kazimir stated that the war in Iran and its impact on inflation may force the European Central Bank to raise interest rates earlier than expected. Although he believes that the current situation is still in a "favorable position," he is concerned that the memory of inflation shocks in the region has lowered the threshold for businesses to raise prices and for consumers to receive wage increases.He pointed out that upside risks dominate the economic outlook and stated that the European Central Bank is ready to take action at any time. The market currently leans towards the belief that interest rates will be raised in September or later.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Mirae Asset Group has decided to invest 133.5 billion won (approximately 93.82 million USD) to acquire a 92.06% stake in the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange platform Korbit through its subsidiary, Mirae Asset Consulting.The transaction involves 26.91 million shares, which are all the shares held by Nexon's parent company NXC and SK Square's SK Planet that Mirae Asset is purchasing.

Mirae Asset Global Investments has increased its holdings in Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (MSTR) to 87,531 shares, valued at 14.1 million dollars.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a wallet associated with Mirana Ventures deposited 13.65 million MNT (worth 12.2 million USD) to Bybit after holding it for 3 years.

According to Jinshi reports, "Fed's mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos stated that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December is unlikely to change the Federal Reserve's current wait-and-see attitude. Officials want to see more evidence that inflation is stabilizing and gradually declining before considering rate cuts. The Fed has lowered the benchmark interest rate in the last three meetings, with the most recent cut in December, even though inflation stopped declining last year. To resume rate cuts, officials may need to see new evidence of worsening labor market conditions or easing price pressures.

According to the announcement on the CFTC official website, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Mike Selig, announced that Amir Zaidi will serve as the Chief of Staff of the CFTC. Amir Zaidi held various positions at the CFTC from 2010 to 2019, including the head of the Market Oversight Division. During his tenure, he was responsible for overseeing the certification and deployment of Bitcoin futures contracts (the first federally regulated cryptocurrency product).Before returning to the CFTC, Amir Zaidi was the global compliance officer for a large brokerage firm and introducing broker. Prior to 2010, Amir Zaidi held various financial, legal, and regulatory positions in New York and Washington. He has decades of experience in the financial services industry.

According to the Korea Times, South Korea's major financial group Mirae Asset is considering acquiring the local cryptocurrency exchange platform Korbit. Reports indicate that Mirae Asset is negotiating to acquire approximately 92% of Korbit's shares, with the transaction valued at up to 140 billion won (about 97 million USD).Mirae Asset, headquartered in Seoul, operates in asset management, wealth management, investment banking, and insurance, making it an important institution in South Korea's traditional financial sector. If the deal is finalized, it will be its first direct involvement in cryptocurrency-related business. Reports suggest that Mirae Asset's founder, Park Hyun-joo, has emphasized exploring opportunities for the integration of traditional assets and digital assets in recent years.Industry insiders point out that although Korbit has limited market presence, its years of accumulated financial experience may help it drive differentiated development in the future. Data shows that Korbit currently ranks fourth among six compliant trading platforms in South Korea by trading volume, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately 11.8 million USD, significantly lower than Upbit (about 1.2 billion USD) and Bithumb (about 475 million USD), while the third place, Coinone, has about 58 million USD.

According to Cointelegraph, Mirae Asset Group is in negotiations to acquire Korbit, the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, with a transaction valuation estimated at around 100 billion to 140 billion Korean won, equivalent to approximately 70 million to 100 million USD.The potential acquisition will be led by Mirae Asset Consulting, a non-financial subsidiary of Mirae Asset Group, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korbit's major shareholders. Public information shows that NXC and its subsidiary Simple Capital Futures collectively hold about 60.5% of Korbit's shares, while SK Square holds approximately 31.5%.The report points out that Korbit possesses a complete operating license and compliance system, making it attractive to large financial groups looking to enter the digital asset space in a compliant manner. However, in terms of market share, Korbit has a limited presence in the South Korean cryptocurrency trading market.Data from CoinGecko indicates that out of the approximately 1.21 billion USD in total 24-hour trading volume across six major exchanges in South Korea, Korbit only contributes about 5.75 million USD, accounting for less than 1%. In contrast, Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone hold significant advantages. Previous reports have indicated that Naver Financial also plans to acquire Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, through a share swap, demonstrating that traditional financial and tech giants in South Korea are continuously increasing their investments in the cryptocurrency asset space.