Morning News | Backpack will launch on-chain IPO subscription service; Predict.fun strategically acquires on-chain prediction platform Probable; SoFi partners with Mastercard for strategic cooperation
整理:ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Coinbase CEO: The SocialFi experiment of Base App has not worked, product shifting to trading features
- Ethereum founder Vitalik proposes the concept of "sanctuary technologies," calling for a re-evaluation of blockchain value
- SoFi partners with Mastercard to integrate stablecoin SoFiUSD into global payment network
- Stablecoin financial platform ARQ completes $70 million funding round, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund
- Predict.fun announces strategic acquisition of on-chain prediction platform Probable
- Backpack to launch on-chain IPO subscription service, waiting list now open
- Morgan Stanley plans to choose Coinbase and BNY Mellon as its Bitcoin ETF custodians
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
Coinbase officially launches stock trading feature
According to ChainCatcher, Coinbase announced on the X platform that its stock trading feature is now officially live, thanking Nasdaq for its support.
Eligible stocks will offer extended trading hours of 24/5. Stock securities are provided by Coinbase Capital Markets (FINRA member, SIPC member), while digital asset services are provided by Coinbase Inc. and its affiliates.
U.S. ADP employment increased by 63,000 in February, expected 50,000
ChainCatcher reports that, according to Jin10, U.S. ADP employment increased by 63,000 in February, marking the largest increase since November 2025, exceeding the market expectation of 50,000.
Morgan Stanley plans to choose Coinbase and BNY Mellon as its Bitcoin ETF custodians
According to ChainCatcher, Morgan Stanley has submitted an S-1 form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing that its planned Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will use Coinbase Custody and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) as Bitcoin custodians.
According to the submitted documents, the trust will primarily use offline cold storage to safeguard Bitcoin, with private keys disconnected from the internet to reduce hacking risks. BNY Mellon will also serve as the fund manager, transfer agent, and cash custodian, responsible for handling accounting, shareholder records, and cash flow related to ETF transactions.
Market News: The EU is expected to be exempt from the U.S. general tariff increase to 15%
ChainCatcher reports that, according to market news, the EU is expected to be exempt from the U.S. general tariff increase to 15%.
Backpack to launch on-chain IPO subscription service, waiting list now open
ChainCatcher reports that Backpack founder Armani Ferrante announced on the X platform that Backpack will launch an on-chain IPO subscription service, which will begin development this year, allowing users to access IPO shares before they are listed on the stock exchange.
Backpack will collaborate with Superstate to make Backpack one of the stops on the roadshow, allowing Backpack users to participate in these IPOs before formal trading begins. Currently, Backpack has set up a waiting list, and early registrants will receive priority access to the first IPO.
Iran firmly denies rumors of secret talks, accuses The New York Times of "psychological warfare"
ChainCatcher reports that, according to Jin10, Iran has denied reports that its intelligence ministry has contacted the U.S. to discuss ending the Middle East war.
The New York Times previously reported that Iranian agents indirectly contacted the CIA on Sunday to discuss terms for ending the conflict. According to semi-official Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian intelligence source described the report as "pure lies and psychological warfare."
Following this denial, oil prices briefly rose but quickly fell again as traders shifted their focus to the U.S. Navy's plans to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the outbreak of war following the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran last Saturday, traffic through this critical chokepoint has sharply decreased. Both Iran and the U.S. have vowed to continue fighting in public, increasing the likelihood of a prolonged conflict in the Middle East. So far, the conflict has resulted in over 1,000 deaths (mainly within Iran).
Binance Wallet announces deep integration of RootData
ChainCatcher reports that Binance Wallet has deeply integrated RootData in its recent update, allowing users to view project introductions, funding, team members, calendars, and other data on the wallet page, enabling users to have a clearer and more accurate understanding of project information when investing, reducing information barriers and noise.
Currently, the cumulative partners of the RootData API have exceeded 200, including well-known projects covering various scenarios such as Ethereum Foundation, OKX Wallet, CertiK, Gate, Blockworks, Amber Group, CMT Digital, TechFlow, BlockBeats, Mask Network, Token Pocket, and more.
Tether makes a strategic investment in smart sleep technology company Eight Sleep at a $1.5 billion valuation
ChainCatcher reports that Tether Investments has announced a strategic investment in smart sleep technology company Eight Sleep at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Eight Sleep utilizes advanced artificial intelligence and embedded sensors to provide personalized sleep insights and enhancement services. This investment aims to enhance Eight Sleep's capabilities and establish a long-term partnership to jointly develop advanced AI-driven health technology based on Tether's QVAC architecture.
Predict.fun announces strategic acquisition of on-chain prediction platform Probable
ChainCatcher reports that BNB chain-based prediction market Predict.fun has announced the strategic acquisition of Probable, which was originally incubated by PancakeSwap and YZi Labs.
This acquisition will accelerate market architecture improvements, execution efficiency, and capital utilization optimization by enhancing its underlying technology stack, further improving the efficiency of the Predict.fun prediction market.
Stablecoin financial platform ARQ completes $70 million funding round, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund
ChainCatcher reports that, according to Bloomberg, Latin America's financial app focused on stablecoins, ARQ, has completed a $70 million funding round, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund.
This round of funding will be used for rebranding, hiring new employees, and expanding services beyond dollar-denominated transfers, including wealth management, high-yield local currency accounts, and credit services. ARQ, formerly known as DolarApp, offers multi-currency accounts, digital wallets, foreign exchange, and debit card services, helping users store and transfer funds across borders. It has over 2 million customers in Latin America, with an annual trading volume exceeding $10 billion. ARQ stated that it has built infrastructure connecting traditional banking networks and stablecoin-based payment systems, allowing users to hold foreign currencies and conduct transactions.
SoFi partners with Mastercard to integrate stablecoin SoFiUSD into global payment network
ChainCatcher reports that U.S. digital bank SoFi has announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard to integrate SoFi's stablecoin SoFiUSD into Mastercard's global payment network and its digital asset platform, Mastercard Multi-Token Network (MTN). SoFiUSD is built on a public, permissionless blockchain and was first announced by SoFi at the end of last year.
Sherri Haymond, Mastercard's global head of digital commerce, stated that this partnership aims to expand the global application scale of trusted digital currencies. SoFi also resumed its cryptocurrency trading services in November last year after previously pausing due to regulatory uncertainties in 2023.
This partnership is also Mastercard's latest move in its ongoing blockchain strategy. In June last year, Mastercard partnered with Chainlink to allow cardholders to purchase cryptocurrencies directly on-chain.
ChainCatcher reports that, according to The Block, a16z Crypto criticized the colloquial use of the term "ZK" in certain developer environments in a blog post about its Jolt zkVM. The article points out that most zkVMs do not actually possess zero-knowledge properties unless expensive "wrapping" programs are applied. The author also mentioned that "zk" often becomes synonymous with "conciseness," meaning "short and quickly verifiable," rather than true zero-knowledge privacy.
As community concerns about privacy grow, this misuse of terminology is becoming a real issue. a16z's open-source Jolt zkVM launched a major upgrade on Tuesday, natively supporting zero-knowledge proofs. Jolt uses the NovaBlindFold folding scheme to create blinded proofs to prevent information leakage, making it suitable for privacy applications, with the upgraded zero-knowledge proofs only increasing by about 3 KB compared to the original non-ZK proofs.
Prediction market trading volume falls in February, Opinion data shrinks significantly
ChainCatcher reports that the total trading volume of prediction markets in February recorded $23.4 billion, down about 12% from January's record of $27.1 billion, ending a five-month upward trend and marking the first monthly decline since August 2025. The decline was mainly dragged down by the BNB Chain platform Opinion, whose trading volume plummeted from over $10 billion to $3.1 billion. Notably, the authenticity of Opinion's data has been questioned in the past.
Meanwhile, performance varied across platforms. Kalshi's trading volume rose to a historic high of $9.8 billion, further solidifying its leading position in the industry; Polymarket saw a slight increase, rising from $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion.
In recent years, prediction markets have evolved from niche tools to mainstream financial applications, widely used for predicting events such as elections and economic indicators.
Ray Dalio: Bitcoin is not suitable as a long-term store of value or safe-haven asset
ChainCatcher reports that Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, stated on the All-In Podcast on Tuesday that Bitcoin is not suitable as a long-term store of value or safe-haven asset, citing reasons such as lack of central bank support and uncertainties regarding its privacy protection and quantum resistance.
He stated that Bitcoin cannot become "digital gold," asserting that "there is only one gold in the world." Gold is not a speculative precious metal but the "most mature currency," and it is the second-largest reserve asset held by central banks, making it difficult to understand why central banks would buy and hold Bitcoin long-term.
Coinbase CEO: The SocialFi experiment of Base App has not worked, product shifting to trading features
ChainCatcher reports that, according to The Block, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated in an interview on the David Senra podcast that the SocialFi feature attempted in the Base App last year "did not really work." The app was launched in July 2025 as a revamped version of the original Coinbase Wallet, attempting to integrate on-chain social, messaging, gaming, and trading features, and introduced a Creator Coin mechanism to tokenize social content, but most related tokens failed to maintain their value.
Subsequently, the Base team gradually reduced the SocialFi components, removing the Farcaster-based social feed in early 2026 and repositioning the product to focus on trading and self-custody features.
Forbes: Trump's "war is coming" warning may raise expectations for Fed monetary easing, benefiting Bitcoin
ChainCatcher reports that, according to Forbes, Trump recently warned that U.S. military actions against Iran could last more than five weeks, stating that "the real large-scale operations have not yet begun, and something big is coming soon."
The market believes that if the Middle East conflict becomes prolonged, it may drive up fiscal spending and increase the likelihood of the Fed easing monetary policy or even restarting large-scale liquidity injections, which could benefit cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Some aggressive predictions suggest that Bitcoin may hit highs of $200,000 to $500,000 within the year.
Additionally, a potential financial crisis driven by artificial intelligence could trigger impacts more severe than those of 2008, also likely pushing Bitcoin to new historical highs. Analysts point out that geopolitical risks, expectations of fiscal expansion, and shifts in monetary policy are becoming important macro variables for the current market betting on Bitcoin's upward movement.
Ethereum founder Vitalik proposes the concept of "sanctuary technologies," calling for a re-evaluation of blockchain value
ChainCatcher reports that Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently posted on social media proposing the concept of "sanctuary technologies," calling for the Ethereum community to rethink its mission. He stated that in the face of global issues such as government and corporate surveillance, war, and technological abuse, Ethereum has limited impact on improving people's lives.
Vitalik believes that Ethereum should become part of an open-source technology ecosystem, creating a "leaderless shared digital space" to help people live, work, and collaborate safely under external pressures. He emphasized that the goal is not to reshape the world but to prevent excessive concentration of power, creating digital stable islands, and called for collaboration with allies outside the crypto space to advance this vision.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of March 5, 09:00,
The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: USELESS, Punch, WhiteWhale, neet, Buttcoin
The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, B3, SKYA, TOSHI, toby
What are some interesting articles to read in the past 24 hours?
Web3 Winter Mass Exodus: Layoffs, Closures, Transformations, and Sellouts
In the recent year of the crypto winter, one Web3 startup after another has withered like fallen leaves. The once-booming bull market has dissipated, replaced by broken funding chains, rampant hacking, and strategic disorientation. Many companies that once shone with top-tier teams and VC endorsements are now struggling to survive in the cold: some hurriedly pivot, some sell themselves at low prices, some shut down quietly, and others suffer devastating thefts.
A wave of layoffs and resignations has followed, with many senior figures such as CoinList's strategic director Tom Howard, Monad DeFi's head Abdul Rehman, Celo's security chief Benjamin Speckien, and Axie Infinity's COO Aleksander Leonard Larsen leaving their companies.
This is not just a financial crisis but a brutal reflection of the industry's reshuffling. Essentially, these phenomena stem from the profound collision between technology and capital, products and markets, visions and realities within the Web3 ecosystem, with each story reflecting the confusion and unwillingness of market participants.
MegaETH Co-founder: 48 Hours After Leaving Dubai, I Reassessed the Entire Crypto Space
In an era of technological upheaval, rather than seeking "legitimacy" through co-optation by power, it is better to sharpen the blade and build a parallel system that truly expands personal sovereignty.
In the Next 5 Years, This is How Vitalik Will Expand Ethereum
On February 27, 2026, Vitalik Buterin published a lengthy article titled "Hyper-scaling state by creating new forms of state" on Ethereum Research.
In this article, Vitalik Buterin further outlines Ethereum's scaling path. This article discusses Ethereum's scaling not only from a technical perspective but also provides a phased scaling plan from an overall architectural perspective, aiming to lay the foundation for Ethereum to continuously expand network capacity in the coming years.
At the same time, he also posted a tweet on X further explaining this article. We attempt to understand in simple terms what this new scaling plan proposed by Vitalik is and why it is necessary.
The Business of Crypto VCs is Becoming Better
Many people feel that crypto VCs are heading towards twilight.
Over the past decade, crypto VCs have been highly homogeneous—crowding into the same tracks, telling the same stories, and competing for the same projects. It seems lively, but the industry is actually fragile.
However, what is happening now may be one of the most anticipated moments since the birth of this industry, as the market is finally showing real differentiation.
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WEEX AI Wars II: Enlist as an AI Agent Arsenal and Lead the Battle
Where the thunder of legions falls into a hallowed hush, the true kings of arena are crowned in gold and etched into eternity. Season 1 of WEEX AI Wars has ended, leaving a battlefield of glory. Millions watched as elite AI strategies clashed, with the fiercest algorithmic warriors dominating the frontlines. The echoes of victory still reverberate. Now, the call to arms sounds once more!
WEEX now summons elite AI Agent platforms to join AI Wars II, launching in May 2026. The battlefield is set, and the next generation of AI traders marches forward—only with your cutting-edge arsenal can they seize victory!
Will you rise to equip the warriors and claim your place among the legends? Can your AI Agent technology dominate the battlefield? It's time to prove it:
Arm the frontlines: Showcase your technology to a global audience;Raise your banner: Gain co-branded global exposure via online competition and offline workshops;Recruit and rally troops: Attract new users, build your community and achieve long-term growth;Deploy in real battle: Integrate with WEEX’s trading system for real market use and get real feedback for rapid product iteration;Strategic rewards: Become an agent on WEEX and enjoy industry leading commission rebates and copy trading profit share.Join WEEX AI Wars II now to sound the charge!
Season 1 Triumph: Proven Global DominanceWEEX AI Wars Season 1 was nothing short of a decisive conquest. Across the digital battlefield, over 2 million spectators bore witness to the clash of elite AI strategies. Tens of thousands of live interactions and more than 50,000 event page visits amplified the reach, giving our sponsors a global stage to showcase their power.
Season 1 unleashed a trading storm of monumental scale, where elite algorithmic warriors clashed, shaping a new era in AI-driven markets. $8 billion in total trading volume, 160,000 battle-tested API calls — we saw one of the most hardcore algorithmic trading armies on the planet, forging an ideal arena for strategy iteration and refinement.
On the ground, workshop campaigns in Dubai, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, and Turkey brought AI trading directly to the frontlines. Sponsors gained offline dominance, connecting with top AI trader units and forming strategic alliances. Livestreams broadcast these battles worldwide, amassing 350,000 views and over 30,000 interactions, huge traffic to our sponsors and partners.
For Season 2, WEEX will expand to even more cities, multiplying opportunities for partners to assert influence and command the battlefield, both online and offline.
Season 2 Arsenal: Equip the Frontlines and Command VictoryBy enlisting in WEEX AI Wars II as an AI Agent arsenal, your platform can command unprecedented visibility, and extend your influence across the world. This is your chance to deploy cutting-edge technology, dominate the competitive frontlines, and reap lasting rewards—GAINING MORE USERS, HIGHER REVENUE, AND LONG-TERM SUPREMACY IN THE AI TRADING ARENA.
Reach WEEX’s 8 million userbase and global crypto community. Unleash your potential on a global stage! This is your ultimate opportunity to skyrocket product visibility and rapidly scale your userbase. Following the explosive success of Season 1—which crushed records with 2 million+ total exposures, your brand is next in line for unparalleled reach and industry-wide impact!Test and showcase your AI Agent in real markets. Throw your AI Agents into the ultimate arena! Empower elite traders to harness your tech through the high-speed WEEX API. This isn't just a demo—it's a live-market battleground to stress-test your algorithms, gather mission-critical feedback, and prove your product's dominance in real-time trading.Gain extensive co-branded exposure and traffic support. Command the spotlight! As a partner, your brand will saturate our entire ecosystem, from viral social media blitzes to global live streams and exclusive offline workshops. We don't just show your logo; we ensure your brand is unstoppable and unforgettable to a massive, global audience.Enjoy industry leading rebates. Becoming our partner is not a one-time collaboration, but the start of a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with tangible revenue opportunities.Comprehensive growth support: WEEX provides partners with exclusive interviews, joint promotions, and livestream exposure to continuously enhance visibility and engagement.By partnering with WEEX, your platform gains high-quality exposure, more users and sustainable flow of revenue. The Hackathon is more than a competition. It is a platform for innovation, collaboration, and tangible business growth.
Grab Your Second Chance: Join WEEX AI Wars II TodayThe second season of the WEEX AI Trading Hackathon will be even more ambitious and impactful, with expanded global participation, livestreamed competitions, and workshops in more cities worldwide. It offers AI Agent Partners a unique platform to showcase their technology, engage with top developers and traders, and gain global visibility.
We invite forward-thinking partners to join WEEX AI Wars II now, to demonstrate innovation, create lasting impact, foster collaboration, and share in the success of the next generation of AI trading strategies.
About WEEXFounded in 2018, WEEX has developed into a global crypto exchange with over 6.2 million users across more than 150 countries. The platform emphasizes security, liquidity, and usability, providing over 1,200 spot trading pairs and offering up to 400x leverage in crypto futures trading. In addition to the traditional spot and derivatives markets, WEEX is expanding rapidly in the AI era — delivering real-time AI news, empowering users with AI trading tools, and exploring innovative trade-to-earn models that make intelligent trading more accessible to everyone. Its 1,000 BTC Protection Fund further strengthens asset safety and transparency, while features such as copy trading and advanced trading tools allow users to follow professional traders and experience a more efficient, intelligent trading journey.
Follow WEEX on social mediaX: @WEEX_Official
Instagram: @WEEX Exchange
Tiktok: @weex_global
Youtube: @WEEX_Official
Discord: WEEX Community
Telegram: WeexGlobal Group

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