The true reason for Claude's ban, Kraken accessing the Federal Reserve payment system, What is the English community paying attention to?

Publication Date: March 3, 2025
Author: BlockBeats Editorial Team

Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market has shown complex developments across multiple dimensions. The mainstream discussion focused on the controversy surrounding AI companies' government relations, the conflict of interest between banks and the crypto financial system, and the potential impact of AI technology on employment structure. In terms of ecosystem development, Aave V4 went live, strengthening DeFi security standards; Base sees the integration of AI Agent and crypto payments as the next frontier; and the Solana ecosystem continues to expand in derivative trading and DeFi credit structures.

I. Mainstream Topics

1. Dario Amodei Internal Memo Leaked: Criticizes OpenAI Pentagon Contract as "Security Theater," States Anthropic (Claude) Blacklisted for Not Making Political Contributions

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in an internal memo, referred to the contract signed between OpenAI and the Pentagon as "safety theater," believing it to be more of a symbolic security gesture rather than a genuine security measure.

The memo pointed out that the Trump administration's dissatisfaction with Anthropic (Claude is Anthropic's AI product) stemmed from several factors: the company did not make political contributions (while OpenAI and its co-founder Greg Brockman did); did not offer "dictatorial praise" to the government; and openly supported AI regulation while continuously discussing the potential substitution of jobs by AI, positions that differed significantly from the government's stance.

The memo also revealed that the data analytics company Palantir had pitched a solution to Anthropic, which was not a security mechanism but rather aimed to suppress employee dissent through concealment. OpenAI was said to have accepted a similar proposal.

During contract negotiations with the Pentagon, the military requested the removal of clauses related to "analysis of bulk acquired data," which Anthropic refused to compromise on, ultimately leading to the company's exclusion from relevant collaborations with federal agencies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then publicly responded, stating that private enterprises have no right to impose their terms on national security contracts. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt openly supported Amodei, saying that this dispute involved one of the most critical decisions for society's future.

The discussion mainly revolves around the AI company's ethical bottom line and national security priorities. Some viewpoints highly praise Anthropic for upholding principles, criticize OpenAI for "gaslighting" employees and accepting superficial security contracts; there are also voices that consider publicizing internal memoranda as "grandstanding," concerned that leaking business details could damage the entire industry's image. Those supporting the government's position emphasize that defense contract terms should not be subject to private sector intervention.

Summary of Different Stances

Support Anthropic (community mainstream narrative): They believe in its principle adherence, while OpenAI is seen as more opportunistic; the Pentagon contract is considered a typical "security theater."

Support Government: Private enterprises have no right to interfere with national security terms, and Anthropic's demands are unacceptable.

Neutral Observers: They consider this event a key decision in the direction of AI development but have not explicitly taken sides.

This event highlights the increasingly intensifying structural tension between AI companies and the government: political donations and public political stances are becoming hidden variables in contract allocation; the lack of AI security standards leads to frequent accusations of "security theater"; the conflict between corporate ethical demands and national security needs may further deepen industry divisions and affect user and talent mobility.

2. Kraken Joins the Fed's Payment System, Becoming the First Cryptocurrency Company with a Master Account

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken has announced that it has officially joined the Federal Reserve payment system, becoming the first cryptocurrency company globally to obtain a master account. This move means Kraken can achieve instant US dollar settlement without the need for traditional bank intermediaries, widely seen as a significant milestone in the cryptocurrency industry.

The Wall Street Journal's "Fed Reporter" Nick Timiraos pointed out that although the cryptocurrency industry and traditional banks both politically supported Trump, they have clear differences in core interests: the cryptocurrency industry wants to bypass the banking intermediary, while the banking system continues to lobby through legislation to obstruct related policy advancements.

In addition, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had a meeting with Trump before Trump openly criticized banks for obstructing cryptocurrency legislation.

The community widely views this event as a significant breakthrough for the crypto industry, believing it will greatly reduce settlement frictions and attract more institutional funds into the market. At the same time, some analysts point out that the event further exposes the structural conflict of interest between crypto and traditional banks, with the lobbying power of banks potentially continuing to exert pressure.

Summary of Different Views

Crypto Integration Support (Mainstream): Kraken's success marks crypto's formal entry into the traditional financial infrastructure system, a victory for the entire industry.

Banking Interest Perspective: Despite banks and the crypto industry being partially aligned in their political stances, there exists an irreconcilable conflict of interest on a commercial level.

Policy Observers: Believe the high-level meeting shows that the Trump administration may accelerate the advancement of crypto-friendly legislation.

This event also once again highlights: traditional banks have long held a de facto monopoly position on the Fed's payment system and have maintained the status quo through lobbying; the conflict of interest between crypto innovation and the existing financial system remains unresolved; political support has not yet fully translated into policy-level consensus.

3. NotebookLM Launches AI Video Creation Feature, Shaking Up the Video Content Industry

Google NotebookLM has introduced a brand-new AI Video Overview generation feature that can automatically convert users' notes, PDFs, or research materials into narrated video content.

This feature follows the product path of the previous Audio Overview: first offering free standard video generation services, then introducing cinematic videos as a premium feature for Ultra subscribers ($249.99 per month).

Google's business logic is quite clear: attract users and cultivate habits through the free version, then serve enterprise customers and professional creators with high-quality paid versions.

This update quickly sparked discussions in the video creation industry. Many video editors believe that this tool will directly impact entry-level content production positions.

The community's response shows significant differentiation. On one hand, many people are amazed by the efficiency and convenience of this feature, seeing it as a revolutionary tool for content creation; on the other hand, many professionals are concerned that AI will massively replace video designers, especially in the realm of templated or semi-customized video production.

Summary of Different Views

Innovation Advocate (Mainstream): AI significantly lowers the production threshold from text to video, marking a crucial leap in productivity.

Industry Disruption Concern: AI directly threatens creative positions such as video editors, especially entry-level creators.

Business Model Interpretation: Free Traffic → Corporate Paid Subscription is Google's typical content ecosystem business path.

From a more macro perspective, AI is continuously compressing the traditional creative production process through vertical integration; the layered free and paid model is also widening the gap between computing power and creative ability; meanwhile, the traditional content industry's adaptation speed to AI tools still lags behind, potentially leading to new employment structure adjustments.

4. X Money Launches 6% Annualized Savings, Eric Trump Slams Banks for Obstructing High-Yield Financial Innovation

Elon Musk personally confirms that the social platform X is advancing the financial product X Money, with product screenshots showing a 6% annualized savings return, significantly higher than traditional bank deposit rates, and supporting instant transfers and cashback card functionality within the platform.

Subsequently, Eric Trump publicly criticized major financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, accusing them of lobbying to prevent American depositors from earning higher returns while attempting to stifle stablecoin innovation to maintain the banking system's monopoly position.

This event closely aligns with the progress of the US "CLARITY Act (Crypto-market Ledger Enhancement for Assisting the Development of Commerce and Trade Act)," thus carrying a distinct political connotation.

The community is widely focusing on the attractiveness of the 6% yield, seeing it as a direct challenge to traditional banks that offer long-term low-interest deposit products. Meanwhile, Eric Trump's statement is also seen as explicit support from the Trump family for crypto financial innovation, reinforcing the "anti-bank monopoly" narrative.

Summary of Different Views

Anti-Bank Monopoly (Mainstream): Banks rely on the Fed rate to earn interest spreads but do not share the profits with depositors while obstructing crypto innovation.

Product Supporters: X Money's high returns and convenience may represent the next generation of financial product forms.

Policy Observers: The CLARITY Act is seen as a crucial legislation for the US to establish a crypto financial hub.

This dispute once again exposes deep contradictions in the financial system: the interest structure between banks and the Fed makes it difficult for depositors to earn higher returns in the long run; traditional financial institutions influence legislation through lobbying, hindering fintech innovation; the conflict between consumer interests and financial institution protectionism is intensifying.

5. Nvidia Limits Investment in OpenAI and Anthropic, AI Funding Landscape May Reach Turning Point

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has stated that the company will not increase its rumored $100 billion investment plan in OpenAI and that the $10 billion investment in Anthropic may also be the last large-scale injection of funds. In the future, Nvidia will engage in the AI industry through more partnerships and ecosystem participation, rather than continuing massive equity investments.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has announced a 3% workforce reduction (about 2,500 people), despite achieving record-high revenue for the year. The market widely interprets this as a signal of AI automation beginning to impact white-collar jobs in the financial industry.

The community generally believes that the AI industry's previous "honeymoon period" is ending, and large-scale external funding is becoming more cautious. Some discussions even directly link Morgan Stanley's layoffs to the proliferation of AI tools like Claude, seeing it as an early indicator of the replacement of high-paying knowledge worker positions.

Summary of Different Perspectives

Shift in Funding Cycle (Mainstream): Nvidia is shifting from concentrated bets to diversified participation, reflecting a tightening environment for AI enterprise funding.

Employment Impact Perspective: Layoffs in the financial industry show that AI is eroding high-paying white-collar positions.

Cyclical Observation: Similar to the late stages of the Internet bubble, funds are beginning to seek truly stable long-term winners.

Overall, the risk of an AI industry funding bubble is beginning to show, with capital gradually becoming more rational; the substitution effect of AI on knowledge work is beginning to manifest in high-paying industries like finance; the pressure of corporate IPOs and changing investment return requirements will further accelerate industry consolidation.

6. Paperclip Goes Open Source: Towards an AI Orchestration System for the "Zero-Human" Company

Developer dotta has open-sourced the Paperclip project, positioned as a full orchestration layer for the "zero-human-intervention company."

The system includes modules for organizational structure management, goal alignment, task assignment, budget control, AI agent temperature regulation, among others, and supports multi-agent collaboration, 24/7 operation, and cost auditing. The core idea of the project is to achieve autonomous organizational operation through atomic-level task breakdown and context-based goal management, while maintaining a simple installation and deployment process.

The overall community response has been quite positive, with many seeing this as a key step for AI Agents to achieve autonomous business operations. A few discussions have focused on engineering details such as budget caps, permission management, and open-source governance structure.

Summary of Different Views

Innovation Support (Mainstream): Paperclip provides a comprehensive framework for autonomous organizations, poised to drive unmanned enterprise experiments.

Engineering Focus: Details such as budget constraints, permission systems, and others still need further refinement.

Community Feedback: Seen as a valuable starting point for open-source, suitable for managing complex agent networks.

This project also highlights a core issue in the current AI Agent ecosystem: the lack of unified orchestration and collaboration standards. While open-source solutions may accelerate autonomous enterprise experiments, budget control, permission security, and system reliability remain key challenges. With technological advancement, human supervision models may gradually shift from "continuous intervention" to "low intervention or even zero intervention," bringing governance and ethical issues to the fore.

II. Mainstream Ecosystem Updates

【ETH / Base Ecosystem】

1. Aave V4 Officially Launched with Full Security Audit Report

Aave V4 has officially launched, incorporating a multi-layered security control system from early architecture design to audit remediation validation. Aave Labs has also publicly shared the security methodology of the V4 smart contracts, aiming to provide a reference paradigm for the entire DeFi community. Various security firms, including Certora and Trail of Bits, participated in over a year of architecture design and evaluation, and released comprehensive and transparent audit reports.

As of February this year, data shows that Aave's average deposit size reached $44.9 billion, active loans $17.8 billion, protocol fee income around $73.9 million, and revenue about $13.4 million.

The community broadly views this upgrade as a significant signal of DeFi protocol security standards improvement. Some commentators believe that the multi-layered security system and publicly transparent assessment reports have set a new benchmark for the industry, pushing protocol design towards a more mature stage; others have pointed out that the newly introduced unified liquidity layer still needs further observation in actual operation, especially regarding the TVL concentration risk that may arise during migration. Some users have commented that Aave has almost "inadvertently set a gold standard for the entire industry, truly done quite beautifully."

This upgrade may drive DeFi infrastructure to pay more attention to built-in security mechanisms and transparency, helping to reduce systemic risks and attract more institutional funds.

2. Base Positions AI Agent + Robot as Next Frontier, Calls Developers to Join

Base recently positioned the combination of robots and autonomous AI Agents as the new frontier of the crypto industry and invited developers to apply for the Base Batches program to develop related applications. An a16z research report also pointed out the significant opportunity to build a stablecoin payment rail designed specifically for AI Agents on Base.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, in discussions, used the development of the Internet as an analogy, stating that crypto infrastructure is fundamentally addressing the long-standing high cost and settlement latency issues in the traditional monetary system.

The community broadly views this direction as a significant signal of the integration between AI Agents and crypto payments. Some commentators believe this may open up a new track for machine commerce, driving a core Agent-based native settlement system; others point out that the real challenge lies not in the robots themselves but in the payment infrastructure—the key is to establish a settlement system designed for AI Agents that does not require high trust and enables machines to autonomously earn money and perform tasks without waiting for human intervention.

This trend may gradually propel the crypto ecosystem towards an Agentic GDP model, an economic activity network driven by autonomous systems, thereby promoting the collaboration and transactions of AI systems in the real world. However, there is still some uncertainty about the maturity of payment and validation infrastructure.

【Solana Ecosystem】

1. Phantom Launches Korean and Japanese International ETF Perpetual Contracts, Supporting Up to 20x Leverage

The Phantom wallet has added two international ETF perpetual contract markets: the Korean iShares MSCI Korea ETF (EWY) and the Japanese iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ). Users can engage in long and short trades with up to 20x leverage on these markets.

Phantom Perps launched on March 2nd, and these products do not represent actual stock ownership but are perpetual derivative contracts issued by partner platforms.

The community broadly views this move as a significant signal of the Solana derivatives market expanding to traditional financial assets. Some commentators believe this will greatly enhance the convenience of leverage trading, drive greater diversity in asset types within the ecosystem; while others caution that attention is needed on compliance restrictions across jurisdictions and the risks associated with leverage trading itself. One user jokingly asked, "Does this mean we can now long or short these ETFs with up to 20x leverage?"

This expansion could accelerate the integration of Solana DeFi with global traditional assets, allowing users to directly trade traditional financial instruments on-chain. However, the risks of high-leverage products and availability limitations across different regions remain important variables to consider.

2. Loopscale Supports Raydium LP as Collateral, Unlocking Over $1 Billion in Liquidity

Loopscale recently announced that it will include Raydium's LP holdings in the collateral system of the credit market. The system will conduct a more refined risk assessment of LP assets based on liquidity ranges, fee levels, and underlying asset structure.

Loopscale adopts an order book-based credit market framework to offer a new structural design for DeFi lending. Through this mechanism, the market is expected to unlock over $1 billion in yield-generating liquidity.

The community generally sees this update as a significant advancement in Solana DeFi liquidity optimization. Some commentators believe that pricing LPs based on ranges and fee levels, instead of simply categorizing all LP assets into one, is a clear upgrade that helps improve the efficiency of the credit market; while others caution that even after scaling up, continued attention to variable risks of collateral assets is necessary.

This development could drive the evolution of the DeFi credit system towards a more refined collateral management and liquidity unlocking mechanism, thereby enhancing the overall ecosystem's capital efficiency.

3. Brian Armstrong Blasts Elizabeth Warren in Live Stream, Calling Her Financial Policy Overreach

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly criticized U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren in an interview, stating that her policy ideas are close to socialism and suggesting that she advocates for government control of nearly all financial services.

Armstrong pointed out that Warren, through the banking regulatory system, exerts pressure on financial institutions, indirectly driving the so-called "debanking" phenomenon, making it harder for crypto companies to access banking services. The interview also mentioned the legal process between Coinbase and regulatory agencies, as well as the company's eventual victory in related cases.

The community widely sees this statement as a public pushback from the crypto industry against regulatory pressure. Some commentators believe this reflects regulators' resistance to innovation and may further foster a stronger internal unity within the industry; others point out that the conflict between the banking system and the crypto industry fundamentally stems from a misalignment of interests.

Some emotionally charged comments suggest that some regulators are actually serving the interests of large banks, thereby undermining ordinary users' financial sovereignty.

This controversy may further strengthen the cryptocurrency industry's policy advocacy and legislative efforts and prompt the United States to advance more explicit market structure legislation. However, until relevant regulations are actually implemented, regulatory uncertainty may still affect institutional fund inflows and infrastructure development processes.