Foresight Ventures says regulatory barriers and liquidity advantages are driving consolidation in tokenized equities as the market expands. Update March 10, 11:40 am UTC: This article has been updated to add comments from RWA.io co-founder Marko Vidrih. Tokenized stocks have surpassed $1 billion in total value on-chain, marking a new milestone for the fast-growing real-world asset (RWA) sector. Data from RWA.xyz shows the value of tokenized equities climbing past the $1 billion mark, as platforms offering blockchain-based exposure to traditional stocks attract more trading activity and liquidity. Read more
Thai crypto operators reportedly froze 10,000 suspected “mule accounts” as new AML checks and transfer delays took effect in a wider anti-fraud push. Thai cryptocurrency platform operators have reportedly frozen more than 10,000 accounts suspected of being used to launder illicit funds, as the country steps up efforts to crack down on so-called mule accounts. The freezes followed the rollout of stricter screening measures aimed at slowing suspicious crypto transfers and requiring additional Know Your Customer checks before higher-risk transactions are completed, according to local reporting from the Bangkok Post on Tuesday. The tighter process helped operators identify and freeze more than 10,000 suspected mule accounts, Att Thongyai Asavanund, chief executive of KuCoin Thailand and chairman of the Thai Digital Asset Operators Trade Association (TDO), told the Bangkok Post. Read more
The Zcash token rose 4.1% to $217.80 on news of the $25 million funding round and is now up 9.8% over the last 24 hours. The development team that left Electric Coin Company in January to launch Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) has raised over $25 million from the likes of a16z Crypto and Coinbase Ventures to continue building the privacy-focused, self-custodial Zodl wallet. ZODL was founded by former ECC CEO Josh Swihart and includes the entire engineering and product team that previously worked on the Zodl wallet at ECC. They resigned due to disputes with Bootstrap, the nonprofit that oversees ECC, over how Zcash should function as a privacy protocol. ZODL said in an X post on Monday that crypto-focused investment firms Paradigm, Winklevoss Capital, Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, and Chapter One were among the other participants in the $25 million funding round. Read more
Bitcoin ETF inflows have turned positive as gold ETFs see record outflows after a historic rally. Is capital beginning to rotate from gold to Bitcoin? Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows have turned net positive over the past 30 days, while gold ETF demand has started to slow down after nine straight months of inflows. The shift comes even as gold prices remain elevated and sentiment around Bitcoin continues to cool. With these contrasting trends in ETF flows and the historical pattern of Bitcoin-to-gold performance cycles, analysts are now examining data that may signal a gradual shift in investor demand between the two assets. According to the Kobeissi Letter, the largest US gold-backed ETF, GLD, recorded a $3 billion outflow on Wednesday, the largest daily withdrawal in more than two years. The move followed a 4.4% decline in gold prices, the sharpest drop since the Jan. 30 sell-off. Read more