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
March 4 Market Key Events Overview整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Coinbase CEO: The SocialFi experiment of Base App has not worked, product shifts 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 the global payment network
- Stablecoin financial platform ARQ completes $70 million financing, 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 have occurred 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. February ADP employment increased by 63,000, expected 50,000
ChainCatcher reports that according to Jin10, U.S. February ADP employment increased by 63,000, 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
ChainCatcher reports that according to CoinDesk, Morgan Stanley 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 fund 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 stocks 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 official trading begins. Currently, Backpack has set up a waiting list, and early registrants will receive priority access to the first IPO.
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 ministry source described the report as "pure lies and psychological warfare."
Following this denial, oil prices briefly rose but quickly fell back as traders shifted their attention to the U.S. Navy's plans to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran triggered war on 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, financing, team members, calendars, and other data on the wallet page, making it clearer and more accurate for users to understand project information when investing, thereby 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, etc.
ChainCatcher reports that according to official news, Tether Investments announced a strategic investment in smart sleep technology company Eight Sleep at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Eight Sleep uses 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 according to official news, BNB chain on-chain prediction market Predict.fun announced the strategic acquisition of Probable, which was initially 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.
ChainCatcher reports that according to Bloomberg, Latin America's financial application focused on stablecoins, ARQ, has completed $70 million in financing, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund.
This round of financing will be used for rebranding, hiring new employees, and expanding services beyond dollar-denominated transfers, including wealth management, high-yield accounts in local currency, and credit business. ARQ, formerly known as DolarApp, provides 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 transaction volume exceeding $10 billion. ARQ stated that it has built infrastructure connecting traditional banking networks and stablecoin-based payment systems, enabling users to hold foreign currencies and conduct transactions.
SoFi partners with Mastercard to integrate stablecoin SoFiUSD into the 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 suspending related operations in 2023 due to regulatory uncertainties.
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 fast to verify," rather than true zero-knowledge privacy.
As community attention to privacy grows, 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 in size by about 3 KB compared to the original non-ZK proofs.
Prediction market trading volume fell in February, Opinion data significantly shrank
ChainCatcher reports that the total trading volume of prediction markets in February recorded $23.4 billion, down about 12% from January's record high of $27.1 billion, ending a five-month upward trend and marking the first monthly decline since August 2025. The decline was primarily 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 previously been questioned.
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 a 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 a safe-haven asset, citing reasons such as the 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 rather "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 in the long term.
Coinbase CEO: The SocialFi experiment of Base App has not worked, product shifts 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 features 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.
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 actions have not yet begun, and big things will come soon."
The market believes that if the Middle East conflict becomes prolonged, it could drive up fiscal spending and increase the likelihood of the Federal Reserve loosening monetary policy or even restarting large-scale liquidity injections, which may benefit cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Some aggressive predictions suggest that Bitcoin could reach 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 contributing to 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's bets on Bitcoin's upward movement.
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's role in improving people's lives is limited.
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, create 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 noteworthy articles to read in the past 24 hours?
Web3 Winter Mass Exodus: Resignations, Closures, Transformations, and Sell-offs
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 backing from elite VCs are now struggling to survive in the cold: some are hastily transforming, some are selling themselves at low prices, some are shutting down quietly, and others are facing 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 director Abdul Rehman, Celo's security director 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 collisions between technology and capital, products and markets, vision and reality within the Web3 ecosystem, with each story reflecting the confusion and unwillingness of market participants.
MegaETH Co-founder: 48 Hours After Leaving Dubai, I Re-evaluated the Entire Crypto Space
In an era of technological upheaval, rather than pursuing the "legitimacy" that comes from being co-opted by power, it is better to sharpen the blade and build a parallel system that truly expands individual 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.
$650 million, $1.5 billion, $2 billion, crypto VC has undergone a transformation!
Many believe that crypto VC is heading towards twilight.
Over the past decade, crypto VC has 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 inside.
However, what is happening now may be one of the most anticipated moments since the birth of this industry, as the market is experiencing true differentiation for the first time.
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