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According to Jinshi reports, Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage division stated that as the S&P 500 index continues its historic winning streak, hedge funds bought U.S. stocks at the fastest pace in six months last week.

According to Caixin, the "Global Payments Report 2026" released by global payment technology and software company Global Payments indicates that digital wallets account for more than half of global online transaction volume and one-third of offline transactions. Digital wallets can flexibly integrate different payment methods, including cryptocurrencies. The report predicts that direct cryptocurrency payments will become the fastest-growing online payment method, with a compound annual growth rate of 16% from 2025 to 2030. This means that by 2030, the volume of e-commerce transactions using direct cryptocurrency payments could account for 0.28% of global e-commerce transaction volume, nearly $31 billion.However, despite the global total market value of cryptocurrencies nearing $3.2 trillion by the end of 2025, it remains a relatively marginalized payment method for consumers to merchants. Reports from MRC and Visa show that only 10% of merchants globally accept cryptocurrency payments directly. In 2025, cryptocurrencies will account for only 0.19% of global e-commerce transaction volume, approximately $15 billion.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated on the X platform that the 2x leveraged Cerebras Systems ETF (ticker: CBRG) has officially begun trading, while its underlying asset CBRS only started trading in the afternoon of the previous day, meaning that the launch of the leveraged ETF was completed just hours apart from the underlying asset. This sets a record for the rapid product launch pace. This "fast-follow" ETF issuance model is accelerating, and in the future, leveraged ETFs around non-public or high-profile assets like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI may also emerge with similar rapid replication issuance paths, reflecting a significant increase in the productization speed of the ETF market for new asset exposures.

According to GMGN monitoring, the market capitalization of the Solana ecosystem meme coin MAGA rebounded by 52% today, reaching a high of $9.3 million, currently reported at $8 million, with a trading volume of $1.8 million during the same period.It is reported that U.S. Congressman Eric Burlison revealed in a program yesterday that the White House plans to release a batch of new documents approximately every two weeks. This is slightly faster than the official description of "every few weeks," with 6 days having passed since the last release.Since April 17, when Trump publicly stated his intention to release government documents related to UFOs, UAPs, and possible extraterrestrial life, the market capitalization of this token peaked at $33 million but has significantly declined after the recent first round of UFO document releases.ChainCatcher reminds users that meme coin trading is highly volatile, largely relying on market sentiment and speculative hype, and has no actual value or use case; investors should be aware of the risks.

In response to the tweet "Helius CEO announces the next round of the crypto cycle is coming," Solana co-founder Toly replied that cheaper, faster, and lower-risk financial methods will ultimately prevail over all alternatives. Immutable, formally verified software. The admin key contains on-chain immutable policies, such as time locks. All truly interesting things in the financial sector, like criminals, involve extremely broad aspects. Therefore, anything complex cannot be separated from admin privileges.

Bitget today launched the VIP Fast Track Program, breaking the traditional exchange's reliance on static position thresholds for upgrade rules. It introduces three independent promotion paths for contracts, spot trading, and positions, directly linking VIP progress to users' actual trading behavior. Each upgrade node is accompanied by a settlement-based reward mechanism, allowing users to instantly receive rewards upon reaching corresponding milestones, which can be used to offset trading costs during the upgrade process, further lowering the threshold and friction for transitioning from temporary experience privileges to formal VIP status.This event is also the first phase of the UEX VIP season. Meanwhile, Bitget has simultaneously launched a VIP progress detail page within the app, allowing users to view their current upgrade progress in real-time on mobile. This page will dynamically calculate the criteria for meeting standards and display the corresponding benefits for each level, including fee reductions, airdrop benefits, etc., further enhancing the transparency of the VIP system.

According to Cointelegraph, Nasdaq announced that starting from May 1, 2026, it will officially eliminate the 10% minimum float requirement and introduce a "fast track" rule that allows mega-cap IPOs to join the Nasdaq 100 Index within approximately 15 trading days.

CryptoQuant's recent report pointed out that Strategy is currently the single main buyer of BTC reserve demand, having accumulated approximately 45,000 BTC in the past 30 days, marking the fastest growth rate in nearly a year, with its holdings accounting for about 76% of all reserve-type companies.At the same time, non-Strategy companies' purchase volume has dropped to about 1,000 BTC, a decrease of approximately 99% from its peak, with their share falling to 2%. New demand is nearly exiting, and the number of purchases by related companies has decreased to 13 times (with a peak of 54 times), indicating a significant reduction in both capital investment and participation, with the overall market demand structure highly concentrated in Strategy.

According to Cointelegraph, the Ethereum client team is testing a mechanism called Fast Confirmation Rules (FCR), aimed at compressing the deposit confirmation time from L1 to L2 networks and exchanges to about 13 seconds, reducing it by up to 98% compared to existing solutions. This mechanism was proposed by Ethereum researcher Julian Ma.FCR determines whether a block can be considered confirmed by evaluating the validators' attestations, rather than relying on the traditional block depth counting method. Its operation is based on two premises: that network message propagation is fast enough, and that no single entity holds more than 25% of the staked ETH. Currently, most users rely on canonical bridges to complete asset transfers, which typically require waiting about 13 minutes; some exchanges and L2s have adopted "k-depth" confirmation rules to shorten the wait, but this method lacks formal security guarantees.FCR can be deployed without a hard fork, and nodes can independently enable it without the need for coordination across the entire network. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed support for this, believing that the mechanism can provide "hard guarantees" for transactions within a single time slot (about 12 seconds) under specific network conditions. However, there are still voices of skepticism in the community, with some users concerned about whether its trust assumptions can hold up under network pressure. Currently, client and API integration work is still ongoing.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an article introducing a new Ethereum fast confirmation rule mechanism. This mechanism allows users to receive a hard guarantee that Ethereum transactions will not be reverted (Non-revert) after just one Slot (12 seconds). Vitalik pointed out that the security of this rule is based on two premises: first, that the vast majority of validators are honest nodes, and second, that network latency is below approximately 3 seconds. Although its security is slightly lower than economic finality, it already possesses strong reliability for many application scenarios.

Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform, stating that there is an important synergy between the FOCIL mechanism and the account abstraction proposal Ethereum's EIP-8141 (based on 7701). EIP-8141 elevates smart accounts (including multi-signature, quantum-resistant signatures, key changes, Gas sponsorship, etc.) to "first-class citizens," meaning that operations from these accounts can be directly packaged as on-chain transactions without additional encapsulation.At the same time, privacy protocols can achieve a multi-tenant account model through the paymaster or 2D nonce mechanism, thereby gaining the same level of native support. FOCIL provides a censorship-resistant fast transaction inclusion mechanism. With the combination of both, various transactions, including smart wallet transactions, Gas sponsorship transactions, and privacy protocol transactions, can be included in blocks by one of the 17 roles (proposers or inclusions) randomly selected for each time slot.Vitalik stated that this design can ensure that transactions are almost guaranteed to be completed on-chain within 1-2 time slots in adversarial environments. In the current version, each FOCIL volume is approximately 8kB, which is relatively small, but there is a path for future expansion that could support most transactions in a block entering through the FOCIL channel. This architecture is similar in characteristics to the multi-parallel proposer (MCP) design, but differs in that FOCIL does not control the "last look" related to MEV, which is still allocated through the ePBS auction mechanism.Vitalik emphasized that even if 100% of block time slots are monopolized by adversarial parties through the proposer-builder separation (PBS) mechanism, refusing to connect to the public mempool or discriminating against specific applications, FOCIL can still ensure that all transactions receive fast inclusion. Although this design does not eliminate the centralization risk of the proposer role, it significantly weakens its power. Under the EIP-8141 framework, transactions from smart wallets or privacy protocols can be directly received by FOCIL inclusions through the public mempool without additional intermediaries or encapsulation processes.Vitalik concluded that Ethereum is accelerating the advancement of core architecture upgrades.

According to CoinDesk, the fast-food chain Steak 'n Shake stated that its decision to accept Bitcoin payments nine months ago has significantly boosted same-store sales.In a statement released on the X platform on Monday, the company said that Bitcoin payments would go directly into its strategic Bitcoin reserves, which would then be used to distribute bonuses to employees. Earlier this year, the company revealed that it had increased its corporate financial reserves by acquiring $10 million worth of Bitcoin, creating a self-reinforcing cycle: customers pay with BTC, sales rise, and crypto revenue flows back into the reserves.Steak 'n Shake began accepting Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network in May of last year. Since then, its same-store sales initially recorded a 10% increase. The company's Chief Operating Officer, Dan Edwards, revealed that when customers pay with cryptocurrency, the company can save about 50% on processing fees. In October of last year, the fast-food chain launched a Bitcoin-themed burger and donated a small portion of the proceeds from each Bitcoin meal to open-source Bitcoin development projects.

According to market news, the American fast-food chain Steak 'n Shake announced that it will grant Bitcoin bonuses to hourly employees at its company-owned stores, accumulating at a rate of $0.21 per hour worked starting from March 1, with a two-year vesting period before they can be redeemed.Based on a 40-hour work week, employees can accumulate approximately $436.8 worth of Bitcoin each year. The final value will depend on the market price of Bitcoin two years later. The chain began accepting Bitcoin payments at select locations last year, with all Bitcoin sales revenue going into the company's "strategic Bitcoin reserve."

Economists at BNP Paribas have stated that, given Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's expansionary fiscal policy may further boost inflation, the Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates at a slightly faster pace than previously anticipated.Analysts expect the Bank of Japan to raise rates in April, followed by continued tightening every four to five months until the policy rate reaches 2%. The report noted, "Depending on future exchange rate trends, the possibility of the next rate hike being brought forward to March cannot be ruled out." Japanese officials have previously warned that the government is prepared to take measures against excessive fluctuations of the yen.

According to Jinshi News, Nasdaq is considering introducing a "fast track" rule to accelerate the inclusion of newly listed large companies. This amendment allows newly listed companies to join the Nasdaq 100 Index after the first 15 trading days, significantly shorter than the current waiting period of at least three months. This move aims to make the index more timely in reflecting the market. In the current environment, companies often delay going public for years, and once they enter the public market, they can release a massive market capitalization.Companies expected to go public this year include SpaceX, which has a potential valuation of up to $1.3 trillion, making it one of the largest companies by market capitalization in the Nasdaq 100 Index. The "fast track" rule is part of an industry consultation plan, with relevant discussions expected to conclude later this month. If approved by the Nasdaq Index Management Committee after the consultation, the adjustment will take effect after the March quarterly rebalancing.