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Western Union announced the completion of its acquisition of the digital wallet Dash, which is owned by Singapore Telecommunications. This transaction gives Western Union its first digital wallet in the Asia-Pacific region and is an important part of its Beyond strategy.Founded in 2014, Dash has over 1.4 million users in Singapore and offers services such as bill payments, overseas remittances, savings, investments, and insurance. Western Union stated that integrating Dash will allow its customers in Singapore to connect more directly to its global network, which covers over 200 countries and regions. Vince Tallent, head of Western Union's Asia-Pacific region, stated that the combination of Dash's local customer base with Western Union's global network will help provide more seamless services. The specific amount of the transaction has not been disclosed.

According to Jinshi reports, "Fed mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos wrote that 178,000 new jobs were added in March, reversing the significant decline in February. The unemployment rate also dropped to 4.3%.However, some details are not very optimistic, as wage growth for ordinary workers has slowed to the lowest year-on-year growth rate in five years since the pandemic recovery. Averaging these two volatile months reveals a clearer underlying trend: an average of only 22,500 new jobs per month. Two years ago, adding 22,500 jobs per month would have raised alarms; today, such a level may still be considered acceptable.Federal Reserve officials are still trying to explain this change. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly wrote on Friday, "It is not easy for the public to understand that zero job growth can still be consistent with full employment." This situation is particularly fragile in the face of new supply shocks. If the war in Iran continues, high fuel costs or commodity shortages could squeeze businesses and consumers, leaving the labor market without a buffer to absorb the shocks. Meanwhile, concerns about inflation may weaken the certainty of interest rate cuts, further limiting the Fed's policy space.

A man in Singapore was sentenced to two years in prison for assisting a former colleague in illegally transferring and laundering approximately 8.83 million Singapore dollars (about 6.5 million US dollars) in cryptocurrency assets.The case revealed that three former employees, after leaving due to disputes, hacked into the cryptocurrency trading platform SafeX, a subsidiary of their former company DLT Ltd, and transferred funds in three transactions between June and August 2025. The individuals involved received the funds through their wife's account, converted them multiple times into Bitcoin and the stablecoin USDT, and dispersed them into multiple wallets to conceal their flow. Some of the funds have been cashed out for personal expenses. One individual involved is still at large.

The blockchain lottery platform Megapot announced the completion of a $5 million financing round, led by Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Bankless Ventures, and angel investors.The project operates on the Base network and uses stablecoins to achieve global fund settlement. Megapot plans to use this round of financing to further expand into more national markets and develop a mobile on-chain lottery platform for global users.

The Singapore Exchange today welcomed its first ETF tracking local gold reserves—the LionGlobal Physical Gold ETF officially listed, with the underlying gold purity not less than 99.5%. Previously, this fund was opened to retail and institutional investors on the over-the-counter platform about four months ago.Singapore's move echoes the strategy of its competitor Hong Kong: Hong Kong has signed a gold clearing agreement with the Shanghai Gold Exchange and plans to build a vault with a capacity of over 2,000 tons within three years. However, as both regions expand their gold investments, gold prices are under pressure and falling, with U.S. gold futures dropping from over $5,400 per ounce on March 2 to as low as $4,100.Analysts point out that Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz is driving up energy prices, exacerbating inflation expectations, and prompting central banks to delay easing monetary policy. Market logic has shifted from risk aversion to inflation, interest rates, and liquidity, putting continued pressure on gold.

According to CoinDesk, Ripple is piloting its RLUSD stablecoin in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's BLOOM sandbox.The pilot is conducted in collaboration with supply chain company Unloq and will test automated cross-border trade payments triggered by goods verification on the XRP Ledger.

Ripple announced its participation in the BLOOM program under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where it will test a cross-border trade financing automatic settlement solution powered by the stablecoin RLUSD within the regulatory sandbox.Ripple is collaborating with supply chain fintech company Unloq to build a condition-triggered payment system based on the XRP Ledger—when preset conditions such as goods verification are met, the system will automatically release RLUSD payments, replacing the cumbersome processes in traditional trade financing that rely on manual verification, letters of credit, and correspondent banking relationships, significantly compressing the settlement period from several days or even weeks.

Strategy has recently significantly increased its holdings in Bitcoin, and its Bitcoin holdings are expected to surpass those of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). As of 2026, Strategy holds 761,068 BTC, valued at approximately $5.62 billion, narrowing the gap with BlackRock's 782,170 BTC holdings to just 21,102 BTC.In the past two weeks, Strategy has purchased a total of 40,331 BTC, spending about $2.85 billion, marking the largest consecutive buying spree since January of this year, significantly reducing the gap with BlackRock. At the current pace, Strategy is expected to surpass BlackRock within the next one to two weeks. In terms of funding sources, this round of purchases primarily relied on strong demand for STRC preferred shares. STRC raised $1.18 billion for the larger purchase (covering about 75% of the cost, supporting the acquisition of approximately 16,753 BTC) and contributed about 30% (approximately $377 million, supporting the acquisition of about 5,313 BTC) to the previous purchase. Strategy's Bitcoin strategy manager Chaitanya Jain described this model as "the most aggressive financial engineering feat to date, expanding the boundaries of Bitcoin capital formation."

Singapore stablecoin payment infrastructure company dtcpay has completed a $10 million Series A financing round, led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.dtcpay has obtained a Luxembourg electronic money institution license to expand regulated payment services in the European Economic Area.

The Singapore-based stablecoin payment infrastructure company Dtcpay announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round, led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.The company has obtained a Luxembourg electronic money institution license to expand regulated payment services in the European Economic Area. Dtcpay builds stablecoin payment infrastructure for businesses and consumers and has partnered with Visa to launch a card that connects digital finance with traditional finance. Its platform supports real-time settlement between stablecoins and fiat currencies.

Takatoshi Shibayama, the head of Ledger's Asia-Pacific region, stated that if the United States implements a broader ban on stablecoin yields, discussions will take place among institutions, stablecoin issuers, and regulators in other countries. He pointed out that countries like Australia have provided regulatory exemptions for stablecoin issuers, but currently, most stablecoins do not offer yields or rewards to users even outside the United States, in order to protect banking interests.If U.S. policies change, discussions between stablecoin issuers and regulators in various countries about allowing yields to be passed on to users will significantly increase. The U.S. Senate is currently advancing a cryptocurrency regulation bill, but provisions supported by banking lobby groups that prohibit third-party platforms from offering stablecoin yields have stalled the legislation, which has drawn opposition from cryptocurrency industry lobbyists.Shibayama also mentioned that the way Asian financial institutions are focusing on the cryptocurrency industry has changed, with a certain degree of decoupling from cryptocurrency and blockchain technology since last year. Institutions are more focused on the tokenization of financial products and the issuance of stablecoins, rather than on DeFi and staking, which are native cryptocurrency products. Assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum are excluded from discussions. However, asset management companies are still considering launching cryptocurrency products to enrich client options.

French Hill, chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, stated that the CLARITY Act is expected to address some regulatory issues not covered by the GENIUS Act.In an interview, Hill mentioned that the banking industry still has concerns about the proposed cryptocurrency regulatory framework, particularly regarding the regulatory treatment that future crypto companies may face. Hill pointed out that the House passed the CLARITY Act last summer with bipartisan support, including 78 Democratic votes in favor. The bill is part of Washington's push to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, aiming to clarify how stablecoins and other digital assets operate in the U.S. financial markets. Additionally, policymakers are discussing whether crypto companies should be subject to the same level of regulation as banks. Hill stated that both parties have reached a consensus on a key principle: stablecoins should not pay interest to holders, which is also a central topic of discussion surrounding the GENIUS Act.

According to Cointelegraph, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering regulatory body, has released a new report indicating that offshore virtual asset service providers (oVASP) pose risks of money laundering, sanctions evasion, and other illegal financial activities.The report points out that some offshore cryptocurrency companies exploit differences in regulatory and supervisory coverage, making it difficult for authorities to effectively monitor transactions and enforce anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing regulations. As many offshore crypto businesses operate across multiple jurisdictions, such as differing locations for company registration, infrastructure, and customers, regulators find it challenging to clarify regulatory responsibilities, which also limits international cooperation.FATF recommends that countries require offshore companies providing services to register or obtain licenses, even if they operate abroad, and strengthen cross-border regulatory and law enforcement cooperation. Additionally, FATF has previously warned that peer-to-peer stablecoin transactions and non-custodial wallets may undermine AML regulation, necessitating national-level risk assessments and the establishment of protective mechanisms.

According to Decrypt, Chinese citizen Zhang Xinghua was sentenced to two years in prison by a Singapore court for conspiring to abuse computer systems and handling criminal proceeds in connection with a theft of approximately $6.9 million at the SafeX cryptocurrency exchange.Prosecutors stated that he conspired with two other accomplices, one of whom, Chen Chong Xin, who is still at large, accessed the SafeX crypto vault without authorization three times between June and August 2025, transferring over $6.9 million to multiple wallets. He then laundered part of the funds through Tornado Cash, depositing over $1.6 million in two transactions, which could have yielded over $886,000 in profits, but police intervened to stop it.The case came to light after the SafeX system triggered a low balance alert. Singapore has frozen or seized approximately $2.1 million in related crypto assets, while about $4.8 million remains unrecoverable in offshore private wallets or with virtual asset service providers. Court hearings revealed that Zhang Xinghua returned approximately $95,000 in Bitcoin through his wife. Another accomplice in the case is still under investigation.

According to Bloomberg, Bridge Data Centres (BDC) plans to invest up to SGD 5 billion (approximately USD 3.9 billion) in its home market of Singapore for the development of artificial intelligence technologies, aiming to accelerate its business growth in Asia.BDC CEO Eric Fan stated that the private company will invest in research projects and facilities, focusing on advanced power architecture, next-generation cooling systems, AI-driven operations, and energy optimization for high-density computing environments.

According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin mining pool operator Foundry Digital plans to launch a domestic Zcash mining pool in the U.S. next month, providing a mining platform built around compliance reviews, reporting standards, and operational controls for institutional and publicly traded company miners.Foundry CEO Mike Colyer stated that Zcash has evolved into an institutional-grade asset, but its mining infrastructure has not kept pace. He pointed out that institutional and publicly traded miners looking to gain exposure to Zcash previously lacked a compliance-specific infrastructure in the U.S. The mining pool will implement KYC and anti-money laundering compliance reviews for participants, with mining rewards distributed through transparent Zcash addresses rather than concealed ones, using a PPLNS payment model, and with no minimum hash rate threshold.Privacy coins have recently regained market attention, with ZEC rising over 670% in the past 12 months, XMR increasing by 72% during the same period, and DASH up by 51%. After Bitcoin's halving in 2024, mining profitability has tightened, with hash rate prices dropping from over $60 per PH to $30, prompting several large mining companies to explore other PoW networks to diversify their revenue sources. Colyer stated that this move is not primarily in response to declining Bitcoin profits, as Foundry's Bitcoin mining business remains solid, and the company is currently focused on both Bitcoin and Zcash chains.