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The Web3 asset data platform RootData has outlined Mastercard's cryptocurrency business partners, which now exceed 100, covering multiple key areas such as public chains, stablecoins, trading platforms, risk control services, and payment infrastructure. Unlike Visa and PayPal's more "selective partnership" strategy, Mastercard aims to become the connective layer for all payment links.Structurally, this network can be understood as a "multi-node collaborative system":Assets and Settlement: Through stablecoin issuers like Circle and Paxos, as well as multiple public chains, it undertakes on-chain assets and settlement capabilities.Connection and Circulation: Integrating cross-chain protocols, custody services, and payment channels to allow different chains and assets to flow within its system.Compliance and Security: Introducing risk control service providers like TRM Labs and Elliptic to build compliance capabilities aimed at the global regulatory environment.Applications and Reach: Collaborating with exchanges, wallets, and financial institutions to transform on-chain capabilities into user-perceived payment and consumption scenarios.Therefore, Mastercard's strategy is essentially not about selecting suppliers but about lowering access thresholds and expanding network externalities. It connects more upstream chains and asset issuers while attracting payment institutions and financial terminals downstream, making its strategy more aligned with the center of the next-generation payment system. Related compilation: 【Mastercard Crypto Partner Network Compilation (Continuously Updated)】Cryptocurrency projects actively showcasing their partner networks have become a key way to enhance transparency and market trust. It is reported that RootData welcomes Web3 project parties to claim data and continues to track and open more project business relationship disclosure channels. The platform has continuously released multiple editions of the cryptocurrency project ecosystem map, nominating Web3 ecosystem partners for upstream clients such as Visa, Stripe, and Coinbase.If you wish to nominate your project in future ecosystem maps, please fill out the 【RootData 2026 Industry Ecosystem Mapping】 form to supplement your important clients and partners.

According to tracking data from the Web3 asset data platform RootData X, in the past 7 days, the blockchain-based next-generation email Dmail has been the project that X (Twitter) top figures have unfollowed the most. New unfollowers of this project include DeFi analyst Ignas (@DefiIgnas), crypto KOL Yuyue (@yuyue_chris), and small catcher CHAOS (@iamyourchaos).In addition, the projects that X top figures have unfollowed the most also include Tribe.run and boop.

According to Jiemian News, OpenAI plans to discontinue the Sora standalone application six months after its high-profile launch to streamline its artificial intelligence product line. The company launched the Sora application at the end of September last year, promising users a more convenient way to generate and share realistic AI videos in a quasi-social network.This free application quickly topped the Apple App Store rankings but has since fallen in rank. In addition to shutting down this standalone application, OpenAI will also close the application programming interface (API) for developers using Sora.

The blockchain attendance proof protocol POAP announced that it will enter maintenance mode starting March 16, 2026, ceasing the onboarding of new issuers, but existing issuers, integrations, and collection tools will continue to operate.POAP co-founder Isabel Gonzalez stated that the platform successfully found its niche in the crypto-native community but failed to break out of the niche to achieve larger-scale expansion. The platform began charging commercial clients in 2023 to sustain operations, but still could not support further development.Since its first issuance at the 2019 ETHDenver hackathon, POAP has minted over 6.7 million tokens, attracting more than 37,000 issuers, including brands like Adidas and Porsche. The team is currently focused on building an open digital collectibles standard to provide a more sustainable infrastructure for community event records and participation certification.

a16z partner Andrew Chen pointed out that AI code generation will fundamentally replace spreadsheets—spreadsheets are essentially "business logic trapped in a grid," lacking version control, testing, and modularity.AI code generation will compress the marginal cost from "spreadsheets" to "software" to nearly zero, and approximately 1 billion spreadsheet users worldwide are expected to migrate to real software applications.

The digital asset trading platform Gate has launched a no-code AI quantitative workstation, which allows users to generate trading strategies through natural language and deploy them to live trading with one click. Users do not need to write code; they simply describe their trading ideas in natural language, and the system automatically generates executable quantitative strategies. It also conducts backtesting based on real historical market data, supporting one-click deployment to operate in the real market. The platform connects natural language strategy generation, production-level backtesting engine, and real trading execution, forming a complete closed loop of "strategy conception --- data validation --- trading execution," significantly lowering the barriers to quantitative trading.At the same time, Gate has launched Gate for AI, building a unified AI capability interface system that integrates five key capabilities: CEX, DEX, wallets, real-time information, and on-chain data. The AI quantitative workstation further expands application scenarios on this basis, extending AI from data and research to strategy generation and trading execution. With the continuous integration of AI and trading infrastructure, Gate is continuously strengthening AI-driven trading capabilities and advancing the implementation of the Intelligent Web3 strategy.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform: "It is clear that the next generation of wallets will heavily utilize artificial intelligence. I would not trust local lightweight clients (LLM) to handle transactions or funds worth millions of dollars. In high-value situations, the best workflow is 'AI proposes a solution, local lightweight client simulates execution, user reviews the operation and simulation results, and manually confirms.' All of this needs to be done with caution and a strong emphasis on security, but it could bring great convenience; completely removing the user interface of DApps could address a large number of attack vectors (including theft and privacy breaches)."

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated that it is clear that the next generation of wallets will heavily utilize artificial intelligence. I would not trust local lightweight clients (LLM) to handle transactions or funds worth millions of dollars. In high-value situations, the best workflow is "AI proposes solutions, local lightweight clients simulate execution, users review the operations and simulated results, and manually confirm."All of this needs to be done with caution and a strong emphasis on security, but it could bring great convenience; completely removing the user interface of decentralized applications (DApps) could address a large number of attack vectors (including theft and privacy breaches).

As Bitcoin has plunged over 50% from its peak in October 2025, spot Bitcoin ETFs have still recorded about $1.5 billion in net inflows over the past five trading days, with nearly all major issuers seeing an influx of funds. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF expert Eric Balchunas exclaimed, "Even I am impressed," attributing this wave of buying to older "baby boomer" investors (born between 1946 and 1964), joking that they are "stepping in to save the market again."Analysts point out that the role of institutional investors is also significant. Data shows that among the top 25 Bitcoin ETF holders, 17 have continued to increase their positions since last October. Currently, the total holdings of Bitcoin ETFs exceed $107 billion, with institutions controlling about 12% of the total supply across the network. Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute, stated, "ETF investors are clearly not fleeing in panic."

NVIDIA announced strategic partnerships with photonics device manufacturers Lumentum and Coherent, each investing $2 billion, totaling $4 billion.Both investments are aimed at supporting each other's R&D, manufacturing capacity expansion, and operations in the United States, with Lumentum planning to build a new wafer fab. Both agreements are non-exclusive collaborations, including multi-billion dollar procurement commitments and future capacity rights for advanced laser and optical network products. According to market news, the stock prices of both photonics companies surged significantly after the announcement.

According to Chainwire, the new generation entertainment platform BLUFF has completed a $21 million financing round, led by the blockchain technology fund 1kx, with participation from investors such as Makers Fund, Maximum Frequency Ventures, and Delphi Ventures Founders.The BLUFF team will use the funds to advance the development of its innovative prediction platform and scale its promotion.