18 March 2026: ¿qué novedades hay en las DeFi?
The convergence between TradFi and DeFi continues to gather momentum, amid key developments across the web3 universe:
1) Bybit EU has integrated PayPal as a funding and withdrawal option across its EEA markets, giving users another route to move between fiat and crypto.
The addition broadens payment access on the platform and reflects the wider push among regulated European crypto providers to make account funding and cash withdrawals more straightforward.
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2) Crypto.com has partnered with KG Inicis, South Korea’s largest payment gateway provider, to expand the use of digital asset payments in the country, according to their press release.
The agreement will focus initially on foreign tourists, who will be able to use crypto to pay for goods and services across KG Inicis’s merchant network, while merchants can choose to settle in either fiat or digital assets.
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3) Asset manager, T. Rowe Price, has submitted an updated S-1 filing (Amendment No. 2) to the SEC for its proposed Active Crypto ETF, which is planned to trade under the ticker “TKNZ” on NYSE Arca, adding $SUI to the pool of eligible assets.
The proposed ETF is expected to track a diversified basket of 5–15 cryptocurrencies, selected from a submitted list of eligible assets that includes BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, AVAX, LTC, DOT, DOGE, HBAR, BCH, LINK, XLM, SHIB, and now SUI.
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4) South Korea’s Hana Financial Group has partnered with Standard Chartered to explore joint digital asset initiatives, including stablecoins, in a sign of growing institutional commitment to the sector in Asia.
The collaboration brings together one of South Korea’s largest financial groups, which generated more than $2.67B in net income in 2025, with a global bank that has already launched institutional spot BTC and ETH trading and expanded digital asset custody across multiple jurisdictions.
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5) The Ethereum Foundation has completed a $10.2M OTC sale of 5,000 ETH to BitMine Immersion Technologies at an average price of $2,042.96 per ETH, marking its second direct treasury sale to a corporate buyer after last year’s SharpLink transaction, according to their post on X.
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6) The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dismissed its civil case against BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji, ending the lawsuit without penalties and with prejudice.
The case originally accused Al-Naji of defrauding investors through the BitClout social-token platform, and its dismissal comes as part of a broader trend of US regulators dropping crypto-related cases.
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7) BlackRock’s new iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) recorded more than $15.5M in first-day trading volume and launched with over $100M in assets. BlackRock’s first digital asset ETF also has a built-in staking component.
Under normal conditions, between 70% and 95% of the portfolio’s ETH is committed to staking, while the balance is kept liquid to support creations, redemptions, and day-to-day fund operations. Of the staking income generated, 82% is paid through to investors, with the remaining 18% retained by the sponsor and execution partner.
ETHB charges a 0.25% annual sponsor fee, although this is initially reduced to 0.12% on the fund’s first $2.5B of assets during its first year.
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8) Hong Kong’s forthcoming stablecoin licensing regime could see HSBC and Standard Chartered among the first institutions to receive approval, according to local media reports.
Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the two banks are likely to be included in the first batch of licences issued under the new framework, which requires any company seeking to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong to obtain authorisation from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
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9) Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token (FRNT) has gone live on Hedera, a public distributed ledger network, becoming the first stable token issued by a U.S. state.
The debut marks an important step in the expansion of state-backed digital currency initiatives, with FRNT designed to support faster and more efficient transfers while preserving the transparency and reserve backing expected of a public-sector asset.
Hedera provides the low-cost blockchain infrastructure underpinning the token, while Kraken, Fireblocks and LayerZero support trading access, issuance operations and cross-chain transfers from launch.
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10) Singapore-based MetaComp Pte. Ltd, a Web2.5 (a hybrid layer combining Web3 blockchain tools with traditional Web2 systems) payments and wealth platform, has completed a Pre-A+ funding round backed by Alibaba, bringing its total funding to $35M across two rounds in three months.
The company and its licensed affiliates, including Alpha Ladder Finance, are building an integrated platform that combines fiat and stablecoin payments with traditional and tokenised wealth management services for enterprises, financial institutions, and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
The new capital will help expand MetaComp’s StableX Network across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America and support development of its AI-driven Web2.5 payment and wealth infrastructure.
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11) Metaplanet, a Bitcoin treasury firm, is expanding beyond its bitcoin treasury strategy with the launch of two new subsidiaries focused on venture investing and asset management.
- Metaplanet Ventures will back companies building crypto financial infrastructure in Japan
- Metaplanet Asset Management will focus on bitcoin-related investment products and capital markets activity.
The company is making its first investment through the venture arm - JPY 400M into yen-backed stablecoin issuer JPYC.
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The Latest Listings - CFGUSDT
Centrifuge is a blockchain-based protocol focused on bringing real-world assets on-chain and enabling decentralised access to asset-backed financing. Its core objective is to connect traditional financial markets with blockchain infrastructure by allowing off-chain assets such as private credit, invoices, and other receivables to be tokenised and funded through on-chain liquidity.
The protocol operates as a credit infrastructure layer that facilitates the creation and financing of asset pools. Asset originators introduce collateral, which is structured into investable pools, while investors supply capital and earn returns derived from the underlying cash flows.
This model mirrors elements of traditional structured finance, but replaces parts of the intermediary stack with programmable smart contracts and on-chain settlement.
Centrifuge has moved from its earlier architecture around the legacy Centrifuge Chain to what it now describes as a native EVM execution environment under Centrifuge V3, with the protocol and CFG token migrated accordingly in 2025. In its current form, the protocol is structured as an open-source system for tokenising and distributing financial products across multiple blockchains through immutable smart contracts.
Its architecture is built around a hub-and-spoke model, in which a single hub chain handles pool management, accounting, pricing and investment request processing, while spoke chains are used for token issuance, transfer and redemption. Within that structure, share tokens are issued as ERC-20s, vaults can be deployed using ERC-4626 for synchronous flows and ERC-7540 for request-based flows, and cross-chain movement uses a burn-and-mint mechanism.
Otra característica técnica clave es su sistema de contabilidad totalmente on-chain, donde el centro mantiene una contabilidad de partida doble y registros consolidados de las tenencias en las diferentes redes.
En la práctica, esto significa que Centrifuge se describe mejor como una infraestructura de tokenización e inversión multicadena, y no como un proyecto de cadena independiente.
El token CFG funciona como el activo de gobernanza y coordinación nativo de la red. Se usa para participar en la toma de decisiones a nivel de protocolo, alinear los incentivos entre las partes interesadas y respaldar el desarrollo del ecosistema. Su función ahora está ligada principalmente a la gobernanza, la alineación económica y la participación a largo plazo en el crecimiento del ecosistema de Centrifuge.