PA Daily News | US CFTC Releases Compliance Guidelines for Crypto and Blockchain Businesses; Gold Suffers Largest Weekly Drop in 43 Years

Today's top news highlights:

1. The US CFTC releases compliance guidelines for crypto and blockchain businesses.

2. Gold's rebound was short-lived, resulting in its biggest weekly drop in 43 years.

3. Bitmine has staked another 101,776 ETH, bringing the total staked amount to over 3.14 million ETH.

4. Polymarket will announce major news next Monday, with the community speculating it may involve fundraising or issuing a new token.

5. Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased by 7.76% to 133.79T

6. Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $52.1092 million yesterday, marking the third consecutive day of net outflows.

Regulation & Macro

The Shanghai Stock Exchange has accepted the IPO application of Unitree Robotics Corp. on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with a fundraising target of 4.202 billion yuan.

According to the official website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Unitree Automation Co., Ltd.'s IPO project on the Science and Technology Innovation Board was accepted on March 20, 2026, and is currently under review. The company plans to raise approximately RMB 4.202 billion. The sponsoring institution is CITIC Securities, the auditing firm is Rongcheng Certified Public Accountants, the legal counsel is Beijing Deheng Law Firm, and the asset appraisal is handled by Zhongshui Zhiyuan Asset Appraisal Co., Ltd.

The White House released a national artificial intelligence legislative framework, emphasizing unified federal regulation and U.S. leadership.

According to the White House website, the Trump administration released a national artificial intelligence legislation framework, outlining six goals. The framework calls for protecting children through parental controls and child safety features; supporting data centers generating their own electricity, opposing the use of residential electricity bills for AI infrastructure costs, and strengthening efforts to combat AI fraud and national security threats; acknowledging the need for "fair use" of AI while protecting creators' intellectual property and portrait rights; preventing the government from using AI to censor legitimate political speech and ensuring freedom of speech; urging Congress to remove barriers to innovation and expand testing environments to ensure U.S. AI dominance; and promoting workforce training to build an employment structure adapted to the AI ​​economy. The document emphasizes the need for federal legislation to avoid fragmented state regulations.

The US CFTC releases compliance guidelines for crypto and blockchain businesses.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from its Market Participants Division and Clearing and Risk Division, providing further clarification on compliance requirements for registered institutions and entities involved in activities related to crypto assets and blockchain technology. These documents build upon previously released CFTC Staff Letters 25-39 (Tokenized Collateral Guidance) and 26-05 (No Objection Letter Regarding the Acceptance of Digital Assets as Margin Collateral), clarifying the regulatory framework and operational guidelines that market participants must follow when using tokenized collateral and digital asset margin.

Gold's rebound was short-lived, resulting in its biggest weekly drop in 43 years.

According to CLS News Agency, the gold rebound was short-lived, with the price exhibiting an inverted V-shaped pattern throughout the day, falling more than 5% from its daily high and breaking through the important support level of $4,500. This week's plunge exceeded 10%, reaching a seven-week low and marking the largest weekly drop since March 1983.

As of Friday's (March 20) close in New York trading, spot gold fell 3.42% to $4,491.67 per ounce, a cumulative drop of more than 10% this week; COMEX gold futures fell 2.47% to $4,492 per ounce, a cumulative drop of more than 11% this week.

Spot silver fell 6.8% to $67.897 per ounce, a cumulative drop of over 15% this week; COMEX silver futures fell 4.78% to $67.810 per ounce, a cumulative drop of over 16% this week.

Project Updates

Yearn increases yvUSD staking rewards to 15%.

According to an official announcement from Yearn, due to strong demand for the locked-up version of yvUSD, Yearn has increased the extra reward for yvUSD locked-up users from 10% to 15%, meaning that locked-up users will receive higher returns than ordinary deposit users.

Binance will launch PAYPUSDT U-margined perpetual contracts.

Binance Futures will launch a PAYPUSDT equity perpetual contract on March 23, 2026 at 22:30 (UTC+8), with the underlying asset being PayPay Corporation common stock (NASDAQ: PAYP). The contract is settled in USDT and supports leverage up to 10x.

Binance will delist APTUSD and OPUSD-margined perpetual contracts on March 25th.

Binance Futures will automatically settle and delist the COIN-M APTUSD and OPUSD perpetual contracts at 17:00 (UTC+8) on March 25, 2026.

Polymarket is expected to announce major news next Monday, with community speculation suggesting it may involve fundraising or a token issuance.

Mustafa, a member of the Polymarket team, posted on the X platform that a major announcement will be made next Monday. Because the tweet included a coin symbol, the community speculates that it may be related to a funding round or token launch.

Opinions & Analysis

Galaxy Research Director: SEC's New Plan Defines the Boundaries for Digital Assets, Marking a Major Shift in Regulatory Attitude

Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, pointed out in an article published on the X platform that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued landmark regulatory guidance on digital assets this week. This move marks a shift in the SEC's regulatory stance on digital assets from the hostile attitude and vague rules of the Gary Gensler era to a more structured, transparent approach that supports industry compliance.

Alex Thorn detailed four key changes in this regulatory guidance: First, non-security digital assets can be freely traded on the secondary market after the issuer completes its core management commitments and will no longer be continuously classified as securities; second, the criterion of "full decentralization" has been removed, and the issuer's publicly made commitments are now the core basis; third, a clear safe harbor clause has been added, clarifying that common behaviors such as airdrops, mining, and staking generally do not constitute securities transactions; and fourth, the scope of the "efforts of others" analysis has been significantly narrowed, focusing only on the issuer's core management commitments and no longer taking into account third-party market speculation or community comments.

In addition, Alex Thorn echoed the industry's call to continue pushing for the CLARITY Act to be passed, which is expected to provide more lasting legal protection for crypto assets and help Bitcoin and the entire crypto asset industry achieve long-term healthy development in the US capital market.

10x Research: Crypto Market at a Key Turning Point, Altcoins Dominate the Market

10x Research, in an analysis published on the X platform, points out that the crypto market is at a critical inflection point. While Bitcoin maintains support levels, altcoins have begun to quietly dominate the market, and market misalignment may cause "buy the dip" strategies to frequently fail. Specifically, Ethereum may be supported by institutional buying and structural upgrades; Solana by ETF inflows; XRP by retail demand and application expansion; BNB under short-term pressure but benefiting from RWA's long-term development; and TRON driven by payment application growth, stablecoin usage, and whale buying. At this stage, returns will depend more on tactical position management than directional judgment. As Bitcoin's dominance declines, the strategy has shifted to prioritizing altcoins that have stabilized at key levels, capitalizing on high-risk continuations or failed trends. In a bear market environment, the focus should be on short-term momentum trading rather than blindly buying the dip. Meanwhile, reduced token unlocking pressure and low trading volume indicate limited selling pressure, supporting overall market resilience.

Analysis: Risk assets are under pressure across the board, with BTC and US stock ETFs experiencing continued capital outflows.

As the war between the US and Israel-Iran entered its fourth week, market risk appetite contracted, and Bitcoin continued its weak performance, with its price once falling below $70,000. Funds are accelerating their withdrawal from risky assets: S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 ETFs saw a combined outflow of $64 billion over the past three months, a record high; spot BTC ETFs saw an outflow of $253 million over two days.

Glassnode data shows that the market struggled to absorb selling pressure, with net profit-taking in BTC briefly reaching $17 million per hour before the price subsequently fell back below $70,000. Analysts point out that the current trend is comparable to the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, suggesting that BTC may rebound initially before weakening; another view is that the price is unlikely to improve before the war with Iran subsides, and may bottom out around $55,000 before recovering.

Important data

Ethereum spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $41.9715 million yesterday, marking the third consecutive day of net outflows.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $52.1092 million yesterday, marking the third consecutive day of net outflows.

A mysterious whale bought another 3,618 ETH, bringing its total holdings to over $229 million.

According to Onchain Lens, a mysterious whale address has purchased another 3,618 ETH, using approximately $7.7 million in USDT. This address currently holds approximately 107,000 ETH, worth about $229 million, and also maintains approximately $23 million in USDT on-chain, suggesting further accumulation.

Bitmine has staked another 101,776 ETH, bringing its total staked amount to over 3.14 million ETH.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Ethereum treasury company Bitmine has staked another 101,776 ETH, worth $219.45 million. To date, it has staked 3,142,291 ETH, worth $6.75 billion.

The Worldcoin team is suspected of transferring 117 million WLD tokens for OTC trading.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, the World Coin team appears to be conducting OTC transactions. They received 35 million USDC from FalconX and Binance, and then transferred 117 million WLD tokens to an OTC trading address. These tokens may also be used by market makers.

A whale, suspected to be Erik Voorhees, bought approximately 114,000 ETH in the early hours of the morning.

According to on-chain analyst Ember, a whale suspected to be Erik Voorhees, who was involved in a "dollar-cost averaging" scheme, bought 114,424 ETH in the early morning, worth approximately 30.72 million USDT. He has now spent 253 million USDT to buy 117,800 ETH on-chain through 6 wallets, with an average purchase price of $2,149.

Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased by 7.76% to 133.79T.

According to CloverPool data, Bitcoin mining difficulty was adjusted at block height 941,472 at 05:54 today, dropping to 133.79 T, a decrease of 7.76%, marking the second largest decrease since 2026. The current network hashrate is 933.51 EH/s, and analysis indicates that the next Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment is expected to be further reduced.

According to CLS News Agency, the gold rebound was short-lived, with the price exhibiting an inverted V-shaped pattern throughout the day, falling more than 5% from its daily high and breaking through the important support level of $4,500. This week's plunge exceeded 10%, reaching a seven-week low and marking the largest weekly drop since March 1983.

As of Friday's (March 20) close in New York trading, spot gold fell 3.42% to $4,491.67 per ounce, a cumulative drop of more than 10% this week; COMEX gold futures fell 2.47% to $4,492 per ounce, a cumulative drop of more than 11% this week.

Spot silver fell 6.8% to $67.897 per ounce, a cumulative drop of over 15% this week; COMEX silver futures fell 4.78% to $67.810 per ounce, a cumulative drop of over 16% this week.