Web3 Project Updates and Developments

Payment giant PayPal announced on March 17 that its stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD) is expanding to 70 markets globally, offering low-cost cross-border payment services. Users can hold PYUSD to earn rewards, and B2B settlement times are significantly reduced to just minutes, demonstrating PayPal's aim to leverage blockchain technology to disrupt the traditional payment system.

iMe Smart Platform has partnered with AlloX to enhance AI-driven capital allocation, bridging DeFi and TradFi. This collaboration aims to improve consumer investment experiences through innovative tools and automated insights in the evolving financial landscape.

CME Group launched Cardano futures earlier this year, offering both standard contracts of 100,000 ADA and micro contracts of 10,000 ADA. The launch was a milestone: CME futures were a prerequisite for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF approvals, and ADA now sits on the same institutional rails. The market re

The U.S. CFTC issued a no-action letter to crypto wallet developer Phantom, permitting it to integrate regulated derivatives trading interfaces without registering as a broker. The exemption comes with three major compliance requirements, including risk and conflict of interest disclosures, marking a gradual blurring of lines between DeFi and traditional markets, with significant implications for clarifying regulation of non-custodial wallets.

Mastercard's $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK aims to enhance blockchain payment integration with fiat systems, targeting the growing digital asset market. This deal will improve cross-border transactions and align with Mastercard's broader digital finance ambitions.

Tether announced that its AI infrastructure, QVAC Fabric, has launched the world's first cross-platform BitNet LoRA fine-tuning framework, enabling large language models to be trained on consumer-grade hardware. This technology allows devices like smartphones to complete model fine-tuning, significantly reducing AI development costs, enabling AI decentralization, and making it possible to use AI anytime and anywhere in the future.

Hong Kong regulators received 36 stablecoin license applications but plan to approve only a few issuers. HSBC and Standard Chartered are expected among the first licensed HKD stablecoin issuers. The licensing framework builds on a sandbox program launched in 2024 to test stablecoin

Bitcoin Layer 2 network Stacks implemented SIP-034 upgrade on March 17, enhancing network processing capacity for certain DeFi applications by 30 times. By optimizing transaction processing limits, the upgrade significantly impacts complex DeFi applications and is expected to indirectly increase transactions and fees.

The World project has launched the AgentKit developer toolkit for CEX's intelligent agent payment protocol x402, enabling AI agents authorized by users verified through World to prove their real identities while safeguarding privacy. This initiative integrates payment and identity mechanisms to establish a comprehensive trust system.

DAO infrastructure provider Tally announced it is shutting down operations, citing changes in the US regulatory environment that have reduced demand for decentralized governance. The chief executive pointed out that previous strict regulations prompted projects to adopt DAO structures, while the current lenient environment has made them no longer considered a necessary choice.

Bitcoin infrastructure provider Maestro launches Mezzamine, a credit market denominated in bitcoin, targeting institutional investors with new yield opportunities and expanding miner financing. In collaboration with Sazmining, the project offers an annualized yield rate of 8%-9%, aiming to address risks in traditional mining finance.

Decentralized GPU computing infrastructure platform Aethir officially launched its managed Kubernetes service on March 17, aiming to expand into enterprise-grade AI infrastructure. The service supports rapid cluster deployment, is compatible with the latest GPUs, and starts at $1.45/hour with enterprise-grade security. Through cost optimization, Aethir has been providing computing power services across 95 countries globally, serving 150 enterprise customers.

Tether's QVAC division launched the world's first LoRA fine-tuning framework supporting Microsoft's BitNet architecture on March 17, significantly reducing AI model memory and computational requirements and enabling localized training on mobile phones. The technology allows users to perform personalized learning without uploading data, safeguarding privacy. Testing shows that modern smartphones can effectively fine-tune billion-parameter models, advancing the application potential of edge computing.

Gate News bot message, Aster has launched its mainnet. A block explorer is now live on its website. The largest $ASTER long position on Hyperliquid holds 25.93M $ASTER valued at $20.4M, currently up $3.9M.

Arbitrum Foundation has released the 2025 Transparency Report, showing that traditional finance is accelerating its on-chain business deployment. The ecosystem now includes 189 collaborative projects, with a transaction volume exceeding 2.1 billion transactions and a total value locked of approximately $20 billion. The on-chain RWA scale has surpassed $800 million. At the same time, the foundation is promoting infrastructure upgrades and revenue growth.

Gate News: On March 17, tokenization platform Theo announced the launch of thUSD, a yield-bearing stablecoin backed by gold, and opened a liquidity pool with a maximum capacity of $100 million. The stablecoin is backed by thGOLD, its issued gold token, and generates yield through a cash and carry arbitrage strategy that holds spot gold exposure while shorting gold futures. Previously, Theo raised $15.5 million in funding led by Hack VC and Anthos Capital.

Gate News reported that on March 17, Sharplink announced that since launching its Ethereum vault, it has accumulated 15,464 ETH in staking rewards through staking, valued at approximately $36 million at current prices. Sharplink stated that it earned over 493 ETH through staking last week, generating approximately $1.1 million in returns. The project stated that its held ETH will continue to generate more ETH through staking.

4Heal Technology announced the completion of a million-dollar strategic funding round led by AI MOXA Group. The funds will be used for the development of Web3 AI health intelligent agents, wearable devices, and a decentralized health data platform, while supporting the commercialization of de-identified health data and new product research and development. This marks 4Heal's successful validation of its business model and receipt of its first pre-sale orders.

Ripple announced plans to expand digital asset services in Brazil, with plans to apply for a virtual asset service provider license, and has already connected with multiple local institutions to its network, including Banco Genial and Braza Bank, to promote dollar transfers and stablecoin issuance.

GSR acquires Autonomous and Architech for $57 million, launching an integrated crypto capital markets and treasury management platform. The integration aims to provide one-stop services from project creation, token design to capital planning, helping crypto foundations manage digital asset reserves.