Crypto Morning Brief: SEC Chair Releases Regulatory Framework for Digital Assets; BASED Token to Launch TGE

Author: TechFlow

Yesterday’s Market Highlights

ADP Weekly Employment Report: Private-sector employers added an average of 9,000 jobs per week over the four weeks ending February 28, 2026

According to JIN10 Data, the ADP Weekly Employment Report shows that private-sector employers added an average of 9,000 jobs per week over the four weeks ending February 28, 2026.

SEC Chair Atkins Unveils Crypto Asset Regulatory Framework, Clarifying Four Categories Excluded from Securities Definition

As disclosed on the SEC’s official website, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul S. Atkins delivered a keynote speech at the Washington, D.C. Blockchain Summit on March 17, formally announcing the launch of the “Regulation Crypto Assets” framework and issuing an interpretive guidance document on token classification and the determination of investment contracts.

Regarding asset classification, the SEC explicitly identifies four categories of crypto assets that do not constitute securities: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, and payment stablecoins defined under the GENIUS Act. The only remaining crypto asset category subject to securities laws is digital securities—i.e., tokenized traditional securities.

On investment contract determination, the SEC clarifies the termination conditions for investment contracts, requiring project teams to provide clear, unambiguous disclosures regarding their core managerial commitments. Once an investment contract terminates, the associated crypto asset falls outside the scope of securities regulation.

On exemption pathways, Atkins proposes three draft mechanisms: First, the “Startup Exemption,” permitting projects to raise up to $5 million within four years; second, the “Funding Exemption,” allowing up to $75 million in fundraising over 12 months, contingent upon submission of disclosure documents to the SEC; and third, the “Investment Contract Safe Harbor,” establishing definitive non-security criteria for qualifying crypto assets.

Atkins stated that the SEC plans to open the above rule proposals for public comment in the coming weeks and will coordinate implementation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He also emphasized that comprehensive market-structure legislation enacted by Congress remains the fundamental path to ensuring long-term regulatory stability.

Senator Tim Scott: Progress in Crypto Market Structure Bill Negotiations; Stablecoin Yield Draft Expected This Week

According to CoinDesk, Senator Tim Scott, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, stated at the Washington, D.C. Blockchain Summit on March 18 that negotiations on the previously stalled crypto market structure bill are making substantive progress behind the scenes, and the first draft addressing stablecoin yield provisions is expected this week.

Scott noted that stablecoin yield is the most publicly debated issue in the bill, and Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks, Republican Senator Thom Tillis, and White House official Patrick Witt are actively advancing its resolution.

On other outstanding issues, Scott revealed that multiple points of contention have entered formal negotiation stages over the past month—including ethical concerns arising from President Trump’s and his family’s crypto initiatives, statutory quorum shortfalls among bipartisan commissioners at major regulatory agencies, and regulatory frameworks for DeFi alongside anti-money laundering (AML) compliance requirements. Scott indicated that all these issues are progressing favorably.

Based Foundation: BASED Token TGE Scheduled for March 30

Based Foundation—the Hyperliquid-ecosystem crypto trading and payments platform—announced on X that the BASED token’s token generation event (TGE) will take place on March 30.

Earlier reports indicated that Based, the Hyperliquid-ecosystem crypto trading and payments platform, completed a $11.5 million Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital.

Tether Launches Cross-Platform BitNet LoRA Framework Enabling Large-Model Training and Inference on Consumer GPUs and Smartphones

According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the Tether AI team has released the new QVAC Fabric, integrating the cross-platform BitNet LoRA framework, enabling training and inference of billion-parameter large language models (LLMs) on consumer-grade GPUs and smartphones.

The new QVAC Fabric LLM achieves the first-ever cross-platform deployment of BitNet LoRA fine-tuning and inference across AMD, Intel, Apple Metal, and mobile GPUs. On flagship devices, GPU inference speeds are 2–11× faster than CPU-based inference, while memory consumption is reduced by up to 90% compared to full-precision models. The Tether team has successfully fine-tuned models up to 3.8 billion parameters on flagship smartphones including the Pixel 9, Galaxy S25, and iPhone 16, and achieved fine-tuning of models up to 13 billion parameters on the iPhone 16. Related source code has been open-sourced on GitHub.

NVIDIA Forecasts $1 Trillion in Revenue by 2027 Amid Surging AI Inference Demand

According to Nikkei Asia, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced in his keynote address at GTC 2026 that the company forecasts cumulative revenue exceeding $1 trillion by 2027, driven primarily by robust demand for AI chips. Despite external concerns about the sustainability of large-scale AI infrastructure buildouts, NVIDIA’s growth momentum remains strong. Additionally, Samsung’s foundry division will manufacture NVIDIA’s next-generation Groq chips, further deepening collaboration between the two companies in AI hardware.

Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing Donates RMB 130 Million to Support Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s AI Future Foundation

According to CaiBao Planet, Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing and his spouse jointly donated RMB 130 million in cash and Ant Group shares to their alma mater, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, on March 17, to support the university’s “AI Future Foundation.”

Bitrefill Breached by North Korean Hacker Group; ~18,500 User Purchase Records Accessed

According to an official post on Bitrefill’s X account, the crypto gift card platform suffered a cyberattack on March 1, 2026. Investigators concluded—based on attack methodology, malware used, on-chain tracking, and reused IP addresses and email accounts—that the incident bears high similarity to prior attacks against the crypto industry by the North Korean DPRK Lazarus/Bluenoroff hacker group.

The initial breach occurred via a compromised employee laptop. Attackers leveraged stolen historical credentials to access production keys stored in snapshots and subsequently conducted lateral movement across broader infrastructure—including certain databases and hot wallets—resulting in the transfer of funds from hot wallets to attacker-controlled addresses.

Regarding user data, approximately 18,500 purchase records were accessed, exposing metadata such as email addresses, crypto payment addresses, and IP addresses. Among these, roughly 1,000 records contained user names. Although names were encrypted at rest, attackers may have obtained the decryption keys; affected users have been individually notified via email. The company confirmed there is no evidence indicating attackers performed a full database export.

Bitrefill has since resumed normal operations. The company stated its financial position remains sound and that it will absorb losses using internal operating capital, while continuing to strengthen access controls, log monitoring, and incident response capabilities.

Mastercard to Acquire Stablecoin Infrastructure Startup BVNK for Up to $1.8 Billion

According to Bloomberg, Mastercard plans to acquire stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent consideration. This acquisition announcement follows the collapse of BVNK’s approximately $2 billion merger talks with Coinbase just four months earlier. Both parties jointly confirmed the deal in a statement issued Tuesday.

GSR Acquires Autonomous and Architech for $57 Million, Launching Integrated Crypto Capital Markets & Treasury Platform

According to Chainwire, cryptocurrency market maker GSR announced the completion of its $57 million acquisition of digital asset operations firm Autonomous and fungible token issuance and custom liquidity strategy advisory firm Architech, aiming to deliver end-to-end capital markets and treasury management services—from inception through scale—for tokenized projects.

Following the acquisition, Autonomous will retain its brand under the GSR Group umbrella, continuing to provide operational launch support, ongoing operational assistance, and financial infrastructure services for tokenized projects. Architech will become the core of GSR’s Digital Asset Advisory business, synergizing with GSR’s existing institutional trading, liquidity, and asset management capabilities.

Robinhood Ventures Fund Invests ~$35 Million Across Stripe and AI Audio Startup ElevenLabs

According to The Block, Robinhood Ventures Fund recently completed two private-market investments totaling approximately $35 million: ~$14.6 million in payments company Stripe and ~$20 million in AI audio startup ElevenLabs. Stripe currently holds an estimated valuation of $159 billion and operates the stablecoin platform Bridge.

Market Data

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