StarkWare is integrating EY’s Nightfall privacy protocol into Starknet to give institutions private payments and DeFi access on public Ethereum-aligned rails, while preserving auditability.
This comes as challenges pile up on long-standing US-EU economic ties.
Crypto exchange says Marshall Beard, Dan Chen and Tyler Meade are departing effective immediately; Cameron Winklevoss to take on COO duties as board names interim finance and legal chiefs.
The stock price of the AI solutions provider Fractal Analytics rose by more than 7% on Tuesday following its disappointing first day of trading as a publicly-listed company. Weak Market Debut On its stock market debut on Monday, Fractal listed at ₹876 per share, down by around 2.7% from the issue price of ₹900. The stock plunged further during the day, closing at ₹873.70, representing a discount of 7% from the issue price. This gives the company a market capitalization of about ₹148.1 billion. Fractal’s underwhelming stock market entry comes as India’s broader tech sector sees significant losses driven by investors’ fear of AI impact. Buy Rating Fractal’s stock rebounded on Tuesday following brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher’s bullish recommendation on the company’s coverage initiation. The brokerage said that Fractal has demonstrated a steady and reliable revenue trajectory over the last 10 years, robust client retention, strong sales engine as well as research and development-backed innovations. “We initiate coverage on Fractal with ‘BUY’ rating and TP of Rs1,260, valuing at 22x EV/EBITDA FY28E, with potential upside of 40%,” the brokerage said in its report published on Monday. “We believe the decoupling of revenue and headcount growth, narrowing of ESOP costs, and improvement in high-margin SaaS-based revenue (Fractal Alpha) would help increase EBITDAM going forward.” Poised for Growth Prabhudas Lilladher is also optimistic of the AI sector’s continued growth. Fractal, which provided services to global titans including Microsoft, Meta, Tesla and Apple, specializes in AI engineering, decision sciences, cloud data platforms and industry-specific artificial intelligence products. “Fractal operates in the analytics space that powers decision-making process for large enterprises by leveraging AI tools and services,” the report read. “The AI software market is poised for strong multi-year expansion, underpinned by accelerating enterprise adoption of AI platforms, domain-tuned foundation models, and vertically oriented AI applications.”
Amount of XRP burned as fees continues to decline as network activities slow down amid the prolonged volatility seen across the broad crypto market.
Financial powerhouse Charles Schwab has dramatically increased its bet on the Bitcoin economy..
BitcoinWorld Monad Foundation’s Strategic Masterstroke: Hiring Executives from Optimism, FalconX, and BVNK to Fuel Post-Launch Growth In a decisive move signaling its transition from a promising Layer 1 blockchain to a mature ecosystem contender, the Monad Foundation has strategically recruited three high-profile executives from leading firms Optimism, FalconX, and BVNK. This pivotal hiring spree, confirmed in early 2025, follows the successful mainnet launch of the EVM-compatible Monad blockchain in November 2024. The foundation aims to leverage this new leadership to craft a sophisticated capital markets strategy, amplify its global brand, and aggressively court institutional capital across key Asian financial hubs. Monad Foundation Executes Post-Launch Talent Acquisition The Monad Foundation’s recruitment drive represents a classic growth-phase maneuver within the competitive blockchain sector. Following a mainnet launch, projects must shift focus from pure technological development to ecosystem expansion and sustainable economics. Consequently, Monad has targeted expertise from three distinct but complementary corners of the digital asset industry. From the Layer 2 scaling solution Optimism, Monad gains insight into scalable Ethereum-aligned ecosystems and community governance. Meanwhile, the crypto prime brokerage FalconX provides deep knowledge of institutional trading and liquidity. Finally, the digital asset infrastructure and payments platform BVNK offers expertise in bridging traditional and digital finance, particularly in payments and treasury management. Industry analysts often view such targeted hiring as a strong indicator of a project’s strategic direction. For instance, a 2024 report by blockchain analytics firm Messari highlighted that successful Layer 1 networks typically undergo a “go-to-market acceleration” phase 3-6 months post-launch. This phase is characterized by strategic partnerships and key hires aimed at driving adoption. Monad’s actions align perfectly with this observed pattern, suggesting a methodical approach to scaling its operations. The Strategic Rationale Behind the Hires Each hire addresses a specific, critical challenge for Monad. The capital markets strategist will likely focus on developing robust tokenomics, fostering liquidity, and creating financial instruments to attract decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and traders. The brand-building expert faces the task of differentiating Monad in a crowded field of EVM-compatible chains, emphasizing its unique technical propositions like parallel execution and high throughput. Most notably, the executive focused on institutional investment has a clear geographic mandate. Targeting the Asia-Pacific region—specifically South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan—is a calculated decision. These jurisdictions host some of the world’s most active and sophisticated cryptocurrency markets, with a growing appetite from regulated funds, family offices, and trading firms for exposure to new, high-performance blockchain infrastructures. Deepening the Asia-Pacific Institutional Footprint The explicit focus on Asia-Pacific institutional investment is not merely an expansion tactic; it is a strategic imperative. Data from Chainalysis’s 2024 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report consistently ranks these regions at the forefront of grassroots and institutional adoption. South Korea boasts one of the highest crypto ownership rates globally, coupled with intense retail trading activity. Hong Kong and Singapore have established themselves as competing hubs for digital asset firms, offering regulatory clarity that attracts traditional finance giants. Japan, with its long history of crypto exchange regulation, represents a mature market for secure, compliant investment products. By deploying an executive with proven experience from firms like FalconX and BVNK—entities that specialize in serving institutional clients—Monad is signaling its readiness to meet the complex demands of this investor class. These demands include: Regulatory Compliance: Navigating the diverse regulatory landscapes across APAC jurisdictions. Risk Management: Providing institutional-grade security, custody solutions, and reporting. Liquidity Access: Ensuring deep, stable markets for large-volume transactions. Fiat On-Ramps: Facilitating seamless conversion between traditional currency and Monad’s native assets. Success in this arena could trigger a virtuous cycle. Institutional capital brings liquidity and stability, which in turn attracts more developers and DeFi applications to build on Monad, further increasing the network’s utility and value. Contextualizing the EVM-Compatible Landscape To understand Monad’s challenge, one must view the broader ecosystem. Ethereum’s dominance is challenged by numerous “EVM-compatible” chains—networks that can run applications built for Ethereum with minimal changes. This compatibility is a powerful developer attractor. The competitive landscape includes established players like BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon, as well as newer entrants. Monad’s stated advantage lies in its performance. It claims to offer significantly higher transactions per second (TPS) and lower fees while maintaining full compatibility, a claim that must now be proven at scale and marketed effectively—a core task for its new brand executive. Comparison of Key EVM-Compatible Blockchains (Post-2024 Landscape) Blockchain Key Differentiator Primary Market Focus Ethereum Security, decentralization, network effect Global BNB Smart Chain Low cost, centralized speed, Binance ecosystem Global, strong in Asia Polygon Ethereum scaling, broad dApp ecosystem Global Avalanche Custom subnet architecture, high finality speed Institutional, DeFi Monad Parallel execution, high TPS, full EVM compatibility Institutional, High-performance DeFi (Targeted) The Road Ahead for Monad’s New Leadership Team The newly formed executive team at the Monad Foundation faces a clear, multi-faceted roadmap. Their immediate objectives will involve integrating their respective strategies into a cohesive growth plan. The capital markets lead must work to list Monad’s native token on top-tier exchanges and foster relationships with market makers. The brand builder must craft a narrative that resonates with both developers, who value technical robustness, and institutions, who value reliability and compliance. Simultaneously, the APAC specialist must immediately engage with regulators, financial institutions, and local venture capital firms in the target regions. Historical precedents in the industry show that such strategic hires can yield significant results. For example, similar executive moves at other Layer 1 networks have preceded periods of major partnership announcements and treasury deployments into ecosystem grants. The true test for Monad will be translating this executive firepower into tangible metrics: a growing total value locked (TVL) in its DeFi ecosystem, an increasing number of active developers, and verifiable partnerships with established financial entities in Asia. The coming quarters will be critical in demonstrating whether this talent acquisition translates into sustainable competitive advantage. Conclusion The Monad Foundation’s recruitment of executives from Optimism, FalconX, and BVNK is a sophisticated and timely strategic play. It moves the project beyond its technical launch phase and into the complex arena of market positioning and institutional adoption. By securing expertise in capital markets, brand strategy, and Asia-Pacific institutional finance, Monad is building the foundational leadership required to navigate the next stage of growth. The focused push into the lucrative APAC markets, if successful, could establish Monad as a formidable player in the high-performance EVM-compatible blockchain space, proving that strategic vision must be matched by strategic hiring to achieve long-term success in the competitive world of decentralized technology. FAQs Q1: What is the Monad Foundation? The Monad Foundation is the core organization supporting the development and ecosystem growth of the Monad blockchain, a high-performance, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible Layer 1 network. Q2: Why is hiring executives from other crypto firms significant? It allows Monad to rapidly acquire proven expertise in specific domains—like scaling technology, institutional trading, and payments infrastructure—accelerating its go-to-market strategy and avoiding common growth pitfalls. Q3: Why is the Asia-Pacific region a focus for institutional investment? Countries like South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan have advanced crypto regulations, high adoption rates, and concentrated pools of institutional capital actively seeking exposure to new digital asset infrastructures, making them prime targets for growth. Q4: What does EVM-compatible mean? EVM-compatibility means a blockchain can run decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts originally built for the Ethereum network with little to no modification, making it easier for developers to port their projects over. Q5: What challenges might Monad’s new executives face? Key challenges include differentiating Monad in a crowded market, attracting liquidity and developers away from established chains, navigating varying APAC regulations, and converting institutional interest into actual, deployed capital on the network. This post Monad Foundation’s Strategic Masterstroke: Hiring Executives from Optimism, FalconX, and BVNK to Fuel Post-Launch Growth first appeared on BitcoinWorld .
CryptoQuant: Stablecoin outflows have slowed, Binance reserves dominate with 65% at 47,5 billion USD. Capital is not leaving crypto, it's consolidating. BTC 67.230 USD, RSI 35 oversold, strong supp...
Fhenix , a blockchain research and development company, is positioning itself as a full-stack infrastructure for confidential decentralized finance ( DeFi ) designed to bring encrypted computation directly onto public blockchains. Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is at the center of the new strategy, according to a press release shared with Finbold on February 17 and a livestream on X the day prior featuring Fhenix founder Guy Zyskind. This cryptographic breakthrough allows computations to be performed while data remains encrypted. Such an approach, the management argues, eliminates exposure at every stage from execution to settlement, which puts FHE ahead of Zero-Knowledge proofs, Trusted Execution Environments, and Multi-Party Computation. “Privacy is, I believe, the most difficult problem to solve in blockchains… Many of them, even if you look at ZK projects, many of them went to scalability because that’s actually the easier problem to solve. Adding privacy on top of ZK, something like what Fhenix is doing, trying to build and scale Fully Homomorphic Encryption? Those are very, very hard problems to solve. Very few people can do that,” Zyskind said on X. https://t.co/XgmbxOf9bb — Fhenix (@fhenix) February 16, 2026 Enhanced blockchain privacy Among the most notable innovations was CoFHE, an FHE coprocessor designed to offload encrypted computation from the main chain. Recently deployed on Base, this stateless engine is intended to make private smart contracts viable at scale, delivering throughput improvements of up to 5,000 times over earlier FHE systems. Another key feature, fhEVM, allows developers to write privacy-preserving applications using familiar Solidity tooling. Instead of learning an entirely new stack, developers can thus integrate encrypted execution into an existing Ethereum ( ETH ) compatible environment. On the encrypted verification front, renewed focus on DBFV signals continued work on making encrypted computations not only private but verifiable in decentralized environments. Together, these functionalities are meant to combat issues such as data leaks, which are plaguing AI agents. “AI agents: they are really bad at security and privacy right now. They leak all information…. We need to find ways to protect data and protect it, basically, like Fort Knox,” Zyskind added. Programmable digital privacy and institutional security With features like Shielded Mode for end-to-end encrypted payments and experiments integrating privacy into HTTP 402 payment standards dubbed Fhenix402, the company believes the recent innovations have numerous implications for broader Web3 . The information shared with Finbold cited private governance votes, encrypted identities, confidential business analytics, and front-running protection as some examples. More notably, however, the livestream on X referenced institutional interest. As discussed by the speakers, J.P. Morgan had already approached Fhenix in the past, exploring the tokenization of what was described as $1.5 trillion in assets under management. Unfortunately, such efforts were impossible without customer-level privacy, but the example shows how large financial players already recognize privacy as a structural requirement, not a luxury. Featured image via Shutterstock The post Fhenix to bring confidential computing to public blockchains appeared first on Finbold .
BitcoinWorld EUR/USD Plummets: Alarming Weakness in Eurozone Economic Sentiment Triggers Sustained Selloff The EUR/USD currency pair, the world’s most traded forex instrument, extended its recent losses decisively on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, plunging to multi-week lows. This sharp decline followed the release of surprisingly weak Eurozone economic sentiment figures, which rattled investor confidence and triggered a broad-based sell-off of the euro. Consequently, market participants swiftly recalibrated their expectations for the European Central Bank’s monetary policy path, fueling a flight to the relative safety of the US dollar. EUR/USD Technical Breakdown and Immediate Market Reaction The immediate market reaction to the data was swift and severe. The EUR/USD pair breached several key technical support levels that traders had been monitoring closely. Initially, the pair broke below the psychologically important 1.0700 handle. Subsequently, it accelerated its descent toward the 1.0650 region, a zone not tested since late February. Trading volume spiked by approximately 40% above the 30-day average in the hour following the data release, indicating strong institutional participation in the move. Market analysts pointed to a classic “risk-off” flow in the forex market. Typically, weak European data undermines the euro while bolstering the US dollar, which is often seen as a global safe-haven currency. The sell-off was not isolated to spot trading. Furthermore, options markets showed a significant increase in demand for puts (bearish bets) on the euro, with implied volatility jumping. This data-driven move highlights the forex market’s acute sensitivity to high-frequency economic indicators. Dissecting the Damaging Eurozone Sentiment Data The primary catalyst for the EUR/USD decline was the European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for March. The headline figure fell to 95.1, a stark drop from the previous month’s revised 97.8 and well below the consensus forecast of 97.0. This marks the lowest reading in eleven months. The breakdown of the report revealed broad-based deterioration across key sectors. Industrial Confidence: Fell into negative territory, reflecting growing pessimism among manufacturers about order books and future production. Services Sentiment: Declined for the third consecutive month, suggesting weakening consumer demand in the dominant sector of the Eurozone economy. Consumer Confidence: Remained deeply pessimistic, weighed down by persistent concerns over inflation and a softening labor market. This data contradicts earlier hopes that the Eurozone economy was building steady momentum. Instead, it paints a picture of an economic recovery that is fragile and losing steam. The weak sentiment is likely to translate into softer business investment and more cautious consumer spending in the coming quarters. Expert Analysis: Monetary Policy Implications Financial market strategists were quick to adjust their outlooks. “Today’s sentiment numbers are a cold shower for the ECB,” noted Dr. Anya Weber, Chief European Economist at Global Finance Partners. “The Governing Council has been cautiously hinting at a data-dependent approach to further rate cuts. However, this weak data significantly increases the probability of a more aggressive easing cycle starting as early as the June meeting. The market is now pricing in a higher chance of a 50-basis-point cut rather than 25.” This shift in interest rate expectations is a fundamental driver for the EUR/USD. Wider interest rate differentials between the US Federal Reserve and the ECB tend to weaken the euro. Currently, the Fed is perceived as being on a more gradual easing path due to a more resilient US economy. This policy divergence is a core structural bearish factor for the euro against the dollar. Comparative Economic Resilience: Eurozone vs. United States The stark contrast between the Eurozone and US economic trajectories is amplifying the EUR/USD move. While Eurozone sentiment falters, recent US data on retail sales, industrial production, and the labor market has generally exceeded modest expectations. This divergence creates a powerful two-way pull on the currency pair. Key Economic Indicator Comparison (Latest Available Data) Indicator Eurozone United States Implication for EUR/USD GDP Growth (QoQ) +0.1% +0.8% Bearish Euro Unemployment Rate 6.5% 3.9% Bearish Euro Manufacturing PMI 47.1 (Contraction) 50.3 (Expansion) Bearish Euro Inflation (CPI YoY) 2.3% 2.8% Mixed This table illustrates the fundamental headwinds facing the euro. The US economy demonstrates greater momentum, which supports the dollar. Traders are therefore allocating capital away from euro-denominated assets toward US assets, creating sustained selling pressure on the EUR/USD pair. Historical Context and Forward-Looking Scenarios The current sell-off echoes patterns seen during previous periods of Eurozone economic uncertainty, such as the 2011-2012 sovereign debt crisis and the 2020 pandemic shock. However, the present dynamic is more focused on growth differentials rather than existential financial risk. Looking ahead, several scenarios could unfold. Firstly, if upcoming Eurozone data, including German Ifo and French business surveys, confirms the weak sentiment trend, the EUR/USD could test the 1.0600 support level. Conversely, a surprisingly strong US Non-Farm Payrolls report next week could exacerbate the dollar’s strength. Alternatively, if the ECB delivers unexpectedly dovish commentary, it would likely extend the euro’s losses. The path of least resistance for the pair appears skewed to the downside in the near term. Conclusion The extended losses in the EUR/USD pair are a direct and logical consequence of alarmingly weak Eurozone economic sentiment figures. This data has exposed the fragility of the regional recovery and forced a major repricing of European Central Bank policy expectations. The growing economic divergence with a more resilient United States has created a perfect storm of fundamental headwinds for the euro. While short-term technical bounces are possible, the underlying trend for the EUR/USD will remain bearish unless there is a decisive turnaround in Eurozone economic data or a significant shift in the transatlantic monetary policy outlook. Traders and investors should monitor high-frequency activity indicators and central bank communications closely for the next directional catalyst. FAQs Q1: What exactly caused the EUR/USD to fall? The primary cause was the release of the Eurozone Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), which fell much more than expected to 95.1. This weak data suggests a slowing economy, which increases expectations for European Central Bank interest rate cuts, making the euro less attractive relative to the US dollar. Q2: How does weak economic sentiment affect a currency? Weak economic sentiment typically leads to lower expectations for future growth, corporate profits, and interest rates. Investors then move capital out of that currency into currencies from economies with stronger prospects, driving its value down. Q3: What is the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI)? The ESI is a composite index published monthly by the European Commission. It combines survey results from industry, services, consumers, construction, and retail trade to gauge the overall economic confidence in the Eurozone. It is a leading indicator of economic activity. Q4: Could the EUR/USD fall further? Yes, if subsequent data from the Eurozone continues to disappoint or if US data remains strong, widening the growth and interest rate differential, the pair could test lower support levels like 1.0600. The trend is currently bearish. Q5: What should traders watch next? Traders should monitor upcoming data including German Ifo Business Climate, Eurozone inflation (CPI) flash estimates, and US employment data (Non-Farm Payrolls). Additionally, speeches by ECB and Fed officials will be critical for gauging future monetary policy moves. This post EUR/USD Plummets: Alarming Weakness in Eurozone Economic Sentiment Triggers Sustained Selloff first appeared on BitcoinWorld .