Important news from last night and this morning (March 1st - March 2nd)

US media: Trump says sanctions against Iran may be lifted if the next Iranian leader proves pragmatic.

According to a report by the New York Times cited by Jinshi, Trump stated in an interview that the U.S. military intends to continue its attacks on Iran for "four to five weeks" if necessary, and insisted that Israel and the United States "would not have difficulty" maintaining the intensity of the conflict. He also warned that there could be more U.S. casualties. When asked about his plans for the transition of power, Mr. Trump stated that he hopes Iran's elite forces (including senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who wield significant influence and profit from the current regime) will hand over their weapons to the Iranian people. During the approximately six-minute call, Trump also stated that he has three "very good" candidates to lead Iran, but he declined to name them. He repeatedly mentioned his experience in Venezuela, which may suggest that he believes the methods that worked in Venezuela are also applicable to Iran.

Crypto companies raised a total of $883 million in February, but the number of deals hit a 5.5-year low.

According to crypto KOL YashasEdu, citing data from The Block, crypto startups raised a total of $883 million in February. However, overall, the number of venture capital deals hit a 5.5-year low, and the total funding amount was down approximately 80% from its 2022 peak. Funding is concentrated in a few specific areas, such as stablecoin infrastructure, custody, and compliance tools. 85% of tokens launched in 2025 are trading below their opening price, and the VC narrative has shifted towards a "revenue-centric" approach.

Arthur Hayes: Prolonged US involvement in the Iran conflict will force the Federal Reserve to print money and drive up the price of Bitcoin.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes analyzed that since 1985, every US president has launched military action against Middle Eastern countries, and Trump continues this tradition. He used simple logic to predict Bitcoin's price movement: the longer the US intervenes in the Iranian situation, the more likely the Federal Reserve is to cut interest rates or print money to support war spending, which will push up Bitcoin's price. Regarding trading strategies, Hayes stated, "Currently, it's unclear how long Trump can sustain this investment, spending billions or even trillions of dollars to reshape Iranian politics according to his own will, nor is it clear how much geopolitical and financial market shock he can withstand before withdrawing. The wise approach is to wait and see."

Huang Licheng has been partially liquidated again, and his wallet now has only about $9,000 left.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Huang Licheng, known as "Brother Machi," has once again experienced partial liquidation. His ETH 25x long position has been further reduced, and his wallet balance is currently only about $9,000.

JPMorgan Chase: The crypto market structure bill is expected to be approved by mid-year and become a positive catalyst for the second half of the year.

According to The Block, JPMorgan analysts stated in a report that the CLARITY Act, legislation governing the US crypto market structure, is likely to be approved by mid-year and could be a positive catalyst for the second half of the year. The bill has already progressed through the House of Representatives and is still under discussion in the Senate, currently facing two major points of contention: stablecoin yields and conflicts of interest among government officials. Analysts point out that if the bill passes, it will reshape the market structure: providing regulatory clarity, ending "regulation through enforcement," promoting tokenization, and encouraging institutional participation. The analysts listed eight potential positive impacts, including reducing the compliance burden on major tokens, supporting innovation in the US market, unlocking secondary trading, allowing traditional banks to directly custody digital assets, promoting the tokenization of real-world assets, protecting open-source developers, providing tax exemption for small-value crypto transactions in everyday payments, and promoting the development of tokenized deposits between institutions.

Platform X has removed "financial products and cryptocurrencies" from the prohibited industry categories in its "Paid Cooperation Policy".

Platform X has removed "financial products and cryptocurrencies" from the prohibited industry categories in its "Paid Partnership Policy." Nikita Bier, X's product manager and Solana advisor, stated that this was an error and has been fixed, adding that she is passionate about prediction markets. This means that cryptocurrency-related advertisements on X will now be required to display a "Paid Partnership" disclosure label. Previously, yesterday, it was reported that X's paid partnership policy had been updated, excluding cryptocurrencies and investment services from promotional offers.

Mysterious account accurately bets on airstrikes against Iran, Trump campaign embroiled in "insider trading" charges.

According to Jinshi News, over the weekend, with traditional global financial markets closed, a large influx of funds flowed into prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi, as well as decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid. Investors attempted to use these platforms to hedge against or speculate on the aftermath of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran. However, this capital frenzy quickly turned into a media storm. On Saturday, numerous criticisms emerged on the social media platform X, accusing certain insiders of profiting from advance knowledge of military strikes in the prediction markets. In response to the criticism, a White House spokesperson argued to the media that "the only special interest guiding the Trump administration's decisions is the best interests of the American people." In fact, crackdowns on insider betting using international conflicts have already begun in parts of the world.

Vitalik outlined the Ethereum execution layer roadmap, focusing on two major changes: the state tree and the virtual machine.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined the Ethereum execution layer roadmap on social media, highlighting two major changes: the state tree and the virtual machine. Regarding the state tree, Vitalik supports upgrading the current hexadecimal Merkle Patricia tree to a binary tree based on a more efficient hash function via EIP-7864. This change can shorten Merkle branches by four times, reducing bandwidth costs for client-side data verification; simultaneously, the hash function can be changed to Blake3 or Poseidon series, significantly improving proof efficiency. The binary tree design also groups storage slots into "pages," making access to adjacent storage cheaper, saving many DeFi applications over 10,000 Gas per transaction. Furthermore, the simpler binary tree structure allows for the reservation of metadata bits for future state expiration functionality.

Michael Saylor has released another Bitcoin Tracker update; he may disclose his accumulating data next week.

Michael Saylor, founder of the Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy, once again posted information related to Bitcoin Trackers on the X platform, writing "The Turn of the Century." Based on past patterns, Strategy typically discloses information about increasing its Bitcoin holdings the day after such news is released.

ANZ Bank: Increased geopolitical risks keep gold in a "tailwind"

According to Jinshi News, ANZ analyst Soni Kumari stated that gold will initially react positively tomorrow, however, some pullback is possible as events unfold. Our overall view remains unchanged; we are still bullish on gold. This year's geopolitical situation is very different, with more intense tensions, and the Iranian attack may also have macroeconomic implications, especially given the significant rise in oil prices.

Analysts warn that this Middle East crisis may be different, advising against immediately buying any stocks that have fallen.

According to Jinshi, the situation has become increasingly chaotic as Iran launched missiles at US military bases in Gulf cities, airlines suspended flights, and oil tankers carrying oil and other products halted passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Rong Ren Goh, portfolio manager of the fixed income team at Eastland Investments, stated that tail risks in the Middle East have increased. The market will repric from a geopolitical shock to a regime risk shock, a protracted conflict, rather than just retaliatory actions, unless Iran expresses a willingness to negotiate. Analysts believe a greater risk lies in market complacency. The market has consistently assumed the impact of the conflict will be limited and has been reluctant to compare this conflict to the 1979 regime change in Iran. Barclays analysts stated that history powerfully demonstrates that one should not chase rallies during conflicts but rather "sell the facts."

Saxo Bank strategist: Escalation of US-Israeli military action against Iran could not surprise gold to record highs.

According to Jinshi News, Ole Hansen, head of commodities strategy at Saxo Bank, stated that there is no doubt that the US-Israeli military action against Iran is a worrying escalation that will prompt investors to flock to the precious metals and energy sectors. The extent of the impact is uncertain, but given last week's momentum, I wouldn't be surprised if gold hits a new all-time high.

Analysts: Gold will once again become the preferred safe-haven asset.

According to Jinshi News, Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said that gold demand is likely to be higher than usual when markets open on Monday. Given the risks of how long the conflict might last, which other countries could be drawn in, and inflation concerns, gold is expected to regain its role as the preferred safe-haven asset. Stocks and other risky assets may be sold off, and investors will be looking for the best place to put their money, with gold likely to be at the top of that list.

Iranian Foreign Minister: A new Supreme Leader could be elected within one or two days.

According to Jinshi News, the Iranian Foreign Minister stated that a new Supreme Leader could be elected within a day or two, and regime change is impossible.

A wallet created seven months ago withdrew 384 PAXG tokens from Binance, worth $2.07 million.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a wallet created 7 months ago withdrew 384 PAXG from Binance, worth $2.07 million.

Iran launches four missiles at US aircraft carrier

According to Jinshi News, on the afternoon of March 1st local time, the Public Relations Department of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued Announcement No. 7. The announcement stated that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was attacked by four Iranian ballistic missiles.

SpaceX held approximately 8,285 bitcoins in custody on Coinbase Prime, resulting in a net loss of about $545 million.

According to Coindesk, on-chain data platform Arkham Intelligence shows that SpaceX currently holds approximately 8,285 bitcoins in its Coinbase Prime escrow account, worth about $545 million at the latest price. This represents a decrease of about $235 million from its valuation of about $780 million three months ago, during which time the company has not reduced its holdings. SpaceX's bitcoin holdings have remained relatively stable at around 8,300 bitcoins since the beginning of 2026, but the book value has fluctuated significantly due to BTC price corrections. Its BTC holdings peaked at nearly $2 billion at the end of 2021, before experiencing a decline during the 2022 bear market, and have fluctuated between $400 million and $800 million over the past two years.

Data: RED, HYPE, ENA and other tokens will see a large unlock next week, with RED unlocking approximately $6.2 million worth of tokens.

According to Token Unlocks data, tokens such as RED, HYPE, and ENA will see significant unlocks next week. Specifically: RedStone (RED) will unlock approximately 40.85 million tokens at midnight Beijing time on March 7th, representing 16.13% of the current circulating supply, worth approximately $6.2 million; Hyperliquid (HYPE) will unlock approximately 173,000 tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on March 6th, representing 0.04% of the current circulating supply, worth approximately $5.4 million; Ethena (ENA) will unlock approximately 40.63 million tokens at 3:00 PM Beijing time on March 2nd, representing 0.53% of the current circulating supply, worth approximately $4.3 million; and Optimism (OP) will unlock approximately 19.5 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on March 7th.

X's ban on paid cryptocurrency promotion is not a new rule.

According to the website Archive, the news that "X has released a new Paid Partnership Policy, and the cryptocurrency industry has been included in X's list of industries prohibited from promotion" is old news. Historical web pages show that since at least June 27, 2024, cryptocurrency has been included by the X platform as an "industry that does not meet the eligibility for paid partnership promotion".

Paul Chan: Promoting the deep integration of "AI+" and "Finance+" to inject new momentum into Hong Kong's financial innovation

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan published a personal essay titled "AI+ and Finance+ Promote Each Other," in which he pointed out that we are currently at a critical juncture in technological innovation. Artificial intelligence is not only a core technology of the future, but also a huge force that can influence thousands of industries. Innovation in financial services itself is further helping to expand the real economy and overcome pain points. Technological innovations such as AI and blockchain are constantly empowering financial services, creating a more efficient and convenient transaction system, and opening up new channels for various enterprises' trade, financing, and risk management activities.