PA Daily News | Russia's Ministry of Finance is considering a new stablecoin bill; Kazakhstan's central bank plans to use reserve funds to invest in crypto assets.

Today's top news highlights:

The Central Bank of Russia has proposed allowing banks and brokerage firms to obtain cryptocurrency trading licenses.

South Korea's KOSPI index closed down 10.56% this week, marking its biggest weekly drop since March 2020.

Joint Maritime Information Center: Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has almost completely come to a standstill.

Qatar's Energy Minister: Crude oil prices will surge to $150 per barrel within two to three weeks.

Listed Bitcoin mining companies have sold more than 15,000 Bitcoins since October last year.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $228 million yesterday.

21Shares announced that the 21Shares Polkadot ETF will soon be launched on Nasdaq.

The Central Bank of Kazakhstan plans to use up to $350 million of its reserves to invest in crypto assets.

Regulation & Macro

Russia's Ministry of Finance is considering a new stablecoin bill.

Russia's Ministry of Finance is considering a new stablecoin bill to tap into its "enormous potential." The ministry stated that it hopes to introduce a separate stablecoin bill rather than tying stablecoins to new rules in the upcoming cryptocurrency exchange law.

The Central Bank of Russia has proposed allowing banks and brokerage firms to obtain cryptocurrency trading licenses.

Russia is planning to legislate to fully integrate cryptocurrency trading into a regulated "legal infrastructure," authorizing commercial banks and brokers to lead digital asset operations and establishing a domestic compliant trading system that is highly isolated from the global mainstream market.

At the annual meeting of credit institutions, Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, proposed allowing qualified commercial banks and brokerage firms to obtain cryptocurrency trading licenses through a registration process. This would allow them to monitor fund flows using their existing anti-money laundering (AML) system and limit banks' exposure to such assets to no more than 1% of their capital. According to a draft by the State Duma's Financial Market Committee, the new regulations are expected to be ready by July 1, 2026, aiming to change the current opaque legal status of digital assets and guide decentralized P2P transactions to regulated domestic platforms. Analysts point out that with the deepening of EU and US sanctions against Russia, this move is intended to create a "self-sufficient, compliant internal circulation."

The Central Bank of Kazakhstan plans to use up to $350 million of its reserves to invest in crypto assets.

The Central Bank of Kazakhstan plans to use some of its gold and foreign exchange reserves to invest up to $350 million in the crypto asset sector.

Central Bank Governor Pan Gongsheng: This year, we will flexibly and efficiently utilize various monetary policy tools, including reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate cuts.

The Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress held an economic-themed press conference at 3 p.m. on March 6. People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng stated at the press conference that the central bank will flexibly and efficiently utilize various monetary policy tools, including reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate cuts, this year.

South Korea's KOSPI index closed down 10.56% this week, marking its biggest weekly drop since March 2020.

South Korea's KOSPI index fell 10.56% this week, marking its biggest weekly drop since March 2020.

Joint Maritime Information Center: Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has almost completely come to a standstill.

Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has virtually ground to a halt, with throughput dropping to its lowest level since the crucial waterway was effectively closed over the weekend. The Joint Maritime Information Centre reported that only two confirmed commercial passages were observed in the past 24 hours, both involving cargo ships, not oil tankers.

Qatar's Energy Minister: Crude oil prices will surge to $150 per barrel within two to three weeks.

Qatar's energy minister said crude oil prices are expected to surge to $150 a barrel within two to three weeks.

The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted air freight of gold from Dubai, with spot prices trading at a discount of up to $30 to the London benchmark.

Due to the conflict in the Middle East and the partial closure of airspace in the region, air freight to Dubai gold has been disrupted, with spot prices trading at a discount of up to $30 per ounce to the London benchmark.

Project Updates

OKX has launched Orbit, a built-in social networking feature, which is now available for testing by a select group of users.

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has launched a built-in social feature called Orbit in its app, allowing users to discuss the market, host live streams and execute trades in real time, and disclose metrics such as portfolio performance, profit and loss, and win rate.

Binance has resumed FLOW deposits, withdrawals, and listings; users affected by the security incident in December have been compensated.

Binance and the Flow Foundation have reached a final solution to the Flow cybersecurity vulnerability that occurred on December 27, 2025. All affected users have received full compensation, and Flow deposits, withdrawals, and listings have all returned to normal.

Binance will add watch tags to tokens such as COS and DEGO, remove the FLOW watch tag, and remove the ONDO and VIRTUAL seed tags.

Binance announced the addition of watch tags to several tokens, including Contentos (COS) and Dego Finance (DEGO), and the removal of the FLOW watch tag, as well as the removal of the seed tags for ONDO and VIRTUAL.

21Shares announced that the 21Shares Polkadot ETF will soon be launched on Nasdaq.

According to official news, 21Shares US announced that its Polkadot spot ETF—21Shares Polkadot ETF (ticker symbol: TDOT)—will be launched on Nasdaq tomorrow (expected to be March 6 local time).

Hurun Research Institute: The crypto industry has created 23 billionaires, with Zhao Changpeng ranking 12th among Chinese entrepreneurs.

According to the latest "Rich List" released by the Hurun Research Institute, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has been listed among the "Top 20 Chinese Entrepreneurs" with a fortune of 200 billion yuan, ranking 12th on the list and 76th in the world.

Hurun Research Institute points out that there are currently 23 known individuals in the global cryptocurrency field with a net worth of over one billion US dollars. Among them, Zhao Changpeng's wealth increased by more than 30% to 200 billion yuan, Ripple's Chris Larsen's wealth returned to 110 billion yuan, and Nikolay Storonsky of the fintech platform Revolut saw his wealth surge by 122%.

The report also mentioned that the most dramatic shift in the industry came from Tether: its lean core team achieved a business breakthrough by linking stablecoins to US Treasury bonds, outperforming Wall Street investment banks.

Opinions & Analysis

Analysis: Altcoins are trapped in mean reversion, and factors such as supply pressure continue to hinder a rebound.

Matrixport analysis suggests that the mechanism by which Bitcoin's rise spreads to altcoins has weakened significantly in this cycle. Low retail participation, a lack of new narratives, and supply pressure from continuous token unlocking have collectively suppressed the altcoin rebound.

Analysis: Ethereum's rebound faces macroeconomic headwinds; derivatives and on-chain indicators suggest cautious market sentiment.

Ethereum has rebounded 22% from its February 24 low, but ETH futures premiums and options skewness indicators suggest professional traders remain cautious. On-chain data shows a significant decline in both DEX trading volume and DApp revenue.

Bitwise CIO: The altcoin season is over; the future will enter a "non-traditional" cycle.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that the traditional "altcoin season" may no longer occur, and the market will become more segmented in the future, with only projects with real business and application scenarios attracting capital.

Important data

Listed Bitcoin mining companies have sold more than 15,000 Bitcoins since October last year.

Since October of last year, publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have sold off more than 15,000 Bitcoins. The EnergyMag's weekly mining newsletter points out that several large mining companies were major participants in this sell-off, including Cango, which sold approximately 60% of its holdings (4,451 Bitcoins) in February; Bitdeer, which liquidated its entire Bitcoin inventory in January; Riot Platforms, which made multiple sales in December; and Core Scientific, which also planned to sell approximately 2,500 Bitcoins in the first quarter.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $228 million yesterday, with only the Valkyrie ETF BRRR experiencing a net inflow.

Yesterday (March 5, Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $228 million, with the Valkyrie ETF BRRR seeing a net inflow of $5.4211 million, while BlackRock IBIT experienced a net outflow of $88.7436 million.

Ethereum spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $90.9365 million yesterday, while BlackRock's ETHA saw the largest net inflow of $30.2545 million.

Yesterday (March 5, Eastern Time), Ethereum spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $90.9365 million, with BlackRock ETHA leading the way with a net inflow of $30.2545 million.

The largest BTC long position on Hyperliquid suffered a $10.27 million liquidation, the largest single liquidation on the entire network in nearly 24 hours.

A massive BTC long position on Hyperliquid was liquidated when the price fell to $70,151, resulting in the liquidation of 146 BTC, worth approximately $10.27 million, marking the largest single liquidation in nearly 24 hours.

Cumberland withdrew 14,800 ETH from Coinbase 30 minutes ago, worth approximately $30.8 million.

Market maker Cumberland withdrew 14,800 ETH from Coinbase about 30 minutes ago, worth approximately $30.8 million.

In the past two hours, addresses associated with Jane Street have transferred 270 BTC, equivalent to approximately $19 million, to Bullish and LMAX Digital.

Lookonchain monitoring shows that wallets associated with Jane Street transferred 270 BTC, worth approximately $19 million, to Bullish and LMAX Digital in the past two hours.