On Mar 23, 2026, the Balancer Foundation submitted governance proposals that would overhaul BAL tokenomics and reorganize operations to extend the protocol's runway. The plan would halt BAL incentives, end veBAL, route 100% of protocol fees to the DAO treasury, and offer a BAL buyback for holders who want to exit. It also calls for winding down Balancer Labs, moving work into a new operating company, and cutting headcount from 25 to 12.5 while reducing the new entity's budget by 34% to $1.9M.

On March 17, 2026, the Ethereum Foundation introduced a fellowship-style grants program offering $24,000 to selected PhD students. Between 9 and 10 fellows will receive one-year funding to support Ethereum-related academic research across fields like economics, public policy, computer science, and sociology, with proposals due by April 1 at 23:59 UTC. Applicants must be currently enrolled in a PhD program at a university or academic institution.

On March 12, 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his observations from the Real World Crypto conference about how developers are using blockchains. He pointed to public bulletin boards, payment systems, and smart contracts as key real-world applications that can benefit from Ethereum’s low Layer 1 gas fees and scaling roadmap. He argued that these conditions may place the crypto industry close to a new wave of real-world adoption.

On March 10, 2026, Polymarket announced a collaboration with Palantir Technologies and TWG AI to deploy an AI-powered surveillance and monitoring platform called the Vergence AI engine. The system is designed to detect suspicious trading, enforce compliance across the full trade lifecycle, and address insider trading concerns that have drawn growing regulatory attention.

On March 5, 2026, the SEC filed a proposed final judgment to resolve its lawsuit involving Justin Sun, Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry Inc., including a $10M penalty for Rainberry over alleged wash trading. The deal would bar Rainberry from unlawfully offering or selling securities in the future and dismiss all remaining charges with prejudice, while Sun has publicly stated he intends to keep building and engage with regulators on crypto policy.

In early March 2026, ZeroHash applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a National Trust Bank Charter, aiming to provide nationwide digital asset custody under a federal regime. A day later, UK-based neobank Revolut submitted its own application for a full U.S. National Bank Charter and named Cetin Duransoy as its U.S. CEO. The moves come as multiple crypto-focused and traditional institutions pursue OCC banking charters during a wave of recent approvals for digital asset trust banks.

On March 2, 2026, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna outlined a bill to introduce an annual 5% federal wealth tax on individuals with more than $1B in net worth. The proposal projects $4.4T in new revenue over ten years, which would be directed toward cash payments to lower-earning households, healthcare funding, expanded Medicare, and a national minimum salary for public school teachers. The plan also situates the U.S. debate within wider global moves on taxing unrealized gains, including a February decision in the Netherlands and a possible California ballot measure.

On February 23, 2026, Michael Saylor announced that MicroStrategy had completed its 100th public bitcoin purchase, adding 592 BTC for about $39.8 million. Following this transaction, the company’s total holdings reached 717,722 BTC acquired for roughly $54.56 billion at an average price of about $76,020 per bitcoin. The latest buy, executed at approximately $67,286 per BTC, was noted as the firm’s smallest dollar-value acquisition since October.

On Feb 18, 2026, Coinbase said it will leave Optimism’s OP Stack to develop a "unified stack," according to Bankless. The move follows a prolonged slump, with OP down 97% from its March 2024 ATH, and as Base has supplied ~97% of Superchain revenue. Ether.fi plans to migrate ~70,000 active cards and ~300,000 accounts to OP Mainnet over the coming months.