The Bank Policy Institute is considering suing the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over national trust bank charters for crypto and fintech firms after the regulator conditionally approved charters for five crypto companies at once. Traditional banking groups argue that the OCC has reinterpreted federal licensing rules to give these firms federal status without full capital and compliance requirements, and the American Bankers Association has urged a pause on approvals for uninsured crypto trusts. Despite that pushback, a growing pipeline of applicants now includes Crypto.com, Revolut and World Liberty Financial, whose affiliate applied for a charter to issue and custody its USD1 stablecoin, which has over $3.3 billion in circulation. The OCC has also proposed rules to implement the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin law that requires one-to-one reserves and bans issuers directly paying yield.

Coinbase has launched regulated bitcoin and crypto futures for traders in 26 European countries via its Coinbase Advanced platform. The products, issued by its MiFID-registered European entity, include cash-settled futures on bitcoin and crypto-linked equity indices with up to 10x leverage on selected contracts. Eligible users must pass trading experience and KYC checks and can fund accounts in euros or USDC, with fees starting at 0.02% per contract. The launch comes as the global crypto market is about $1.3 trillion, roughly 50% below its October 2025 peak amid wider macro pressures.

Strategy bought 17,994 Bitcoin for $1.28 billion, lifting its holdings to 738,731 coins, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The firm paid an average of $70,946 per coin, below its overall $75,862 cost basis, and funded the deal with new STRC preferred shares and common stock issuance. The purchase equals about five weeks of new Bitcoin supply and brings Strategy's holdings to roughly 3.7% of circulating supply, while the position still shows an unrealized loss of about $5.5 billion.

The article says total crypto market capitalization rose 2.51% to $2.38 trillion over 24 hours, driven mainly by a geopolitical de-escalation rally after President Trump signaled the Iran military phase was nearly complete. Crypto traded in macro lockstep, showing a 66% correlation with both the S&P 500 and gold in what the article describes as a broad relief move across risk assets. Secondary drivers included technical rebounds in Ethereum and other major Layer 1s and rotation into higher-beta perpetual DEX tokens led by Hyperliquid, alongside a modest rise in the Altcoin Season Index. The outlook is cautiously bullish as long as geopolitical calm holds, Bitcoin consolidates above about $70,000, and U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to attract net inflows around upcoming Federal Reserve communication.

MicroStrategy is believed to have bought about 1,420 BTC on March 9 using proceeds from a record sale of its perpetual preferred stock STRC. Intraday STRC trading volume that day reached about $300 million, far above the 30-day average of $124 million. The reported Bitcoin purchase followed an amendment to the company’s Omnibus Sales Agreement disclosed in an 8-K filing the previous day. The amendment allows multiple sales agents to sell the same security on the same day, including during pre-market and after-hours trading.

US federal prosecutors have asked Judge Katherine Polk Failla to schedule an October retrial for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm on two unresolved charges that each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. A jury in the Southern District of New York previously convicted him on August 6, 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries up to five years, but deadlocked on the money laundering and sanctions conspiracy counts. The DOJ's March 9 filing proposes October 5 or 12 as retrial dates, while the defense seeks to wait until late September or early December and is pursuing an April 9 Rule 29 bid to overturn the existing conviction. The dispute unfolds amid an April 2025 Blanche Memo telling the DOJ to halt "regulation by prosecution," a US Treasury GENIUS Act report recognizing lawful uses of crypto mixers, and more than 65 crypto organizations urging presidential intervention and helping raise over $5 million for Storm's defense.