Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum should prioritize developing "sanctuary technologies" designed to safeguard freedom, privacy and coordination as government and corporate control expands. He outlined this vision as a direction for the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting the role such tools could play in protecting users amid growing centralized oversight.

Solana is trading near $85 within a consolidation band between $80 support and $95 resistance, with analysts noting a base structure that has formed over the past 30 days. Analyst Ali Martinez identifies a 4-hour horizontal range from $76 to $90, with an $83 midpoint guiding short-term direction; a move above $90 would open higher resistance levels, while a drop below $76 could signal bearish continuation. Shiller describes a tight daily channel between $80 and $88 where buyers absorb supply at the lower band, though resistance near $90 caps rallies and volatility remains compressed. Shah highlights a corrective pattern from a $145 peak to $80 and says repeated higher lows between $80 and $95 show weakening selling pressure, with a confirmed break above $95 potentially targeting $110–$120, while loss of support could shift focus to $70–$75.

Vitalik Buterin urged Ethereum developers to prioritize building "sanctuary technologies" that protect users from expanding AI, government and corporate surveillance, and geopolitical instability, in a detailed post on X. The $ETH founder argued Ethereum needs to move beyond its current financial focus and adopt a broader mission of creating open systems that offer such protections. He added that Ethereum currently appears largely absent from "meaningfully improving the lives of people subject to these things."

Ripple Prime has been added to the National Securities Clearing Corporation directory through Hidden Road's listing, enabling NSCC-supported settlement workflows widely used in U.S. capital markets, a DTCC notice shows. Hidden Road, operating under Ripple Prime, previously processed roughly $3 trillion in annual post-trade flows for more than 300 institutional clients, and Ripple has outlined plans to migrate this activity onto the XRP Ledger using existing institutional rails. The NSCC inclusion follows recent regulatory approval for Ripple Prime and comes as institutional XRPL usage grows, including Societe Generale's launch of a euro-denominated stablecoin on the ledger and reported preparations for institutional options trading.

Solana is trading between $80 and $90, rebounding from lows near $82–$83 to recent highs around $87–$89. The network added roughly 1.4 million new addresses over 12 days, bringing the total to approximately 8.6 million, while stablecoin balances on Solana exceeded $15B. Daily trading volume remains above $5B, and some larger market participants and institutions are described as accumulating. A break above $90 could extend the move toward $100–$107 in what is characterized as a classic breakout setup.

Ripple announced it is expanding its Ripple Payments platform to provide banks and fintech companies with end-to-end stablecoin workflows covering collection, custody, conversion, and payout, Business Wire reports. The upgrade aims to connect institutional payment rails with on-chain settlement, reduce reliance on prefunded accounts and correspondent banking chains, and accelerate cross-border transactions while easing liquidity constraints. Ripple's dollar-pegged RLUSD token is gaining traction, with circulating supply approaching hundreds of millions as adoption grows across institutional participants and use cases extend into treasury management and interbank settlements in over 60 markets. Ripple has pursued acquisitions including Palisade and Rail to strengthen custody, treasury automation, and fiat-stablecoin interoperability, alongside growing U.S. regulatory momentum around bank charter discussions and crypto market structure legislation shaping the environment for stablecoin-based payment infrastructure.

Ethereum is set to surge in March, Tom Lee told CNBC Squawk Box, citing growing tokenized fund activity on the network. Lee said almost every major tokenized fund announcement now builds on Ethereum, and argued the price tends to follow such activity. He has previously projected Ethereum could reach $250,000, though no timeline was specified.

Mastercard is partnering with SoFi Technologies to let SoFi Bank N.A. settle Mastercard credit and debit card transactions in SoFiUSD, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by the OCC-regulated, insured depository institution and backed 1:1 by cash reserves, the companies announced. Through SoFi's Galileo payments platform, issuer banks and card programs connected to Mastercard's global network will be able to opt into SoFiUSD-based settlement on a public, permissionless blockchain, supporting around-the-clock processing and integrating with Mastercard's Multi-Token Network alongside fiat currencies, tokenized deposits, and other digital assets. The parties said they will also explore additional use cases such as cross-border remittances, business-to-business transfers, programmable treasury tools, and stablecoin-enabled card programs, with all future initiatives contingent on applicable regulatory requirements and Mastercard network rules.

Ethereum recorded more than $1 billion in tokenized gold spot trading volume for two consecutive months. Over 90% of the activity was executed on Uniswap, the original summary shows.