Morgan Stanley has lodged a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot Bitcoin ETF, in which the bank names Coinbase and BNY Mellon as the product's custodians. The application identifies the two firms as responsible for custody-related functions tied to the proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

The Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has indicated that perpetual futures products could be introduced in the United States, according to recent remarks captured in the Morning Minute update. This potential move would mark a significant step for U.S. derivatives markets, as regulators weigh how to oversee perpetual contracts within the existing futures framework.

K33 stated in a report cited by The Block on March 4 that Bitcoin has fallen into one of its most oversold weekly ranges on record after months of persistent selling, with no strong justification to continue selling at current price levels. The firm's research director Vetle Lunde wrote that sentiment in the cryptocurrency derivatives market is broadly pessimistic and positioning is clearly defensive, following six straight weekly declines and five consecutive monthly losses, the longest negative streak in Bitcoin's history. According to the report, the downturn has been mainly driven by long-term holders and institutional investors, as the supply held for more than six months dropped sharply in the fourth quarter of 2025, exchange-traded investors such as ETF holders cut almost 100,000 BTC, and open interest in CME Bitcoin futures retreated to a two-year low. Lunde added that these outflows from long-term and exchange-traded investors have recently shown signs of slowing.

Bitcoin has fallen into one of its most oversold weekly conditions on record, with a weekly Relative Strength Index at 26.84 after six straight weekly declines and five consecutive months of losses, according to crypto research and brokerage firm K33 cited by The Block. K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde said derivatives markets show extreme bearish positioning, noting Bitcoin perpetual futures' 30‑day average funding rate has turned negative for only the tenth time since 2018, while historical data under similar setups showed an average 30‑day return of about 13% and win rates over 90 and 180 days of 78% with average gains of 62% and 101%. Lunde added that Bitcoin has remained relatively resilient despite rising geopolitical tensions and commented that "The worst is behind us; now we wait." Bitcoin is trading around $71,000, up 4.7% in the past 24 hours.

The x402 protocol has enabled AI agents to perform accountless, KYC-free microtransactions and has processed more than 100 million payments by the end of 2025, with a further 15 million transactions in the first 30 days of this year, according to Cambrian Network and project disclosures. Launched in May 2025 by Coinbase in collaboration with Cloudflare and backed by Cloudflare's management of roughly 20% of global web traffic, x402 repurposes the long-unused HTTP 402 Payment Required status code so that an AI agent can receive a 402 response with pricing terms, sign payment details such as amount, blockchain, and token via EIP712, resend the request, and receive the resource in under a second using stablecoins like USDC. An upgraded x402 V2 went live on December 11, 2025, adding multichain support for Base, Solana, and Avalanche, a Session mechanism that turns wallets into reusable identity credentials, and integration with ACH bank transfers and credit card networks, while Google later integrated x402 into its Agent2Agent protocol and released the Agentic Payments Protocol. The x402 ecosystem token reached a CoinGecko market cap of over $9 billion with daily trading volume above $230 million, but many so-called x402 concept tokens are described as unrelated meme tokens with no direct linkage to protocol usage, and technical as well as regulatory questions remain around EIP712 security, ERC8004's Sybil resistance, fee economics for sub-$0.0001 micropayments on L2s, standard fragmentation against Google's AP2 and a16z's ACP, and unresolved KYC/AML triggers for AI-initiated payments.

The Financial Action Task Force flagged anti-money laundering risks tied to peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers in its latest communication. FATF highlighted asset freeze capabilities and denylist mechanisms as potential risk-mitigation tools for such transactions.

Kraken has received approval for a Federal Reserve master account, making it the first cryptonative company with direct access to the Fed's core payments infrastructure, according to a report. The access allows Kraken to hold reserves and settle transactions via systems such as Fedwire without relying solely on intermediary banks. The approval, in process for five years, is expected to serve as a pilot for a proposed "skinny" master account model that would provide payments access without extending traditional bank lending privileges.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded a net inflow of $225.2 million on March 3, with nearly all products now showing positive year-to-date flows, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said. Despite the renewed inflows, Bitcoin remains down 22% year-to-date and has fallen 50% from its peak, Balchunas noted.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that existing tariffs could rise from 10% to 15% as early as this week, operating within a 150-day authorization period. The statement points to potential near-term adjustments to current tariff levels under the defined approval timeframe.