Weekly Market Highlights - Binance Secures Landmark US$2B Investment from MGX
14 March 2025Macro/TradFiBinance has secured a landmark US$2B investment from MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based AI and technology investor. This marks the first institutional investment in Binance and the largest crypto-related deal ever funded in stablecoins.The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that was announced last Thursday will hold an estimated 200K BTC and the U.S. will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. The Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers.The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published guidance to confirm that crypto-asset custody, certain stablecoin activities, and participation in independent node verification are now allowed for national banks and federal savings associations without requiring special approval.Chinese tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods began on Monday in response to U.S. tariffs that went into effect on China last week.25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada went into effect on Tuesday. Ontario then announced a 25% increase on electricity exports to the U.S. in response to the trade war which was eventually rescinded after Trump threatened a 50% tariff on Canada’s aluminum and steel.The European Union will impose counter tariffs on €26B (US$28B) worth of U.S. goods from next month, after the U.S. tariffs of 25% on all steel and aluminium imports took effect on WednesdayDeutsche Bank says Bitcoin is "like gold" and the US strategic Bitcoin reserve "could set international standards."Video-sharing platform Rumble has announced the purchase of US$17M in Bitcoin as a part of its new treasury strategy.Japanese publicly traded company Metaplanet has announced the issuance of 2 billion yen (approximately US$12.7M) in zero-interest ordinary bonds to further invest in Bitcoin.U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed optimism regarding the latest inflation figures after the latest data came in at 2.8%, below the expected 2.9% rate.Franklin Templeton becomes the largest asset manager to file for a Solana ETF. CryptoL1/L2:Monad testnet has reached a significant milestone, with daily transactions surpassing 1.3 million and total transactions exceeding 237 million.Mercado Bitcoin to issue US$200M in tokenized assets in Latin America via the Polygon network.The vote for SIMD-228, a proposal to change Solana’s inflation to a market based emission mechanism, has failed to achieve the supermajority quorum of 67%.Transaction activity, measured by 7-day moving average, on Base network has dropped 38% from 6 January but remains the top Ethereum L2.StarkWare has established a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” aiming to hold a growing proportion of its treasury in BTC as part of their vision to unify Bitcoin and Ethereum.Holesky, one of Ethereum's two main testnet networks, has finally regained finality after nearly two weeks of non-finalization since developers activated Pectra on it.DeFi:PancakeSwap burned over 9 Million CAKE tokens worth US$15M as part of its ongoing efforts to manage the supply of CAKE.A whale on Hyperliquid opened a US$200M ETH long position before reducing his margin below maintenance requirements, walking away with US$1.8m in profits while the Hyperliquid Provider Vault (HLP) suffered a US$4M loss.Institutional tokenization firm Securitize has selected RedStone as its main data provider for both its existing and upcoming products by Apollo, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, and KKR.Others:GnosisDAO has reached a quorum to invest an additional US$4.8M to fund further R&D of a private, uncensorable VPN with hopes of bringing it to market within two years.Axelar Foundation has disclosed strategic token sales worth US$30M to support institutional tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) through its interoperability protocol.Anchorage Digital and Copper.co is set to provide digital asset custody services for Cantor Fitzgerald’s new global Bitcoin financing business, which will provide leverage to institutional investors who hold Bitcoin.Blackrock’s tokenized fund, BUIDL, surpassed US$1B in assets under management on Thursday, becoming the first institutional on-chain fund to do so.Ripple has received regulatory approval on Thursday to provide crypto payments and services in Dubai, in a region where the potential cross-border payments market is worth US$40B.Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:The Future of Bitcoin #4: DeFiMonthly Market Insights - March 2025Sustainable Tokenomics: Questions Every Founder Should Think AboutExplore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research.For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.That’s a wrap!Binance ResearchAbout Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. The team is committed to delivering objective, independent, and comprehensive analysis and aims to be the thought leader in the crypto space. Our analysts publish insightful thought pieces regularly on topics related but not limited to, the crypto ecosystem, blockchain technologies, and the latest market themes.General Disclosure: This material is prepared by Binance Research and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities, cryptocurrencies or to adopt any investment strategy. The use of terminology and the views expressed are intended to promote understanding and the responsible development of the sector and should not be interpreted as definitive legal views or those of Binance. The opinions expressed are as of the date shown above and are the opinions of the writer, they may change as subsequent conditions vary. 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