Project Progress

Gate News reports that on March 20, Ethereum Layer 2 network Starknet announced on the X platform that the STRK20 testnet will launch next week, with mainnet planned for late April. STRK20 aims to provide token-level privacy for assets on Starknet, supporting the issuance of privacy stablecoins and other privacy assets while balancing compliance requirements. The standard keeps transaction amounts and account balances confidential and is compatible with

BlackRock's "iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB)" had a trading volume of over $15.5 million on its first day of listing, showcasing strong performance and highlighting the potential for institutional capital to flow into Ethereum. ETHB will directly hold Ether and participate in staking; in addition to benefiting from price fluctuations, investors can earn staking rewards, with 82% of the yields distributed to holders on a monthly basis.

March 20, 2026 2:50 am EDT

Peter Steinberger reviewed his experience founding the open-source AI framework OpenClaw at a Sequoia Capital event, recounting the frustration he felt from repeatedly wanting to remotely command computers, which ultimately led him to build a prototype himself, gradually evolving into today's OpenClaw.

Hyperliquid is rapidly expanding its liquidity and market share, surpassing $1 billion in stablecoin and adding $1 billion in open interest last month. Growth is fueled by trades on HIP-3, reflecting a shift to traditional assets. Token HYPE shows strong performance but faces selling pressure and volatility.

Aster launched its staking feature on March 20th, allowing users to delegate ASTER tokens and choose lock-up periods to earn rewards through basic and loyalty incentives. The initial validators include Trust Wallet and others. The staking cycle runs from Monday to Sunday each week, and users must complete their staking before Monday to receive rewards.

The Polygon community has proposed an initiative aimed at balancing income disparities among validators of different scales through fixed reward averaging. This mechanism will reduce large validator revenues by approximately 11%, ensuring that medium and small validators achieve break-even, thereby enhancing network decentralization.

Gate News reports that on March 20, The Smarter Web Company, a London-listed technology company, announced that its Chief Financial Officer Albert Soleiman has reached an agreement with the board to immediately resign from his position as a company director and will step down as Chief Financial Officer following an orderly transition period. Mario Visconti, the company's former Chief Financial Officer and current Finance Director and Project Head, will serve as interim Chief Financial Officer following Albert Soleiman's departure.

Crypto accelerator Alliance announced its ALL16 cohort list on March 20, featuring 18 teams covering stablecoin payments (such as Allod, Superbank, etc.), prediction markets (such as Predexon, Freeport, etc.), and AI applications and RWA tokenization projects (such as Givance, Graded, etc.).

Pi Network's Protocol 20 protocol update has garnered attention from the crypto community, activating new discussions about its utility, while market price predictions for its global consensus value have reached $314159. The significance and specific impact of this technical upgrade continue to be widely analyzed.

Gate News reported that on March 20, Lido Earn introduced a new first-loss compensation mechanism on-chain to cover potential losses users may suffer in extreme scenarios. Lido DAO has allocated $5 million from its treasury for this purpose. When losses valued at market price reach or exceed 1%, a dedicated protocol reserve will first absorb the losses, ensuring user deposits remain unaffected.

Anchorage Digital announced on March 20th an expansion of its Atlas network, adding collateral management functionality to provide institutional clients with cryptocurrency-backed lending infrastructure that reduces operational and counterparty risks. Currently supporting nearly 600 institutions and processing hundreds of billions of dollars in settlements, it helps institutions efficiently manage crypto collateral and facilitates the integration of crypto finance with the U.S. financial system.

Pi Network (PI) recently rose, indicating that the profit-taking trend is weakening. Kraken and LBank have been added as official centralized exchanges supporting PI trading, boosting liquidity. On-chain data shows that net inflows on CEXs have turned positive, indicating increased holder confidence. Technical analysis suggests that PI still faces resistance but has rebound potential, requiring a break above the 50-day moving average and rising RSI to challenge the psychological level of $0.20.

Startup t54 announces that its AI agents can now autonomously make payments using XRP and RLUSD on the XRP Ledger, achieving the first integration of AI agents with on-chain payments. t54's x402 protocol enables AI agents to autonomously take on tasks, verify them on-chain, and settle payments via smart contracts. Ripple's strategic investment signals its early positioning in the AI agent economy, which could potentially increase demand for XRP, though success will require time to verify.

Open-source AI agent tool OpenClaw is rapidly gaining popularity in China, attracting users across various industries to train personal agents for diverse purposes. While the boom aligns with government-driven AI policies, it faces a dual dilemma of rising costs and safety regulations, leading users to concerns about its future development.

Tether is accelerating the introduction of USDT into the Bitcoin Lightning Network to enhance transfer efficiency and expand application scenarios. This move combines stablecoins with Bitcoin, promoting efficient payments and cross-chain application development, and is expected to improve the usability of cryptocurrency payment systems, though it faces market competition and technical challenges.

The World Gold Council and Boston Consulting Group have jointly launched the "Gold-as-a-Service" white paper, aimed at establishing a unified open platform framework that connects physical gold with tokenized products to enhance gold's usability and transaction convenience in the financial system. This framework features six key functionalities including standardized issuance, high transparency, and improved liquidity, and is expected to accelerate institutional investors' entry into the tokenized gold market.