Project Progress

Gate News, on March 18, LayerZero announced the integration of Cardano, connecting the Cardano ecosystem with over 160 blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, and Aptos. In this deployment, LayerZero's omnichain fungible token (OFT) standard supports over 700 existing tokens natively extending to Cardano. Developers and users can access the aforementioned assets and applications across chains.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new fast finality rule that guarantees Ethereum transactions become irreversible within 12 seconds, aiming to improve the current mechanism that requires 6.4 minutes for final confirmation. This proposal relies on the majority of validator nodes being honest and network latency being below 3 seconds. If these conditions hold, it could effectively enhance user experience.

Gate News, on March 18, NFT project Doodles launched an AI creation platform at makedoodles.ai. The platform supports users uploading images and generating artwork in Doodles style through AI technology.

Circle announced the appointment of Microsoft executive Kirk Koenigsbauer as a board member, enhancing its governance and risk management capabilities. Koenigsbauer's Microsoft background will help Circle navigate compliance and security challenges as it transitions from a startup to a mature public company, and will strengthen market confidence in USDC and its ability to expand into traditional enterprises.

Tether has launched a new AI training framework that allows for fine-tuning large language models on consumer devices such as smartphones and non-Nvidia GPUs. By utilizing Microsoft’s BitNet architecture and LoRA techniques, it provides substantial reductions in memory usage and computational costs, supporting a variety of chipsets. This development is in line with the trend of cryptocurrency companies expanding into AI and computing infrastructure.

Aster, a DEX for derivatives backed by Changpeng Zhao's family office, has launched its mainnet with a private Layer 1 blockchain. It aims to improve DeFi transparency while enabling high performance and private transactions, leveraging zero-knowledge technology.

Cryptocurrency governance tool Tally announced its closure on March 17 after operating for over five years. Tally had provided governance infrastructure for multiple Ethereum protocols, handling over $1 billion in transactions. The shutdown was attributed to poor market timing and failure to fulfill token promises, reflecting the commercialization challenges of DAO governance tools. Despite these challenges, the DAO concept continues to evolve, with future development potentially shifting toward diversified infrastructure construction.

The Ethereum Foundation launched a scholarship program to support PhD research on Ethereum, offering $24,000 grants for one year. Open to all fields but prioritizing economics, political science, and more, 9-10 candidates will be selected. Applications are due by April 1.

dTRINITY suffered a first deposit inflation attack by dLEND on March 17, resulting in $257,000 in bad debt. The protocol has been suspended, and the team has committed to fully covering losses with internal funds. Bad debt repayment will begin within 24 hours after the announcement. Other deployments remain unaffected, and user funds are safe.

LazAI team's paper "QoS-Aware Token Scheduling and Private Data Valuation for Multi-Modal Agentic Networks" has been officially accepted by IEEE ICME 2026, focusing on token scheduling optimization and private data valuation for AI Agent networks. This acceptance marks academic recognition of LazAI's technical roadmap.

EPOCH Digital Credit, in collaboration with Synthesys and Chainlink, has launched TreasuryPlus (TPLUS), the first digital tokenized private credit fund, covering six major markets including Singapore and Hong Kong. The fund employs cross-chain technology to offer stable returns and liquidity, and is open to qualified investors.

Hyperliquid's HIP-3 market reached a new high in open interest at $1.43 billion, driven primarily by the trade.xyz platform, with non-crypto assets dominating its trading pairs. HIP-3 offers 24/7 trading advantages that break through traditional market constraints, attracting a broad investor base. The HYPE token has performed exceptionally well, providing support for the ecosystem's growth, with HIP-4 set to further expand the market in the future.

Ethereum governance solution Tally announced its shutdown after five years of operations, citing unfavorable market conditions and lack of business model support. CEO Bertram stated that the feasibility of token issuance could not be determined. Tally will gradually cease operations by the end of this month, but will work with enterprise clients to develop transition plans.

PayPal announced that its USD stablecoin PYUSD has expanded to 70 markets globally, including Singapore and several countries in South America, allowing users to conduct real-time cross-border remittances at lower costs. PYUSD is regulated and offers reward programs, which enhances user asset retention incentives and accelerates capital flow, improving merchant operational flexibility.

Tether announced that its AI infrastructure, QVAC Fabric, has launched the world's first cross-platform BitNet LoRA fine-tuning framework, enabling large language models to be trained on consumer-grade hardware. This technology allows devices like smartphones to complete model fine-tuning, significantly reducing AI development costs, enabling AI decentralization, and making it possible to use AI anytime and anywhere in the future.

Hong Kong regulators received 36 stablecoin license applications but plan to approve only a few issuers. HSBC and Standard Chartered are expected among the first licensed HKD stablecoin issuers. The licensing framework builds on a sandbox program launched in 2024 to test stablecoin

Bitcoin Layer 2 network Stacks implemented SIP-034 upgrade on March 17, enhancing network processing capacity for certain DeFi applications by 30 times. By optimizing transaction processing limits, the upgrade significantly impacts complex DeFi applications and is expected to indirectly increase transactions and fees.

The World project has launched the AgentKit developer toolkit for CEX's intelligent agent payment protocol x402, enabling AI agents authorized by users verified through World to prove their real identities while safeguarding privacy. This initiative integrates payment and identity mechanisms to establish a comprehensive trust system.