Israel has begun launching large-scale airstrikes against Iran

On March 17, Gency AI—a decentralized AI and blockchain infrastructure firm—announced it has closed a $20 million funding round, with participation from TikTok, HF0, XYZ, Streamlined Ventures, Hat-Trick Capital, ViaBTC, Basics Capital and other institutional investors. The company said the fresh capital will be used to expand its decentralized ad execution and settlement network, strengthen its privacy computing tech stack, and accelerate product rollouts and ecosystem partnerships across North America, Asia and Europe. Gency AI aims to build verifiable advertising infrastructure using blockchain and smart contracts, recording ad impressions, conversion outcomes and revenue distribution on-chain to enable automated settlement and transparent revenue sharing. This addresses longstanding pain points in the digital ad industry, including data ownership, attribution transparency and cross-platform settlement efficiency. Its technical architecture includes an on-chain identity syst

On March 17, crypto liquidity provider and trading firm GSR announced it has acquired advisory firms Autonomous and Architech in a $57 million deal to launch an integrated crypto capital markets and treasury management platform. Per the announcement, Autonomous will retain its brand while providing token issuance, financial management, and infrastructure support within the GSR ecosystem. Architech, meanwhile, will become a core component of GSR’s digital asset advisory arm, collaborating on institutional trading, liquidity solutions, and asset management capabilities. GSR CEO Xin Song noted that crypto capital market services remain highly fragmented today—new projects often need to hire separate structural advisors, tokenomics experts, market makers, and listing consultants. The integration aims to deliver a one-stop solution spanning project creation, token design, fundraising, exchange strategy, and long-term capital planning. The platform will also provide treasury managem

On March 17, OpenAI entered into an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to sell artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the U.S. government. (Golden Ten)

March 17 — Payment giant Mastercard announced plans to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK, with a total transaction value of up to $1.8 billion. In a joint statement Tuesday, the two parties noted roughly $300 million of the amount is contingent consideration. Reportedly, the acquisition follows a $2 billion potential deal between BVNK and Coinbase Global that fell through four months ago. The transaction also underscores that traditional payment giants are accelerating their expansion into stablecoins and on-chain payment infrastructure.

On March 17th, per TrumpMeme, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is set to attend and deliver remarks at the Trump Luncheon at Mar-a-Lago.

March 17: Bitget market data shows U.S. stock index futures turned higher, with S&P 500 futures up 0.2%, Nasdaq 100 futures 0.1% higher, and Dow Jones futures rising 0.3%.