WTI Crude Oil Futures Soar 3% Intraday, Now Trading at $93.03 per Barrel

March 26 — Cross-border payments platform Tazapay has closed a $36 million Series B funding round, led by Circle Ventures, with participation from CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Peak XV Partners, GMO Venture Partners and January Capital. Tazapay noted that it holds licenses and registrations in Singapore, Canada, Australia and the U.S., and is currently seeking relevant licenses in the UAE, EU and Hong Kong. Proceeds from the new funding will go toward expanding its licensing footprint across multiple jurisdictions and enhancing its escrow payment infrastructure.

March 26th — Per HyperInsight monitoring (via t.me/HyperInsight), Google’s compression technology paper has reignited market concerns about weakening storage demand, sending storage-focused stocks lower in pre-market trading. SanDisk (SNDK) fell nearly 4%, while Micron Technology (MU) dropped nearly 3% before the opening bell. On the Hyperliquid derivatives platform, MU was last trading at $371.5, down 7.7% over 24 hours; SNDK traded at $649.3, a nearly 9% decline in the same period. Notably, the largest long position in MU—held by an address tied to Continue Capital (0x3e3)—saw its unrealized losses widen to $320,000. The position totals ~$8.08 million, with an average entry price of $190 and a liquidation price of $159.9. For SNDK, the largest long position on Hyperliquid (address 0x6ba) experienced a ~$500,000 intraday retracement in unrealized gains. The position size is $6.53 million, with an average entry price of $630.

On March 26, Bithumb—South Korea’s second-largest crypto exchange—announced via official sources that it has added Katana (KAT) and will support KRW trading pairs for the token.

**BOJ Launches Monthly Core CPI Reference Index Amid Inflation Confusion** March 26 – The Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced it will begin publishing monthly data to gauge core CPI starting this month. The new metric, titled the *Core CPI Reference Index*, will be released at 2 p.m. local time on the second business day following Japan’s official CPI release. Investinglive analyst Justin Low noted that against the backdrop of the BOJ’s prior moves, the central bank faced widespread skepticism over confusion in Japan’s inflation figures. Japan’s February core CPI annual rate dipped below the key 2% threshold, yet the BOJ remains committed to its tight monetary policy. The BOJ aims to present evidence that underlying inflationary pressures are still robust, arguing government measures like energy subsidies have artificially suppressed CPI figures. Thus, the newly launched index will offer a “denoised” read on inflation—largely to demonstrate to the public and markets that its monetar

Official sources state that Binance Wallet will host the second round of its Alpha airdrop today at 4:00 PM Beijing time (March 26). Users with a minimum of 242 Binance Alpha Points qualify to claim 14 TRADOOR tokens on a first-come, first-served basis. If the reward pool isn’t fully distributed, the points threshold will automatically drop by 5 every 5 minutes. Important notes: Claiming the airdrop will deduct 15 Binance Alpha Points. Users must confirm their claim on the Alpha event page within 24 hours—failure to do so will result in forfeiting the airdrop.

On March 26, Israeli media reported that an Israeli official stated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri was killed in an attack at the port of Abbas. Neither Iran nor the Israeli military has commented on the incident. (Sina Finance)