Gate News reported that on March 18, Hong Kong stocks (Hong Kong Stock Exchange) OpenClaw concept stocks rose in the afternoon. MINIMAX-W(00100.HK) surged over 18%, Kingsoft Cloud (03896.HK) rose over 14%, Zhipu (02513.HK) rose over 13%, Xunci (03317.HK) rose over 8%, Alibaba (09988.HK), NetEase-S(09999.HK) and other stocks rallied following.

Circle Internet Group (CRCL) announced on March 18 the appointment of Kirk Koenigsbauer to its board of directors, where he will participate in the compensation and risk committee. He brings over 30 years of experience in global enterprise software and cloud services and currently serves as president and COO of Microsoft's Experiences & Devices Group.

The UK Parliament's Joint Committee on National Security Strategy has recommended an immediate ban on cryptocurrency donations to political parties, citing high risks to the political funding system, and has called for a mandatory halt to such donations pending the implementation of more comprehensive regulations. Some industry figures have expressed concerns about the ban, arguing that it could increase hacking risks and drive activities overseas. Currently, the UK is facing regulatory challenges regarding the role of crypto assets in political financing.

A trader who successfully predicted Trump's election is betting that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will cease fire before 2027, investing $425,000, with the current ceasefire probability at 36%. In a social media post, the trader noted that consensus between Russia and the US to end the war is hard to stop. The US easing sanctions on Russian energy exports has sparked protests from Ukraine, and there are divisions within the European Union.

Bitcoin Depot's money transmitter license has been emergency suspended in Connecticut due to reasons including excessive fees, failure to fully refund fraudulent transactions, and non-compliance with regulatory requirements. The company's stock price has declined significantly, and internal control deficiencies are expected to be disclosed in the annual report.

Connecticut has suspended Bitcoin Depot's money transmitter license and required the company to halt its Bitcoin ATM operations due to multiple violations regarding fees and information disclosure. The company's stock price has declined, and it faces fines and compliance pressure, which may impact stricter regulatory oversight across the entire industry.

Gate News reports that on March 18, X platform product leader Nikita Bier stated: "In the next 30 days, the economic motivation to post spam on X will decrease substantially and will soon become negative."

Decentralized derivatives platform Aster launched Aster Chain on March 18, a high-performance privacy blockchain designed specifically for perpetual futures, supporting cross-chain asset deposits and emphasizing account-level privacy protection. Although the mainnet launch drove a brief surge in ASTER price, trading volume and total locked value declined significantly. Whether it can attract liquidity in the future will be key to its growth.

Although the Middle East region is in turmoil due to the conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran, crypto enterprises in the UAE have demonstrated resilience in the cloud and virtual markets, with daily operations unaffected and attractiveness remaining stable.

Gate News bot message, thomasg.eth(@thomasg_eth) purchased 2,582 ETH using 6.08M USDC two hours ago. Over the past three days, thomasg.eth has spent a total of 14.08M USDC to acquire 6,204 ETH, at an average buying price of $2,269.