The Daily: Treasury removes Tornado Cash from OFAC sanctions list, bitcoin bull Metaplanet appoints Eric Trump to advisory board and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

It's Friday! According to a Dune Analytics dashboard , Polymarket apparently predicts events with up to 94% accuracy. However, with some of its users evidently being flat-earthers , I wouldn't place too much emphasis around the decentralized platform's prophecies.

In today's newsletter, OFAC removes Tornado Cash from its sanctions list, Metaplanet appoints Eric Trump to its advisory board, USAID could follow Elon Musk's DOGE in considering blockchain technology and more.

Meanwhile, the total stablecoin market cap surpasses $230 billion amid institutional interest and President Trump's policies.

Let's get started.

Treasury removes Tornado Cash from OFAC sanctions list

The U.S. Treasury Department has lifted sanctions on crypto mixer Tornado Cash after an appeals court ruled that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) exceeded its authority in November 2024.

• A U.S. District Court in Texas then ordered the reversal of sanctions on Tornado Cash in January following that appeals court ruling.
• Tornado Cash obscures the origins of cryptocurrency transactions by pooling and redistributing funds and was originally sanctioned in August 2022.
• OFAC had accused the platform of being used by cybercriminals, including notorious North Korean hackers the Lazarus Group, to launder illicitly obtained cryptocurrency.
• However, while the Treasury remains concerned about significant state-sponsored hacking, Tornado Cash and its associated wallet addresses have now been removed from the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, according to a Friday release.
• "Digital assets present enormous opportunities for innovation and value creation for the American people," Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Securing the digital asset industry from abuse by North Korea and other illicit actors is essential to establishing U.S. leadership and ensuring that the American people can benefit from financial innovation and inclusion."

Metaplanet appoints Eric Trump to advisory board

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has appointed the U.S. President's second son, Eric Trump, to its Strategic Board of Advisors .

• Trump, also an ambassador for DeFi project World Liberty Financial, is charged with assisting the company in advancing its mission to expand its bitcoin treasury, according to Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich.
• "Eric Trump brings a wealth of experience in real estate, finance, brand development and strategic business growth and has become a leading voice and advocate of digital asset adoption worldwide," the firm said.
• The Tokyo-listed company announced its bitcoin accumulation strategy last year and aims to acquire 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025.
• Following its most recent purchase of 150 BTC on Tuesday, Metaplanet now holds 3,200 BTC — making it the 10th largest corporate bitcoin holder globally.

USAID could follow Elon Musk-led DOGE unit's idea to adopt blockchain technology

Trump administration officials have crafted a proposal to rebrand USAID and leverage blockchain technology as part of a more transparent procurement process, according to a document purportedly circulating the State Department obtained by Politico.

• A section of the proposal on creating "modernized, performance-based procurement" processes suggests "all distributions would be secured and traced via blockchain technology to radically increase security, transparency and traceability" in U.S. aid programs.
• However, it is not clear how exactly this would work and what type of blockchain technology would be used — whether that is a public, private or hybrid model.
• It's also unclear whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio or other senior Trump officials have approved the proposal, which does not constitute any concrete plans and acknowledges that some changes may require congressional approval.
• The news follows the Elon Musk-led DOGE unit, which recently recommended a slew of cuts to USAID, in exploring options for putting federal government systems onchain.

Strategy upsizes STRF deal to $722.5 million to buy more bitcoin

Strategy has announced the pricing of its STRF perpetual preferred stock offering on Friday, upsizing the deal from $500 million to $722.5 million to buy yet more bitcoin.

• Strategy will offer 8.5 million STRF shares at $85 per share, with the sale set to close on March 25. Net proceeds after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other expenses are estimated at $711.2 million.
• The STRF sale follows its previously announced plan to raise up to $21 billion via its perpetual strike preferred stock, STRK, and $42 billion in equity and fixed-income securities offerings.
• Strategy currently holds 499,226 BTC, valued at over $41 billion, with an average purchase price of $66,360 per bitcoin.
  Strategy's $79 billion market cap trades at a significant premium to its bitcoin net asset value, with some investors airing reservations about the firm's premium to NAV valuation and its increasingly numerous bitcoin acquisition programs in general.

LG to shut down NFT platform almost nobody knew it had

After three years, global electronics giant LG is set to shut down its NFT platform , LG Art Lab, by June to "explore new opportunities" amid a wave of similar closures in the struggling crypto niche

• Once representing the new frontier of digital assets, the NFT market has been in substantial decline during that time, with weekly trade volumes recently dropping below $100 million from a peak of $3.2 billion in 2021.
• Launched in September 2022, LG Art Lab allowed users to trade NFTs and display digital art on its smart TVs, though few seem to know it even existed, including me as an LG TV owner.
• The closure follows Kraken's shuttering of its NFT marketplace in February and Nike's wearable NFT startup RTFKT last December.

Looking ahead to next week

• UK CPI inflation data are out on Wednesday. U.S. jobless claims and GDP figures are released on Thursday. UK GDP and U.S. PCE numbers follow on Friday.
• Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey will speak on Monday, followed by U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michael Barr.
• 1inch, EigenLayer, Ethena and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance are all set for token unlocks.

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