Important news from last night and this morning (March 15-16)

Sources: ByteDance suspends global launch of Seedance 2.0 due to copyright dispute.

According to a report by The Information, cited by IT Home, two sources familiar with the matter stated that ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, has suspended the global release of its latest video generation model, Seedance 2.0, following a series of copyright disputes with several major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms. The report states that ByteDance originally planned to launch the new video model to global users in mid-March, but has now halted the plan. The report adds that ByteDance's legal team is investigating and resolving potential legal issues, and engineers are also adding protective mechanisms to prevent the model from generating content that could lead to further intellectual property infringement.

Tether CEO: Tether's AI team will release a "breakthrough" this week.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posted on the X platform that the Tether AI team will release a "truly groundbreaking result" this week.

Aave and CoW Swap released drastically different post-incident analyses of a $50 million DeFi trading incident.

According to The Block, Aave and CoW Swap released drastically different post-incident analyses over the weekend regarding the $50 million DeFi trading incident. On that day, a user used the CoW Swap widget on the Aave interface to exchange over $50 million worth of aEthUSDT for approximately $36,000 worth of aEthAAVE. Aave attributed the loss to an "illiquid market," emphasizing that the user had manually confirmed 99.9% of price impact warnings and announced the deployment of the "Aave Shield" feature to block swaps with price impacts exceeding 25% by default. CoW Swap revealed a more complex cascading failure: a rigid gas cap caused better offers to be rejected, the optimal solver won two auctions but failed to execute, and the transaction may have been leaked from a private mempool.

Analysis: If Strategy wants to hold 1 million Bitcoins by the end of the year, it needs to add approximately 6,158 Bitcoins per week.

According to CoinDesk, Strategy currently holds 738,731 Bitcoins. To reach 1 million Bitcoins by the end of 2026, it needs to purchase an additional 261,269. Based on approximately 42 weeks remaining, this equates to an average purchase of about 6,158 Bitcoins per week. At an average price of $85,000, the total investment would be approximately $22.2 billion. The company's recent purchasing pace suggests this goal may be achievable: 17,994 Bitcoins were purchased last week, and this week's STRC preferred stock issuance hints at a purchase of approximately 11,000 Bitcoins. Since launching its Bitcoin Treasury strategy in August 2020, Strategy has averaged approximately 10,700 Bitcoins per month. So far in 2026, it has purchased approximately 64,948 Bitcoins, far exceeding its historical annual average.

The founder of ShapeShift spent a total of 29.44 million USDT to buy 13,986 ETH in the past 24 hours.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, in the past 24 hours, ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees spent 29.44 million USDT to buy 13,986 ETH. In the past six days, he has accumulated 21,293 ETH at an average price of $2,091, spending a total of 44.52 million USDT.

Venus discloses progress in its investigation into the attack: Attackers spent nine months accumulating tokens to bypass the supply cap.

Venus Protocol shared an update from its risk manager, Allez Labs, regarding yesterday's attack: Venus suffered a supply cap manipulation attack in the BNB Chain core pool. The attackers gradually accumulated THE tokens over nine months, starting in June 2025, reaching 84% of the supply cap (approximately 14.5 million tokens). They then bypassed the normal deposit process by directly transferring funds to the protocol contract, completely circumventing the supply cap and establishing a position of 53.2 million THE tokens (3.67 times the cap). Exploiting the low liquidity on the THE chain, the attackers manipulated the TWAP oracle through recursive operations, borrowing large amounts of other assets after the price rose from $0.27 to $0.53.

Analysis: A "Super Central Bank Week" is approaching, with the shadow of the Iran war looming over global interest rate decisions.

According to Jinshi News, a Financial Times article points out that this week will be a "super central bank week." While the interest rate decisions of these central banks are not expected to bring any surprises, the policy guidance accompanying these decisions will be closely watched given the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The four major central banks—the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan—will announce their decisions one after another on Thursday Beijing time. In addition, interest rate setters from Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Indonesia, Sweden, and Switzerland will also meet this week. Except for the Reserve Bank of Australia, which may be an exception, the other central banks are likely to keep interest rates unchanged. However, the war in Iran increases the possibility of a rate hike later this year. The interest rate market has responded hawkishly to the impending energy price shock; expectations for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have been erased, replaced by the possibility of a rate hike by the latter.

Trump warns NATO: Failure to assist in opening up the Strait of Hormuz will result in a "bad" future.

According to a report by the Financial Times, cited by Jinshi, Trump warned that NATO faces a "very bad" future if US allies do not help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. "Those who benefit from the Strait should help make sure nothing bad happens there," Trump said, noting that Europe is highly dependent on oil from the Gulf region, while the US is not. He added, "If there is no response, or if the response is negative, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO." When asked what kind of help he needed, Trump replied, "Any necessary help." He added that allies should send minesweepers, and Europe has far more minesweepers than the US. Trump hinted that he wanted Europe to send commandos or other military forces to eliminate Iranian personnel who are using drones and mines to create "trouble" in the Gulf.

US media: The US government may announce a multinational escort mission in the Strait of Hormuz as early as this week.

According to Jinshi, citing the Wall Street Journal, US officials said the Trump administration plans to announce as early as this week that several countries have agreed to form a coalition to escort ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. However, discussions are still ongoing about whether these operations should begin before or after the end of hostilities with Iran. The White House declined to comment. Given the associated risks, many countries have remained hesitant to participate in such escort missions until hostilities cease.

The Ministry of Commerce responded to the US launching a Section 301 investigation against 16 economies, including China: It has lodged a protest with the US.

According to Jinshi News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce answered reporters' questions regarding the U.S. Trade Representative's announcement of a Section 301 investigation into 60 economies, including China, on the grounds that "the import of goods involving forced labor is not prohibited." The Ministry of Commerce stated that the U.S. had previously fabricated facts and imposed a series of trade restrictions on China under the pretext of "forced labor," and China has repeatedly expressed its firm position. Currently, China and the U.S. are holding a new round of trade consultations in Paris, France, and China has lodged representations with the U.S. We urge the U.S. to immediately correct its erroneous practices, meet China halfway, adhere to the principles of mutual respect and equal consultation, and find a solution through dialogue and consultation. We will closely monitor the progress of the U.S. investigation and reserve the right to take all necessary measures to resolutely defend our legitimate rights and interests.

International Energy Agency: Record-breaking crude oil reserves will be released immediately into the Asian market, while Europe and the US will have to wait until the end of March.

According to Jinshi News, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a statement after receiving implementation plans from member countries. The agency stated that the record-breaking release of oil from reserves will be immediately deployed in Asia as Asian buyers rush to replenish supplies disrupted by the Middle East conflict. Oil destined for Europe and the Americas will not be released until the end of March. The IEA stated last week that the global oil market is facing its worst supply disruption in history due to the Middle East conflict effectively blocking the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping lanes. Asian buyers are most reliant on oil supplies from the Middle East, making the speed of reserve releases particularly critical for the region. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol stated on the X platform: “This will release an unprecedented amount of additional oil into the market starting March 16. However, opening the Strait of Hormuz is crucial for restoring stable oil flows.”

Analyst: An address that received 7,400 ETH from Tornado is orchestrating tonight's CAKE and THE collateral liquidation events.

According to on-chain analyst Ember, an address (hacker?) that received 7,400 ETH from Tornado orchestrated tonight's CAKE and THE collateral liquidation event, resulting in a liquidation deficit of approximately $2.15 million for Venus (1.18 million CAKE + 1.84 million THE). The hacker obtained approximately $5.07 million from Venus (2,172 BNB + 1.516 million CAKE + 20 BTC): 1. The address first received 7,400 ETH from Tornado through address 0x7a7...234, then deposited it into Aave for a collateralized loan of 9.92 million USDT (including USDT, DAI, and USDC), and then transferred it to multiple wallets.

International Energy Agency: Oil in emergency reserves will soon begin flowing into the global market.

According to Jinshi News, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that oil in emergency reserves will soon begin flowing into the global market. Stockpiles from Asian and Oceanian countries will be immediately available, while those from Europe and the Americas will be available by the end of March. Governments have pledged to release 271.7 million barrels of crude oil from strategic petroleum reserves and 116.6 million barrels from mandatory industry reserves. Member countries in the Americas will provide 172.2 million barrels of oil. Of the planned release, 72% is crude oil and 28% is petroleum products.

Aave released a recap of the Swap incident: users exchanged $50.43 million worth of aEthUSDT for approximately $36,000 worth of AAVE, due to a liquidity shortage that caused an extreme price shock.

Aave released a recap of the March 12th Swap incident, stating that a user attempted to exchange approximately 50.43 million aEthUSDT (worth about $50.43 million) for aEthAAVE via the integrated CoW Swap route on its front-end interface. However, due to the transaction size far exceeding market liquidity, the user ultimately only received about 327 aEthAAVE, worth about $36,000. Aave stated that the transaction occurred on the third-party CoW Swap protocol and did not affect the security of Aave's core lending protocol. The transaction quote showed a 99.9% impact on the price, and the interface explicitly warned of a "potential 100% value loss," requiring users to confirm before continuing the transaction.

The Sky Protocol proposal provides 70 million USDS to support the expansion of the Sky Agent Network.

Sky Protocol (formerly MakerDAO) has announced a proposal to allocate approximately 70 million USDS as initial capital (Genesis Capital) to multiple Sky Agents to support the further expansion of the Sky Agent Network during its launch phase. These independent capital allocators will participate in capital deployment and provide a source of revenue for the Sky Savings Rate. According to the proposal, the capital allocation includes: 10 million USDS to Keel Finance; 25 million USDS each to the new executive agents Amatsu and Ozone; and an additional 10 million USDS to be allocated to a yet-to-be-announced sixth launch phase agent.

Bitwise CIO: If Bitcoin can capture market share from gold and US Treasury bonds, its price could rise to $1 million.

According to CoinDesk, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise Asset Management, stated that Bitcoin could eventually reach $1 million per coin if it can capture a larger share of the global store of value market currently dominated by gold and government bonds. However, the $1 million target is less of an accurate prediction and more of a simplified representation of Bitcoin's maturation as a major global monetary asset, the outcome of which depends on long-term institutional adoption and the expansion of the store of value market. Some proponents argue that geopolitical tensions, a potential crisis in traditional "safe" assets, and Bitcoin's fixed supply could all accelerate its rise, but most believe this will take a decade or more, rather than be an imminent event.

A whale who bought in at a low price transferred 3.667 million THE tokens to Binance after the Venus flash loan incident, and may have made a profit of nearly $730,000.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), a whale bought 3.667 million THE tokens a month ago at an average price of $0.2693. After the attacker launched a flash loan attack on Venus and the price of the tokens surged, the whale transferred all the tokens to Binance. If it sells them, it will make a profit of $729,000.

The 315 Gala exposed that a large AI model had been "poisoned," revealing that "brainwashing" AI has become an industry chain.

According to a report by CCTV Finance cited by Jinshi, based on insider information, reporters quickly found a service called GEO on multiple online platforms. Service providers offering this service claim that users only need to pay a fee to have their products listed in major AI models and to have their product advertisements become the "standard answers" given by AI models. The popularity of GEO services has spawned many companies and platforms specializing in press release distribution. They have long undertaken various press release distribution services to ensure that AI models cite and crawl their content, becoming a crucial part of targeting AI models and "poisoning" their data.

U.S. Energy Secretary Wright: The conflict with Iran will end "in the next few weeks," oil supplies will recover, and energy prices will fall.

According to Jinshi News, U.S. Energy Secretary Wright stated that the conflict with Iran will end "in the next few weeks," after which oil supplies will recover and energy prices will fall.

Wintermute founder: Target price is more important than price; will continue to hold ETH for the long term.

Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated, "When the Ethereum Foundation released its mission statement, I saw more criticism than celebration, which is understandable. After all, most of us in the crypto industry have transitioned and integrated into the existing world system. More seriously, the Ethereum Foundation is currently the only player with both the resources and network effects to not only maintain the cypherpunk dream but also truly realize it. In the short term, will this be reflected in the price of Ethereum? Certainly not. In the long term, will it? Only if it succeeds. Should we care about the price? Personally, I think the goal is more important. I absolutely believe that at least someone should try to achieve this goal on a macro level, rather than just pursuing financial applications. The rest can choose to do what they do or choose whether to hold ETH."

Analysts: BlackRock launches ETHB collateralized ETF to avoid punitive risks

DeFi researcher Ingas published an article on the X platform stating that BlackRock's staking-based Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF), ETHB, attracted approximately $46 million in inflows within just two days of its listing. The fund holds spot ETH and stakes 70%-95% of it through Coinbase. Investors receive approximately 82% of their staking rewards monthly in cash. The fund does not use compound interest, a design that may attract high-net-worth investors looking to live off the returns. The remaining 18% of the returns go to BlackRock and Coinbase. Ingas stated that BlackRock launched a separate staking-based Ethereum ETF, rather than adding staking functionality to its existing Ethereum ETF, ETHA, because staking increases the risk of punitive impairment, which some investors want to avoid.

ZRO, BARD, RIVER and other tokens will see a large unlock next week, with ZRO unlocking value estimated at approximately $51.8 million.

According to Token Unlocks data, ZRO, BARD, RIVER, and other tokens will see large-scale unlocks next week. Specifically: LayerZero (ZRO) will unlock approximately 26 million tokens at 7 PM Beijing time on March 20th, representing about 12.69% of the current circulating supply, worth approximately $51.8 million; Lombard (BARD) will unlock approximately 30 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on March 18th, representing about 13.33% of the current circulating supply, worth approximately $32.3 million; River (RIVER) will unlock approximately 1.1 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on March 22nd, representing about 5.67% of the current circulating supply, worth approximately $26.7 million; and Arbitrum (ARB) will unlock at 9 PM Beijing time on March 16th.

Michael Saylor has released another Bitcoin Tracker update; he may disclose his accumulating data next week.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor has once again released information related to Bitcoin Tracker. Based on past patterns, Strategy always discloses information about increasing its Bitcoin holdings the day after the relevant news is released.

ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees has resumed ETH holdings after a year's hiatus, purchasing 8,576 ETH in five days.

According to Lookonchain, ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees has resumed buying ETH after a year of silence. In the past 5 days, he has spent 17.75 million USDT to buy 8,576 ETH. He currently holds 26.77 million USDT and may buy more ETH.

Tencent Light Cloud has now become a sponsor of the OpenClaw "Crayfish" community.

Tencent Light Cloud has become a sponsor of the OpenClaw "Lobster" community. According to IT Home, the GitHub Sponsor page shows that other major domestic and international companies on the sponsor list include OpenAI and Baidu. Peter Steinberger, the "father" of OpenClaw, previously pointed out that Tencent massively scraped data from his platform without prior communication, causing his official servers to face cost pressures of up to five figures in US dollars.