This Week's Key News Preview | The U.S. SEC Cryptocurrency Working Group Holds Its First Roundtable Meeting; CME Plans to Launch SOL Futures

Organized by: Jerry, ChainCatcher

Key News:

March 17 (Monday)

CME plans to launch SOL futures on March 17

The official Solana account posted on X that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) plans to launch Solana (SOL) futures on March 17.

Ethereum Foundation developers will launch a new "Hoodi" testnet on March 17 for final testing of the Pectra upgrade

Tim Beiko, head of protocol support at the Ethereum Foundation, updated the latest information about the Pectra upgrade on X.

1) A new long-term testnet, Hoodi, will be launched on March 17, which will execute the Pectra upgrade test on March 26;

2) After Hoodi successfully executes the Pectra upgrade test, the mainnet upgrade time will be determined, expected to be at least 30 days after the test upgrade (on or after April 25).

3) The Fusaka plan will be executed simultaneously, with the deadline for proposing EIPs set for March 24, and the tentative freeze date for the upgrade scope set for April 10.

Starknet plans to launch its mainnet between March 17 and 24

Starknet announced its decentralized roadmap for 2025, aiming to become the first fully decentralized Layer 2 (L2) that scales Ethereum on a large scale. Key focuses of the plan include staking mechanisms, decentralized operation, and governance independence.

Staking: Starknet will launch the first phase of staking (Staking v1) in November 2024, with over 170 million STRK staked by 63,000 delegators and 106 validators. Staking v2 to v4 will be rolled out in phases in 2025, ultimately achieving full responsibility for network security and block validation by validators.
Decentralized operation: Starknet will gradually migrate from the existing architecture to fully open-source Apollo sequencers and Stwo provers, planning to launch a distributed consensus layer for the mainnet by the end of 2025, where validators will participate in block voting to achieve decentralized operation.
Governance independence: The Starknet Security Council will further promote decentralized governance of core contracts while enhancing the network's censorship resistance.

Meanwhile, Starknet's latest version v0.13.4 has been launched on the testnet, bringing optimizations such as state compression, fixed L2 gas prices, and Cairo-native performance improvements, with plans to launch the mainnet between March 17 and 24. Future version v0.14.0 will also introduce 2-second block times, more efficient sequencers, and improved fee markets.

KiloEx will conduct TGE on March 17

The perpetual contract DEX KiloEx, invested by YZi Labs, officially announced via tweet that its TGE will take place on March 17.

Binance will support Kadena (KDA) network upgrade and hard fork, suspending deposits and withdrawals on March 17

According to Binance's announcement, the Kadena (KDA) network will undergo an upgrade and hard fork at 00:00 (UTC) on March 18, 2025, and Binance will support this upgrade.

• Deposit and withdrawal suspension time: March 17, 2025, at 23:00 (UTC)

• Upgrade and hard fork block height: 5,659,280 (expected at 00:00 UTC on March 18, 2025). Binance will reopen KDA deposits and withdrawals after the network upgrade is completed and stabilized, and trading will not be affected.

March 18 (Tuesday)

Initia will close wallet extension on March 18, users need to migrate testnet data in time

Layer 1 blockchain Initia officially announced that it will close its wallet extension service at 3:00 AM (UTC) on March 18.

Initia wallet users must complete the migration before this date, or they will not be able to access data on the testnet, including testnet Jennie and related data. Users can migrate their wallets via migration.initia.xyz.

Sui Foundation launches SuiNS RFP program, application deadline is March 18

The Sui Foundation announced the launch of the Sui NS program, aimed at promoting impactful development and strengthening community collaboration to drive ecological development through direct funding for projects that meet the needs of the Sui ecosystem and Sui NS growth.

Currently, the SuiNS RFP program application channel is open, and developers can submit their proposals, with the application deadline set for 3:59 PM (UTC +8) on March 18, 2025. After submission, the RFP committee will screen candidates and vote on the proposals that will receive funding. Selected developers must sign a funding agreement outlining the project's milestones, deliverables, and timelines, and develop according to the plan. Additionally, to maintain transparency and accountability, selected developers must undergo an identity verification process.

It is reported that Sui NS aims to provide users with a simple and easily recognizable identity that can be used within the Sui ecosystem, promoting more personalized and feature-rich interactions, further enhancing user experience and application functionality. The RFP (Request for Proposals) program aims to accelerate innovation within the Sui ecosystem, with each RFP defining a specific area of focus, encouraging developers to propose solutions and utilize funding to build these solutions.

March 19 (Wednesday)

WazirX plans to vote on the proposed restructuring plan from March 19 to 28

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX posted on X that the next key step is to vote on the proposed restructuring plan.

Voting period: planned for March 19 to 28, 2025. Asset rebalancing distribution: after rebalancing is completed, if a majority of creditors vote in favor, approximately 85% of the account balance of the plan creditors will be distributed within 10 working days after the restructuring plan takes effect (valued as of 1 PM Indian Standard Time on July 18, 2024).

Babylon Foundation announces extension of airdrop registration deadline to March 19

Babylon Foundation stated in an announcement that considering some users were only recently able to register for the airdrop, it has decided to extend the airdrop registration deadline by 4 days to March 19 at 4:00 PM (Beijing time).

March 20 (Thursday)

Coinbase International will launch REZ, GRASS, and RARE perpetual contracts on March 20

According to the official announcement, Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced will launch REZ, GRASS, and RARE perpetual contracts.

The REZ-PERP, GRASS-PERP, and RARE-PERP markets will open on March 20, 2025, at 9:30 AM (UTC) or later.

OKX will delist multiple spot trading pairs including XR, GOAL, KP3R, LBR, LAMB, BZZ, GPT on March 20

According to the official announcement, to maintain a healthy spot trading environment, OKX will delist several trading pairs that do not meet listing standards. The affected trading pairs include XR/USDT, GOAL/USDT, GOAL/USDC, KP3R/USDT, KP3R/USDC, LBR/USDT, LAMB/USDT, LAMB/USDC, BZZ/USDT, BZZ/USDC, and GPT/USDT.

OKX will delist the above trading pairs between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM (Beijing time) on March 20, 2025. The platform advises users to cancel related orders before delisting; otherwise, the system will automatically cancel these orders, which may take 1-3 working days.

BNB Chain launches the second round of permanent liquidity support program, which will end on March 20

BNB Chain today launched the second round of a $4.4 million permanent liquidity program, expanding from the first round's Meme track to all outstanding native project tokens on BSC (BNB Smart Chain). The aim is to strengthen the long-term development of the BNB Chain ecosystem by providing long-term liquidity support for high-potential projects.

This round of competition will be held from March 13 to March 20, 2025, including daily and weekly competitions to select the most promising assets based on key performance indicators. The daily competition will be divided into two categories: the "Potential Explosion Zone" for assets with a market cap below $20 million and the "Mature Zone" for assets with a market cap of at least $20 million. The daily competition will last for seven days, with one winning project selected from each zone every day. Rankings will be determined based on a comprehensive performance of trading volume, market cap, and price increase within 24 hours.

The weekly competition will evaluate project tokens based on trading volume, market cap, and price increase over seven days. Any eligible asset can participate in the weekly competition, regardless of whether it wins in the daily competition.

Eligibility for participation: Assets must be natively launched on BSC, listed after January 1, 2024, with a market cap of at least $50,000 and a 24-hour trading volume of no less than $10,000.

Please note that Binance-pegged tokens, gas fee tokens, stablecoins, cross-chain wrapped tokens, liquidity re-staking tokens, and winners from the first round of the Meme liquidity competition will not be eligible to participate in this round.

Conditions for project victory: Market cap must be no less than $1 million, the number of active holders in the daily competition must be no less than 2,000, the number of winners in the weekly competition must be no less than 5,000, and the top 10 external holding wallets (EOA) must be less than 10% of the total supply; projects must be verified on BscScan or pass a security audit.

BNB Chain will hold Pascal hard fork upgrade on March 20, supporting EIP-7702

BNB Chain will conduct the mainnet Pascal hard fork on March 20, 2025, to improve EVM compatibility and become one of the first public chains to adopt EIP-7702. This upgrade will introduce features such as gas abstraction, EOA wallet smart contract capabilities, and batch transactions, providing users with a smoother experience and greater flexibility for developers.

Through the EIP-7702 proposal, BNB Chain will allow externally owned accounts (EOA) to temporarily have smart contract functionality during transactions while maintaining account security. This upgrade will significantly lower the barrier for users to enter Web3. For example, gas fee abstraction allows users to complete on-chain interactions without holding the native token for gas fees; at the same time, it allows dApps to sponsor gas fees for users and implement batch transaction features, enhancing the on-chain experience.

Previously, the Pascal hard fork was completed on the testnet. For the upcoming mainnet upgrade, before March 20, node operators and validators need to update to v1.5.7 (BSC) or v0.5.2/v0.5.6 (opBNB); exchanges and infrastructure providers need to ensure compatibility before the hard fork, and developers need to test and update dApps to support the new transaction types.

According to BNB Chain's 2025 technical roadmap, the community plans to conduct the Lorentz hard fork in April and implement the Maxwell hard fork upgrade in June, increasing block production speed to 0.75 seconds. Currently, this proposal is open for community feedback.

March 21 (Friday)

U.S. SEC cryptocurrency working group officially announces the first roundtable meeting on March 21

The newly established cryptocurrency special working group of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold its first roundtable meeting later this month as part of a series of meetings.

In a statement on Monday, the SEC announced that the meeting titled "Our Past and Future - Defining the Status of Securities" will take place on March 21 at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. This roundtable is part of the "Spring Sprint for Clarity in Cryptocurrency" series of meetings.

Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, who leads the cryptocurrency special working group, stated in the announcement, "I look forward to leveraging public expertise to develop a workable regulatory framework for cryptocurrency." Peirce indicated that she plans to prioritize classifying some tokens as "non-securities."

March 23 (Sunday)

Ethereum Foundation extends the application date for the 2025 academic funding program to March 23

The Ethereum Foundation's website has updated information indicating that the application submission date for the 2025 academic funding program has been extended to 23:59 AoE time on March 23.

It is reported that a total of $2 million in funding is available for this round to support academic work related to Ethereum.

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