Minnesota state Senator Jeremy Miller has introduced the Minnesota Bitcoin Act, which he drafted after completely changing his stance on Bitcoin.

“As I do more research on cryptocurrency and hear from more and more constituents, I’ve gone from being highly skeptical to learning more about it, to believing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” Miller said in a March 18 statement.

Miller said the bill aims to “promote prosperity” for Minnesotans by allowing the Minnesota State Board of Investment to invest state assets in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, just as it invests in traditional assets.

Several other US states have introduced similar Bitcoin-buying bills, with 23 states having introduced legislation to create a Bitcoin reserve, according to Bitcoin Laws.

Under Miller’s bill, Minnesota state employees would be able to add Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to their retirement accounts.

It would also give residents the option to pay state taxes and fees with Bitcoin. Colorado and Utah already accept crypto for tax payments, while Louisiana allows it for state services.

Investment gains from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would also be exempt from state income taxes. In the US, up to $10,000 paid to the state can be deducted from federal taxes under the state and local tax deduction, but any amount beyond that is subject to both state and federal tax obligations.

Related: SEC could axe proposed Biden-era crypto custody rule, says acting chief

The increasing number of US states proposing Bitcoin reserve bills follows Senator Cynthia Lummis’ July Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, which directs the federal government to buy 200,000 Bitcoin annually over five years, totaling 1 million Bitcoin.

However, on March 12, Lummis proposed a newly reintroduced BITCOIN Act, allowing the government to potentially hold more than 1 million Bitcoin as part of its newly established reserve.

Bitcoin has shown significant gains compared to traditional assets in recent years. From August 2011 to January 2025, Bitcoin posted a compound annual growth rate of 102.36%, compared to the S&P 500’s 14.83%, according to Curvo data.

Magazine: Crypto fans are obsessed with longevity and biohacking: Here’s why

The EOS Network, a blockchain that launched in 2018 amid the initial coin offering boom, has rebranded to Vaulta and will pivot to focusing on Web3 banking. 

The switch to Vaulta is tentatively scheduled for the end of May and will include a new token and the establishment of an advisory group known as the Vaulta Banking Advisory Council to help with the firm’s new direction, the company said in a March 18 statement.

In a separate statement, the firm said the network’s EOS (EOS) token will transition to the Vaulta Token, which will be available on the nearly 140 exchanges where EOS trades and through a swap portal available in May. It added that the token’s ticker and technical details will be revealed at a later date. 

Vaulta will also inherit EOS Network’s underlying infrastructure, including integration with the Bitcoin digital banking solution, exSat, which complements Vaulta’s BankingOS system, offering a suite of financial services through partnerships with Ceffu, Spirit Blockchain and Blockchain Insurance Inc. 

EOS Network’s rebranding to Vaulta marks a significant course correction for the blockchain,  which launched to great fanfare in June 2018 off the back of a year-long and largest-ever $4.1 billion ICO run by the company behind the network, Block.one.

Following its launch, EOS was a top 10 project by market cap for several years. But its value has been in steady decline and is now just inside the top 100, sitting at 95, according to CoinGecko.

There’s a range of opinions about where EOS went wrong. Some who volunteered to assist in developing the network say there was a lack of support and direction from Block.one. 

Related: Tracing the evolution of Blockchain, with Eos Network Foundation exec

Block.one made a $24 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2019, and some commentators argued that the firm’s focus then shifted from EOS’ base tech to other projects — like the social app-turned-NFT marketplace Voice and the crypto exchange Bullish.

Goodblock CEO Douglas Horn believes EOS investors were misled from the start, telling Cointelegraph Magazine in 2023 that “Block.one did a deceitful ICO, whether that was planned from the beginning or not.”

Magazine: Whatever happened to EOS? Community shoots for unlikely comeback

An attacker has breached the dashboard of an artificial intelligence crypto bot and made two prompts for it to transfer 55.5 Ether, worth $106,200, from its wallet, sparking concerns about the security of AI agents in crypto.

In a March 18 X post, “rxbt” — the maintainer of the bot called “aixbt,” which commentates on the market — said its core systems weren’t impacted, and the breach wasn’t the result of manipulating the AI.

“We’ve migrated servers, swapped keys, paused dashboard access for security upgrades, and reported hacker addresses to exchanges,” rxbt added.

CoinGecko data shows that the aixbt (AIXBT) token on the Ethereum layer 2 Base has fallen 15.5% to 9 cents since the hack, which happened on March 18 at 1:58 am UTC.

Observers initially thought someone had manipulated the bot, after the AI agent platform Simulacrum AI posted to X that it sent a 55.5 Ether (ETH) tip to the attacker, X user “0xhungusman,” whose account has since been suspended.

AI-powered bots that commentate on and trade in the crypto market, such as aixbt, ai16z and Truth Terminal, continue to be experimented with in crypto as traders look to leverage AI in their trading strategies.

Spencer Farrar, a partner at the AI and crypto-focused venture capital firm Theory Ventures, told Cointelegraph that these AI applications are “a bit frothy” at the moment, but more utility could come down the line.

Farrar expects to see further experimentation with crypto AI tokens, as they allow retail investors to speculate on smaller market cap ideas that largely aren’t as accessible in the stock market.

“Things tend to start off like this in the open-source world; you see a ton of tinkering, and then perhaps we’ll see something really big come of it.”

Related: Not every AI agent needs its own cryptocurrency: CZ

Decentralized AI researcher “S4mmy” said on X that AI agents managing crypto funds must be battle-tested further to ensure threat actors can’t easily compromise AI bots and steal funds.

“Excited to see how these solutions evolve over the next 12 months as large DeFi protocols integrate existing solutions or develop their own,” they added.

The market capitalization of tokens tied to AI agents currently sits at $4.2 billion, CoinGecko data shows.

Magazine: Train AI agents to make better predictions… for token rewards

The BNB Chain-based memecoin launch platform Four.Meme has resumed operations after being hit with a sandwich attack that exploited it for around $120,000.  

Four.Meme said in a March 18 X post that its launch function was back after inspecting and addressing a security issue. It had earlier suspended the function to investigate it, saying it was “under attack.”

“The launch function has now been resumed after a thorough security inspection. Our team has addressed the issue and reinforced system security. Compensation for affected users is underway,” the Four.Meme team said. 

Web3 security firm ExVul said in a March 18 X post that the exploit appeared to be a market manipulation technique known as a sandwich attack that netted the attacker $120,000. 

It said the attacker “pre-calculated the address for creating the liquidity pool’s trading pair” and utilized one of the platform’s functions to purchase tokens, which successfully bypassed Four.Meme’s token transfer restrictions.

“Subsequently, the hacker lay in wait for Four.Meme to add liquidity to the transaction, ultimately siphoning off the funds,” ExVul added.

Blockchain security firm CertiK came to a similar conclusion and said the attacker transferred an imbalanced amount of un-launched tokens to pair addresses before the pair was created, then manipulated the price at launch to sell them afterward for profit. 

“In this case of SBL token, for example, the attacker sent a bit of SBL token to the pre-calculated pair address in advance, then profited 21.1 BNB by sandwiching the add liquidity transaction at launch,” CertiK said. 

The tactic saw the attacker leave with at least 192 BNB (BNB), worth about $120,000, which they sent to the decentralized crypto exchange FixedFloat, according to CertiK. 

Related: Pump.fun memecoins are dying at record rates, less than 1% survive

It’s the second time that Four.Meme has been attacked in as many months, with a Feb. 11 exploit resulting in the loss of about $183,000 worth of digital assets.

Across the broader crypto industry, February saw $1.53 billion in losses to scams, exploits and hacks, with the $1.4 billion Bybit hack accounting for the lion’s share. 

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says the past year saw $51 billion in illicit transaction volume, partly due to crypto crime entering a professionalized era dominated by AI-driven scams, stablecoin laundering, and efficient cyber syndicates. 

Magazine: Memecoins will die and DeFi will rise again — Sasha Ivanov 

Ether (ETH) price fell below $2,200 on March 9 and has struggled to recover since. The altcoin is down 14% in March and the decline has hurt investor sentiment, especially as the broader crypto market only dropped 4% in the same period. 

Adding to the bearish sentiment, traders are also worried about further ETH price corrections after a 34% weekly drop in decentralized exchange (DEX) activity on the Ethereum network.

DEX volumes on Ethereum dropped 34% in the last seven days, a trend that also affected its layer-2 solutions like Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon. The market slump hit some Ethereum competitors, too, with Solana’s DEX activity down 29% and SUI’s down 17%. On the other hand, BNB Chain saw a 27% weekly volume increase, while Canto surged an impressive 445%.

Ethereum’s negative volume trends include an 85% drop for Maverick Protocol and a 46% decline for DODO compared to the previous week. More notably, fees on PancakeSwap—the top DEX on BNB Chain—surpassed those on Uniswap. While Ethereum remains the leader in DEX volumes, falling fees are reducing demand for ETH.

PancakeSwap, which operates exclusively on BNB Chain, generated $22.3 million in fees over seven days, surpassing Uniswap, which runs on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism. Other signs of Ethereum’s fee weakness include Lido trailing Solana’s Jupiter and AAVE, the leading Ethereum-based lending protocol, generating less in fees than Meteora, a Solana-based automated market maker and liquidity provider. 

Ethereum leads in total value locked, but the gap is narrowing

On the positive side, Ethereum remains the dominant leader in total value locked (TVL) at $47.2 billion, but a 9% weekly decline has significantly narrowed the gap with competitors. Furthermore, its layer-2 ecosystem showed increasing signs of weakness over the seven days leading up to March 18.

Solana’s TVL dropped 3%, while BNB Chain saw a 6% increase in deposits compared to the prior week. Negative highlights for Ethereum’s TVL include an 11% decline in Stargate Finance over seven days, a 9% drop in deposits on Maker, and a 6% decline on Spark.

Ethereum’s weakening onchain metrics aligned with reduced demand for leveraged longs in ETH futures, as their premium over spot markets fell below the 5% neutral threshold, signaling weaker confidence from traders.

The current 3% annualized ETH futures premium is the lowest in over a year, highlighting weak demand from bullish traders. Meanwhile, spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded $293 million in net outflows since March 5, signaling waning institutional interest.

After Pectra upgrade, ETH needs a competitive edge and sustainable adoption’ 

Ethereum is also facing growing competition from Solana in the memecoin sector, particularly after the launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) token. Simultaneously, Tron and Solana have captured a combined $75 billion in stablecoins by leveraging lower transaction fees. Adding to the pressure, Hyperliquid perpetual futures introduced its own blockchain, further challenging Ethereum’s market position.

Related: Hyperliquid opened doors to ‘democratized’ crypto whale hunting: Analyst

All of this unfolded amid heated debates among investors and developers over whether Ethereum layer-2 solutions are disproportionately benefiting from extremely low rollup fees. Essentially, the decline in the DEX market share reflects waning institutional interest, particularly as Ethereum’s native staking yield sits at just 2.3% when adjusted for inflation-driven supply growth.

For Ether to regain momentum, it must demonstrate a clear competitive edge. The upcoming ‘Pectra’ upgrade needs to provide a viable path for sustainable user adoption; otherwise, the odds remain stacked against ETH outperforming its rivals.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.