Crypto Currents: Core Scientific secures up to $1B from Morgan Stanley

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is holding above $72,000 on Thursday morning after briefly topping $73,000 in the prior session, as a pair of blockbuster deals signal that traditional finance is accelerating its push into digital-asset infrastructure. Spot bitcoin ETF inflows hit $462M on Wednesday, the third consecutive day of net buying led by BlackRock’s (ETH-USD) funds drew $169M, according to Farside data.

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NYSE PARENT ICE TAKES BOARD SEAT AT OKX IN $25B TOKENIZATION BET: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has taken an equity stake in crypto exchange OKX at a $25B valuation and secured a board seat, Fortune reports. Under the deal, OKX will supply ICE with a live crypto price feed and plans to allow users to trade tokenized NYSE-listed stocks and derivatives in the second half of 2026, while ICE continues to develop its own blockchain-based trading infrastructure. For equity investors, the transaction links a systemically important exchange operator directly to a major offshore crypto venue and advances the tokenization-of-equities narrative that has driven ICE shares and peer exchange stocks higher in recent quarters.

CORE SCIENTIFIC SECURES UP TO $1B FROM MORGAN STANLEY AS MINERS LOCK IN CAPITAL: Core Scientific (MS), with a $500M initial close. The financing comes as the bitcoin miner pivots its data-center capacity toward high-performance computing and AI hosting, a theme that has driven a combined $11B surge in U.S.-listed miner market caps in recent months. Separately, BitFuFu (FUFU) reported in a 6-K filing that it mined 227 BTC in February and held 1,830 BTC with 26.4 EH/s of deployed hashrate, while LM Funding America (LMFA) said it mined a record 8.7 BTC in February, up 11.5% from January, but sold 18.1 BTC and reduced total holdings to 354.7 BTC, per a press release.

CLARITY ACT STALLS AS TRUMP ATTACKS BANKS OVER STABLECOIN YIELD BAN: The CLARITY Act stablecoin bill hit a fresh impasse after White House-led negotiations ended without agreement on whether platforms like Coinbase Reuters reports. President Trump publicly criticized banks for undermining his crypto agenda, telling supporters that financial institutions are “threatening” the industry by pushing for a total prohibition on stablecoin rewards, according to CNBC. Despite the legislative stalemate, the broader regulatory tone continued to shift, with the SEC and CFTC each submitting formal crypto-market-structure guidance to the White House for review, Bloomberg reports.

BITCOIN TREASURY STRATEGIES PROLIFERATE ACROSS SMALL-CAP EQUITIES: The corporate bitcoin treasury trend extended further down-market. YY Group Holdings inflation-hedge potential, according to a press release. DDC Enterprise (DDC) grew its BTC stash to 2,183 coins amid record revenue guidance, while Hyperscale Data per a company announcement. In SEC filings, American Bitcoin Corp. (HUT) subsidiary with Trump-family ties, disclosed two insider Form 4s showing directors purchased 2.1M shares, while Aurelion Inc. per EDGAR filings.

ON-CHAIN FLOWS SHOW BLACKROCK ACCUMULATION AND SHORT-WHALE LIQUIDATIONS: On-chain data analyzed by Arkham Intel showed BlackRock withdrew a net 4,716 BTC, valued around $345M, and 21,147 ETH, valued near $45M, from Coinbase within a 13-hour window ending early March 5, a pattern consistent with IBIT custody accumulation rather than selling. Separately, Lookonchain flagged an OG bitcoin wallet depositing 500 BTC worth approximately $36.4M to Binance after 8 months of dormancy., a potential sell-side signal, while CryptoQuant’s Exchange Whale Ratio surged to 0.85 in late February, the highest in over a decade, before pulling back as of March 5, per CryptoTimes.

GOLDMAN SACHS FILES BITCOIN-LINKED STRUCTURED NOTES; BNY MELLON HIGHLIGHTS TOKENIZATION: Goldman Sachs per an SEC filing. Bank of New York Mellon per an SEC filing. Both filings underscore that Wall Street’s largest institutions are deepening their crypto infrastructure buildout even as bitcoin trades more than 40% below its October 2025 all-time high.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $70,997.06, while ether was trading at $2,063.71, according to price data from TipRanks.