The U.S. military is preparing to deploy at least 2,500 Marines and one additional warship to the Middle East, AP reported. The deployment is part of a broader U.S. military presence in the region.

The Pentagon plans to send up to 5,000 Marines to the Middle East following intensified Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the deployment of an amphibious ready group in response to the escalation. The move directly addresses recent Iranian activity in the key maritime corridor.

Etherscan issued an alert that address poisoning attacks on Ethereum are becoming more automated and widespread, aiming to trick users into sending funds to lookalike addresses. The attacks exploit visual similarities between genuine and fraudulent wallet addresses to target user transactions.

USDC Treasury minted 52 million USDC tokens valued at $51.99 million, on-chain data show. The newly issued stablecoins were created directly from the USDC Treasury wallet.

Global crypto market capitalization rose from $2.469 trillion to $2.572 trillion on March 13, adding $103 billion in 24 hours, CoinGecko data show. Bitcoin jumped over 4.4% to retest last week's high of $74,215 before easing to $72,425 at press time, while Ethereum advanced more than 5.5% to a five-week peak of $2,209 before pulling back to $2,164. CoinGlass data show total crypto Open Interest climbed 5.45% to $108.62 billion over the same period, and liquidations surged by more than 125% to $389.4 million, with about $314 million tied to short positions. CryptoQuant analyst Sunny Mom described Bitcoin as being in a "stress test" phase and at a "Value Bottom" for long-term DCA, suggesting further upside could depend on sustained spot and derivatives demand in the coming weeks.

On-chain data show 1,134 BTC valued at $80,801,793 was transferred from Coinbase Institutional to an unidentified wallet. The transaction involved a single outbound flow from the Coinbase Institutional address, with no further details on the recipient disclosed in the on-chain record.

KRAKacquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by a Kraken affiliate, is evaluating potential acquisitions of crypto-native firms valued between $2 billion and $10 billion, director Ravi Tanuku told Decrypt. The SPAC, formed in January, raised $345 million in a public offering and has a two-year window to identify a target, with opportunities spanning stablecoins, DeFi and payments. Separately, Kraken confidentially filed for an IPO with the SEC last November following an $800 million fundraise that valued the exchange at $20 billion.

Coinbase Institutional transferred 24,470 ETH valued at $51,486,600 to an unknown wallet address. The transaction moved funds from the institutional platform to an unidentified destination.

Trump is inviting major $TRUMP token holders to a lunch at Mar-a-Lago, CoinDesk Podcast Network reports. BlackRock's staked Ether ETF began trading with $100 million in assets under management. Separately, a trader lost $50 million in a single failed swap, according to CoinDesk Daily presented by @JennSanasie.