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Golden Ten Data reported on March 12 that ahead of next week's Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate decision, hedge funds are increasing their bullish bets on the Australian dollar through the options market. Data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange shows that on Wednesday, the trading volume of call options betting on the rise of AUD/USD reached six times that of put options. Meanwhile, three out of Australia's four major investment banks expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates by 25 basis points on March 17. Anand Goyal, Head of FX Sales for Financial Institutions in Asia Pacific at Citi Group in Singapore, said: "We are seeing macro hedge funds seeking renewed upside exposure to the Australian dollar through call options, mainly against the US dollar, but also increasing against the New Zealand dollar." He pointed out that Australia's higher front-end interest rates make it an ideal target for carry trades, and as the market increasingly believes the broad rally of the US dollar is nearing its end, these factors will boost the Australian dollar.

PANews, March 12 — According to Cryptopolitan, the central bank of Georgia has enacted new regulations allowing companies registered and licensed in Georgia to issue stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies, provided they are fully backed by reserve assets. Users can redeem stablecoins at face value at any time, and issuers must meet capital requirements and undergo strict audits. According to the regulations, issuing institutions must register with the central bank and obtain written approval. The minimum regulatory capital is 500,000 lari (approximately $183,000), and if reserve assets exceed 15 million lari (about $550,000), quarterly audits must be conducted by one of the "Big Four" accounting firms. Redemption requests up to 300,000 lari must be completed within three working days, while larger amounts must be completed within five working days. The new regulations cover stablecoins pegged to the Georgian lari, foreign currencies, or other assets. Reserve coverage must reach 100%, and assets must be clearly separated from the issuer's own assets.

Foresight News reports that the privacy browser Brave Wallet has added support for NEAR Intents, allowing users to perform cross-chain asset swaps within the browser, covering bitcoin, Solana, Zcash, Cardano, and EVM chains.