The Important Bits
Crypto continues to evolve, with clearer regulations taking shape, bitcoin showing resilience amid global uncertainty, and stablecoins at the center of major policy debates. In this issue, we’ve also got a limited-time 5% gift card boost, Best of BitPay 2025 winners, a quick wallet tip on sending crypto with confidence, and more ways to put your crypto to work. Let’s dive in.
Industry News & Headlines
Industry News
Read news from across the blockchain industry:
SEC Issues Long-Awaited Crypto Guidance: The SEC clarified that only “digital securities” fall under securities laws while most crypto assets may not, alongside a proposed safe harbor to help startups raise capital more easily. (Reuters, 3/17/26)
Bitcoin Shows Resilience Amid Iran Conflict: Bitcoin has risen roughly 10% since late February, outperforming stocks and gold amid geopolitical tensions, with analysts pointing to strong ETF inflows and institutional demand as key drivers. (Yahoo Finance, 3/17/26)
Trump Backs Crypto in Stablecoin Yield Fight: President Trump voiced support for crypto firms in their battle with banks over offering yield on stablecoins, increasing pressure as lawmakers debate new legislation that could reshape the future of digital dollar adoption. (CNBC, 3/4/26)
Ethereum Activity Hits Records as ETH Lags: Ethereum is seeing record usage across wallets and smart contracts, but ether’s price has dropped ~30% over six months as capital outflows and rising sell pressure outweigh on-chain growth. (CoinDesk, 3/10/26)
Market Movers
A quick snapshot of notable market activity, trends, and cryptocurrencies driving headlines.
Limited-Time Offer: 5% Boost on Select Gift Cards
Now, through the end of February, get 5% more when you buy select gift cards with crypto in the BitPay app! Use your favorite coins to score extra value on brands including Bass Pro Shop, Cabela’s, AirBNB, StubHub, and One4all. Terms and conditions apply.
Offer ends March 31st - don’t miss out! Check the BitPay app each month for more boosted gift cards.
Best of BitPay 2025 Winners
The Best of BitPay Awards are designed to recognize and celebrate the forward-thinking merchants who integrate crypto payments into their business operations. We are proud to announce the winners of 2025 Best of BitPay awards to these innovative merchants helping lead cryptocurrency payments in their industries.
Wallet Tips: How to Send Crypto to Another Wallet
Sending crypto involves entering the recipient’s wallet address, specifying the amount, and confirming the transaction. Always double-check wallet addresses to avoid errors, as crypto transactions are irreversible. Sending crypto is simple, fast, and ideal for global payments.
→ Read the full guide: How to Send Crypto to Another Wallet with the BitPay App
Simplify Crypto Taxes with BitPay + ZenLedger
You could manually keep track of your transactions in a spreadsheet and then fill in each tax form, but this can be a tedious task. Instead, BitPay and ZenLedger make this an easy and automated process. BitPay users can sync wallet transactions from within the app to ZenLedger’s intuitive tax software.
→Read the full guide: How to use BitPay + ZenLedger to prepare your crypto taxes.
Disclaimer: BitPay does not provide tax, investment, or other financial advice. We strongly advise you to contact a personal tax advisor or other tax professional for any questions or information about your personal tax circumstances.
Merchant Shoutouts
Highlighting merchants driving crypto adoption and exciting promotions.
Shop APMEX’s silver and gold popular categories, including pop culture collectibles. Shop now!
OneGold gives you direct ownership of vaulted gold, silver, and platinum at an ultra-low cost. Start your free account today.
Buy a domain name with Namecheap today!
Ready to start accepting crypto with your Shopify business? Get started today with the BitPay app!
Instantly deploy high-performance cloud servers, cloud GPUs, bare metal, and cloud storage worldwide with Vultr. New users receive $100 to test their platform.
Use BrandBucket to name your business.
Shop US stores and have your items reliably shipped back home with Qwintry
BitPay Travel
BitPay Travel is now open to all! In collaboration with Xeni, BitPay Travel allows crypto users to pay for flights, hotels, rental cars, and activities with their cryptocurrency. Book your travel at great prices and pay straight from your cryptocurrency wallet.
Developer Notes
PHP 8.5 Support Released
We are now officially supporting PHP 8.5 as of the PHP SDK v10.1.0 and PHP Key Utils v2.2.0 releases. We are now running our test suite against PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, and 8.5, matching official PHP support.
Adding Java 25 Support Released
We wrapped up testing in February and have deployed the Java SDK v10.2.5, which includes support for Java 25. We are now running our automated test suite against Java 8, 11, 17, 21, 23, and 25 and will continue supporting odd number versions as they are released. Version 23 was a non-LTS release that we determined would be valuable to support, however we will likely be supporting only the latest non-LTS release going forward, which we are discussing and will announce shortly.
Python SDK v8.0.0 Released
Python SDK v8.0.0 has been tested and is now released on PyPi and has been moved to the cryptography library, providing full compatibility with our previous version of the ecdsa library.
Magento 2
We have completed our testing of the Magento 2 module migration to PHP SDK v10.1.0 and are discussing the release plan internally. PHP SDK 10.1.0 requires a minimum of PHP 8.2, however Adobe still supports PHP 8.1, so we are working to ensure backwards compatibility by supporting PHP SDK v9 and v10.
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Note: All information herein is for educational purposes only, and shouldn't be interpreted as legal, tax, financial, investment or other advice. BitPay does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this publication and we neither endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted or published by third parties. Nothing contained herein shall constitute a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement or offer to invest, buy, or sell any coins, tokens or other crypto assets. BitPay is not liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies. For legal, tax, investment or financial guidance, a professional should be consulted.
