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Crypto currents: bitcoin tops $71,000 as ETF inflows return. * March 17, 2026 Bitcoin (BTC-USD) reclaimed the $71,000 level Wednesday morning after days of selling pressure tied to the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Crypto-linked equities were surging in pre-market trading, with Strategy Lookonchain. Underpinning the rally: a landmark Federal Reserve decision on Kraken, a presidential broadside against the banking lobby, and a continued stampede by former miners into AI infrastructure, all reshaping the investable crypto landscape in real time. KRAKEN BECOMES FIRST CRYPTO BANK WITH FEDERAL RESERVE ACCESS: Kraken Financial, the Wyoming-chartered banking arm of crypto exchange Kraken, has been granted a Federal Reserve master account by the Kansas City Fed, the first digital-asset bank in U.S. history to gain direct access to the Fed's payment infrastructure. The account gives Kraken direct connectivity to Fedwire, eliminating the need for intermediary correspondent banks when settling fiat transactions for institutional clients. Kraken Financial operates on a full-reserve model, and the account carries an initial one-year approval with a phased services rollout, per Reuters. Bloomberg noted that the account allows Kraken to "move money on rails reserved for licensed banks, a privilege that lenders have long monopolized." Kraken's parent Payward is not yet publicly listed but has filed a confidential draft IPO registration with the SEC following an $800 M funding round at a $20 B valuation, according to a press release. TRUMP ATTACKS BANKS, PUSHES CLARITY ACT AS STABLECOIN YIELD FIGHT INTENSIFIES: President Trump attacked the banking industry late Tuesday for obstructing crypto legislation, posting on Truth Social that banks should not "derail our robust Crypto Agenda" and urging Congress to pass the CLARITY Act "ASAP," with The Wall Street Journal reporting that the comments are escalating pressure on a stalled Senate bill. The CLARITY Act, a market-structure bill that passed the House last summer, has stalled over a dispute about whether crypto companies can offer yield on stablecoin holdings. Banks argue this constitutes paying interest, a regulated banking activity, while crypto firms contend rewards are essential for stablecoins to compete. Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that a Coinbase delegation including CEO Brian Armstrong visited the White House, signaling continued high-level engagement between the crypto industry and the administration. The visit comes amid a public clash: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon this week told CNBC that crypto firms wanting to pay stablecoin rewards "should become banks," per DL News. IRAN CONFLICT RATTLES MARKETS AS CIRCLE GETS A RATE-DRIVEN BOOST: Bitcoin's rebound above $71,000 represented a surge of more than 5% from Tuesday afternoon levels as the Middle East conflict entered its fifth day. Bloomberg reported that Iran's $7.8 B cryptocurrency market is drawing fresh scrutiny, with Elliptic data showing outflows from Nobitex, Iran's largest exchange, surged 700% within minutes of the first airstrikes, and total outflows from Iranian exchanges reached roughly $10.3 M between February 28 and March 2. Circle's pre-market gain came after the stock surged over 20% this week. Barron's noted that Mizuho raised its price target from $90 to $100, citing rising oil prices and fading Fed rate-cut expectations. Because Circle earns the bulk of its revenue from interest on U.S. government debt reserves backing USDC, a higher-for-longer rate environment is directly accretive, and the stock had already rallied 62% over the prior week after a Q4 revenue beat of $770 M, up 77% year-over-year. MINERS ACCELERATE AI PIVOT AS APPLIED DIGITAL PRICES $2.15 B BOND AND CORE SCIENTIFIC DUMPS ALL BTC: Applied Digital announced the pricing of a $2.15 B offering of 6.750% senior secured notes due 2031, with proceeds funding a 200-megawatt AI data center, Polaris Forge 2, in North Dakota leased to Oracle. Bloomberg reported in a related filing that Babcock & Wilcox received full notice to proceed on a $2.4 B power generation project to supply 1.2 gigawatts of electricity to Applied Digital's AI Factory campuses. ETF FLOWS REVERSE, ARK BUYS THE DIP, AND WALL STREET BUILDS CRYPTO PLUMBING: U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a 4,046 BTC net inflow on Wednesday, approximately $290.89 M, with the trailing seven-day total of 20,816 BTC marking the strongest weekly figure since mid-January and a sharp reversal from February's extended outflow streak, per Lookonchain. The prior day, March 3, spot BTC ETFs took in $458.2 M and spot ether (ETH-USD) ETFs added $38.7 M, according to Farside data. Ark Invest's Tuesday trade disclosures showed Cathie Wood purchased $16.15 M in crypto-linked equities and 22,452 shares of Coinbase (COIN) ($4.09 M) and 158,587 shares of Robinhood. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE SHIFTS FROM D.C. TO ANKARA: SEC Chairman Paul Atkins will headline Day 1 of the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 24-26, alongside BlackRock's Samara Cohen, Morgan Stanley's Amy Oldenburg, and Binance CEO Richard Teng, per a company press release. Separately, Reuters reported that British and U.S. regulators are divided over how to test blockchain-based versions of financial securities, with Britain pushing for a more cautious approach in joint Trans-Atlantic Taskforce talks. Turkey's parliament is considering a draft law that would impose a 10% withholding tax on crypto gains and a 0.03% transaction tax on crypto service providers, expected to generate at least $96 M annually. Reuters reported. The CBOE BZX Exchange published a Federal Register notice proposing listing criteria for options on multi-crypto ETFs, requiring each underlying asset to have at least $700 M in average daily market value. PRICE ACTION: As of the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $73,055.88, while ether was trading at $2,146.07. Report an Issue Disclaimer & Disclosure

Power markets affecting the next generation of data centres. 12th March 2026 The current data centre construction boom in the US is creating hitting problems when it comes to securing enough power. Facilities built to support artificial intelligence workloads require levels of electrical capacity that local grids won't be able to supply at present levels of capacity and infrastructure. In response, several DC operators and commissioning companies have begun to secure dedicated power generation, often built locally to the data centre site and fuelled by natural gas purchased directly from producers. An engineering and power consortium led by Babcock & Wilcox, Base Electron, and Applied Digital has agreed to construct gas-fired generators to supply new AI data centre campuses in North Dakota, with a reported value of $2.4 billion. Babcock & Wilcox will design and construct four gas turbine units, providing 1.2 gigawatts of on-site generation. To put that in context, 1.2GW is comparable to the output of an average nuclear reactor. According to calculations by the US Energy Information Administration, sustaining such output will need nearly 5.6 million cubic metres of natural gas per day, an requirement comparable to a medium-sized US city. Applied Digital's chief executive described the project as supply that will feed directly into AI computing, and indicated the company is 'evaluating' a further 1.2GW of gas-fired generation (with the same partners) to support later development phases. AI processing ability is constrained primarily by electricity availability, so power supply levels determine revenue potential. The International Energy Agency estimates that global electricity consumption by data centres will increase from roughly 460 terawatt hours in 2024 to more than 1,000TWh by 2030, with the current power used by DCs worldwide the same as that of a medium sized industrial economy. The IEA expects natural gas to supply around 26% of DC demand by the end of this decade. Renewable energy capacity is also expanding quickly, although the preference for non-weather dependent supply makes renewables less suitable for facilities where computational loads are consistently high. North America is currently the largest constructor of DCs, with more than 35GW of capacity under construction, according to real estate firm JLL. If all planned projects were completed and powered primarily by gas generation, Enverus Intelligence Research estimates that US natural gas demand could increase by roughly 0.12 billion cubic metres per day by 2030. Energy producers are adjusting accordingly, with Comstock Resources stating it's concentrating its drilling activity in northeast Texas, in part because of new data centre development planned in the region. According to JLL, Texas could surpass Northern Virginia as the largest global data centre conglomeration by the end of the decade. Data centre operators are entering into direct supply agreements with gas producers. Comstock has contracted to deliver gas to NextEra Energy's power plants to support AI data centres' projected demands. The objectives in such agreements are to stabilise fuel supply and reduce exposure to regional electricity market price fluctuations. US Public policy supports the tendency to keep it local and internal to any agreement's partners, expressing concern that rapid data centre expansion could increase electricity prices for domestic households if new DCs draw primarily from the existing grid. The Trump administration is encouraging technology companies to finance dedicated generation capacity for their own facilities, adding the cost of power generation to tech companies' operations, but minimising the impact on existing infrastructure. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI have signed a pledge committing themselves to financing new generation capacity and transmission infrastructure upgrades to supply the data centres they operate. Commercial power suppliers are also contracting with technology giants directly: AES Corporation recently signed a 20 year agreement to provide power for Google's data centres in Texas. Meta, OpenAI, and CloudBurst have separate arrangements for natural gas supply and gas-fired generation dedicated to their facilities. At a smaller scale, Atlantic Energy is to supply electricity to a 150MW AI and cryptocurrency data centre operated by Viking Data Centres in Akron, Ohio, a facility that will occupy a former Goodyear tyre factory. The facilities at Akron will run primarily on gas sourced from fields in the northeastern US. While access to computing hardware remains important, access to power is equally decisive. DC operators securing dedicated power generation will escape capacity constraints should AI demand meet AI vendors' predictions. Electricity supply has become part of the costs of AI, taking its place among loan repayments, training and inference costs, hardware, marketing and personnel, the sum of which currently outpaces income from AI services. Firms controlling compute capacity and energy supply may hold a structural advantage if artificial intelligence deployment by end-users hits the levels predicted by AI companies. Uncertainty remains about the long term fossil/sustainable energy mix, the pace at which renewable generation can scale, and where the cost burden for providing AI falls. Artificial intelligence infrastructure is beginning to resemble that of heavy industry - energy procurement being part of core investment. (Image source: "Dual Power" by SPIngram is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.) Want to learn more about Cloud Computing from industry leaders? 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Babcock & Wilcox receives full notice to Proceed on $2.4 billion power generation project for Base Electron to supply power to Applied Digital AI Factory campuses. Posted March 4, 2026 - Project Will Deliver 1.2 GW of New Generation Capacity Through Four 300-MW Natural Gas Boilers and Steam Turbine Generators - Siemens Energy Formally Released to Proceed with Steam Turbine Supply - Base Electron Evaluating Option for an Additional 1.2 Gigawatts of Power (AKRON, Ohio - March 4, 2026) - Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) (NYSE: BW) announced today that it has received full notice to proceed on a $2.4 billion design-build agreement with Base Electron, an independent power producer ("IPP") backed by Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD), to deliver 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of new generation capacity. The generation is intended to supply power to Applied Digital AI Factory campuses under separate power supply agreements. The project includes four 300-megawatt natural gas-fired boilers and steam turbine generator systems. Base Electron, backed by Applied Digital, is focused on developing and owning generation assets that deliver new, dispatchable capacity to the grid and to contracted customers, including power supply agreements supporting Applied Digital's high-density AI data center campuses. Under its agreement with Base Electron, B&W will engineer, procure and construct the facility, with engineering and manufacturing activities already underway. Siemens Energy, Inc. (Siemens Energy) has been formally released to design and supply the steam turbine generator sets. "Receiving full notice to proceed for this $2.4 billion project further underscores the strategic role B&W plays in supporting the rapidly expanding power needs of large-scale AI data centers," said Kenneth Young, B&W Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our natural gas-fired boilers and related technologies - as well as steam turbines supplied through an agreement with Siemens Energy - provide the reliable, high-capacity energy generation on a schedule that is required for the grid today." "With data processing demand growing at an unprecedented pace, B&W is uniquely positioned to provide the proven, flexible and redundant power solutions these mission-critical operations require and deploy them faster than traditional combined-cycle or simple-cycle gas technologies," Young added. "This contract further reinforces our commitment to providing technologies that meet the urgent demand for reliable and secure power." "This project represents to us a critical step in turning power into operational AI capacity," said Wes Cummins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Applied Digital. "Base Electron's development of dedicated, reliable generation is intended to support our long-term campus strategy and reinforce our disciplined approach to scaling AI infrastructure. As a customer of Base Electron, securing stable, dispatchable power through partnerships with IPPs is foundational to meeting the growing demands of our campuses. We believe B&W's decades of experience in large-scale steam generation and project execution make them a strong partner as we advance this platform. Additionally, we are evaluating an option with Base Electron for another 1.2 GW of generation capacity to support future development." "Siemens Energy is proud to support B&W and Base Electron on this important project by supplying our advanced steam turbine generator technology," said Tobias Panse, Senior Vice President for Industrial Steam Turbines and Generators at Siemens Energy. "Our solution is engineered to deliver the performance, reliability and efficiency required for a facility of this scale and strategic importance, ensuring long-term operational excellence and sustained value for our partners." About Babcock & Wilcox Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. is a leader in energy and environmental products and services for power and industrial markets worldwide. Follow us on LinkedIn and learn more at babcock.com. About Applied Digital Applied Digital (Nasdaq: APLD) named Best Data Center in the Americas 2025 by Datacloud - designs, builds, and operates high-performance, sustainably engineered data centers and colocation services for artificial intelligence, networking, and blockchain workloads. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, and founded in 2021, the company combines hyperscale expertise, proprietary waterless cooling, and rapid deployment capabilities to deliver secure, scalable compute at industry-leading speed and efficiency, while creating economic opportunities in underserved communities through its award-winning Polaris Forge AI Factory model. About Base Electron Base Electron Corp. is a newly formed independent power producer that was founded by the team at Applied Digital for the purpose of developing dedicated, reliable generation intended to support Applied Digital's long-term campus strategy and its disciplined approach to scaling AI infrastructure. Base Electron is an independent company from Applied Digital focused on delivering stabilized power infrastructure returns to its investors through an exclusive customer-provider relationship with Applied Digital. Forward-Looking Statements B&W cautions that this release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements relating to a contract fully releasing B&W to proceed with the design and installation of a 1.2 gigawatt power plant for an AI data center project, B&W's subcontract for the design and supply of steam turbines, and the potential option for an additional 1.2 gigawatts of power for an additional project. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For a more complete discussion of these risk factors, see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. If one or more of these risks or other risks materialize, actual results may vary materially from those expressed. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except to the extent required by applicable law. Contact us. Media Inquiries Ryan Cornell Public Relations +1-330-860-1345 Investor Inquiries B&W Investor Relations +1-704-625-4944