MegaETH leverages Ethereum for its superior blockchain execution environment. A stress test on MegaETH achieved 55,000 transactions per second. Layer two solutions that replicate layer one services face security challenges.

The post Lei Yang: MegaETH achieves 55,000 transactions per second, Ethereum’s scaling strategy pivots back to layer one, and the challenges of layer two security | Bankless appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Tokenized securities are classified as securities under current regulatory frameworks. The SEC's dual role in enforcement and policy is crucial for understanding its operations. Tokenization can enhance trading efficiency through modern technology.

The post Alex Zozos: Tokenized securities are classified as securities, the SEC’s evolving role in on-chain trading, and how blockchain enhances trading efficiency | Unchained appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Shifts in Bitcoin trading dynamics hint at a potential market reversal amid changing investor sentiment

The post Jeff Park: Low trading volume hampers Bitcoin price discovery, Hong Kong as a bridge for Chinese capital, and shifts in options trading signal market sentiment change | The Wolf Of All Streets appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Inflation is projected to reach 4% by the end of the year, driven by current economic trends. The trajectory of inflation is upward, suggesting ongoing economic pressures. Labor market issues are more about mismatches than a slowdown in demand.

The post Adam Posen: Inflation expected to hit 4% by year-end, youth unemployment rising due to post-COVID mismatches, and tariffs’ delayed impact on economic pressures | Odd Lots appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Stablecoins act as a crucial bridge between fiat currencies and crypto networks, facilitating smoother transitions. The emergence of stablecoins represents a new, general-purpose architecture for money on the internet. We are on the cusp of a global transformation in how money is utilized, driven...

The post Jeremy Allaire: Stablecoins are redefining global money usage, bridging fiat and crypto networks, and necessitating regulatory collaboration | All-In appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Fed’s Kashkari: Crypto “Utterly Useless,” Stablecoins No Match for Venmo

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari delivered another pointed criticism of crypto while defending the Federal Reserve’s independence during remarks in Fargo, North Dakota, today.

Speaking at the 2026 Midwest Economic Outlook Summit, Kashkari questioned the practical value of digital assets, stating that “crypto has been around for more than a decade and it’s utterly useless,” according to Bloomberg. 

He contrasted crypto with artificial intelligence tools, which he said have demonstrated clear, everyday utility for consumers and businesses.

Kashkari also dismissed the promise of stablecoins, arguing they offer little improvement over existing payment systems. “I can send any one of you $5 with Venmo or PayPal or Zelle,” he said during a question-and-answer session. “So what is it that this magical stablecoin can do?”

While acknowledging claims that stablecoins could make cross-border transfers faster and cheaper, Kashkari argued that recipients must still convert digital tokens into local currency for everyday purchases, creating additional friction and cost. He said advocates have yet to present a compelling use case for U.S. consumers.

Beyond digital assets, Kashkari addressed criticism from National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett regarding a New York Fed study on tariffs. The Minneapolis President characterized the remarks as “another step to try to compromise the Fed’s independence.”

“Over the last year, we’ve seen multiple attempts to try to compromise the Fed’s independence,” he said, referencing a December subpoena from the Department of Justice to the Board of Governors related to building expenses.

The Minneapolis President emphasized that central bank independence underpins effective monetary policy. “Every advanced economy in the world has an independent central bank,” he said, arguing that policy decisions serve the public best when based on data and analysis rather than short-term political considerations.

On the economy, Kashkari noted inflation has eased to between 2.5% and 3%, while unemployment has risen from roughly 3.5% to 4.3%. 

He said the Fed is “pretty close to neutral” after cutting interest rates multiple times over the past two years.

Kashkari: Crypto is like the ‘Beanie Babies’ bubble

Last November, Kashkari had a similar criticism, comparing the sector to the 1990s Beanie Babies bubble and arguing it still lacks meaningful economic use. 

Speaking on CNN, Kashkari said he was more confident in the utility of AI, which he sees as delivering real economic value, whereas crypto fails to demonstrate a compelling purpose. 

He questioned the everyday use of digital assets in the U.S., noting that the main application he hears is to bypass banking regulations like know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules — a use he described as “lousy” for a Federal Reserve policymaker.

This post Fed’s Kashkari: Crypto “Utterly Useless,” Stablecoins No Match for Venmo first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Senator Warren Urges Treasury and Fed Not to Bail Out Crypto Billionaires Saylor and CZ Amid Bitcoin Slide

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called on the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to confirm that they will not use taxpayer funds to support cryptocurrency investors or firms. 

In a letter sent Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Warren warned that any government intervention could transfer wealth from taxpayers to wealthy crypto investors.

“Your agencies must refrain from propping up Bitcoin and transferring wealth from taxpayers to crypto billionaires through direct purchases, guarantees, or liquidity facilities,” Warren wrote. 

She argued that a bailout would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest players in the cryptocurrency market and could directly enrich President Donald Trump through his family’s company, World Liberty Financial.

Warren’s letter comes as Bitcoin has declined roughly 50% since reaching a peak in October. She said the sell-off has been worsened by cascading liquidations of leveraged positions, affecting both corporate and individual investors. 

The Massachusetts senator noted that World Liberty Financial recently sold about 173 wrapped Bitcoin to repay $11.75 million in USDC stablecoin debt, avoiding liquidation as Bitcoin fell below $63,000.

Warren: Crypto and bitcoin retail is at risk 

The letter cited losses among major crypto investors. Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc., a leading corporate holder of Bitcoin, has seen its shares fall nearly 20% since the start of the year. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reportedly lost close to $30 billion, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reportedly lost $7 billion, Warren claimed.

Warren also highlighted the risks to retail investors. In 2025, U.S. investors lost or had stolen a record $17 billion in cryptocurrency fraud, according to her letter.

She urged federal financial agencies to strengthen protections for individual crypto users, citing the growing scale and complexity of digital asset markets.

The letter referenced a February 6 House Financial Services Committee hearing, where Rep. Brad Sherman asked Secretary Bessent whether taxpayer money could be deployed into crypto assets. Bessent did not answer directly but stated that the Treasury was “retaining seized Bitcoin.” Warren described this response as a deflection and said it left unclear whether the government has any plans to intervene in the Bitcoin sell-off.

Warren reminded the Treasury and the Fed that both agencies have broad authorities to provide financial support to banks and other entities during financial crises. She argued that these tools should not be used to stabilize Bitcoin or other digital assets, which she described as high-risk investments primarily benefiting wealthy investors.

The Fed confirmed receipt of Warren’s letter and said it plans to respond. The Treasury Department did not immediately comment.

Bitcoin was trading just under $67,000 Wednesday, according to Bitcoin Magazine data. 

This post Senator Warren Urges Treasury and Fed Not to Bail Out Crypto Billionaires Saylor and CZ Amid Bitcoin Slide first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Surpasses $1 Billion in Monthly Volume As Adoption Grows

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, the layer-two protocol designed to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions, has surpassed $1 billion in monthly transaction volume, according to new data from River. 

In November 2025, the network processed an estimated $1.17 billion across 5.22 million transactions, marking a milestone in adoption despite Bitcoin’s stagnant price performance throughout the year.

River’s research aggregates anonymized data from major Lightning node operators to provide a network-wide estimate. Their methodology accounts for overlapping channels and extrapolates to untracked nodes, giving a more accurate picture of the Lightning ecosystem. 

“This approach allows us to debunk misconceptions that Lightning adoption isn’t happening,” River said, noting contributions from entities including ACINQ, Kraken, Breez, Lightspark, LQWD, and others, covering over 50% of network capacity.

Interestingly, the transaction count fell slightly compared to 2023. Researchers attribute this to the fading of micropayment experiments in gaming and messaging that had temporarily inflated activity. 

While these applications did not achieve sustained adoption, River said they expect future experimentation — particularly with AI-powered agentic payments — to drive new spikes in network usage.

Last week, Lightning Labs released an open-source toolkit that enables AI agents to run Lightning nodes, make autonomous payments, and host paid services using the Network, addressing the need for native, machine-to-machine transactions. 

Bitcoin lightning transactions shifts toward larger transfers

Despite being known as a network for micropayments, the average Lightning transaction in November 2025 was $223, up from $118 the previous year. Analysts say this reflects the dominant use case today: moving larger sums between exchanges rather than everyday small purchases. 

“Micropayment theory suggested high-frequency, low-value payments, but mental transaction costs for humans limit this behavior,” River explained in a social media report. “AI agents, which do not incur mental costs, could change this dynamic, potentially leading to more frequent, smaller payments in the future.”

Lightning Network’s rise highlights a layer of Bitcoin adoption that price charts often miss, driven by exchange activity and a growing number of businesses accepting this form of payment. 

Crossing $1 billion in monthly volume marks a milestone for Bitcoin’s layer-two infrastructure and signals progress toward using BTC as a means of transaction and settlement.

Looking ahead, River plans to release a comprehensive report on Bitcoin adoption next week, which will include additional metrics showing meaningful growth in usage and integration across the crypto ecosystem.

This post Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Surpasses $1 Billion in Monthly Volume As Adoption Grows first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitdeer Stock (BTDR) Crashes 18% on $300M Convertible Note Offering, Dilution Fears Mount

Bitdeer Technologies’ shares slid sharply today after the Singapore-based bitcoin miner and AI data center firm announced plans to raise $300 million through a private sale of convertible senior notes due 2032, a financing move that sparked investor concern over potential dilution.

The company said the offering, aimed at institutional buyers, includes an option for initial purchasers to buy an additional $45 million in notes, which would bring the total raise to $345 million if exercised. The notes will be convertible into cash, Class A ordinary shares, or a combination of both at Bitdeer’s discretion.

Bitdeer’s stock fell over 18% in pre-market trading, dropping below $8 for the first time since April. Shares were down roughly 15% on the day, reflecting market caution about the capital raise and the possibility that future conversions could increase the company’s share count.

Convertible debt offerings often pressure equities because investors anticipate dilution if the stock price rises and noteholders convert their holdings into shares. Bitdeer said it plans to enter into capped call transactions with financial institutions to help offset dilution risk. Such hedging strategies are designed to limit the number of shares issued upon conversion, though they can introduce additional volatility around pricing.

Bitdeer’s Class A share offering 

Alongside the note sale, Bitdeer disclosed a separate registered direct offering of Class A ordinary shares to certain holders of its existing 5.25% convertible senior notes due 2029. The company said the number of shares and the price will be determined at the time of pricing.

Proceeds from the offerings will be used primarily to fund capped call transactions and to repurchase a portion of the 2029 notes in privately negotiated deals. Any remaining funds will support expansion of Bitdeer’s data center footprint, as well as growth in its high-performance computing and AI cloud business lines. The company also highlighted ongoing development of ASIC-based mining rigs as part of its longer-term strategy.

Bitdeer said the direct share offering and note repurchases are contingent on completion of the new notes sale, though the notes offering itself can proceed independently.

The announcement comes as Bitdeer accelerates its pivot beyond bitcoin mining toward broader infrastructure services. The company recently reported fourth-quarter revenue of $224.8 million, up 226% year over year, and posted a net profit of $70.5 million compared with a $531.9 million loss in the prior-year quarter.

Bitdeer mined 1,673 bitcoin during the quarter, supported by a managed hashrate of 71 exahash per second, including 55.2 EH/s of self-mining capacity. 

The company also held roughly 2,000 BTC on its balance sheet at year-end, though more recent data suggests holdings have declined after liquidations earlier this year to fund expansion.

This post Bitdeer Stock (BTDR) Crashes 18% on $300M Convertible Note Offering, Dilution Fears Mount first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

CME Plans 24/7 Crypto Futures Trading Starting May 29

CME Group will begin offering 24/7 trading for its regulated cryptocurrency futures and options on May 29, pending regulatory review, expanding access to its digital asset derivatives suite as demand from institutional participants grows.

The world’s largest derivatives marketplace said continuous trading will start Friday, May 29 at 4:00 p.m. Central Time on its CME Globex platform. 

The move is designed to give clients round-the-clock access to hedging and trading tools tied to bitcoin and other digital assets, aligning futures markets more closely with the nonstop nature of spot cryptocurrency trading.

Tim McCourt, CME Group’s global head of equities, foreign exchange, and alternative products, said customer demand for risk management in the digital asset sector has reached new highs.

“Client demand for risk management in the digital asset market is at an all-time high, driving a record $3 trillion in notional volume across our Cryptocurrency futures and options in 2025,” McCourt said in a statement.

CME said the shift reflects the growing role of regulated derivatives in crypto market structure, particularly for professional investors seeking exposure with clearing and oversight protections. Unlike offshore venues, CME’s crypto contracts operate within the U.S. regulatory framework, offering standardized settlement and reporting.

Under the new schedule, CME cryptocurrency futures and options will trade continuously with at least a two-hour weekly maintenance period over the weekend. 

The exchange said holiday and weekend trading from Friday evening through Sunday evening will carry the trade date of the following business day. Clearing, settlement, and regulatory reporting will be processed the next business day as well.

The change comes as CME’s cryptocurrency complex continues to post record activity. The exchange reported year-to-date average daily volume of 407,200 contracts in 2026, representing a 46% increase from the same period last year. Average daily open interest reached 335,400 contracts, up 7% year over year.

Futures trading has driven much of the growth. CME said futures average daily volume stands at 403,900 contracts year to date, up 47% compared with last year’s levels.

Traditional markets are accepting crypto infrastructure

The move toward a 24/7 schedule follows a broader trend in market infrastructure adapting to digital asset trading patterns. Crypto markets operate without traditional closing hours, and institutional traders have sought products that match the constant availability of underlying spot markets.

CME said not all markets lend themselves to nonstop trading, but cryptocurrency products represent a category where continuous access supports risk management needs. The exchange framed the change as a way to ensure clients can manage exposure at any time, particularly during periods of heightened volatility.

CME Group operates exchanges across major asset classes including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agriculture, and metals. Its platforms include CME Globex for futures and options trading, BrokerTec for fixed income, and EBS for foreign exchange.

The company also runs CME Clearing, one of the world’s largest central counterparty clearing providers, which plays a role in reducing counterparty risk in derivatives markets.

The May 29 launch date remains subject to regulatory review. If approved, the expanded schedule will mark a shift in how U.S.-regulated crypto derivatives are traded, bringing futures and options markets closer to the continuous rhythm of global cryptocurrency trading.

This post CME Plans 24/7 Crypto Futures Trading Starting May 29 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, continued its price struggles as traders weighed two stress-tinged signals from the US financial ecosystem.

This week, there was a sudden $18.5 billion Federal Reserve overnight repo operation, and Blue Owl Capital has decided to permanently halt redemptions from a retail-focused private credit fund.

In another era, either headline might have been enough to spark a reflexive “money printer” narrative.

Taken together, they can read like an early warning that something is tightening in the plumbing of US markets.

Yet Bitcoin has stayed heavy, even as it remains marketed as a hedge against the traditional system.

Related Reading

Global markets crash as everything including Bitcoin sells off at once erasing trillions

Over $800 million in long positions were wiped out in minutes as the US open turned into a brutal liquidity bloodbath for unsuspecting traders.

Jan 29, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

The Fed’s $18.5 billion headline is narrower than it sounds

The $18.5 billion figure that grabbed attention came from the New York Fed’s overnight Treasury repurchase agreements on Feb. 17. Financial commentary platform Barchart said this is the fourth-largest liquidity injection since COVID and surpasses even the peak of the Dot Com Bubble.

However, data tracked on the St. Louis Fed’s FRED database show that the same series printed just $0.002 billion on Feb. 18 and $0.024 billion on Feb. 19.

That sequence matters. It characterizes the $18.5 billion as a one-day spike rather than a sustained weekly infusion.

The reverse repo side of the plumbing was also quiet. Usage of the Fed’s overnight reverse repo (ON RRP) facility remained small at $0.441 billion on Feb. 17 and $0.856 billion on Feb. 18.

If traders were looking for a sign of abundant cash sloshing around, the numbers did not deliver it.

Repo operations are designed to keep short-term rates behaving, not to deliver the kind of balance-sheet expansion that crypto markets often label as stimulus.

The New York Fed reports that it conducts repo and reverse repo operations daily to help keep the federal funds rate within the range set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The FOMC held the target range at 3.50% to 3.75% at its Jan. 27 to Jan. 28 meeting and instructed the Desk to conduct open market operations as needed to maintain that range.

The distinction is why a repo spike is not automatically bullish for Bitcoin.

A one-off operation can reflect technical frictions such as settlement timing, Treasury cash movements, or balance-sheet constraints at dealers. It can also reverse quickly, as the Feb. 18 and Feb. 19 prints suggest.

That is not the same thing as a durable change in the path of monetary policy.

At the same time, the macroeconomic backdrop has not become clearly supportive of speculative assets.

Minutes from the January meeting showed officials were divided on next steps, with some open to additional cuts if inflation cools and others willing to consider hikes if progress stalls, according to Reuters.

Even without an immediate change in rates, that mix can revive “higher for longer” anxiety, a tone that tends to tighten financial conditions for risk assets before the Fed moves a single lever.

Blue Owl’s gate is about liquidity terms, not an instant credit crash

Blue Owl’s decision to permanently stop redemptions at Blue Owl Capital Corp II (OBDC II) has a different message.

It is less about a sudden wave of losses and more about the product structure that promises periodic liquidity while holding assets that do not trade like stocks.

The Financial Times reported this week that Blue Owl will permanently cease redemptions at OBDC II and return capital on an episodic basis as assets are sold. Reuters reported that the firm is selling $1.4 billion of loans across three funds to pension and insurance investors at about 99.7% of par value.

The sales are designed to enable OBDC II to return approximately 30% of net asset value while also paying down debt.

Those details cut both ways for a “stress” narrative.

A fund halting redemptions is a headline that reads like a gate coming down. But the ability to sell loans near par reinforces the idea that credit markets are strained in places, not freezing across the board.

For Bitcoin, that nuance matters because the asset has behaved less like an insulated hedge and more like a component of a broader risk complex.

If the financial system were sliding toward a disorderly funding event, Bitcoin could still fall first, as investors hoard cash and reduce leverage.

So, a gate in private credit is not proof of a funding crisis. It is proof that liquidity premia have a price, and the price is rising for certain retail-facing vehicles.

Related Reading

Bitcoin could be your only liferaft as Bank of England experts brace for alien disclosure chaos

Alien life confirmation could initiate massive psychological and financial upheavals, positioning Bitcoin as a trust beacon.

Jan 19, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Bitcoin is still trading on flows, and the flows remain a headwind

The clearest explanation for Bitcoin’s muted response is that a major channel of demand remains outward.

For context, US spot Bitcoin ETFs are experiencing significant drawdowns, with five consecutive weeks of outflows. During this period, the 12 funds have seen net outflows of nearly $4 billion, according to SoSo Value data.

That is a large reversal for a wrapper that was once treated as a one-way bridge for institutional inflows. It also reframes the “Wall Street adoption” story.

The same channel that can create persistent demand can also become a consistent source of supply when investors exit.

In that context, stress headlines do not automatically translate into a Bitcoin rally. If the marginal buyer is stepping back, the market needs something else to offset that vacuum.

So far, it has not gotten it.

This is also why the Fed repo print did not land as bullish. Even traders inclined to interpret liquidity through a crypto lens can see that the numbers describe a one-day operation, not a regime change.

At the same time, the ETF flow tape is a running tally of positioning, and it has been negative.

In the first phase of stress, Bitcoin often behaves like a high-beta stock

Another reason Bitcoin has remained heavy is behavioral, and it is evident in cross-asset correlations.

CME Group research published this month reported a persistently positive correlation between crypto assets and the Nasdaq 100 since 2020. In 2025 and early 2026, the correlation has sometimes been in the range of +0.35 to +0.6.

That relationship helps explain why Bitcoin may fail to rally in response to “stress” headlines. In the first phase of a risk-off move, investors tend to reduce exposure across volatile assets and allocate cash to the safest instruments.

In that phase, Bitcoin often trades as a levered proxy for risk sentiment.

Only later, if policy shifts and net liquidity improves, does the hedge narrative tend to reassert itself.

That is the second phase, when the market starts pricing easier money, a lower cost of capital, or a more durable backstop.

The credit market is not yet exhibiting the kind of extremes that typically trigger the second phase.

The ICE BofA U.S. High Yield Index option-adjusted spread stood at 2.94% on Feb. 17, according to FRED. That is not the sort of blowout usually associated with an imminent funding crisis.

Blue Owl’s loan sales are near 99.7% of par value, in the same direction, with stress and repricing in pockets, but not a wholesale liquidation.

Related Reading

Bitcoin no longer acting like “digital gold” because its correlation with physical gold, USD collapsed

If real yields rise or liquidity tightens, Bitcoin behaves like a sponge, instead of a store of value, until regimes change again.

Feb 16, 2026 · Gino Matos

What would make Bitcoin care about these headlines

The forward-looking risk is not that one private-credit fund changed its redemption terms or that the Federal Reserve conducted a single large overnight repo.

Private credit has grown into a roughly $3 trillion market and has attracted scrutiny over transparency, leverage, and valuation practices.

If more funds shift from scheduled redemptions to episodic returns, liquidity premia could rise, and credit availability could tighten for borrowers. That is a slow-burning drag, and it can pressure risk assets broadly.

Already, Arthur Hayes, BitMEX’s co-founder, said Blue Owl’s move to pause retail redemptions is a sign that liquidity stress is building across markets.

According to him, this could prompt the Federal Reserve to increase money creation sooner than expected.

On the money market side, the key indicator for crypto traders is whether this week’s repo spike becomes a pattern.

If repo operations remain sporadic and the Fed stays on hold, Bitcoin is likely to be driven by ETF flows and risk sentiment, and persistent outflows are a headwind.

However, if funding stress becomes persistent and necessitates a more durable policy response (rate cuts or balance-sheet support), Bitcoin’s historical playbook suggests it may dip first, followed by a rally as net liquidity improves.

The post Bitcoin eyes new liquidity as the Fed’s $18.5 billion repo spike reignites money printer chatter appeared first on CryptoSlate.

XRP is attracting institutional money and a burst of bullish positioning, even as much of the crypto industry remains stuck in a risk-off tape.

According to a CoinShares report, XRP is the best-performing crypto token this year, attracting around $150 million in fresh capital, while Bitcoin and Ethereum have registered cumulative outflows of around $1.5 billion.

The simplest takeaway is not “XRP is bullish.” It is that investors are actively rotating into assets other than BTC and ETH at a time when the broader tape remains unstable.

That divergence is showing up in market sentiment, too.

On Feb. 18, blockchain analytics platform Santiment said XRP sentiment hit a five-week high in bullish commentary, while chatter around Bitcoin and Ethereum cooled.

However, the broader crypto market backdrop is not doing XRP any favors, and not everyone is convinced the catalysts are large enough to matter in the near term.

For context, Standard Chartered recently cut its end-2026 XRP target to $2.80 from $8.00 in a note circulated after February’s selloff, with the bank’s digital-assets research team warning of “further declines” across the asset class.

Still, industry experts believe that the new catalysts for XRP usage, especially in collateral and regulated trading infrastructure, could become large enough to matter and help the token register a strong year.

Coinbase lending expands XRP’s role from trade to collateral

One of the clearest catalysts is tied to XRP's use in the rapidly expanding crypto lending space.

On Feb. 18, Coinbase, the largest US-based crypto exchange, added support for XRP (alongside DOGE, ADA, and LTC) as eligible collateral for up to $100,000 USDC loans.

A Coinbase spokesperson told CryptoSlate that:

“These assets were chosen due to a number of factors, including our ability to bring these tokens onto Base and the Morpho protocol, as well as the amount of these tokens our customers hold on Coinbase.”

The detail matters because collateral eligibility changes the set of reasons to hold an asset.

Payment use can be high-volume and high-velocity. Tokens move quickly, balances do not necessarily sit in wallets for long, and the market does not always need to warehouse large inventories.

However, asset collateral behaves differently. When a token becomes borrowable collateral, some holders stop viewing it as something they must sell to access liquidity. They can post it, borrow against it, and maintain the position.

That can create stickier demand. Borrowers who want to keep loans open often need to maintain collateral, and during volatility, they may add more collateral to avoid liquidation.

Meanwhile, the same mechanism cuts both ways. If markets gap lower and collateral values fall quickly, forced liquidations can amplify downside.

Permissioned Domains and a gated DEX aim to bring regulated liquidity on-ledger

A second catalyst is showing up in XRPL's infrastructure rather than in partnership headlines.

In recent weeks, the XRPL has been shipping features such as Permissioned Domains and a credential-gated DEX, alongside tools like token escrow, to make it easier for regulated firms to transact on-chain within defined access and compliance boundaries.

That is a different pitch from the open-access model associated with networks like Ethereum.

The premise is straightforward: institutions want blockchain settlement and tokenized rails, but they also need guardrails that map to real-world compliance, counterparty policies, and internal controls.

A permissioned trading environment, where participation is limited by credentials, resembles how traditional markets already segment access across venues, products, and participant types.

For institutions, that structure can make on-ledger trading feel less like a leap into public DeFi and more like an extension of familiar market plumbing.

The features themselves are not the endpoint. The real test is whether they get used.

If permissioned domains and the gated DEX become a venue layer institutions actually rely on, the evidence should appear in the mechanics: more permissioned domains launched, steady credential activity, and order-book liquidity that holds up beyond pilot phases.

If that adoption materializes, it can strengthen XRP’s longer-term case, less about “a new DEX” and more about market structure.

This is because these upgrades can attract market makers, keep inventory on the ledger, and sustain tradable depth, which is what matters when institutions decide whether a venue can handle size.

Ripple’s institutional buildout

Over the past year, Ripple has expanded beyond a single cross-border payments product into a broader institutional stack that looks closer to a full-service digital-asset platform than a pure crypto payments firm.

At the center is a lineup that now spans Ripple Payments for settlement, Ripple Custody for safeguarding assets, and Ripple Prime, its institutional brokerage offering.

Ripple is also pushing deeper into treasury operations through GTreasury, while positioning RLUSD, its dollar-backed stablecoin, as a settlement and collateral asset across that ecosystem.

The strategic logic is straightforward: if payments, custody, brokerage, and treasury tooling all sit inside one network, Ripple can keep more of the transaction lifecycle on its rails, with activity flowing through the XRPL and adjacent infrastructure.

In that model, XRP can benefit as liquidity moves across corridors and institutions look for efficient ways to source and rebalance value, while RLUSD can serve as the regulated, cash-like unit for settlement and collateral management.

Meanwhile, Ripple has also pursued a more “regulated perimeter” posture. The company has ended its long-running SEC dispute, while securing a national bank charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

These developments are happening alongside broader regulatory developments in the UK and the European Union.

In light of this, what matters for XRP is whether this institutional stack converts into sustained real-world volume.

Notably, early signals point to growing experimentation by large financial players, including Société Générale’s SG-FORGE, which has expanded its stablecoin efforts to the XRPL with EUR CoinVertible (EURCV).

This deployment is supported by Ripple Custody and is framed around broader use cases, including collateral and integration into institutional workflows.

If these integrations scale, they do more than validate Ripple’s product roadmap.

They increase the odds that XRP becomes part of the “plumbing” behind institutional crypto payments and treasury movements, where adoption is measured less by headlines and more by recurring settlement flow.

How XRP wins in 2026

XRP's success this year is unlikely to hinge on a single headline. Instead, it will depend on usage that persists across major points.

Given this, three watchpoints stand out.

First, collateral share in mainstream lending. If Coinbase’s borrowing product shows sustained growth with XRP as a meaningful collateral asset, the case for productive demand strengthens. It does not need to become dominant overnight, but it needs to become repeat behavior.

Second, permissioned liquidity that persists. If permissioned DEX domains host durable liquidity, rather than launch-week noise, it supports the idea that regulated on-chain markets can develop on XRPL in a way institutions can actually use.

Third, relative flows. If flow data continues to show interest in XRP while majors struggle, it can keep a rotation tailwind, even in a choppy macro tape.

Those points translate into a scenario range that traders can pressure-test.

In a bull case, risk appetite improves, XRP becomes a commonly used collateral asset in US lending wrappers, and permissioned markets attract early institutional liquidity. Flows follow, and the narrative shift becomes self-reinforcing.

In a base case, XRP benefits from episodic catalysts, including lending additions and infrastructure milestones, but broader crypto liquidity stays uneven. XRP outperforms in bursts without a straight-line trend.

In a bear case, macro stays tight, leverage unwinds, and new rails do not translate into meaningful usage. XRP remains headline-driven and vulnerable to the same liquidity downdrafts that likely shaped Standard Chartered’s cut.

The post XRP sentiment hits a 5-week high as money rotates away from Bitcoin and Ethereum appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The headline may look like ragebait but at the current outflow rate its an objective truth. Since Bitcoin hit its all-time high last October, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen outflows on 55 days out of 89. If this doesn't turn around before the next halving there will be a lot less BTC inside ETF wrappers on that day.

Before we look at how quickly ETFs could trend toward zero, let's look at the “glass half full” perspective of the current situation (skip to here if you're only here for the bearish take).

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas today pointed to the number he believes matters more than most, cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs.

He highlighted the total peaked around $63 billion in October, and sits around $53 billion today, with roughly $8 billion in outflows during a steep drawdown.

The point he was making was simple; a lot of money has come in, and a lot of it has stayed.

Related Reading

Bitcoin eyes $7.7T sidelined dollars as Wall Street runs out of cash to “buy the dip”

Bitcoin moves get scarier as institutional traders run out of “fast cash” with most funds parked earning yield with slow TradFi settlement times.

Feb 16, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

That matters because the story around Bitcoin’s relationship with Wall Street has started to change tone.

The easy version goes like this, ETFs arrived, institutions showed up, Bitcoin became “grown up.” Then the market rolled over, and the same institutions headed for the exits. Reality looks messier, and more human.

Zoom out and the ETF era still reads like a shockingly large success by sheer net intake.

Cumulative net inflows for US spot Bitcoin ETFs sit at about $54.31 billion, even after recent bleeding, which is an enormous number for a product category that is still only a couple years old.

Zoom in and the last few months feel like a different movie.

Since the October crash, $8.66 billion has flowed out of US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, and Bitcoin has fallen more than 40% from its October peak near $126,000.

Those two truths can sit together and still describe the same world. People buy for different reasons, and people sell for different reasons. A shiny wrapper turns Bitcoin into something you can click in a brokerage account while you are eating lunch, and that single change brings a wider mix of motives into the trade.

That resonates with those outside Wall Street lives inside that mix. “Institutional adoption” looks like a thousand committees, advisors, platforms, and individuals making small choices that add up to a giant, visible tape.

The tape invites storytelling, and it also invites mistakes, because a number that updates every day can feel like a verdict.

To understand the underlying trade happening on Wall Street, however, we need to pair ETF outflows with another signal, futures exposure on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This is because Authorized Participants (and other institutions) use futures to arbitrage risk and profit from their role in providing BTC for ETF baskets of shares.

CME exposure fell by about two-thirds from a late-2024 peak to roughly $8 billion, and that lines up with the sense that the biggest, cleanest institutional venues are carrying less risk than they did at the top.

Wall Street’s footprints keep showing up

CME itself publishes dashboards for Bitcoin futures volume and activity, and the broader message is easy to follow, participation expands, participation contracts, and when it contracts across multiple venues at once, every rally attempt feels different.

Coinbase, the venue many US institutions prefer, has traded at a discount to offshore exchange Binance, a sign of sustained US selling. If you are trying to understand why Bitcoin feels heavy even when other risk assets find buyers, that detail matters.

The flow story has texture too, and the texture is where the people are. In mid-January, the spot Bitcoin ETF cohort took in roughly $760 million in a single day, the biggest one-day haul since October, with Fidelity’s FBTC making up a large chunk of that. It's not been a total washout but those good days have been far outnumbered by the bad days.

Still, a lot of the institutional story lives in these overlapping signals, steady lifetime accumulation alongside jagged bursts of selling, and sudden days where buyers look organized again.

The tricky part is deciding which signal speaks for the next month, and which signal speaks for the last month.

Macro still sets the temperature

Sometimes the simplest driver sits outside the room.

In February, Reuters reported US equity funds saw net outflows of about $1.42 billion in the week to Feb. 11, tied to rate-cut uncertainty after a strong jobs report, plus anxiety around heavy corporate spending linked to AI. Bond funds, by contrast, pulled in money. That is a classic risk sorting moment, and Bitcoin tends to feel those moments more than it likes to admit.

Rates staying restrictive keeps portfolios picky, and it pushes investors toward cleaner stories. Bitcoin has fallen more than 40% from its October peak near $126,000 while stocks and precious metals found buyers, which tells you the market is treating Bitcoin like a liquidity-sensitive asset in this stretch.

Balchunas’ flow chart lands inside that backdrop. The cumulative number remains massive, and it arrived faster than most predictions, and the near-term tape shows how quickly conviction shifts when price slides.

Bitcoin ETFs impending slow death

The latest AUM snapshot puts the combined total at $98.33B.

The centre of gravity is obvious, IBIT sits at $57.01 billion on its own, with FBTC at $13.94 billion and GBTC at $12.58 billion forming the next tier, then a cluster behind them with BITB at $5.79 billion and ARKB at $5.36 billion.

After that you can see the long tail where the numbers still matter, just in a different way, HODL is $1.37 billion, EZBC is $728.57 million, BTCO is $696.58 million, BTCW is $462.49 million, and BRRR is $398.00 million.

That spread tells a human story as much as a market one, because it shows how quickly liquidity and trust concentrate when institutions decide a product is “the” default choice, and how everyone else has to fight for attention even while the whole category keeps growing.

Given that since 10 October 2025, $8.66 billion has exited the ETFs, spread over the 89 trading days in that window, that works out at about $90 million leaving per trading day.

If you keep that pace constant and treat the current $98 billion AUM as the starting point, you get roughly 1,011 trading days until the wrappers are effectively drained.

Put in real terms, that’s about four years of weekday-sized bleeding before the ETF complex hits the wall in early January 2030, assuming nothing changes.

In reality, few would expect Bitcoin to avoid any sort of rally at all in the next four years. However, we could see sustained pressure throughout the bear market. So, let's look at where we could be if the bear market does not end before the next halving.

The next Bitcoin halving is estimated to be around 11 April 2028, which is about 558 trading days away from here, and that gives a useful horizon for stress-testing what “sticky” demand really looks like.

Using the same run-rate assumption, the maths leaves about $44 billion of AUM by the next halving.

Converting that into BTC depends on price, but at around a mid-$60k spot level for Bitcoin, it works out in the region of 662k BTC still sitting inside the wrappers.

However, if we take “no more BTC left in ETFs” as “cumulative net inflows grind down to zero,” things look even worse.

Using the post–Oct 10 outflow pace, then $53B / $90M = 590 trading days, which would be just after the halving, around mid-2028 (give or take depending on flows and holiday count).

What to watch next

Thought experiment out of the way, start with looking at the daily ETF flow tape.

Outflows cooling into a flatter pattern often brings sentiment with it. Inflows stringing together for multiple sessions can change the headlines just as quickly. For a simple triangulation tool beyond major outlets, CoinGlass tracks ETF flows in one place, and it helps to see the rhythm of the tape.

Then watch CME participation. Open interest and activity stabilizing, then rising, usually means bigger players are putting risk back on in the cleanest US venue. CME’s own pages help you follow the direction of travel over time.

Keep an eye on the US-versus-offshore spread too. Coinbase printing a persistent discount to Binance strengthens the US selling signal. That discount narrowing points to pressure easing on the US side of the market.

Macro volatility remains the backdrop. Fund flow data offers a weekly pulse check on how nervous the biggest pools of capital feel. Rate-cut expectations swinging, equities wobbling, credit tightening, those shifts tend to travel through Bitcoin quickly.

This set of signals guarantees very little, and it offers a map for how the next chapter might read.

The real takeaway from this ETF chapter is that Bitcoin has a public scoreboard for institutional behavior, and that scoreboard has become part of the market itself.

When the number rises, it invites new believers. When the number falls, it invites new doubts. When the number stays positive over years, it rewrites the baseline, and it forces everyone to treat the Wall Street relationship as sticky.

So when we write articles saying ETF flows need to reverse soon, there's short-term relevance for the current bear market.

However, if they don't reverse at all, the entire narrative around Bitcoin will flip and things could get very ugly. Sustaining $53 to $98 billion in selling pressure is not something Bitcoin will handle lightly.

The post Bitcoin ETFs will go to zero sooner than we think if outflows don’t slow down as $8.5B leaves since October appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Oil isn't supposed to be the story in 2026. The macro narrative powering “cuts soon, liquidity soon” trades relies on disinflation staying intact.

However, Brent jumped 4.35% to $70.35 on Feb. 18, and WTI surged 4.59% to $65.19 after headlines revived the risk of a US-Iran conflict and Russia-Ukraine talks ended without breakthroughs.

This isn't just an “oil traders” print. It's a rates print, and by extension, a Bitcoin print.

Bitcoin doesn't trade barrels. It trades the path of financial conditions. When oil moves on supply-disruption fear, it hits the exact pressure points that keep rates higher for longer.

Risk premium, not demand

The jump wasn't “growth is accelerating.” It was geopolitics injecting a premium into the curve.

Late-session buying accelerated after Israel raised alert levels on indications of possible US action against Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard conducted drills that temporarily closed parts of the Strait of Hormuz.

Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Geneva failed to produce progress.

The US Energy Information Administration estimates that oil flows through the Strait averaged approximately 20 million barrels per day in 2024, about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption.

Traders don't need sustained closure to reprice risk, only a plausible disruption at a bottleneck that large.

Oil price jumps do not necessarily indicate Bitcoin price movements. It creates a fork.

On one side, there's the narrative that oil up pushes inflation expectations higher, yields climb, risk assets sell, and Bitcoin bleeds first. On the other hand, another narrative points to war-risk premium bids for a hedge basket of oil, gold, and sometimes Bitcoin.

Feb. 18 showed which regime dominated. Gold jumped roughly 2%, the dollar index rose, Treasury yields pushed higher, and Bitcoin dropped 2.4% to around $66,102.37.

That combination appears to be “tightening conditions,” not “Bitcoin as hedge.”

Oil breaks disinflation, the Fed gets less patient

Oil shocks disrupt the disinflation process because energy affects transportation and input costs quickly.

San Francisco Fed research from December 2025 finds that the two-year Treasury yield has been more sensitive to oil supply surprises in recent years than in the pre-2021 period. That matters for Bitcoin because the two-year yield is the market's shorthand for “how many cuts, how soon.”

When oil rallies for supply-risk reasons, markets ask “does this re-stick inflation?”

The “cut season” trade is fragile. If energy headlines keep Brent elevated, markets reprice toward fewer cuts, pushing the dollar higher, real yields higher, and risk appetite lower.

Bitcoin often gets hit harder than equities when leverage is crowded and macro conditions tighten.

Three scenarios forward

There are three potential scenarios ahead for Bitcoin.

The first scenario happens if the risk premium fades. Diplomacy cools tensions, Hormuz disruption risk recedes, Brent drifts toward mid-$60s.

Citi has argued that de-escalation could pull Brent down toward $60-62 by mid-2026. That reopens the disinflation narrative and revives the cuts-soon trade. Bitcoin benefits as financial conditions ease.
This is the most bullish path.

The second scenario happens if the risk premium sticks. Brent holds $65-$70 as geopolitical tensions remain unresolved.

Central banks stay cautious about cutting aggressively. Bitcoin can rally on crypto-specific flows but fights macro headwinds. The “higher for longer” rate environment caps upside.

The third scenario manifests as an escalation of tail risk. Eurasia Group estimates a 65% probability of US strikes against Iran by the end of April.

Hormuz disruption could spike prices. Bitcoin faces its sharpest tension: hedge fund demand pulling one way, rate shock pressure pulling the other.

If oil prices reach $80 or $90, inflation expectations rise, yields surge, and financial conditions tighten sharply.

What this means for Bitcoin traders

The EIA forecasts Brent averaging $58 in 2026, driven by supply exceeding demand.

Current prices embed a geopolitical premium that analysts estimate at $4-$7 per barrel. Without conflict risk, crude would trade in the high $50s, given the International Energy Agency's projected 3.7 million barrel-per-day surplus.

For the US two-year yield, upward movement indicates that cuts have been pushed out. If yields climb as oil stays elevated, the market is pricing a tighter policy for longer.

For breakevens, what matters is whether inflation expectations rise with oil. That's the disinflation narrative stress test.

Additionally, a stronger dollar equals tighter conditions. On Feb. 18, DXY rose alongside oil and gold, which is a classic “macro tightening” mix.

Feb. 18 looked risk-like, with Bitcoin down while gold climbed. If Bitcoin rises alongside gold while yields stabilize, the hedge narrative is back.

Besides, DeFi, halving cycles, and ETF flows matter.

Yet, on days like Feb. 18, Bitcoin is trading the same question as everything else: does this oil move force the Fed to stay tight?

The uncomfortable truth is that Bitcoin's macro identity remains in flux.

It wants to be digital gold when geopolitics flare. However, it trades like leveraged tech when rates drive the narrative.

The asset can't be both simultaneously, and oil shocks force the market to choose. Currently, when oil rises due to supply risk and pushes inflation fears higher, Bitcoin sells alongside risk assets rather than rallying with gold.

The next two weeks matter.

Iran returns to Geneva with a new proposal. Russia and Ukraine continue talks. India's oil purchasing decisions get clarified.

Each variable feeds into the Brent curve, which feeds into inflation expectations, which feeds into the two-year yield, which determines whether “cuts soon” stays alive.

Bitcoin's path follows that chain. Oil isn't supposed to be the story, but sometimes the story you weren't watching is the one that moves the market.

The post Bitcoin faces a new selloff if oil holds $70 after spike and the Fed turns less patient appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Hyperliquid launched a policy center in Washington on Feb. 18, seeded with 1 million HYPE tokens worth roughly $28 million, led by Jake Chervinsky, the crypto lawyer who spent years building the industry's Capitol Hill playbook.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center operates as a 501(c)(4) focused on decentralized finance and perpetual derivatives. This isn't just another crypto company hiring lobbyists. It's a protocol that funds a sustained DC presence with its native token, making policy infrastructure part of the product itself.

The move signals something broader: DeFi's “code routes around regulation” era is coming to an end. Policy is now part of the moat. And the battleground is derivatives, because perpetual futures are the largest real on-chain use case that US regulators still don't know how to handle.

Why derivatives are the line

Hyperliquid processed $256 billion in perpetual futures volume over the past 30 days, with open interest exceeding $5 billion.

When a venue becomes meaningful market infrastructure for leveraged trading, it attracts scrutiny. The UK maintains its ban on retail crypto-derivatives even as it loosens other access.

The CFTC brought enforcement actions against bZeroX and Ooki DAO for offering illegal off-exchange digital-asset trading. Perps dominate crypto derivatives markets, accounting for roughly 75% of total activity, largely because onshore rules remain ambiguous.

Perpetuals don't expire and use continuous funding rates instead of settlement mechanics. That simplicity creates regulatory friction: perps don't fit cleanly into existing commodity futures statutes.

Chervinsky told Fortune that perps offer “more direct exposure to the underlying asset” than traditional derivatives, but that same design makes them harder to regulate.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center exists to make perps legible to lawmakers before lawmakers make them illegal by default.

The DC window for DeFi is open

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Congress it needs to pass a major crypto market-structure bill by spring 2026, warning the coalition could fracture if delayed.

The SEC and CFTC held a joint harmonization event on Jan. 27. These aren't abstract conversations, they're drafting sessions for the map.

The CLARITY Act passed the House in July 2025 and sits in the Senate Banking Committee. It establishes a federal market structure for digital commodities, including frameworks for exchange and broker registration, and defines terms such as “mature blockchains.”

However, the Congressional Research Service's analysis explicitly states that CLARITY's framework excludes derivatives. Even if market structure legislation passes, leveraged perpetuals remain unresolved.

Meanwhile, stablecoin regulation is becoming law. The GENIUS Act was passed in July 2025, establishing a federal framework for a stablecoin. Standard Chartered forecasts that stablecoin supply will grow to $2 trillion by 2028.

The contrast is stark: payment rails are gaining clarity, while trading rails remain ambiguous. This split defines crypto's next DC battle.

The K Street numbers

Digital asset sector lobbying spending rose 66% to $40.6 million in 2025, according to OpenSecrets data. Big banks spent $86.8 million.

Crypto is learning DC the TradFi way: sustained institutional presence, technical research, relationship cultivation. Hyperliquid's $28 million seed round exceeds what most crypto advocacy groups spend in a year. The Digital Chamber spent $5.6 million in 2024, and the Blockchain Association spent $8.3 million.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center isn't alone.

The DeFi Education Fund has operated since 2021. Ethereum ecosystem protocols formed the Ethereum Protocol Advocacy Alliance in November 2025. The Solana Policy Institute exists.

These aren't ad hoc legal defense funds. They're institutionalized policy layers operating as 501(c)(4) nonprofits with full-time staff and Hill briefing schedules.

What a policy moat means

DeFi venues now compete on three dimensions: market design (user experience, liquidity, fees), compliance design (what can be compelled, who controls interfaces), and narrative design (how “decentralized” gets defined in statute).

CLARITY creates registration concepts for digital commodity exchanges and brokers, but explicitly excludes derivatives, leaving perps in regulatory limbo.

The practical implication: even if Hyperliquid's protocol remains globally accessible, US-facing front ends will face pressure to adopt registration-like standards, such as surveillance, disclosure, segregation, and KYC gating.

The question is whether the US uses routes through compliant intermediaries or targets control points, such as operators and governance participants, for enforcement.

The CFTC's enforcement history suggests regulators will pursue the latter if the former doesn't materialize.

Three paths forward

The next six to eighteen months will determine how the US treats rules on decentralized derivatives.
The first scenario consists of regulated access paths emerging. Spring 2026 legislation passes, with follow-on guidance on derivatives. US-facing front ends adopt registration-like standards while base protocols remain globally accessible.

Volume consolidates into venues that can afford compliance, creating policy moats.

The second scenario is if front-end chokepoint crackdowns intensify. Enforcement focuses on control points, such as operators and governance actors. Geofencing proliferates, US-facing interfaces degrade, and retail users get pushed offshore. Trading continues but fragments between jurisdictions.

The third scenario becomes concrete if legislative breakdown leaves perps offshore.

The coalition Bessent warned about fractures. CLARITY stalls or passes without derivatives provisions. The US gets clarity on spot and stablecoins, but leaves perps in a gray zone. Offshore dominance persists.

All three scenarios involve policy work. The difference is timing and leverage. Early engagement when rules are being drafted carries more weight than reactive defense when enforcement actions land.

The shift nobody wanted to admit

For years, crypto has positioned decentralization as regulatory arbitrage: build systems that can't be shut down and route around legacy rules.

That narrative is colliding with reality. When your protocol processes billions in daily volume, generates revenue flowing to token holders, and offers leverage to retail users in a 24/7 global market, you're not routing around regulation.

Instead, you're building parallel infrastructure that regulators will eventually force into their framework or shut out of their jurisdiction.

Hyperliquid's move to Washington openly acknowledges this.

DeFi is entering its K Street era not because protocols have lost their ideological moorings, but because waiting for enforcement-driven precedent is riskier and less likely to produce workable rules.

While DC debates, Hong Kong plans to issue its first stablecoin licenses in March 2026.

The EU's MiCA provides a live token framework. The UK loosens access to some crypto products while maintaining strict perimeter controls for derivatives. Chervinsky's warning that “other nations seize the opportunity” isn't hypothetical.

The next moat won't just be technical superiority or liquidity depth. It will be compliance architecture that works, narrative frameworks that resonate with lawmakers, and relationships that let you shape rulemaking before rulemaking shapes you.

The market will test whether this works. If the Hyperliquid Policy Center helps secure a regulatory path for on-chain perps in the US, other protocols will follow suit.

If it doesn't, the $28 million becomes a case study in expensive signaling. Either way, the experiment is live. DeFi went to Washington. Now, the market finds out whether Washington was waiting.

The post If CLARITY stalls, on-chain perps stay offshore — and US traders get pushed out appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The digital asset market is currently at a critical juncture as of February 19, 2026. While the broader sector grapples with macroeconomic uncertainty from the Federal Reserve, $XRP has carved out a distinct technical path. Traders and institutional investors are now laser-focused on a singular objective: the $1.60 resistance zone.

XRP Price Target: The Strategic Significance of $1.60

In the current market structure, $1.60 is more than just a psychological number; it represents the "bull-bear" line for the first quarter of 2026. Reclaiming this level would effectively invalidate the bearish "pin bar" rejection seen earlier this week and confirm that the massive institutional inflows into are finally outweighing sell-side pressure from exchange-heavy whales.

XRP Price Analysis: Breaking the Ceiling

XRP is currently consolidating after a sharp rejection near the $1.67 peak. The strategy for the coming days hinges on how the asset interacts with its overhead hurdles.

1. The Resistance Ladder

The path to a sustained rally requires a systematic flip of several key levels:

1. The Immediate Hurdle ($1.51 - $1.57): This zone served as the "rejection point" on February 16. Until the bulls can close a 4-hour candle above $1.57, the $1.60 milestone remains out of reach.
2. The Major Milestone ($1.60): This level aligns with the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the recent swing high. A breakout here is widely considered the trigger for a "short squeeze," as funding rates on major have recently flipped negative.
3. The Bullish Gateway ($1.81): Beyond $1.60, the next structural resistance sits at $1.81, which matches the November and December floors.

2. Momentum Indicators: The Coil Effect

• The Stochastic RSI is currently deep in the "opportunity zone" (below 10). Historically, when XRP reaches these oversold extremes while maintaining its primary horizontal support, it often leads to a "spring-loaded" move.
• Trading Insight: The combination of shrinking exchange supply (down to 1.7 billion tokens) and an oversold RSI suggests that the market is "coiling." A sudden burst in volume could propel the asset toward the $1.60 milestone within a very short window.

Fundamental Catalysts: Why Now?

Several market-moving events are providing the fuel for this potential breakout:

• Institutional Deployment: As reports, cumulative ETF inflows have now topped $1.37 billion. This "steady hand" buying is absorbing the volatility created by retail panic.
• Regulatory Momentum: The appointment of Ripple leadership to federal advisory committees has shifted sentiment from "defensive" to "expansionary."
• On-Chain Scarcity: Exchange balances are at their lowest levels since 2018, according to Glassnode data. This reduced "sell-side liquidity" means that any fresh demand at the $1.60 level could result in outsized upward price action.

XRP Price Prediction: Looking Higher and Lower

A professional trader's strategy requires planning for both directions. Here are the targets based on current market depth:

Higher Targets (The Breakout Play)

• Milestone 1 ($1.60): Confirms local trend reversal and triggers momentum buying.
• Milestone 2 ($1.85): Reclaims the 50-day EMA and sets the stage for a $2.00 retest.
• Long-Term Target ($2.40): The previous January 2026 high.

Lower Targets (The Defensive Play)

• Support 1 ($1.40): The immediate structural floor.
• Support 2 ($1.26): The "October flash-crash" low, which serves as a secondary demand zone.
• Critical Floor ($1.11): The absolute year-to-date bottom.

Conclusion: The Gateway to a Recovery

The $1.60 breakout is the "litmus test" for Ripple bulls. Achieving this milestone would signal that the corrective phase is over and that the asset is ready to resume its institutional growth trajectory. While stability is still a required variable, XRP’s independent on-chain strength is becoming harder to ignore.

Crypto markets have entered another sharp correction phase. Bitcoin has printed multiple consecutive red candles, Ethereum is under pressure, and altcoins are broadly selling off.

At first glance, many traders are blaming the Federal Reserve. Others point to political headlines or speculative FUD. But the deeper driver appears to be something far more structural: a liquidity shock.

This is not a crypto-specific collapse. It is a macro liquidity event.

What Is the Treasury General Account (TGA)?

The Treasury General Account (TGA) is essentially the US government’s bank account held at the Federal Reserve.

When the US Treasury increases the balance in the TGA, it pulls liquidity out of the financial system. That money moves from banks and markets into the government’s account.

In practical terms:

• Liquidity leaves risk assets
• Bank reserves decline
• Financial conditions tighten
• Risk markets weaken

Crypto, being one of the most liquidity-sensitive asset classes, reacts quickly.

Why This Is Hitting Crypto Now

Recent data suggests that a significant amount of liquidity has been drained as the Treasury refills the TGA.

This creates a temporary but powerful tightening effect across markets:

• Equities show weakness
• Metals experience forced liquidations
• Crypto sees broad-based selling

Bitcoin’s recent sequence of red candles reflects this shift in liquidity conditions rather than a fundamental breakdown in the network or adoption narrative.

There has been no protocol failure. No structural collapse. No major regulatory shock. What we are seeing is liquidity compression.

This Is Not 2022 — But It Rhymes

In 2022, crypto collapsed due to systemic internal failures and aggressive monetary tightening.

Today’s environment is different.

The Federal Reserve is not aggressively hiking rates. Inflation expectations are stabilising. Institutional participation remains present.

However, liquidity cycles still matter.

Even without rate hikes, when government actions temporarily remove liquidity from the system, risk assets respond.

Crypto tends to react first and react harder.

Why Liquidity Matters More Than Headlines

Recent headlines range from tariff uncertainty to political developments and institutional positioning. While these stories create short-term volatility, they are not the core driver.

Liquidity is.

Crypto thrives when:

1. Global liquidity expands
2. Bank reserves grow
3. Capital seeks higher returns

It struggles when:

1. Liquidity contracts
2. Cash is pulled from the system
3. Leverage unwinds

The current market structure suggests we are in a temporary liquidity contraction phase.

What Happens When Liquidity Returns?

Historically, when TGA refilling slows or liquidity conditions stabilise, risk assets often rebound.

Crypto, being high-beta, tends to recover aggressively once capital flows resume.

That does not mean volatility disappears. But it does mean the current correction may be structural repositioning rather than the start of a long-term collapse.

The key variables to monitor:

• TGA balance trends
• Bank reserve data
• Dollar strength
• Treasury issuance pace
• Options market positioning

Final Outlook: Structural Reset or Opportunity?

Crypto markets are not collapsing because of hawkish Fed policy or internal breakdowns.

They are reacting to a liquidity shock.

Understanding that distinction is critical.

If liquidity conditions stabilise, this phase may ultimately resemble previous macro-driven resets — painful in the short term but constructive for the next expansion cycle.

As always, volatility remains elevated, and risk management is essential.

The digital asset market is navigating a complex landscape this Thursday, February 19, 2026. While many expected a recovery following recent gains, crypto news today is characterized by cautious "risk-off" sentiment. A combination of hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve and escalating geopolitical instability between the United States and Iran has pushed investors toward traditional safe havens like gold, leaving Bitcoin ($BTC) and major altcoins in a consolidation phase.

Is the Market Crashing?

Currently, the market is not in a freefall but is undergoing a significant correction. Bitcoin is trading around the $68,000 – $69,000 area, while Ethereum ($ETH) is struggling to hold the $2,000 psychological mark. The primary driver is a shift in risk perception rather than structural failure.

Geopolitical Shock: US-Iran Escalation

The most pressing driver of market uncertainty today is the rapid military buildup in the Middle East. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have reached a boiling point following the stalling of nuclear talks in Geneva.

1. Massive Military Deployment: In the last 24 hours, the U.S. military moved over 50 fighter jets—including F-16, F-22, and F-35 units—to the Middle East.
2. The "Armada" Strategy: Two aircraft carrier strike groups, including the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald Ford, are now stationed near Iranian waters.
3. Iranian Retaliation: In response, Iranian naval forces closed portions of the vital Strait of Hormuz for military exercises, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warning of a "decisive" response to any American strike.

This instability has directly impacted global liquidity. As the U.S. signals that "all options are on the table," investors are liquidating high-risk positions in crypto to move into cash or gold.

The Fed Factor: Hawkish Minutes Rattle Bulls

Compounding the geopolitical stress, the latest FOMC Minutes revealed a shifting tone within the Federal Reserve.

• Potential Rate Hikes: Several policymakers indicated that the central bank might need to raise rates further if inflation remains stubborn, a sharp pivot from the rate-cut narrative of late 2025.
• Liquidity Squeeze: This hawkishness has bolstered the US Dollar, which traditionally exerts downward pressure on BTC price.

Technical Outlook and Institutional Flows

Institutional demand via spot ETFs has also turned selective. On February 17, while overall flows remained marginally positive, major products like BlackRock’s IBIT recorded net outflows. This suggests that even institutional players are reallocating within the space rather than bringing in fresh capital.

What to Watch Next

The next 48 hours are critical. If Bitcoin fails to hold the $65,000 support level amidst further Middle East escalation, we could see a retreat toward $60,000. Conversely, if diplomatic channels in Oman or Geneva show a breakthrough, a relief rally could be swift.

Despite a decade of being hailed as the ultimate "digital gold," Bitcoin has entered 2026 facing a unique set of headwinds. Since the final quarter of 2025, the $Bitcoin price has struggled to keep pace with major equities and even select altcoins. While global liquidity remains relatively supportive, a dual narrative of technological vulnerability and latent supply shocks is forcing the market to discount BTC’s future value.

Is Bitcoin "Broken"?

The short answer is no, but the market is pricing in "tail risks" that were previously ignored. The recent sell-off isn't just about macroeconomics; it’s about the growing realization that 3.5 to 4 million $BTC, long thought to be "lost forever," may actually be a ticking time bomb due to advancements in quantum computing.

The Ghost Supply: 4 Million BTC Waking Up?

For years, the "scarcity" thesis of Bitcoin relied on the assumption that roughly 18% of the total supply (mined between 2009 and 2012) was permanently out of circulation. These "lost" coins include the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto holdings and thousands of wallets where private keys were discarded in the early days of "magic internet money."

• Current Reality: On-chain data in early 2026 has shown a surprising uptick in "Satoshi-era" wallets waking up.
• The Problem: If the market shifts from believing these coins are "burned" to believing they are "latent," the perceived scarcity of Bitcoin evaporates.

Quantum Computing: Breaking the "Unbreakable"

The primary catalyst for this shift in sentiment is the rapid advancement in Quantum Computing. While the Bitcoin network as a whole is incredibly secure, older wallet formats—specifically those using Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK)—are fundamentally different from modern standards.

• Exposed Public Keys: In Bitcoin’s earliest years, public keys were often recorded directly on the blockchain.
• Shor’s Algorithm: Advanced quantum processors are theoretically capable of using Shor’s algorithm to derive a private key from an exposed public key.
• Targeted Vulnerability: This risk doesn't apply to the entire network but specifically to the 3-4 million dormant coins stored in these legacy formats.

If a quantum actor can "crack" these old wallets, millions of BTC could flood the market, creating a massive supply overhang that dwarfs any current institutional exchange inflows.

Institutional Absorption vs. Dormant Overhang

To understand the current price stagnation, we must look at the battle between institutional "diamond hands" and the "ghost supply."

The data reveals a startling irony: The amount of Bitcoin absorbed by Wall Street, ETFs, and corporate treasuries since 2020 is almost identical to the amount of "lost" coins that could potentially be compromised by quantum technology. The market is currently "pricing in" the possibility that the supply absorbed by institutions will be neutralized by the re-entry of these ancient coins.

The Bull Case: Systemic Hardening

Despite the "quantum FUD," the technical reality is more nuanced. Bitcoin is not a static protocol.

• Protocol Evolution: Developers are already researching Quantum-Resistant Cryptography (PQC) for the Bitcoin core.
• Redistribution Resilience: On-chain data shows that 13-14 million BTC moved during the current cycle—the largest redistribution in history.
• Structural Integrity: The fact that Bitcoin did not experience a total collapse despite this massive movement of coins suggests that the network’s liquidity is deeper than most analysts realize.

Summary: Balancing Two Narratives

The current "dump" or underperformance of Bitcoin is a result of the market balancing a theoretical future supply shock against a system that continues to harden. For investors using hardware wallets, the risk remains minimal as long as they use modern address formats (like SegWit or Taproot) that do not expose public keys until a transaction is made.

However, until the Bitcoin community reaches a consensus on a quantum-hardened upgrade, the "ghost supply" will likely continue to act as a ceiling on price appreciation.

Preparing for the crypto tax reporting season can be a daunting task for many investors, especially with the IRS introducing new regulations for 2026. As the tax deadline approaches, staying organized and understanding how your digital asset transactions are treated is crucial to avoid penalties and optimize your returns. Whether you are trading on centralized exchanges or interacting with complex DeFi protocols, a proactive approach to crypto tax prep will save you both time and money.

Essential Checklist for Crypto Tax Readiness

To ensure a smooth filing process, investors should focus on these five key areas:

1. Centralize Your Data: Gather transaction histories from all exchanges, wallets, and platforms.
2. Identify Taxable Events: Distinguish between capital gains (selling/swapping) and ordinary income (staking/mining).
3. Leverage Tax-Loss Harvesting: Sell underperforming assets to offset realized gains.
4. Track Cost Basis Accurately: Use the FIFO or Specific Identification method to determine profit.
5. Utilize Professional Software: Automate the calculation of complex trades and DeFi activity.

1. Centralize Your Transaction History

The biggest hurdle in crypto tax reporting is the fragmentation of data. Most investors use multiple platforms, and the IRS now requires brokers to report gross proceeds via Form 1099-DA for transactions starting in 2025 (filed in 2026). However, these forms may not always include your correct cost basis if you transferred assets from an external hardware wallet.

You must download CSV files or connect via API to every service you've used. This includes centralized exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken, as well as on-chain activity on $Ethereum, $Solana, or $Bitcoin. Keeping an updated record ensures you aren't paying more than you owe due to "missing" acquisition data.

2. Differentiate Between Capital Gains and Income

In the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), not all crypto activity is taxed the same way. Understanding this distinction is vital:

• Capital Gains: Triggered when you sell crypto for fiat, swap one coin for another (e.g., $BTC to $ETH), or use crypto to purchase goods.
• Ordinary Income: Triggered when you receive crypto as a reward. This includes staking rewards, mining proceeds, airdrops, and payments for services.

Failing to report staking rewards as income upon receipt is a common mistake that can lead to audits. Ensure you are recording the fair market value of these tokens in USD at the exact time they entered your "dominion and control."

3. Implement Crypto Tax-Loss Harvesting

If you are sitting on "underwater" positions, you can use them to your advantage. Tax-loss harvesting involves selling assets at a loss to offset your capital gains. In the US, if your losses exceed your gains, you can even use up to $3,000 of those losses to offset your regular income.

Unlike stocks, the "wash sale rule" has historically been more flexible for crypto, though legislation like the CLARITY Act continues to be debated in Congress. Consult a professional or use our comprehensive USA crypto tax guide to see how you can legally minimize your liability.

4. Master Cost Basis Methods

When you sell a portion of your holdings—for example, selling 0.5 Ethereum after buying it at different price points over the year—you must decide which "lot" you are selling.

• FIFO (First-In, First-Out): The first coins you bought are the first ones sold.
• HIFO (Highest-In, First-Out): Selling the most expensive coins first to minimize gains.

Choosing the right method can significantly impact your tax bill. Consistency is key; once you choose a method for a tax year, you should generally stick with it across your entire portfolio to remain compliant.

5. Use Specialized Crypto Tax Software

Manually calculating taxes for hundreds of DeFi transactions or NFT flips is nearly impossible. Professional tools can sync with your wallets and automatically generate the necessary forms, such as Form 8949 and Schedule D.

These platforms also help bridge the gap when an exchange doesn't provide a 1099-DA or when you need to reconcile transfers between different crypto exchanges. Automating this process reduces human error and provides a clear audit trail.

2026 Crypto Tax Deadlines & Forms

Google AI music generator Lyria 3 is now available on the Gemini app. It works—mostly—but the competition has a big head start.

Sharplink is shaking up its branding as it reports additional Ethereum holdings and a rising number of institutional investors.

Crypto gaming metaverse platform The Sandbox is rolling out its Season 7 content push, making it easier than ever for players to jump in.

Consulting giant Accenture is monitoring senior staff logins to AI tools and tying career advancement to adoption rates—all while AI threatens to eliminate jobs.

Bitcoin's recent plunge has prompted a wave of investors and observers seeking answers about why the top cryptocurrency is cratering.

A top Federal Reserve official has delivered yet another scathing critique of the cryptocurrency industry..

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has lauded XRP as the "best performing" major digital asset during the current market correction.

Crypto news digest: XRP is rapidly losing payment volume; SHIB volatility is hitting the ground; BTC sinks against gold.

Peter Schiff admits he underestimated "dumb money" in Bitcoin despite missing its rise to $126K, a story of the 2026 market standoff, institutional adoption and FOMO.

Dogecoin made subsequent attempts to reclaim $0.10, however, these efforts were futile.

TLDR:

• Crypto built for AI agents treats rigid code as infrastructure instead of a flaw in financial design.
• Legal contracts favor human judgment, while smart contracts favor machine verification and execution.
• AI wallets bypass legacy systems that only recognize humans and registered institutions.
• Self-driving wallets could replace manual interaction with automated on-chain decision systems.

Crypto has long struggled with usability, security risks, and trust gaps for everyday users. 

A new framework suggests those flaws reflect a deeper design choice rather than engineering failure. The argument centers on crypto built for AI agents, not for human decision-making. This shift reframes why smart contracts rely on rigid logic instead of legal judgment.

Crypto Built for AI Agents Challenges Human-Centered Finance

The idea gained traction after a commentary shared by Milk Road and attributed to Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly. He highlighted that even crypto-native firms still rely on traditional legal contracts when making investments.

Despite having engineers capable of auditing smart contracts, Dragonfly continues to use courts and lawyers for enforcement.

Legal systems allow judges to apply context and reason when disputes arise. Code executes instructions without interpretation.

Humans instinctively trust law because it reflects centuries of social and institutional design. Banking infrastructure assumes mistakes, reversals, and mediation will occur. Smart contracts offer none of those safety valves.

For machines, those same traits become advantages. 

An AI agent can verify addresses, audit logic, and simulate outcomes in seconds. Deterministic code removes uncertainty that legal frameworks introduce through jurisdiction and precedent.

Crypto Built for AI Agents Aligns With Machine-Only Transactions

The traditional financial system only recognizes humans, companies, and governments as valid participants. It has no category for autonomous software actors. That creates unresolved questions around liability, compliance, and sanctions when AI systems transact.

Crypto avoids those constraints by treating every participant as a wallet controlled by code. 

An AI agent can hold funds and execute agreements without legal identity. This structure allows machine-to-machine commerce to operate without regulatory classification barriers.

Supporters of the thesis argue that features humans dislike are optimal for automation. 

Long addresses, gas fees, and permissionless access form a strict specification layer. AI systems interpret these rules as predictable infrastructure rather than friction.

This logic underpins the concept of a “self-driving wallet.” Instead of users clicking through decentralized apps, they would issue goals to an agent. The agent would evaluate protocols and construct transactions automatically.

Machine-to-machine transactions already occur in limited forms across on-chain trading bots and automated liquidity strategies. The framework suggests those activities will expand into broader economic coordination. Humans would remain supervisors rather than operators.

The argument does not claim crypto failed its original mission. It proposes that crypto found its natural counterpart in autonomous software. Earlier technologies followed similar paths once complementary tools emerged.

Milk Road framed the thesis as a rethinking of long-standing crypto criticism. 

Problems such as complexity and rigidity may reflect optimization for non-human users. In that view, crypto’s future lies in becoming financial infrastructure for artificial agents rather than consumer interfaces.

The post Expert: Crypto Was Built for Machines, Not Humans, and AI Is Proof appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Anchorage Digital Stablecoin Solutions enables international banks to settle USD transfers using regulated stablecoin infrastructure.
• Federal oversight through the OCC places stablecoin custody and issuance under a single national banking framework.
• The platform replaces correspondent banking with programmable balances that reduce settlement time and trapped liquidity.
• Support for multiple USD stablecoins creates a unified rail for minting, custody, and cross-border dollar movement.

Anchorage Digital has launched a new banking platform designed to move U.S. dollars across borders using stablecoin infrastructure. The product targets licensed international banks seeking regulated access to blockchain-based settlement. 

The rollout aligns with recent U.S. legislative efforts to formalize stablecoin oversight. The initiative positions stablecoins as an institutional payment rail rather than a retail crypto product.

Anchorage Digital Stablecoin Solutions targets regulated global settlement

The new service allows foreign banks to onboard directly with Anchorage Digital and access both fiat and stablecoin wallets. Institutions can conduct outbound and inbound U.S. dollar transfers using supported blockchain networks.

According to statements shared at ETHDenver and on social media, the platform consolidates minting, redemption, custody, and treasury management into a single system.

This replaces correspondent banking flows that often rely on pre-funded nostro and vostro accounts.

By shifting settlement to programmable stablecoin balances, banks can reduce idle capital and shorten transfer timelines. Settlement windows compress from several days to minutes while maintaining regulated custody standards.

Company co-founder Kevin Wysocki described the product as consistent with federal goals under the GENIUS Act. His comments framed stablecoins as an extension of dollar dominance through compliant digital infrastructure.

Federal oversight anchors stablecoin issuance and custody model

Anchorage Digital operates as a federally chartered trust bank supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. This structure removes the need for state-by-state licensing and places client assets under a single regulatory framework.

Funds remain segregated and bankruptcy remote, according to product documentation released with the launch. Digital assets are stored in vaults using institutional policy controls designed for compliance and risk management.

The platform supports multiple dollar-backed stablecoins across major chains. These include USA₮ from Tether, USDtb from Ethena Labs, USDGO from OSL, and future issuances such as Western Union’s USDPT.

Anchorage Digital stated that it will provide primary mint and redeem access for federally issued stablecoins once the GENIUS Act reaches final implementation. The system remains stablecoin-agnostic, allowing banks to custody and transfer other approved tokens through the same interface.

Nathan McCauley, the company’s chief executive, said the service aims to modernize settlement while preserving compliance controls. He emphasized that blockchain rails can operate behind the scenes without altering bank-facing workflows.

The launch follows growing onchain settlement volumes tied to dollar-pegged tokens. Industry data shows stablecoins now process trillions of dollars annually, driven by demand for faster and cheaper cross-border transfers.

By combining regulated issuance, qualified custody, and blockchain-native settlement, the product connects banks into a shared network of compliant counterparties. This approach positions stablecoins as financial infrastructure rather than speculative assets.

The post Anchorage Digital Builds Federal Rails for Stablecoin Payments appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Payward’s acquisition of Magna links token vesting and claims infrastructure directly into Kraken’s expanding product ecosystem.
• Magna will continue operating independently while its tools integrate with Kraken’s broader token issuance and distribution roadmap.
• The deal extends Kraken’s reach from trading into fundraising and long-term token lifecycle management services.
• Magna’s platform already supports over 160 projects with peak total value locked of $60 billion in 2025.

Payward has acquired Magna in a move that extends Kraken’s services beyond trading into token lifecycle management. The deal brings vesting, claims, and distribution tools into Kraken’s broader financial infrastructure stack. 

Company leaders described the transaction as part of a push toward verticalized crypto services. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Payward Acquires Magna to Build End-to-End Token Infrastructure

The announcement came through a company blog post and was later echoed in a social update from Dave Ripley. The post confirmed that Magna will continue operating as a standalone platform while integrations progress.

Magna provides tooling for onchain and offchain vesting, token claims, custody workflows, and specialized staking features. These services support teams running complex token distributions and treasury operations.

According to Payward, the acquisition supports its expansion from trading infrastructure into fundraising, issuance, and long-term network management.

The company said Magna already serves teams managing billions of dollars in active token ecosystems.

Arjun Sethi framed the deal as an effort to avoid concentration around distribution and access. He said open, chain-aware infrastructure connects fundraising, liquidity, and distribution into one operating layer.

Kraken Expands Beyond Trading With Magna Integration

Kraken’s on-chain leadership linked the move to a broader strategy around issuer services. Calvin Leyon said the exchange aims to extend trusted infrastructure across the full token lifecycle.

Magna will initially focus on onboarding and security hardening while preserving its existing integrations. Payward said later phases will align the platform with token issuance and global distribution workflows.

Magna’s client base includes more than 160 projects, with peak total value locked reaching $60 billion in 2025. The company has positioned itself as a core operational layer for token generation events and ongoing community management.

Bruno Faviero stated that joining Kraken provides resources for deeper liquidity and global reach. He added that Magna will continue supporting teams across multiple chains and custody setups.

Payward confirmed that Magna customers can keep using current products without disruption. Product updates will roll out gradually as foundational integrations advance.

The acquisition strengthens Kraken’s role beyond exchange services into infrastructure for builders and issuers. It also signals growing demand for standardized tools that manage vesting, distribution, and compliance at s

The post Payward Acquires Magna to Expand Kraken Token Lifecycle Infrastructure appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• FOCIL and EIP-8141 allow smart wallet and privacy transactions to reach blocks without wrappers or intermediaries.
• Randomized includers reduce proposer dominance and increase censorship resistance for all Ethereum transactions.
• Rapid inclusion within one or two slots becomes likely even under hostile network behavior.
• Future FOCIL expansion could support most block transactions while preserving MEV auction mechanics.

Ethereum is moving closer to censorship-resistant transaction inclusion after new technical links emerged between FOCIL and EIP-8141. 

The update focuses on ensuring that all transaction types reach the blockchain quickly, even under hostile network conditions. It also expands how smart accounts and privacy protocols interact with block production. 

The development highlights Ethereum’s push to reduce proposer power while keeping network incentives intact.

How FOCIL and EIP-8141 Enable Direct Transaction Inclusion

According to a post shared by CEO Vitalik Buterin, FOCIL works alongside EIP-8141 to make smart accounts and privacy tools first-class transaction senders.

EIP-8141 builds on account abstraction by allowing smart wallets to submit transactions directly onchain without wrappers or intermediaries. These accounts can support multisignature controls, quantum-resistant keys, and gas sponsorship.

FOCIL then ensures that these transactions gain rapid inclusion through randomly selected includers each slot. In every block, up to 17 actors can include transactions, instead of relying on a single proposer.

Vitalik noted that this structure creates a path for almost guaranteed inclusion within one or two slots. It also allows privacy protocol transactions to enter blocks through the public mempool without relying on broadcasters or relayers.

Why FOCIL and EIP-8141 Weaken Proposer Control

FOCIL currently limits each inclusion list to about 8 kilobytes, keeping the design lightweight in its first phase. However, the roadmap allows these lists to grow and potentially carry most transactions in future blocks.

The approach mirrors some features of multiple concurrent proposer models without removing proposer-builder separation. Instead, it preserves the MEV auction for the final ordering role through ePBS.

Even if all proposer slots were captured by a hostile entity, transactions would still reach blocks through FOCIL includers. This reduces the ability of any single actor to block or discriminate against certain applications.

The design shifts power away from centralized block producers while keeping economic incentives stable. It also protects smart wallet operations and privacy protocol activity from selective exclusion.

Developers say the combination strengthens the base layer against censorship without forcing changes to existing transaction flows. Transactions from smart accounts can move through the public mempool and directly reach includers.

With these changes, ETH positions itself to support a wider range of transaction types under adversarial conditions. The update reinforces ongoing work on account abstraction and block inclusion guarantees.

The post Vitalik: New Ethereum Design Targets Censorship With FOCIL and EIP-8141 appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• ZRO becomes the only gas, staking, and fee asset across Zero, LayerZero, and Stargate infrastructure layers.
• Protocol revenue from priority fees, MEV tips, markets, and payments will all route directly into ZRO.
• Institutional buyouts removed 19.77 percent of total ZRO supply from future unlock circulation schedules.
• Public dashboards currently overstate ZRO unlock pressure by nearly twofold due to outdated supply data.

LayerZero has clarified how its ZRO token will function inside the upcoming Zero network after days of market speculation. 

The update outlines a single-asset economic design that ties protocol activity directly to ZRO. It also revises assumptions about future supply pressure from token unlocks. The disclosure arrives ahead of Zero’s planned mainnet launch later this year.

ZRO Tokenomics Anchors Zero Network Fee Structure

Bryan Pellegrino published the clarification in a post on X, addressing questions around Zero’s economic design. He stated that the project will not issue a new token for the network. ZRO will serve as the only asset across all Zero functions.

ZRO will act as both the staking and gas token inside Zero. Every transaction and message will rely on the same asset for settlement. This approach removes the need for parallel fee tokens across zones.

According to the statement, all excess fees generated from priority fees linked to state contention will route to ZRO. Tips and MEV-related revenue will also accrue to the token. The design connects congestion and execution demand directly to token value flows.

Trading fees from the markets zone and payment fees from the payments zone will follow the same model. 

Once LayerZero activates its fee switch, every protocol message will include a ZRO-denominated charge. This makes ZRO the financial endpoint for Zero, LayerZero, and Stargate activity.

Institutional Buybacks Cut ZRO Unlock Pressure in Half

Pellegrino also disclosed updated figures on institutional participation and internal buybacks. 

He said institutional purchases and early investor buyouts now represent 19.77 percent of the total ZRO supply. Most of this came from absorbing future unlock allocations.

The update challenges assumptions shown on public token dashboards. Pellegrino noted that many trackers still treat those tokens as pending unlocks. That misclassification, he said, nearly doubles the projected supply pressure.

Community members amplified the data point after the post circulated. X user Zuuu highlighted the reduction in effective unlock risk as a key takeaway. The comment gained traction as traders reassessed ZRO’s circulating supply outlook.

LayerZero confirmed that the buyouts focused mainly on early investors and upcoming vesting schedules. The move shifts a portion of expected emissions into long-term holdings. It also reshapes how market participants model future dilution.

Zero aims to launch with permissionless infrastructure for payments, markets, and messaging. By assigning all economic flows to ZRO, the protocol links network usage with a single asset. The team said mainnet remains scheduled for this fall.

The post LayerZero CEO Clarifies ZRO Will Capture All Zero Network Fees appeared first on Blockonomi.

Bitcoin has been trading around the mid-$60,000s after losing significant ground from its late-2025 highs. It has failed to reclaim the psychologically crucial $70,000 threshold despite several attempts.

On-chain activity of the world’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain is showing signs of stagnation, according to data shared by Alphractal.

Bearish Divergence Builds

The firm reported that Bitcoin’s active supply has stopped growing, which indicates that fewer BTC are moving across the network, and overall activity has slowed. The latest decline goes beyond market structure and reflects ” global human behavior,” as weaker prices and rising uncertainty have made participants less willing to act.

Alphractal explained that holders are increasingly keeping coins idle, which has resulted in a quieter network. This phase is being described as “social demotivation” on-chain, amid emotional fatigue, reduced engagement, and a lack of conviction. Such changes in behaviour often surface before broader market narratives change.

Santiment’s data also reported a sharp deterioration in Bitcoin’s network activity compared with 2021 levels, with 42% fewer unique BTC addresses making transactions and 47% fewer new addresses being created. These trends do not mean crypto is “dead” or that a multi-year bear market is inevitable. However, the analytics platform did highlight a clear bearish divergence developed throughout 2025, as total market capitalizations continued to reach new highs even as BTC’s on-chain utility declined.

Whale Accumulation Accelerates

Even as on-chain participation has slowed, accumulation by large BTC holders has accelerated. Bitcoin whale accumulation has increased by more than 200,000 BTC in recent weeks. While whale inflows to exchanges have picked up, a trend often linked to short-term selling, overall whale holdings have continued to rise.

To assess behavior over a longer timeframe, CryptoQuant tracks whale-held supply using monthly averages rather than short-term flows. This metric dropped sharply to nearly minus 7% on December 15 but has since reversed, as whale holdings increased by 3.4% over the past month.

During this period, the amount of Bitcoin held by whales grew from around 2.9 million BTC to more than 3.1 million BTC. CryptoQuant observed that a similar scale of accumulation last occurred during the April 2025 market correction, when whale buying helped absorb selling pressure and boosted the BTC rally from $76,000 to $126,000. With Bitcoin being 46% below its peak, the current level could be encouraging some large holders to accumulate.

The post Bitcoin Network Stagnation: Active Supply Plateaus as Price Volatility Fades appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The US-based exchange Coinbase expanded its crypto-backed loan offerings to include additional tokens, such as Ripple’s XRP and Cardano’s ADA.

For the moment, the new service is available across the USA, except for residents of New York State.

Further Support for These Assets

The company rolled out its lending product, called Coinbase Borrow, in 2021. Two years later, it discontinued the service, only to bring it back at the start of 2025.

Coinbase Borrow lets users take a loan using their cryptocurrency possessions as collateral instead of selling them. Until recently, clients were able to borrow up to $5 million in USDC against their Bitcoin (BTC) holdings and as much as $1 million in the stablecoin against Ethereum (ETH). The exchange, though, decided to expand the service by adding Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC).

“Now you can unlock the value of your portfolio without giving up your position. Borrowing up to $100K in USDC against your tokens, instantly, without selling. Available now in the US (ex. NY),” the official announcement reads.

Backing from a major exchange like Coinbase can positively influence the prices of the involved cryptocurrencies by boosting their reputation and accessibility. In this case, however, XRP, ADA, DOGE, and LTC continued trading lower, reflecting the broader market’s bearish conditions.

It is important to note that the strongest price pumps typically occur right after Coinbase lists a token or reveals its intentions to do so. Last summer, for instance,  the company added SPX6900 (SPX), AWE Network (AWE), Dolomite (DOLO), Flock (FLOCK), and Solayer (LAYER) to its roadmap. Some of the involved assets headed north by double digits following the disclosure.

It’s a completely different story when Coinbase terminates services with certain coins. Towards the end of last year, Muse Dao (MUSE), League of Kingdoms Arena (LOKA), and Wrapped Centrifuge (WCFG) tumbled substantially after they were removed from the trading venue.

What Else is New on Coinbase?

The exchange has been quite active lately, enabling additional trading options for its clients. Earlier this month, it announced that users can buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store RaveDAO (RAVE), Walrus (WAL), AZTEC (AZTEC), and Espresso (ESP). All assets are live on Coinbase’s official website and application.

WAL, AZTEC, and ESP experienced an initial price upswing after the news but then headed south. RAVE, on the other hand, has kept pumping and currently trades around $0.44 (per CoinGecko), representing a 25% weekly increase.

The post Important Coinbase Announcement Concerning XRP, ADA, and Other Altcoin Investors appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The Ethereum Foundation said it will prioritize post-quantum security and further increases to the gas limit as part of its protocol roadmap for 2026.

The organization is also restructuring its development efforts into three core tracks covering scaling, user experience, and Layer 1 security.

Three-Track Protocol Overhaul

On Wednesday, the Foundation said Ethereum’s next phase will focus on expanding network capacity while ensuring long-term security and resilience. Gas limit increases also remain a central objective, following a rise from 30 million to 60 million over the past year. Developers are now targeting a move toward and beyond 100 million gas per block.

Post-quantum readiness was identified as a crucial consideration across multiple areas of protocol development, amidst growing attention to cryptographic security as quantum computing capabilities advance. The Foundation said its protocol work in 2026 will be organized into three tracks – Scale, Improve UX, and Harden the L1.

The “Scale” track combines work previously split between Layer 1 execution scaling and blob data availability. This track will oversee continued gas limit increases supported by client benchmarking and block-level access lists, further blob parameter increases following recent upgrades, and delivery of scaling components planned for the Glamsterdam network upgrade. It will also advance state scaling efforts, including near-term repricing and history expiry, and longer-term plans for statelessness and new data structures.

The “Improve UX” track will focus on protocol-level changes that aim to simplify how users interact with Ethereum. Focus will also be on native account abstraction and interoperability. Building on EIP-7702, which allows externally owned accounts to temporarily execute smart contract code, developers are working toward making smart contract wallets the default without relying on additional infrastructure or incurring extra gas overhead.

The Foundation said this work also intersects with post-quantum readiness, as native account abstraction provides a pathway for transitioning away from ECDSA-based authentication. Efforts to improve interoperability will continue through the Open Intents Framework, in addition to progress on faster Layer 1 confirmations and shorter Layer 2 settlement times.

The “Harden the L1” track introduces a dedicated focus on preserving Ethereum’s core properties as the network scales. This includes security initiatives such as post-quantum readiness and execution-layer safeguards, research into censorship resistance for transactions and blob data, and expanded testing infrastructure to support a faster upgrade cadence. The Foundation said work on devnets, testnets, and client interoperability will remain critical as protocol changes are deployed more frequently.

Looking Ahead

Meanwhile, Glamsterdam is targeted for the first half of 2026, according to the update shared by the Ethereum Foundation. Additionally, the Hegotá upgrade is planned for later in the year.

These upgrades are expected to include higher gas limits, continued blob scaling, enshrined proposer-builder separation, and further progress on native account abstraction, censorship resistance, and post-quantum security.

The post Ethereum Foundation Flags Post-Quantum Security as Core Priority in 2026 Protocol Roadmap appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Pi Network’s PI has been the best-performing top 100 cryptocurrency over the past week, with its valuation rising by almost 40%.

Although some market observers foresee additional short-term gains, one factor could dampen their enthusiasm by hinting at a renewed decline.

The Bears Are Coming Back?

PI has finally managed to reverse its massive downtrend over the last several months, posting an upswing to as high as $0.20 just days ago. Currently, it trades at around $0.18 (per CoinGecko’s data), placing it well in green territory on a seven-day and two-week timeframe.

With its market capitalization soaring to roughly $1.7 billion, the asset now ranks as the 47th-largest cryptocurrency. The evident recovery has put PI back in focus, making it one of the most-trending tokens on CoinGecko lately.

The good days, though, may be coming to an end because the amount of coins stored on crypto exchanges has risen sharply. Almost 5 million PI have been transferred to such platforms in the last 24 hours alone, bringing the total to approximately 427.1 million. More than half of that is held on Gate.io, while Bitget ranks second with approximately 145.2 million tokens.

While the shift from self-custody to centralized exchanges doesn’t guarantee a price correction, it is often viewed as a bearish signal, as it could be interpreted as a pre-sale step.

The aggressive token unlocks scheduled for the coming days should also serve as a warning to investors. Data indicates that daily figures will approach 15 million on several occasions before the end of February. After that, though, the process is set to slow down.

New Push From the Bulls?

Contrary to the aforementioned factors, some community members believe PI is on the verge of a more serious surge in the short term. X user Pi Network Academy argued that the asset “is warming up for another big pump,” predicting an explosion to $1.

For their part, Pi Global claimed that “momentum is building, utility is expanding, and community is stronger than ever.” That said, they wondered if the coin’s valuation could hit $0.50 before Pi Day. The date (March 14) is symbolic to Pi Network because it resembles the mathematical constant π (3.14).

Earlier this month, X user Captain Faibik also chipped in. The renowned crypto analyst revealed they had added some PI for the midterm, expecting a 500% rally.

The post Pi Network’s PI Dominates the Altcoin Market, Yet Bears See Storm Ahead appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin is trading under sustained pressure after losing key higher-timeframe support levels, with the price structure showing a clear transition from distribution to a developing downtrend. Momentum remains weak, and recent rebounds appear corrective rather than impulsive, keeping downside risk elevated in the near term.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, the asset continues to respect a descending channel while trading below major moving averages, confirming bearish market structure. The rejection from the mid-range resistance zone and subsequent sharp sell-off toward the low-$60K region reinforces that sellers still control trend direction.

Momentum indicators remain subdued, with RSI holding far below neutral and failing to produce strong bullish divergence. Unless the price can reclaim the $75K–$80K resistance cluster and close above the channel midpoint, the broader bias stays tilted toward continuation lower or prolonged consolidation near the $60K support level.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows a steep impulsive drop followed by choppy sideways movement, typical of a bear-flag or accumulation attempt after liquidation. Lower highs continue to form beneath descending dynamic resistance, signaling that buyers have not yet regained short-term control.

Key support sits around the recent wick low near the $60K area, while immediate resistance is clustered between roughly $73K and $76K. A breakout above this range would be the first technical signal of a momentum shift, whereas a breakdown below the mentioned support zone could accelerate another leg downward and lead to another round of massive liquidations.

Sentiment Analysis

Funding rate data shows sentiment cooling significantly compared to earlier overheated conditions, with the recent deeply negative prints suggesting reduced long-side leverage. This type of reset is constructive over the medium term but does not, by itself, confirm an immediate bullish reversal.

Overall market psychology appears cautious rather than euphoric, which often precedes range formation before the next major move. For sentiment to flip decisively bullish, price strength must return alongside rising but controlled funding and improving momentum across timeframes.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: What Is the Most Probable Next Move for BTC as Momentum Stays Weak? appeared first on CryptoPotato.