Cointelegraph

Key takeaways:

Ether exchange-traded funds saw $71 million in inflows, signaling strong institutional appetite.

Weekly decentralized exchange volume doubled to $20 billion, narrowing the revenue gap with Solana.

Ether (ETH) price failed to sustain levels above $2,000 on Thursday, leaving traders to weigh the potential catalysts for a market turnaround. While optimism has waned since the crash to $1,745 on Friday, both exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows and ETH derivatives metrics are showing early signs of a reversal. 

Traders now question if there is enough momentum for a bounce back toward $2,400.

US-listed Ether ETFs' daily net flows, USD. Source: Farside Investors

US-listed Ether ETFs recently broke a three-day streak of outflows, attracting $71 million in fresh capital between Monday and Tuesday. Crucially, assets under management have stabilized at $13 billion, which is sufficient to maintain institutional interest. Ether ETFs currently average over $1.65 billion in daily trading volume, a level of liquidity that enables participation by the world’s largest hedge funds.

To put Ether ETFs in perspective, the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE US)— the largest in the US energy sector — trades an average of $1.5 billion per day. That instrument tracks a combined $2 trillion market capitalization across companies such as Exxon (XOM US), Chevron (CVX US), ConocoPhillips (COP US), The Williams Companies (WMB), and Kinder Morgan (KMI US).

ETH metrics and ETF inflows signal potential market recovery

While institutional appetite for Ether ETF trading is a positive indicator, it does not guarantee that demand for ETH derivatives is inherently bullish.

ETH 2-month futures basis rate. Source: Laevitas.ch

On Wednesday, the annualized premium (basis rate) of ETH futures remained below the 5% neutral threshold. This lack of demand for bullish leverage has been a constant theme for the past three months. However, the indicator has stabilized at 3%, even as the ETH price hit its lowest level in nine months. These derivatives markets are displaying moderate resilience, which remains an encouraging sign for Ether investors.

Ethereum Total Value Locked, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Ether’s price weakness has driven Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) to $54.2 billion, down from $71.2 billion one month prior, according to DefiLlama data. Reduced deposits in the network’s smart contracts represent a major risk, as lower chain fees diminish the native staking yield. Moreover, Ethereum’s supply burn mechanism remains dependent on excessive demand for blockchain processing. 

Despite these worsening conditions, demand for Ethereum decentralized applications (DApps) has been gradually improving throughout 2026.

Ethereum 7-day DEX volumes (left) vs. DApps revenue (right), USD. Source: DefiLlama

Weekly decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes on the Ethereum network surged to $20 billion, up from $9.8 billion one month prior. This increased activity caused DApps revenue to reach $26.6 million in the seven days ending Feb. 8, providing a healthy indicator of ETH demand. While Solana remained the clear leader with $31.1 million in weekly DApps revenue, the gap between the two networks is narrowing.

Those monitoring Ether price performance exclusively fail to see that ETH onchain metrics and derivatives have displayed resilience, especially as inflows into Ether ETFs resumed. While it might take a couple of weeks for investors to fully regain confidence, there are strong indicators that a near-term rally toward $2,400 is possible.

Bitcoin miner Cango said it closed a previously announced $10.5 million equity investment from Enduring Wealth Capital Limited and entered into agreements for an additional $65 million in equity financing from entities owned by Cango chairman Xin Jin and Chang-Wei Chiu, a director of the company.

According to Thursday’s announcement, the $10.5 million investment was completed through the issuance of seven million Class B shares priced at $1.50 each. The shares carry 20 votes per share, increasing Enduring Wealth Capital’s voting power to 49.7% from 36.7%, while its economic ownership remains below 5% of outstanding shares.

The additional $65 million would be raised through the issuance of about 49 million Class A shares, which carry one vote per share, at $1.32 each. The investments are being made through entities wholly owned by Jin and Chiu and remain subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it expects the transactions to close this month.

If completed, Chiu would hold about 12% of total outstanding shares and about 6.7% of voting power, while Jin would hold about 4.7% of shares and 2.6% of voting power.

The financing follows Cango’s Feb. 9 sale of 4,451 Bitcoin (BTC) for about $305 million, proceeds of which were used to partially repay a Bitcoin-backed loan and reduce leverage.

The company said the divestment is part of a broader shift toward AI and high-performance computing, with plans to repurpose its global, grid-connected mining infrastructure to provide distributed compute capacity for the AI industry.

Cango’s stock price was down about 7.7% at time of writing, according to data from Yahoo Finance. Sector-tracker CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF was down 3.8%.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Earnings misses and BTC volatility pressure mining sector

Cango’s capital raise follows sharp declines in publicly traded Bitcoin miners last week. CleanSpark fell about 19% during regular trading on Feb. 5 and dropped another 8.6% after hours after missing quarterly estimates, while IREN slid about 11.5% and another 18.5% after hours after reporting revenue below expectations and a quarterly net loss.

RIOT Platforms and MARA Holdings also declined about 15% and 19%, respectively.

The sell-off in mining stocks coincided with a sharp decline in the price of Bitcoin, which dropped about 12% the same day, sliding from about $71,426 to $62,822, according to CoinGecko data.

Bitcoin price over the past month. Source: CoinGecko

Large Bitcoin transfers were also recorded during the period. On Feb. 5, miner-linked wallets transferred 28,605 BTC, worth about $1.8 billion, one of the largest single-day outflows since November 2024, according to CryptoQuant data. Another 20,169 BTC moved the following day.

Though several Bitcoin miners were deep in the red last week, many stocks remain up on the year. IREN, the top Bitcoin miner by market cap, is up about 10% year-to-date.

Applied Digital and TeraWulf are the strongest performers, each up about 45% year-to-date, while Core Scientific has gained about 25% and Riot Platforms is up about 17%. Hut 8 has risen nearly 15% over the same period. 

Of the top 10 Bitcoin mining stocks by market cap, MARA Holdings and CleanSpark are the only two trading in negative territory year-to-date. MARA is down about 17% on the year, while CleanSpark has declined about 6.5%, according to data from BitcoinMiningStock.io.

Top 10 Bitcoin mining stocks by market cap. Source: Bitcoinminingstock.io

Magazine: IronClaw rivals OpenClaw, Olas launches bots for Polymarket — AI Eye

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH) continue to seach for price stability after trading at respective intraday lows of $66,171 and $1,912 on Thursday.

As this process runs its course, new analysis from Bloomberg analysts investigates how the spot BTC and ETF holders are faring amid sustained price weakness and slowing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) inflows.

Key takeaways:

Net value of the spot Bitcoin ETF assets fell to $85.76 billion from $170 billion (Oct 2025 peak), with the 2026 net flows at roughly -$2 billion.

The spot Ether ETF assets value dropped to $11.27 billion from $30.5 billion, with ETH trading near $2,000 vs. a $3,500 cost basis.

Only about 6% of Bitcoin ETF assets exited during the recent downturn, indicating limited capitulation.

Average cost basis of US spot ETF deposits. Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin, Ether ETF asset values contract as inflows stall

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said that the Ether ETF holders are “sitting in a worse position” than Bitcoin ETF investors. With ETH below $2,000, well below the estimated $3,500 average cost basis, i.e., the average price at which spot ETF investors accumulated their positions, the drawdown has exceeded 50% at its recent low of $1,736.

By comparison, Bitcoin is currently priced at $66,171, also below its estimated $84,063 ETF cost basis, though the drawdown is notably less at 21%.

Ether ETFs cost basis and ETH price. Source: James Seyffrat/X

Seyffart noted that the total net inflows into ETH ETFs have declined by only about $3 billion, suggesting most ETH ETFs investors have held their positions during the recent dip.

Assets held in the spot Bitcoin ETF peaked at $170 billion in October 2025 and now stand at $85.76 billion. The inflows slowed sharply after mid-2025, with $13.7 billion recorded in the first half of the year, $7.64 billion in the second half, and roughly $2 billion in outflows year-to-date. Since July 2025, the cumulative net flows amount to $5.64 billion.

Total Spot BTC ETF net inflows. Source: SoSoValue

Last Thursday, senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that only about 6% of total Bitcoin ETF assets exited during the recent selloff. BlackRock’s IBIT has declined to $51 billion from $100 billion at its peak value, but it remains one of the fastest ETFs to reach $60 billion in assets.

Related: Bitcoin miner outflows spike in January, but public sales remain limited

Bitcoin ETF flows enter bear-market regime

The rolling 30-day Bitcoin ETF flows have turned firmly negative following a failed attempt to return to inflows territory. Excluding a brief rebound, this marks the longest stretch of sustained outflows since launch.

30-day rolling BTC ETF netflows. Source: ecoinometrics/X

Glassnode data also noted that the 30-day simple moving average of net flows for both Bitcoin and Ether spot ETFs has remained negative for most of the past 90 days. The data shows no clear sign of renewed demand.

Macroeconomic newsletter Ecoinometrics said that the rate of these outflows suggests investors are actively reducing exposure rather than reacting to short-term volatility.

The newsletter added that the combination of price weakness and sustained negative flows aligns with a “bear-market regime” rather than a temporary correction.

Related: Bitcoin futures data shows bears gearing up for an assault on $60K

Fresh data from Glassnode claims that Bitcoin (BTC) could be in for another “prolonged phase of range-bound” price action if key support levels are not reclaimed.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin is stuck between key cost-basis levels, predicting 2022-type consolidation unless key support levels are reclaimed.

Bitcoin price needs to take out the resistance at $72,000 to break out of consolidation.

Bitcoin faces overhead supply challenges

In the Feb. 11 edition of its regular newsletter, The Week On-chain, onchain data provider Glassnode confirmed key supply zones constraining upside follow-through and “creating overhead resistance potential during relief rallies.

The BTC/USD pair is trading within a new range defined by the True Market Mean currently at $79,200 and the realized price near $55,000, closely resembling the structural environment observed during the first half of 2022.

According to Glassnode, Bitcoin’s price is expected to continue oscillating within this corridor until new buyers emerge and gradually accumulate supply.

The chart below shows that the price spent the period between April 2022 and June 2022 trapped between the True Market Mean and the Realized Price before entering an extended bear market, bottoming around $15,000 in November 2022.

Related: Bankers push OCC to slow crypto trust charters until GENIUS rules clarified

A break out of this range would require an extreme catalyst, “either a decisive reclaim of the True Market Mean near $79.2K, signaling renewed structural strength, or a systemic dislocation similar to LUNA or FTX that forces price below the Realized Price around $55K,” Glassnode said, adding:

“In the absence of such extremes, a prolonged phase of range-bound absorption remains the most probable path for the mid-term market.”

Bitcoin risk indicator: Realized price and cost basis. Source: Glassnode

Glassnode’s UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD), a metric that shows at which prices the current set of Bitcoin UTXOs were created, also revealed wide and dense supply zones above $82,000 that have been gradually maturing into the long-term holder cohorts.

“Overhead supply remains structurally heavy, with significant clusters positioned between $82K–$97K and $100K–$117K, representing cohorts now holding substantial unrealized losses,” the onchain data analytics platform said, adding:

“These zones may act as latent sell-side overhang, particularly if prolonged time under water or renewed downside volatility triggers further capitulation.”

Bitcoin’s UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD). Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin “whales are closing longs and opening shorts relative to retail,” said founder and CEO of Alphractal Joao Wedson in a recent X post, adding:

“There is a high probability that Bitcoin will enter a consolidation phase, ranging and building structure over the next 30 days.”

Bitcoin whales vs retail delta. Source: Alphractal

Bitcoin price is stuck between two key levels

Bitcoin’s 20% recovery from 15-month lows below $60,000 was rejected by resistance from the $72,000 level. 

It is now consolidating within the recently established support below $65,000 and the resistance at $68,000, which analyst Daan Crypto Trades said bulls must “break above to attack $72,000 again.”

Source: Daan Crypto Trades

CoinGlass’ liquidation heatmap shows Bitcoin in a classic liquidation sandwich with heavy ask orders between $69,000 and $72,000 and dense bid positions below $66,000, as shown in the figure below. This highlights the relative tightness of the current market structure.

Bitcoin liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass

As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin must take out resistance at $72,000 to revive the hopes of a recovery toward the 20-day EMA at $76,000 and the 50-day SMA above $85,000, suggesting that the BTC price may have bottomed out in the near term.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform backed by the family of US President Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that it will launch foreign currency exchange (FX) and remittance services for its users.

The planned foreign exchange and remittance platform, called World Swap, seeks to challenge traditional remittance and FX service providers with lower fees and a simplified user interface, according to Reuters.

Daily global FX trading volume surpassed $9.6 trillion in April 2025, according to a report from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), and the personal remittances market topped $892 billion in annual volume in 2024, according to data from the World Bank.

Annual remittances volume from 1970 to 2024. Source: World Bank

No exact timeline was given for the rollout. Cointelegraph reached out to World Liberty Financial but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The expansion into FX and remittances follows WLFI's application for a national trust bank charter in January and the launch of World Liberty Markets, a lending platform, as WLFI continues to grow while attracting scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers in the US.

Related: OCC Comptroller says WLFI charter review will remain apolitical

World Liberty Financial faces probe following foreign investment ties

In January, the Wall Street Journal published a report revealing that an investment vehicle registered in the United Arab Emirates purchased a 49% stake in WLFI for $500 million, four days before the Trump inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.

The investment vehicle, Aryam Investment 1, is backed by United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The report triggered a probe into WLFI and the transaction from Democratic Representative Ro Khanna. “This is about public trust and transparency,” the California lawmaker said. 

Trump denied knowledge of the deal. “My sons are handling that — my family is handling it,” Trump said, adding, “I guess they get investments from different people.”

Representative Stephen Lynch on Wednesday questioned Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins about the World Liberty Financial deal and Trump’s crypto projects. Source: US House Committee on Financial Services

However, Democratic lawmakers voiced concerns about the deal during a US House Committee on Financial Services hearing on Wednesday.

Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch and California Representative Maxine Waters characterized the deal as a potential national security threat that could allow the president’s office to peddle influence and engage in foreign pay-to-play schemes.

Magazine: Quitting Trump’s top crypto job wasn’t easy: Bo Hines

After years of debate in some corners of the crypto industry, Bitcoin and digital assets are on the verge of a long-awaited “supercycle,” typically defined as an extended, structurally driven boom that lasts beyond a normal market cycle.

However, the only development resembling such durable, capital-intensive expansion may be underway in AI infrastructure, according to the latest newsletter from Blockbridge Consulting, which has been rebranded to TheEnergyMag from TheMinerMag.

In the newsletter, analyst Wolfie Zhao described a “trillion-dollar build supercycle” tied to AI data center infrastructure.

While the so-called Magnificent Seven tech giants are projected to spend more than $600 billion combined on AI investments this year, Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies with exposure to AI and high-performance computing are also ramping up capital deployment.

One example is IREN, formerly known as Iris Energy, a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner that has expanded into AI data center infrastructure.

In its most recent quarter, IREN reported about $800 million in net spending on property, plants and equipment. According to TheEnergyMag’s analysis, the company “deployed more capital in a single year, building AI data center infrastructure and procuring GPU hardware than it spent across three years expanding its Bitcoin mining fleet post-IPO.”

The fourth quarter of 2025 marked record PP&E spending by IREN, reflecting its accelerating pivot toward AI-focused infrastructure. Source: TheEnergyMag

Related: Bitcoin mining’s 2026 reckoning: AI pivots, margin pressure and a fight to survive

Bitcoin mining: An industry in transition

IREN is one of several traditional Bitcoin miners that have shifted aggressively into AI and high-performance computing, in part to diversify away from increasingly compressed mining margins. Others pursuing similar strategies include MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, HIVE Digital Technologies and Bitdeer Technologies.

The past year may have marked one of the most challenging periods for the Bitcoin mining industry, as collapsing revenues collided with rising debt loads. The downturn followed a sharp correction in Bitcoin’s price that began in October 2025. After peaking over $126,000, Bitcoin slid steadily and briefly fell below $60,000 in February.

Bitdeer, which released its fourth quarter 2025 results on Thursday, said the period “marked a strategic inflection point as we accelerated our transition toward high-performance compute infrastructure and colocation services."

Chief business officer Matt Kong said that the company’s power portfolio will be a strategic asset as “We expect the global AI infrastructure supply / demand imbalance to widen,” according to a statement.

Frank Holmes, CEO of HIVE Digital Technologies, recently outlined why this may be a pivotal moment for miners to expand into AI.

“Bitcoin miners are winning the AI data center arms race,” he wrote in a Forbes column, arguing that large-scale AI facilities take years to build, while miners already control power, land and data center infrastructure that can be repurposed for high-performance computing.

Source: Frank Holmes on X

Related: Bitcoin miner production data reveals scale of US winter storm disruption

Bitcoin (BTC) battled a key 200-week trend line around Thursday’s Wall Street open as “bearish acceleration” fears persisted.

Key points:

Bitcoin threatens to add the 200-week exponential moving average to its list of new resistance levels.

History offers lessons for what happens when price rejects from the key 200-week trend line.

Mayer Multiple values continue to show BTC in deep “oversold” territory.

Bitcoin’s fate hangs on $68,300 reclaim

Data from TradingView showed BTC price action focusing on the area around $67,000 for a second day.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bulls already faced a lack of momentum — something stopping them from reclaiming the old 2021 all-time high at $69,000.

Now, Bitcoin’s 200-week exponential moving average (EMA) came into focus as a potential second new resistance level.

Commenting on the phenomenon, trader and analyst Rekt Capital employed comparisons to previous Bitcoin bear markets to warn that a failure to rescue the 200-week EMA would result in worse price downside.

“What would confirm additional downside for Bitcoin? Historically, a Weekly Close below the 200-week EMA (black) followed by a post-breakdown retest of the EMA into new resistance (red circles) has triggered additional Bearish Acceleration,” he wrote alongside a chart on X. 

“The 200-week EMA (black) represents the price point of ~$68300. Therefore a Weekly Close below ~$68300 followed by a bearish retest of it would likely position Bitcoin for a repeat of history with additional downside over time.”

BTC/USD one-week chart with 200EMA. Source: Rekt Capital/X

Analysis had hoped that the EMA would act as a long-term BTC price floor prior to last week’s break below $60,000. Together with the 200-week simple moving average (SMA), it now forms a “cloud” of support that price has so far avoided violating.

BTC/USD one-week chart with 200SMA, 200EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Adopting a more hopeful tone, William Clemente, head of strategy at crypto over-the-counter settlement platform Styx, eyed a buying opportunity.

“Throughout Bitcoin's life span we have seen two indicators continue to be the best global market bottom signals: The Mayer multiple (distance from 200 day moving average) and the 200 week moving average,” he argued on the day. 

“Both of these are clearly in long term accumulation territory.”

Bitcoin Mayer Multiple, 200-week SMA data. Source: William Clemente/X

Classic BTC price metric screams “cheap”

Continuing on the topic, the X analytics account named after famous economist Frank Fetter stressed just how rare current Mayer Multiple readings were.

The Multiple is one of the best-known Bitcoin price yardsticks, and readings below 0.8 traditionally signify good long-term odds of returns. At the other end of the scale, a reading above 2.4 implies that caution is warranted.

“Only 5.3% of days have seen the Bitcoin Mayer Multiple at a lower level. Yeah it can go lower but I’m running out of ways to say BTC is cheap here,” the account told followers.

Bitcoin 200-day SMA quantile regression. Source: Frank A. Fetter/X

As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin last saw such low Mayer Multiple levels during the 2022 bear market.

Last week, Charles Edwards, founder of quantitative Bitcoin and digital asset fund Capriole Investments, agreed.

“It rarely hits 0.6x. Can price go lower?” he queried. 

“Yes, but this is historically one of the best buy signals in Bitcoin history.”

Key takeaways

A simple data-entry error allowed 620,000 nonexistent BTC to appear in user accounts for 20 minutes because trades update a private database first, with onchain settlement happening later.

Around 1,788 BTC worth of trades were executed before the exchange locked everything down. What could have been dismissed as a harmless error turned into a serious operational and regulatory event.

Regulatory filings showed Bithumb held only 175 BTC of its own in Q3 2025, while it held custody of over 42,000 BTC for customers. This highlights how heavily the system depends on accurate internal accounting.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service focused on why faulty internal data could result in executable trades. It raised fundamental questions about safeguards and tradability controls.

Bithumb, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, ran a regular promotional campaign in early February 2026. However, it turned into a major regulatory concern. What started as a simple internal data-entry mistake briefly displayed hundreds of thousands of “ghost Bitcoin” on user dashboards. Some account holders actually traded those balances, prompting regulators to examine the inner mechanisms of centralized crypto platforms more closely.

This article explores how the ghost Bitcoin incident became a key example of vulnerabilities in exchange accounting. It also discusses the reasons behind South Korea’s accelerated move toward more rigorous, bank-like supervision of virtual asset services.

From a modest promotion to a serious error

Bithumb intended to offer a small reward program, crediting users with a modest amount of Korean won, typically 2,000 won ($1.37) per person. Reward programs are a standard tactic to boost user activity.

Instead, an input mistake caused the system to credit Bitcoin (BTC) rather than fiat. For about 20 minutes, the exchange’s internal ledger reflected roughly 620,000 BTC across hundreds of accounts. The value of the ghost BTC was in billions of dollars, vastly exceeding the exchange’s own holdings and total customer reserves.

Staff quickly detected the problem, froze the affected accounts and reversed the credits. But during that brief period, some users sold the ghost Bitcoin in their accounts, executing trades worth around 1,788 BTC before a full lockdown.

Although payouts were processed, it appears that no tokens actually left the exchange. Later, the platform successfully recovered 93% of the lost value in a mix of Korean won and other cryptocurrencies.

How “ghost Bitcoin” can exist

Centralized exchanges operate differently from decentralized ones. They do not settle every trade onchain in real time. Instead, they update user balances on an internal ledger, a private database, allowing fast execution. Onchain movements are batched and processed later, often during deposits or withdrawals.

This architecture facilitates quick trading, high liquidity and competitive fees, but it relies entirely on the accuracy of the exchange’s internal records. Users essentially trust that these records match real asset holdings.

In this case, the ledger temporarily showed unbacked Bitcoin balances. According to a regulatory filing, Bithumb’s own Bitcoin reserves were surprisingly lean in Q3 2025, holding only 175 BTC compared to the 42,619 BTC it manages for its customers.

Did you know? South Korea was among the first countries to mandate real-name bank accounts for crypto trading, a rule introduced in 2018 to curb anonymous speculation and reduce money laundering risks in digital asset markets.

Why regulators viewed it as a systematic failure

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) acted promptly, concluding that the problem was not merely a typing error but that trades proceeded based on faulty internal data.

This raised core questions: How can an exchange enable trading of assets it does not hold? What safeguards could prevent erroneous balances from becoming tradable? And who is accountable when users benefit from such mistakes?

The FSS conducted on-site inspections at Bithumb and indicated that a formal probe could be launched to examine whether any laws were breached. They cited the event as evidence that existing crypto rules may not sufficiently address internal system oversight.

Ripple effects of the Bitcoin promotion error in the industry

The incident’s impact extended well beyond Bithumb, triggering a wave of industry-wide scrutiny. Digital Asset eXchange Alliance, South Korea’s major crypto alliance, responded by launching a thorough audit of internal controls across all member platforms.

Meanwhile, legislators pointed to the event as evidence of systemic vulnerabilities in centralized exchanges. They noted that operational security had failed to keep pace with the market’s rapid growth.

Ultimately, the crisis highlighted a harsh reality: A single exchange’s failure could threaten the stability of the entire ecosystem.

Did you know? In traditional finance, similar “fat-finger” errors have triggered billion-dollar equity market disruptions, including temporary trading halts on major stock exchanges, showing that operational risk is not unique to crypto.

Liability and consumer protection concerns

A key debate arose over the liability of trades executed on erroneous credits. Some users sold BTC quickly before account freezes took effect. Bithumb reported recovering most of the value and absorbing shortfalls with its own funds. Regulators noted that, under applicable laws, users who profited from erroneous credits could potentially be subject to clawback or restitution claims.

This incident exposed ambiguities in centralized crypto platforms. Displayed balances appear definitive to users, yet they remain reversible if systems make an error. The case compelled regulators to address how protections apply when technical failures produce real financial outcomes.

Advancing to “Phase Two” regulation

Regulators stated that the incident exposed regulatory blind spots in earlier digital asset laws. As they pointed out, regulations emphasized custody, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and the prevention of manipulation but largely overlooked internal ledger management.

The event is now driving discussions regarding enhanced oversight of the crypto ecosystem, including:

Required multi-level approvals for promotions and credits

Stricter, more frequent checks between ledgers and actual reserves

Defined procedures for erroneous trades and reversals

Audit and disclosure standards comparable to traditional finance.

This shift moves beyond token listings or promotions to scrutinize the underlying operational infrastructure.

Did you know? South Korea’s crypto trading volumes frequently spike during overnight US market hours, reflecting how global time zones can amplify the impact of exchange incidents beyond domestic users.

A test of trust in centralized exchanges

Although Bithumb took steps quickly to limit the damage, the impact on its reputation is likely to linger. The incident taught users that a balance displayed on a centralized exchange indicates a claim on the platform’s internal systems. It does not indicate direct ownership of onchain assets.

For regulators, the Bitcoin promotion error pointed to a broader concern. As digital asset markets expand, public trust rests on internal mechanisms that function entirely behind closed doors. Should these protocols falter even briefly, the impact could be severe. South Korea’s response has made it evident that regulators now view ledger integrity in crypto exchanges as a systemic risk rather than just an operational detail.

The “ghost Bitcoin” episode will remain in public memory not primarily for its magnitude but for the critical vulnerability it exposed. In crypto transactions, the invisible accounting systems working behind the scenes are as important as the blockchains functioning underneath.

Bitcoin (BTC) market sentiment has begun to recover as exchange traders reconsider selling.

Key points:

Bitcoin taker flow finally sees positive values after a month of seller dominance.

“Aggressive” sell pressure is fading at current price levels, analysis says.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index hits record lows despite BTC price stabilization.

Bitcoin exchanges eye “early signs of stabilization”

New findings from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant released on Thursday show net taker flow flipping positive for the first time in a month.

“Bitcoin market sentiment is showing early signs of stabilization, and Binance’s 7-day Net Taker Flow reflects that shift when viewed in proper macro context,” contributor Crazzyblockk summarized in one of its “Quicktake” blog posts.

The metric, expressed as the difference between market buy and market sell orders, has been deep in negative territory since mid-January.

“After reaching nearly -$4.9B in cumulative net selling in early February, Binance’s 7-day taker flow has steadily recovered and flipped positive to around +$0.32B,” Crazzyblockk continued. 

“The sentiment ratio has moved from roughly -3% back into positive territory, signaling a clear decline in sell-side aggression.”

Bitcoin exchange seven-day net taker flow (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant

The post added that the phenomenon was visible across major exchanges, with Binance nonetheless showing a “stronger shift in net buying pressure than peers.”

The change comes as BTC price action attempts to stabilize around 20% above recent 15-month lows near $59,000.

As Cointelegraph reported, however, market participants see a risk of stagnation below $69,000 — a key resistance level ever since the top of the 2021 Bitcoin bull market.

Crypto sees more “extreme greed” than ever

The split between exchanges, meanwhile, continues to be visible via the Coinbase Premium Index.

This indicator measures the difference in price between Coinbase’s BTC/USD and Binance’s BTC/USDT pairs, and has also been almost entirely “red” since the middle of last month.

Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant

A negative Premium implies lower US spot demand compared to Asia, and the latest CryptoQuant data confirms that the status quo remains despite the modest BTC price bounce.

Commenting, trading company QCP Capital described the Premium reduction, implying a “moderation in U.S.-led spot selling pressure.”

QCP tempered enthusiasm as it referenced “extreme fear” signals from crypto market sentiment gauge, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.

“That said, sentiment remains fragile, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index still deep in extreme fear territory at 9, which is less ‘all clear’ and more ‘thin ice that happens to be holding,’ it wrote in its latest “Asia Color” market update on Wednesday.

The Index has since dropped to just 5/100, a score which ranks among its lowest ever recorded.

🚨 TODAY: Crypto Fear & Greed Index plunges to 5 Extreme Fear, the lowest level on record. pic.twitter.com/30srOiR5Ak

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 12, 2026

Near.AI co-founder Illia Polosukhin loves OpenClaw, the AI agent that has gone viral for its abilities as an autonomous assistant, but thinks its a total security black hole.

So hes working on recreating OpenClaw in Rust, with all the different tools sandboxed in isolated WebAssembly environments so that if one goes rogue, it doesnt affect anything else. The system also treats prompt injections as security risks and protects against credential theft. 

Polymarket traders have been experimenting with OpenClaw to find profitable bets, but a viral post this week reported that it can still reveal private keys despite explicit instructions not to. 

Polosukhin says the solution with IronClaw is to not let the LLM touch secrets at all. Secrets are reportedly stored in an encrypted vault, with the large language model granted permission to use them only for specific sites. 

Source: @ilblackdragon

“People are losing their funds and credentials using OpenClaw,” Polosukhin explained this week. “A number of people have stopped using it as [they’re] afraid it will leak all of their information. We started working on security-focused version IronClaw.”

George Xian Zeng, general manager of Near.AI, tells Magazine that when Polosukhin gets inspired, he works fast.

“He built the basis of it in one evening,” explains Zeng. “He was feeding his baby and building IronClaw at the same time.”

OpenClaw was originally called Clawdbot and was briefly known as Moltbot. Polosukhin has already made an enormous contribution by coming up with a way cooler name. 

You have two other options and both suck says Near.AI

Why is OpenClaw such a security risk?

Clawdbot went viral in the first place because it’s a harness that controls a bunch of agents, tools and integrations working together to do useful stuff. The system remembers your conversation even as you switch between Telegram and Slack, and can perform actions on your computer and in your browser.

But with great power comes great security risks. Giving it terminal access, along with all your credentials and crypto wallet, is an exploit waiting to happen. It uses JavaScript, which has a large attack surface, but Rust eliminates entire classes of memory-safety bugs. Plus, its not very popular, so few hackers know how to use it.

(@ilblackdragon)

Polushkin has made 74 GitHub commits in the past week, and Zeng expects IronClaw to be finished and available on Near.AI in a matter of weeks.

In the meantime, Near.AI Cloud lets anyone spin up an OpenClaw in the cloud in around half an hour (it’s in beta, so you have to apply for access right now). It runs in a Trusted Execution Environment, so everything is encrypted and nobody, including Near, can access your data. 

If you want to have a private chat with DeepSeek for legal advice, you don’t have to worry about incriminating chat logs appearing in discovery. (Which is a significant risk as Magazine highlighted in January.) Near’s OpenClaw also anonymizes requests to commercial models such as Gemini and ChatGPT 5.2.

One problem yet to be solved is the amount of risk involved in downloading skills from ClawHub. Slowmist this week reported that 341 of the available skills contain malicious code to collect passwords or data. 

“The cool thing … is that anyone can build a skill. But the dangerous thing about the current marketplace is that anyone can build a skill,” says Zeng.

“How do you make a marketplace that’s safe and effective, right? We’re still going through how exactly do you make that work? I think it’s reasonable to consider maybe, like, a curated marketplace.”

Near has also launched a crypto-based marketplace enabling AI agents to hire each other or for humans to hire agents. At present, many of the 1,900 available jobs involve building for Near itself, but building or buying skills might emerge as an interesting use case. 

"Think of it as your guardian angel in the digital space"

Illia Polosukhin explains IronClaw's evolution, from OpenClaw in secure environments to AI you can actually trust to be on your side. pic.twitter.com/2dzuusKbwD

— The Rollup (@therollupco) February 9, 2026

Amazon’s AI surveillance state 

Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial for its Ring doorbell sparked a swift privacy backlash. The ad showcased its AI-powered Search Party feature, which uses neighborhood cameras to find a cute lost dog.

But its pretty obvious that the feature, which is switched on by default, could turn your neighborhood into a surveillance state and track your every move. My neighborhood WhatsApp group is already full of doorbell camera footage of people stealing packages and letting down other peoples tires.  

Rival doorbell camera company Wyze released this very funny take-down.

Thing of absolute beauty. Give whoever made this video a big fat raise, Wyze
pic.twitter.com/3uYktNfXsC

— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) February 11, 2026

Olas releases prediction market bots for Polymarket

Everyone suddenly seems to be running AI agents to try and uncover arbitrage strategies on Polymarket to exploit data update delays or market inefficiencies such as when Yes and No are both priced at 45c, meaning if you buy both, you can theoretically make a 10c profit.

Olas has been working on the presumption that AI agents will be the main traders on prediction markets in the future and offers the Omenstrat agent on its Pearl marketplace. These agents have collectively accounted for 13 million transactions on the Omen prediction platform on Gnosis. Rechristened Polystrat, the agents are now being unleashed on Polymarket.

“This was always a somewhat niche application,” says David Minarsch, co-founder of Olas and CEO of Valory. “Users were saying, OK, well, why doesn’t this thing run on Polymarket?”

These agents dont attempt to identify arbitrage; instead, they use a range of news sources, public data, and other tools to predict outcomes in markets that resolve in under four days.  Minarsch says they “are sufficiently powerful to have above average performance over long time horizons. 

“What we see with Omestrat is that over time they have a 55% to 65% success rate depending on which models, tools they use.”  

According to data shared with Magazine, the win rate is between 59.2% to 63.6% across categories like sustainability, science, business and curiosities, but falls to 37.96% to 48.57% for bets on fashion, arts, animals and social. For sports, you might as well flip a coin (51.01%).

And of course, those results are from Omen, which is a much smaller marketplace than Polymarket.

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You can tailor your betting strategy by chatting with your Polystrat, and all critical wallet and bet-related functions are hardcoded to prevent the agent from going rogue with your funds.

“That’s a key architectural design decision, which really restricts the capability of the agent,” Minarsh says. “So, our fully structured agent won’t suddenly become your personal assistant. But it also means it’s safer.”

Olas takes a cut of fees paid to tools, models and other agents. You can run it locally, but using it via the Pearl store requires staking OLAS. Minarsh says funding it with $100 will enable the agent to bet autonomously on enough markets to get a sense of its strengths and weaknesses.

All Killer, No Filler AI News

That viral story in The New York Times about a writer who churned out 200 books with AI might have just been an ad for an AI book generation course.

Polymarket has partnered with Kaito AI to launch attention markets, where you can place bets on how viral something is and whether its being received in a positive or negative way. 

The Super Bowl was plastered with ads for AI from 16 tech companies. Theres a theory that any tech sector that dominates Super Bowl ads crashes soon after; web companies dominated in 2000, and crypto companies were everywhere in 2022. 

Everyones talking about how the text-to-video AI generation tool Seedance 2.0 will transform movies, but a new McKinsey report says AI tools are already transforming the production process by turning screenplays into storyboards, and generating lists of locations, props and other requirements.

This one-minute video was apparently created by Seedance with just one image and one prompt:

Seedance 2.0 kinda makes it hard for agencies and production houses to ignore AI now.pic.twitter.com/20QMJTJl00

— Dinda Prasetyo (@heydin_ai) February 11, 2026

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Opinion by: Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral

Despite the recent plummet in Bitcoin (BTC) and other major cryptocurrencies, 2025 was a high watermark year for crypto as new price highs were hit for major coins.

The US administration’s regulatory push provided a seal of approval, signalling that crypto was on the path to maturity. Banks, which have been cautious with crypto over the past five years, rapidly changed their tune.

Beneath all this progress lie deeper structural issues in the crypto market that more US regulation won’t solve.

The October 2025 market correction clearly revealed liquidity issues which are still prevalent today. While they are not causing the current crash, illiquidity hampers market stability.

A shortage of crypto credit and prime brokerage are directly contributing to crypto’s liquidity droughts. If the industry does not create more crypto credit, an artificial ceiling will be placed on cryptocurrencies.

Market shock

The Oct. 10, 2025, correction itself was not unusual; sudden sharp volatility continues to be a staple of crypto. It’s for this reason some market participants, like hedge funds, find it attractive. What was more revealing was how quickly liquidity evaporated and how slowly it has — or in this case hasn’t — returned. Geopolitical and policy decisions have caused spikes in volatility across traditional financial markets, including equities, bonds and foreign exchange (FX).

Synchronized price declines and volatility spikes during October’s correction highlight the market’s limited ability to absorb selling pressure under stress. Source: Amberdata.

Yet liquidity in these markets recovered rapidly, allowing traders to easily access these markets. FX traders have highlighted how advancements in trading technology have made those markets so efficient that spreads have disappeared. It leaves very little for those firms that benefit when the price between buy and sell orders widens.

Structural, not cyclical, issues

The same cannot be said for crypto. Not only did liquidity dry up in the aftermath of Oct. 10, but it remained thin months later as sellers struggled to find buyers. The same is still the case today, as the value of major coins plummeted. The fall in value is due to a loss of conviction in cryptocurrencies as an asset, but poor liquidity is being fueled by structural issues.

One of the principal constraints is a shortage of credit. In crypto, trades are mostly pre-funded, and the use of leverage for market making is small. When volatility spikes, capital is quickly withdrawn, and spreads widen dramatically. The absence of sustainable, transparent credit mechanisms leaves the market brittle at precisely the moments when liquidity is most critical. This isn’t necessarily enough to stop a decline in prices, but it can shore up market conditions.

To overcome these structural issues, the industry needs to look at what works well in traditional finance and adopt similar mechanisms that play into crypto’s decentralized finance strengths. Better access to credit is the essential step.

In FX, for example, market makers can become risk takers temporarily, supported by credit lines from prime brokers that allow them to continue quoting prices to liquidity takers even during periods of high stress. In other words, credit fuels market activity. Crypto lacks this support due to the absence of adequate credit.

More crypto prime brokerage is essential

Regulation constrains how investment banks engage in cryptocurrency markets. The capacity of banks to hold and finance crypto exposures is limited by Basel III and the prudential rules around crypto assets, which impose high capital requirements.

Even if a more favorable US administration loosens these rules, conditions will remain challenging, and the likelihood of banks entering crypto prime brokerage at scale is low due to the volatile nature of crypto.

The crypto market needs a resilient and broad layer of crypto prime brokerage with more credit provision if liquidity conditions are to improve. The liquidity shortfall is not a deep mystery. In many cases, there are buyers and sellers out there, but they exist in fragmented pools between isolated markets.

More crypto credit would substantially improve liquidity, as market makers and investors do not need to wholly pre-fund trades. Capital can be used more dynamically, instead of being locked up, which is a major issue today. This would enable companies to deploy more of their capital, connecting with more buyers and sellers, which in turn allows liquidity takers to place more trades.

At the same time, prime brokers enable netting between counterparties, which frees up capital for more trading. Crucially, broader provision of credit allows more institutional firms to directly participate in spot cryptocurrency markets, bringing much-needed participants to deepen trading and liquidity. Credit combined with trading and settlement infrastructure would quickly bring more firms together with credit and shared infrastructure for margin exchange and settlement, creating a market more attractive to liquidity providers.

The crypto market structure must evolve if it is to keep momentum in 2026. Regulatory developments or crypto-friendly administrations will not be enough to power the asset class forward amid dramatic sell-offs in major cryptocurrencies. If more credit is available, the crypto market will have deeper trading activity and more resilient liquidity. Failure to build this infrastructure will limit crypto to being an asset class of booms and busts.

Opinion by: Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral.

Bitcoin market observers believe that the recent price slump may actually reflect the asset’s wider adoption by institutions, which still don’t see it as a risk-off asset.

It’s been rough out there for crypto in recent months. Since October, when Bitcoin’s price reached a high of over $120,000, BTC has been gradually sliding. In recent weeks, it dropped sharply, down over 25% on the month.

Amid the sell-off, market observers have been looking for explanations. Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan attributed the fall to the notorious four-year cycles that have previously defined crypto market price swings.

Others, including one US Federal Reserve governor, claim that the recent price movements show that institutions are risk-averse and that Bitcoin itself hasn’t reached the status of digital gold — yet.

Bitcoin is down over 25% on the month. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin still seen as risky, “not digital gold”

Institutional interest in Bitcoin and crypto could be one reason for the recent sell-off. While major financial institutions have lots of money to pour into the crypto market, their appetite for risk is much lower than retail investors, and Bitcoin is still broadly seen as a risky asset.

Chris Waller, a governor of the United States Federal Reserve, spoke to this effect at a recent monetary policy conference on Monday. He said that much of the “euphoria” around crypto that accompanied the new administration of President Donald Trump is now fading.

“I think there was a lot of sell-off just because firms that got into it from mainstream finance had to adjust their risk positions.”

These sentiments were echoed by Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz on Tuesday, who said in an interview with CNBC that the crypto industry has brought in “institutions where people have a different risk tolerance.”

“Retail people don’t get into crypto because they want to make 11% annualized ... They get in because they want to make 30 to one, eight to one, 10 to one.”

Crypto asset manager Grayscale noted in a report that recent Bitcoin price action more closely correlates to software stocks with high enterprise values than to historically stable assets like gold. The investment company stated that short-term price movements have not been tightly correlated with gold or other precious metals.

Source: Grayscale

Bloomberg commodity strategist Mike McGlone, also a noted Bitcoin bear, claimed that Bitcoin is still highly speculative. “[Bitcoin] has proven it’s neither digital gold nor leveraged beta,” he said, adding, “It’s a highly speculative [number]-on-the-screen tracking nothing with unlimited competition.”

Grayscale remained more optimistic about Bitcoin’s long-term prospects. “The network will likely continue operating well beyond our lifetimes and the asset may retain its value in real terms ... in a wide range of outcomes for the economy and society,” it said.

The company also highlighted the central role institutions will have in the future success of the asset, which it noted was dependent on regulatory clarity, something the US hasn’t yet achieved.

Lack of progress on CLARITY signals risk

The CLARITY Act, which is currently under debate in the US Senate, would overhaul how crypto is regulated in the country, from the agencies that oversee rules for decentralized finance (DeFi).

The bill has stalled for weeks as crypto bigwigs like Coinbase and the bank lobby are at loggerheads over stablecoin interest: a core aspect of the exchange’s business model that banks feel could threaten financial stability.

Failure for Congress to deliver quickly on a crypto market structure bill has added to this insecurity, according to Waller. “The lack of passing of the CLARITY Act I think has kind of put people off on this,” he said.

Novogratz also emphasized the effect the bill could have on markets. He said that both Democrats and Republicans want to pass the bill and that “we need it for spirit back in the crypto market.”

Grayscale underscored the importance of CLARITY and the GENIUS Act in its report, the latter of which passed in July 2025. It stated that “improving regulatory clarity for the crypto industry is a structural trend much bigger than one piece of legislation.”

More favorable regulations will drive an increase in use cases in “stablecoins, tokenized assets, and other applications of public blockchain technology,” which in turn will “drive value to blockchain networks and their native tokens.”

High-level talks to clear the roadblocks on CLARITY are currently underway. On Tuesday, executives from the crypto and banking industries met at the White House for another closed-door meeting.

Ripple legal chief Stuart Alderoty said, “Compromise is in the air. Clear, bipartisan momentum remains behind sensible crypto market structure legislation.”

Meanwhile, analysts debate just how low the Bitcoin bear market can go. Kaiko Research shared a research note with Cointelegraph, which claimed that the $60,000 mark could be a “halfway point.”

“Analysis of on-chain metrics and comparative performance across tokens reveals a market approaching critical technical support levels that will determine whether the four-year cycle framework remains intact,” Kaiko said.

McGlone said that $60,000 is just a “speedbump on the way back down” to $10,000, citing a number of reasons. These include interest in crypto supposedly shifting from digital assets to stablecoins and the likelihood that “cheer-leader and chief, President Trump, will be a lame duck this time next year.”

A lame-duck president who is also pro-crypto may find it difficult to effect the change they want in Congress. It remains to be seen whether crypto will secure the regulatory clarity it wants for institutions to fully jump in.

Magazine: Is China hoarding gold so yuan becomes global reserve instead of USD?

Bitcoin miner outflows jumped to 28,605 BTC, worth about $1.8 billion, on Feb. 5, one of the largest single-day transfers since November 2024, as prices swung sharply during a volatile trading session.

Another 20,169 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $1.4 billion, left miner-linked wallets on Feb. 6, according to data from CryptoQuant. The last comparable spike occurred on Nov. 12, 2024, when outflows reached 30,187 BTC.

The spike coincided with sharp price swings, with BTC trading at about $62,809 on Feb. 5 before rebounding to $70,544 a day later. Large miner wallet transfers during volatile sessions often draw scrutiny because they can signal potential selling pressure. 

Eight miners disclosed January figures so far: CleanSpark, Bitdeer, Hive Digital Technologies, BitFuFu, Canaan, LM Funding America, Cango and DMG Blockchain Solutions. They reported a combined production of roughly 2,377 BTC for the month. That total is far below the 28,605 BTC transferred in a single day on Feb. 5.

Outflows likely reflect broader ecosystem flows

The scale of the Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 outflows exceeds the January production of the publicly reporting firms reviewed by Cointelegraph. 

Even combining disclosed January sales from CleanSpark, Cango and DMG, confirmed selling amounts remain a fraction of the 28,605 BTC transferred in a single day. 

However, miner outflows do not automatically equate to capitulation or immediate spot-market selling.

According to CryptoQuant, miner outflow includes transfers to exchanges as well as internal wallet movements and transfers to other entities, meaning the metric does not by itself confirm that coins were sold on the open market.

Given the scale of the transfers relative to disclosed public miner sales, the movements may reflect activity beyond large, listed firms.

Bitcoin Miner Outflow 30-day chart. Source: CryptoQuant

Public miner disclosures show mixed treasury moves

CleanSpark reported mining 573 BTC and selling 158.63 BTC during the month, ending January with 13,513 BTC on its balance sheet. 

Cango mined 496.35 BTC and disclosed selling 550.03 BTC, stating it would continue to sell newly mined Bitcoin to support the expansion of its artificial intelligence and inference platform.

On Feb. 9, the company sold an additional 4,451 BTC for about $305 million to partially repay a Bitcoin-collateralized loan and fund its AI pivot.

Other firms took a different approach. Canaan mined 83 BTC and increased its reserves to 1,778 BTC and 3,951 ETH. LM Funding mined 7.8 BTC and reported no sales, lifting its treasury to 364.1 BTC. 

Meanwhile, Hive used structured pledge mechanics tied to 480 BTC to preserve liquidity while maintaining operations.

While some miners report monthly production results consistently, others only report intermittently or have shifted to quarterly disclosures. 

January miner data compiled by Cointelegraph. Source: Cointelegraph

Winter storms affect US miner hashrates

Network hashrate also fluctuated sharply in late January as severe winter storms hit parts of the United States. On Jan. 27, Bitcoin’s hashrate fell to 663 exahashes per second over two days, marking a more than 40% drop.

Total mining hashrate. Source: Blockchain.com

The temporary decline came as miners curtailed operations to stabilize regional power grids during extreme cold and surging energy demand. US-based firms reported reduced uptime, including Marathon Digital Holdings and Iren, which saw sharp short-term drops in daily production.

Blockchain.com data showed that hashrate recovered in early February after the drop during the last week of January. 

Magazine: 6 weirdest devices people have used to mine Bitcoin and crypto

The United States National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has proposed its first rules under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, sketching out how subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions could apply to become federally supervised payment stablecoin issuers. 

The NCUA, which oversees more than 4,000 federally insured credit unions serving roughly 144 million members and about $2.38 trillion dollars in assets as of mid-2025, is using this proposal to set out the process and standards for licensing such issuers. 

Under the proposal, any payment stablecoin issuer that is a “subsidiary of an insured credit union” would need to obtain an NCUA permitted payment stablecoin issuer (PPSI) license before issuing coins. 

Federally insured credit unions would also be prohibited from investing in, or lending to, payment stablecoin issuers unless those issuers hold an NCUA PPSI license. 

The draft is narrowly focused on licensing and investment limits. A forthcoming proposal will implement GENIUS Act standards and restrictions for PPSIs, including requirements related to reserves, capital, liquidity, illicit finance, and information technology risk management.

NCUA proposed rule for licensing of PPSIs. Source: NCUA

For now, the rulemaking is about defining the licensing and oversight architecture, and any eventual rollout of stablecoin services to members would depend on future approvals and additional standards. 

“A forthcoming proposal will propose regulations to implement the standards and restrictions imposed by the GENIUS Act on PPSIs,” the preamble states.

​​Public chain neutral and 120‑day clock

Two features stand out for the broader crypto market. First, the NCUA would be barred from denying a substantially complete application solely because a stablecoin is issued “on an open, public, or decentralized network,” language that explicitly prevents public blockchain issuance from being rejected on that basis alone.

Second, once an application is deemed “substantially complete,” the agency would have 120 days to approve or deny it, and if the NCUA fails to act within that window, the application would be “deemed approved” by default.

The proposal also implements a core GENIUS Act design choice. Insured depository institutions, including credit unions, cannot issue payment stablecoins directly and must instead use separately supervised subsidiaries that meet uniform federal standards. 

For credit unions, that generally means routing activity through credit union service organizations and other qualifying entities that fall under NCUA’s jurisdiction as “subsidiaries of an insured credit union.”

​The document is only a notice of proposed rulemaking. Stakeholders have 60 days from Federal Register publication to comment before the NCUA can finalize or revise the licensing regime.

Cointelegraph reached out to NCUA for additional comments, but had not received a response by publication.

Magazine: Bitcoin vs stablecoins showdown looms as GENIUS Act nears

Securitize is launching a stablecoin backed by tokenized private credit assets in partnership with Hamilton Lane, OKX Ventures and stablecoin infrastructure firm STBL, expanding efforts to bring institutional real-world asset yield onto blockchain rails.

Securitize has partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider STBL, Nasdaq-listed private markets investment management firm Hamilton Lane and crypto exchange OKX’s investment wing, OKX Ventures, to support the launch of a new real-world asset (RWA)-backed stablecoin on X Layer.

The new stablecoin will bring together institutional private credit, regulated tokenization and programmable settlement to support the “next generation onchain financial infrastructure,” said Securitize in a Thursday X post.

The new product, described as an ecosystem-specific stablecoin, will be issued on OKX’s X Layer network and backed by tokenized exposure to Hamilton Lane’s Senior Credit Opportunities Fund through a feeder structure facilitated by Securitize.

The stablecoin will use a dual-token architecture designed to separate yield generation from the stable unit itself, as lawmakers and regulators in the United States scrutinize stablecoins that distribute passive returns to holders.

The new stablecoin marks a “definitive leap forward in the convergence of institutional private markets and onchain finance,” said STBL in a Thursday X post.

“This initiative brings deep liquidity, programmable settlement, and compliant yield management to the X Layer ecosystem, setting a new standard for how capital flows onchain.”

STBL’s yield architecture seeks to side-step US regulatory concerns

Securitize said the structure aims to combine regulated tokenization of private credit with programmable settlement, while keeping the stable token distinct from the underlying yield.

Under the model, returns accrue at the collateral layer rather than being paid directly to stablecoin holders. STBL said in a statement that the framework is intended to align with emerging regulatory expectations that seek to distinguish stable payment instruments from investment products.

Source: OKX Ventures, Securitize

Cointelegraph has approached OKX Ventures and STBL for comment on the token’s architecture and yield expectations.

While the underlying RWAs are accruing the yield in the background, the new stablecoin framework seeks to separate the stablecoin from returns, to avoid the recent regulatory scrutiny on yield-bearing stablecoins, wrote STBL in an X post on Jan. 14.

“Because USST holders are not promised, paid, or marketed yield, our model aligns naturally with emerging regulatory expectations that seek to distinguish stable units of account from investment instruments.”

Source: STBL

Related: Binance completes $1B Bitcoin conversion for SAFU emergency fund

The stablecoin architecture came in response to the US market structure bill, which included a provision seeking to ban passive yield on stablecoin holdings.

The ESS stablecoin framework’s dual economy seeks to address this by acquiring the yield from the underlying RWA assets through a separate token, so that the ESS stablecoin won’t be categorized as a yield-bearing stablecoin.

Securitize is the largest tokenization platform with over $4 billion worth of tokenized assets. The platform is backed by the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock and investment banking giant Morgan Stanley.

Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs — Inside story

The United Kingdom’s government has appointed HSBC’s tokenization platform to power a pilot issuance of digital government bonds, known as “gilts,” marking the latest step in its push to modernize sovereign debt markets using blockchain technology.

His Majesty’s Treasury has appointed HSBC Orion to facilitate the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot issuance, according to a Thursday announcement.

The Treasury published a DIGIT pilot update in July 2025, outlining plans to explore blockchain applications in UK sovereign debt issuance and to support the development of domestic tokenization infrastructure.

“We want to attract investment and make the UK the best place to do business,” said Lucy Rigby, UK economic secretary to the Treasury, commenting on HSBC Orion’s DIGIT appointment. She added that the pilot will help the UK explore how to capitalize on the distributed ledger technology (DLT), enhance efficiency and reduce costs for businesses.

Key objectives and features of the DIGIT pilot

The DIGIT pilot aims to enable digitally native, short-dated government bonds operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS).

The pilot is designed to support secondary market development and broader accessibility, with onchain settlement, while operating independently of the UK government’s main debt management program.

Source: Lucy Rigby

“This is exactly the kind of financial innovation we need to keep the UK at the forefront of global capital markets and I’m looking forward to working with HSBC and other parties to deliver DIGIT,” Rigby said.

HSBC has issued $3.5 billion in digital bonds globally

Since its launch in 2023, HSBC Orion has enabled the issuance of at least $3.5 billion in digitally native bonds globally, including the European Investment Bank’s first digital sterling bond and a multi-currency $1.3 billion-equivalent bond issued by the Hong Kong government.

“The UK is a home market for us and the sixth largest economy in the world,” said Patrick George, HSBC’s global head of markets and securities services. “HSBC is delighted to be supporting the continued development of the gilt market, market innovation, and the growth of the broader UK economy,” he added.

HSBC Orion-facilitated digital bond issuance projects. Source: HSBC

Alongside appointing HSBC Orion as the platform provider for DIGIT, the UK government also appointed global law firm Ashurst to provide legal services for the pilot.

“Our team brings deep expertise in digital assets transactions, and we look forward to working with HSBC and supporting the government as it takes this transformative step for UK capital markets,” Ashurst’s head of digital assets, Etay Katz, said.

Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026

Gen Z Americans may be open to paying for dates with cryptocurrency, but most still aren’t putting digital coins where their hearts are, according to a January Pollfish survey commissioned by crypto exchange OKX. 

The poll of 1,000 US adults found that 13% of Gen Z respondents said they have paid for a date using crypto, while many who haven’t said the main issue is practical: they don’t have a direct way to pay with crypto. 

Interest extended beyond payments. 31% of Gen Z respondents said receiving crypto as a Valentine’s Day gift would be appealing, and 76% said financial literacy is an attractive trait in a partner, a reminder that for some daters, “knowing your numbers” can be more charming than knowing your zodiac sign.

Still, ownership appears to be a limiting factor. OKX told Cointelegraph that 29.5% of respondents said they currently own or previously owned crypto assets, suggesting that curiosity about crypto doesn’t automatically translate into daily use.

Gen Z flirts with crypto

The gap between “open to it” and “actually did it” points to a familiar hurdle for crypto: in many everyday settings, it’s still easier to tap a card than to pay directly with a wallet.

Results of OKX’s Valentine’s Survey. Source: OKX

The survey also found that two-thirds of respondents said financial literacy plays well in the dating marketplace, with Gen Z (76%) and Millennials (75%) showing the strongest support.

Familiarity with digital finance tools also carried weight. Between 52% and 55% of respondents said knowledge of digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies and digital wallets, can make someone more attractive as a potential partner. 

But only 17% of respondents overall said holding digital assets makes someone more attractive, including 30% of millennials and 28% of Gen Z. The findings indicate that for younger cohorts, digital asset awareness is increasingly viewed as part of broader financial competence. 

Related: Valentine's nightmare? Romance scams remain a $1B honeypot for criminals

Romance scams kill the mood

Crypto has also shown up in dating headlines for less romantic reasons. In 2024, the US Federal Trade Commission issued a consumer alert over rising crypto-related romance scams. Canadian authorities issued similar warnings, as crypto scammers flooded dating apps.

The rise of artificial intelligence also heightened the risks of romance scams in crypto. In 2025, scammers have increasingly used chatbots and deepfakes to manipulate victims emotionally and financially. 

Perception has also been mixed. While the OKX survey showed that some are attracted to crypto, a survey by the Date Psychology blog in 2024 found that women ranked crypto among the least attractive male hobbies.

Magazine: Crypto loves Clawdbot/Moltbot, Uber ratings for AI agents: AI Eye

The American Bankers Association (ABA) is urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to slow its approval of national trust bank charters for crypto and stablecoin firms until the regulatory landscape under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act is clearer. 

In a Wednesday comment letter on the OCC’s National Bank Chartering notice of proposed rulemaking, the trade group warned that recent and future applicants engaged in stablecoin and digital asset activities face still‑unsettled oversight from multiple federal and state regulators. 

The ABA said that the OCC should not advance applications where an institution’s full regulatory obligations, including under forthcoming GENIUS Act rulemakings, are not yet fully defined.

​The association warned that uninsured, digital asset‑focused national trusts raise unresolved safety and soundness, operational and resolution issues, particularly around the segregation of customer assets, conflicts of interest and cybersecurity. 

It also cautioned that national trust charters could be used to avoid registration and scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) when firms engage in activities that would otherwise trigger securities or derivatives regulation. 

Banks lobby OCC over crypto trust bank charters. Source: ABA

The ABA urged the OCC to be “patient,” resist applying traditional timing expectations to these applications, and ensure each charter applicant’s regulatory responsibilities “come fully into view” before moving applications forward. 

​The association further called for greater transparency around how the OCC calibrates capital, operational and resilience standards in conditional approvals for crypto‑related charters, and pressed the agency to tighten naming rules so that limited‑purpose trust banks that are not engaged in the business of banking cannot use “bank” in their names. 

That, it argued, would reduce the risk of consumer confusion about the status and safety of obligations at uninsured entities.

​Warning after new crypto trust charters

The intervention comes less than two months after the OCC granted conditional national trust bank approvals to five crypto firms: Bitgo Bank & Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets, Ripple National Trust Bank, First National Digital Currency Bank, and Paxos Trust Company.

On Dec. 12, 2025, the OCC greenlighted a path for these companies to hold and manage customer digital assets under a federal charter while remaining outside the deposit-taking and lending business. 

The same banking lobby is also pressing Congress, through pending crypto market structure legislation such as the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, to curb stablecoin rewards, contending that yield‑bearing stablecoins and affiliate “rewards” programs would function as bank‑like products without being subject to the full bank regulatory regime.

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Binance completed the $1 billion Bitcoin conversion for its emergency fund, committing to holding Bitcoin as its core reserve asset.

Binance purchased another $304 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) on Thursday, completing the conversion of $1 billion in Bitcoin for its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) wallet, according to Arkham data.

The fund now holds 15,000 Bitcoin, worth over $1 billion, acquired at an average aggregate cost basis of $67,000 per coin, Binance said in a Thursday X post.

 “With SAFU Fund now fully in Bitcoin, we reinforce our belief in BTC as the premier long-term reserve asset.”

The last tranche of BTC came three days after Binance’s previous $300 million acquisition on Monday.

Binance SAFU Fund wallet. Source: Arkham

The exchange first announced it would convert its $1 billion user protection fund into Bitcoin on Jan. 30, initially pledging a 30-day window for the acquisitions, which were completed in less than two weeks.

The exchange said it would rebalance the fund if volatility pushes its value below $800 million.

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Crypto investor sentiment plunges to lowest levels on record

The conversion comes as broader market sentiment remains deeply negative.

Sentiment took another hit following Bitcoin’s brief correction below $60,000 on Feb. 5, plunging to five on Thursday — the lowest reading on record — signaling extreme fear among investors, according to data from alternative.me.

The index is a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment.

Fear & greed index. Source: Alternative.me

The industry’s leading traders by returns, tracked as “smart money,” are also hedging for more crypto market downside.

Smart money traders were net short on Bitcoin for a cumulative $105 million, and net short on most of the leading cryptocurrencies except the Avalanche (AVAX) token, which saw $10.5 million in net cumulative long positioning, according to crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

Smart money trader positions through the Hyperliquid exchange, top tokens. Source: Nansen

Bitcoin’s correction also took a significant supply of tokens at a loss equaling to 16% of Bitcoin’s market cap, marking the highest pain point seen in markets since the implosion of algorithmic stablecoin issuer Terra in May 2022, wrote Glassnode in a Monday X post.

Yet in a silver lining to the correction, the market structure is showing early signs of stabilization, according to Dessislava Ianeva, dispatch analyst at digital asset platform Nexo.

“Derivative positioning remains cautious. Funding rates are neutral to slightly negative, reflecting subdued leverage demand, while open interest in native BTC terms has returned to early-February levels, suggesting stabilization rather than a renewed expansion phase,” the analyst told Cointelegraph.

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ARK Invest, the investment firm led by Bitcoin bull Cathie Wood, snapped up a significant batch of crypto-linked stocks on Wednesday as BTC briefly dipped below $66,000.

ARK purchased 433,806 shares of Robinhood (HOOD) for approximately $33.8 million, according to a trade notification reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The asset manager also boosted its exposure to crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH) and USDC (USDC) issuer Circle (CRCL), acquiring 364,134 shares valued at $11.6 million and 75,559 shares worth $4.4 million, respectively.

The purchases came as all three stocks traded lower on the day, with Robinhood shares sliding nearly 9%, according to TradingView data.

ARK withheld from buying more Coinbase (COIN) shares after dumping $17 million of the stock last week.

Robinhood becomes top crypto holding in ARK’s flagship fund

ARK’s latest Robinhood acquisition coincided with the company’s official testnet launch of the Robinhood Chain, a permissionless layer 2 (L2) blockchain built for financial services and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

Earlier this week, Robinhood reported record net revenue of nearly $1.28 billion for the fourth quarter of 2025. While revenue surged 27% year over year, it fell short of Wall Street expectations of $1.34 billion, sending the stock down about 8%.

Source: Robinhood

As of Feb. 11, Robinhood stands as the largest crypto-linked position in ARK’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), accounting for roughly 4.1% of the portfolio, or about $248 million, according to the fund’s data.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs mirror BTC weakness as inflows stall

Broader market weakness has spilled over into US spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which failed to sustain momentum after a three-day inflow streak.

According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin ETFs recorded $276.3 million in net outflows on Wednesday, nearly wiping out weekly gains, which now stand at just $35.3 million. Total assets under management declined to $85.7 billion, the lowest level since early November 2024.

Daily flows in US spot Bitcoin ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

Ether (ETH) ETFs also posted losses, with daily outflows totaling $129.2 million. XRP (XRP) funds saw no inflows, while Solana (SOL) ETFs recorded modest inflows of roughly $0.5 million.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at $67,227, up 0.4% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

The latest pullback comes after analysts had pointed to a potential inflection point in crypto investment products following three consecutive weeks of outflows totaling more than $3 billion.

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