Cryptopolitan

 Steak ‘n Shake says its sales have climbed sharply since it started letting customers pay with Bitcoin nine months ago, marking one of the most aggressive cryptocurrency pushes in the fast-food industry.

The national burger restaurant announced the sales increase on Tuesday, saying its decision to accept digital currency payments has paid off. The company started taking Bitcoin in May 2025 and now holds about $15 million worth of the cryptocurrency in what it calls a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

“Our same-store sales have risen dramatically ever since,” the company said in a statement marking the nine-month anniversary of its Bitcoin program launch.

The chain, which operates hundreds of locations across the United States and several European countries including France, Italy, Portugal, and Monaco, reported saving almost half its usual transaction costs within just two weeks of accepting Bitcoin. That’s compared to traditional credit card processing fees that typically eat into restaurant profits.

Industry-first Bitcoin reserve established

By the end of October 2025, Steak ‘n Shake became the first big U.S. restaurant chain to set up a dedicated Bitcoin reserve. The company said it saw a 15 percent jump in sales at existing stores thanks to cryptocurrency-friendly customers.

The restaurant accepts Bitcoin through something called the Lightning Network, which lets transactions happen faster and cheaper. Block co-founder Jack Dorsey backed the move when it launched.

All Bitcoin payments customers make for burgers and shakes go straight into the company’s reserve fund. That money then gets used to pay employee bonuses in Bitcoin, creating what the company calls a “decentralized, cash-producing operating business.”

Steak ‘n Shake has kept adding to its cryptocurrency stash. After an initial $10 million position, the chain bought another $10 million worth on January 16 and $5 million more on January 27. That brings total holdings to roughly 168.6 Bitcoin.

The company ran promotions like the “Bitcoin Burger” that gave customers small amounts of Bitcoin when they bought certain menu items. For every “Bitcoin Meal” sold, the chain donated 210 satoshis, tiny fractions of a Bitcoin, to support open-source Bitcoin software development.

Employee bonuses draw mixed reactions

In late January, Steak ‘n Shake announced it would give hourly workers at company-owned stores a Bitcoin bonus worth 21 cents per hour starting March 1. But the offer drew complaints because employees can’t touch the money for two years, and franchise workers don’t get it at all.

The restaurant’s owner, Biglari Holdings, hasn’t said whether Bitcoin will become part of its overall corporate money strategy. That suggests the cryptocurrency push is specific to the Steak ‘n Shake brand rather than a company-wide financial plan.

Sales numbers back up the strategy so far. The chain reported 18 percent growth at existing stores in 2026 and “double digits” growth last year, beating most competitors.

Steak ‘n Shake plans to open locations in El Salvador, where Bitcoin is legal money. The company attended Bitcoin events in San Salvador last November and announced expansion plans shortly after.

The chain briefly asked customers if it should accept Ethereum, another cryptocurrency, but quickly pulled the survey after angry responses. “Our allegiance is with Bitcoiners,” the company said.

The transaction fee savings alone could justify the move, restaurants operate on thin profit margins where every percentage point counts.

The strategy works because it creates a loop. Bitcoin payments fund employee bonuses, which might attract tech-savvy workers, which improves service, which brings in more customers willing to pay with Bitcoin. It’s a bet that cryptocurrency users will become loyal customers if given reasons to keep coming back.

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France is famous for things like the Eiffel Tower and fashion, but now crypto kidnapping has also joined that list. 

Following a persistent series of crypto-linked kidnappings, media outlets are now referring to France as the “global crypto kidnapping capital.” 

France, the cryptokidnapping capital of the world

France has been getting a bad rap lately, and 2026 has seen a continuation of that trend. It has just been named the leading hub for crypto-related kidnappings aka wrench attacks, a new form of crime that has been growing in frequency in recent times. 

Wrench attacks often involve getting physical or resorting to threats and abduction to compel victims to transfer their digital assets. According to a recent Gravitas special report by WION, there were up to 19 wrench attacks in France last year, the highest of any country globally. 

This year alone, the country has witnessed up to six different cases of wrench attacks, solidifying the nation’s position as the global epicenter of this new kind of crime, and the stories are gruesome. 

As Cryptopolitan reported earlier this month, Binance France CEO David Prinçay was the victim of a poorly executed house invasion in Val-de-Marne. Local police reports said that three masked men who were allegedly armed broke into a residential building early on February 12, around seven o’clock, in an attempt to find Binance’s local CEO.

Earlier this month, the partner of a 35-year-old magistrate in France received a picture of his partner accompanied by threats to mutilate her if they did not pay a ransom in cryptocurrency. 

The man’s wife had been targeted because he was an associate in a start-up with a cryptocurrency business. He reported the demand to French police, sparking a multi-agency manhunt involving as many as 160 officers. 

The magistrate and her elderly mother were in the custody of the kidnappers for 30 hours in a garage in southern France’s Drôme region until they received help from a neighbor who heard their commotion and helped them escape. 

No ransom was paid in this case, and the French authorities have reportedly arrested six suspects in connection with the case. It is one of the latest crypto-linked kidnappings to happen in France, which has been facing a wave of crypto-related wrench attacks and violent kidnappings targeting crypto natives. 

The driving force behind the violence 

Wrench attacks have been a problem for the crypto industry for years. However, the recent string of high-profile violent attacks over the past year has heightened the threat level for crypto investors, especially those located in France. 

Several factors are fueling this surge, with the most crucial one being data breaches. In June 2025, French media reported that an employee with the country’s tax agency had been steadily providing other alleged criminals with data on different crypto investors in the country.

To make matters worse, this January, it was revealed that Waltio, a service that lets investors calculate and report their crypto capital gains for tax reports, had been hacked. That attack allowed the attackers to gain access to 50,000 Waltio customers’ data, including email addresses and their 2024 tax reports.

Sensitive leaks are one thing, but another factor that makes crypto such an enticing sector for wrench attacks is that crypto makes a more convenient target to steal because digital assets are becoming more ubiquitous.

“As cryptocurrency adoption grows and more value is held directly by individuals, criminals are increasingly incentivised to bypass technical defenses altogether and target people instead,” TRM Labs’ Global Head of Policy, Ari Redbord, said.

The incidents have driven fear into the hearts of many crypto natives, forcing many to invest in physical security, especially during trips to France. 

A critical observation 

Globally, the frequency of wrench attacks has gone up by 75% year-on-year from 2024, with about 25 kidnappings, 3 murders over $40 million in losses. 

Europe accounts for nearly 40% of all these incidents, with France leading most countries by a wide margin. Many of the perpetrators who have been caught are young, often minors or young adults recruited via apps like Telegram and paid relatively small amounts to carry out the attacks. 

However, despite the arrests and severity of crimes, there have been no convictions, and experts believe this contributes to the lack of deterrence. As more wrench attacks are recorded, pressure is mounting on the French government to impose harsher penalties on convicted criminals and strengthen protections for its crypto population.

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ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has come under legal fire for allegedly allowing users of its platform to create videos featuring copyrighted characters. 

Disney and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have accused ByteDance of using copyrighted work to train its AI, Seedance 2.0. The company has promised to strengthen its current safeguards and prevent the use of unauthorized content by its users. 

ByteDance under fire for AI copyright infringement

ByteDance, the Chinese technology giant that owns TikTok, launched Seedance 2.0, a new artificial intelligence (AI) video-generation tool on February 12, 2026. The tool quickly went viral for its ability to create hyper-realistic videos from simple text prompts, but it appears to allow users to generate videos featuring copyrighted characters and famous actors without any licensing agreements.

Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance on Friday, accusing the company of conducting a “virtual smash-and-grab” of their intellectual property. The company alleged that Seedance was prepackaged with a pirated library of characters, making them available to users as if they were public-domain clip art. 

Social media users have already shared clips generated by the tool showing very popular movie scenes, such as Spider-Man fighting Captain America and Star Wars characters Anakin Skywalker and Rey engaging in lightsaber battles.

The Chairman of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents major studios including Netflix, Universal, and Warner Bros.Discovery, and its CEO Charles Rivkin, stated that Seedance 2.0 engaged in “unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale” within a single day of its release.

The Japanese government also launched an investigation into ByteDance after AI-generated videos of popular anime characters appeared online. Japan has historically maintained strict copyright laws to protect its multi-billion dollar anime industry. 

Can ByteDance fix its copyright issues?

CNBC and the BBC report that a ByteDance spokesperson said that the company respects intellectual property rights and is listening to the concerns raised. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” the spokesperson said. 

Currently, ByteDance has not provided details on how its planned safeguards will work, but the company claims it has already paused the ability for users to upload images of real people to the platform. 

Despite this, the tool continues to produce likenesses of celebrities. For example, Reuters reported that videos of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fight have been circulating in China. These “deepfake” style videos raise additional concerns for SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors. It has so far accused ByteDance of “blatant infringement” regarding the digital likenesses of its members.

Part of the complaints is that ByteDance has remained silent on what information Seedance 2.0 was trained on to generate its videos, unlike some Western AI companies that have begun disclosing their data sources. 

Critics argue that the tool’s ability to perfectly replicate characters like Darth Vader suggests that the AI was trained directly on copyrighted films and television shows. 

Despite Disney’s legal fight with ByteDance, in late 2025, it signed a landmark $1 billion licensing deal with OpenAI to legally use 200 characters from Disney’s Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises to train its models.

Disney’s fight seems to not be against the use of AI technology itself, but rather against the unauthorized use of its assets. The company also sued Midjourney and sent warnings to Character.AI in September 2025, demanding the removal of unauthorized chatbots based on its characters.

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NVIDIA just put out on its newest GB300 NVL72 systems. They can handle 50 times more work per megawatt of electricity compared to the older Hopper platform. That means costs drop by 35 times for each piece of information processed.

Signal65 did separate testing on the GB200 NVL72 and found it processes more than 10 times the information per watt, cutting costs to a tenth of what they were.

The improvements keep coming. NVIDIA’s TensorRT-LLM library upgrades alone gave the GB200 a five-times performance boost in just four months for tasks needing instant responses. Teams working on Dynamo, Mooncake and SGLang tools are pushing efficiency even higher.

These AI tools break down if there’s lag time or they can’t remember enough context. Companies need them to actually work in real business situations, not just demos.

Artificial intelligence tools that write code and work as digital helpers now account for nearly half of all AI-related searches, up from just 11% a year ago.

The numbers come from OpenRouter’s State of Inference report and show how fast things are changing in this space.

This sudden jump has companies scrambling to build hardware that can keep up. These AI assistants need to respond right away and remember context from entire software projects, which puts serious demands on computing power.

Market explosion fuels tech giants’ battle for dominance

The money involved is huge. The AI agent market was worth 4.92 billion dollars in 2024. Estimates put it at 6.016 billion dollars for 2025, then ballooning to 44.97 billion dollars by 2035. That’s 22.28% growth every year for the next decade. Banks, hospitals, stores and factories are the early adopters.

Businesses are putting these agents into customer management systems, planning tools and security setups to save money and get more done. What started as optional tech is becoming basic infrastructure.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, Alibaba just launched Qwen3.5 targeting China’s market, claiming 60% lower processing costs than before. The model can look at screens and do tasks across phones and computers. It’s going head-to-head with ByteDance’s Doubao app, and there’s a DeepSeek update coming too.

OpenAI hired Peter Steinberger on the 15th. He built OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent. CEO Sam Altman said Steinberger will lead work on next-generation personal agents and called him a genius with great ideas about smart assistants that can get useful stuff done.

The talent crisis nobody can solve

94% of business leaders say they’re short on AI skills. By 2028, 44% expect to still have 20 to 40% shortages. Workera says these gaps could cost the global economy 5.5 trillion dollars in 2026 from delayed products, quality issues and lost sales.

Right now demand for AI talent beats supply 3.2 to one worldwide. AI jobs pay 67% more than regular software positions. Yet 85% of office workers are learning about this stuff on their own time, and 83% say they’re mostly teaching themselves instead of getting formal training.

When companies buy AI tools from specialized vendors, they succeed 67% of the time. Internal builds only work about a third as often.

Salesforce saw 119% agent growth in early 2025 and crossed 500 million dollars in recurring revenue for these products. They added 6,000 enterprise customers in three months.

Businesses will probably buy solutions instead of building them. That points to the market concentrating around a few big players who can deliver what actually works.

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Ripple’s XRP Ledger has established an official digital presence within the xSPECTAR universe. According to the announcement, the initiative aims to create a virtual space where the XRPL ecosystem can learn, interact, and grow. 

We're excited to join the @xSPECTAR universe and have a digital presence in the metaverse where the XRPL ecosystem learns and grows. https://t.co/XK6P7MzflD

— XRPL Commons (@xrpl_commons) February 16, 2026

The space is intended to function as a dedicated environment for XRPL ecosystem interaction and community development. The move does not introduce any new protocols, products, or financial instruments. It provides a structured virtual venue where developers, users, and partners can access information about XRPL, explore ecosystem projects. 

Blockchain networks find ways to leverage the metaverse

XRPL initiative comes at a time when the metaverse is no longer what it used to be. Despite billions of dollars in investments and years of development, the concept failed to deliver on its ambitious promises. 

Platforms like Meta’s Horizon Workrooms, which were conceptualized as immersive virtual collaboration platforms, failed to attract users. Today, the metaverse is a warning example of how hype has outstripped innovation.

However, there is a trend among blockchain networks to explore immersive settings for specific, functional applications such as NFT showcases, virtual events, and interactive learning. These networks want to avoid the volatility and falling public interest that have plagued mainstream metaverse platforms.

Over 72% of metaverse platforms now support NFT-based assets like avatars, wearables, and land as core in-world items.​ NFT sales in metaverse environments surpassed $42 billion in 2025, with avatar customization assets accounting for 31% of transactions.​

Decentralized identity (DID) and wallet-based NFT IDs are used by around 22 million metaverse users to verify identity and access.​ The virtual land NFT market is projected to grow from $1.1 billion in 2025 to $20.9 billion by 2035 at a 34.5% CAGR.​

Meanwhile, over 80% of Gen Z metaverse users have bought or traded at least one NFT, showing strong youth adoption.​ Gen Z makes up 45% of global metaverse users, and Millennials 34%, forming the primary NFT-owning cohorts.​ Corporate NFT launches, including branded metaverse wearables, now account for 18% of total NFT market share.​

XRPL surpasses Solana in the RWA sector

The XRPL already runs meaningful transaction volume and has native exchange rails. According to on-chain data, average daily transactions rose 3.1% quarter over quarter to about 1.83 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, average daily active addresses slipped to about 49,000.

Payment transactions declined 8.1% to roughly 909,000, while offer creation grew to about 42% of the transaction mix. DefiLlama data showed stablecoins circulating on XRPL at roughly $418 million, with RLUSD accounting for about 83% of that total. 

It also showed the XRPL DEX at about $38.21 million in total value locked and about $15.08 million in 24-hour volume, with cumulative volume around $2.019 billion.

The cost of transacting on the network begins at 0.00001 XRP. Such low costs ensure that the process of moving coins, especially RLUSD, is very cheap even when there is heavy trading.

At the same time, XRPL has recently surpassed Solana on a key metric in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market, marking a shift in institutional activity within the crypto ecosystem. Without stablecoins, XRPL logged about $1.756 billion in total on-chain real-world assets, compared with roughly $1.682 billion on Solana.

The XRPL’s represented asset value jumped more than 270% in one month, while Solana’s RWA value grew by around 40% over the same period.

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Hayden Davis may be back as a meme token trader. Davis, known for his participation in the LIBRA and MELANIA projects, is back to trading smaller assets. 

Hayden Davis picked up several meme tokens to trade, according to on-chain data by Bubblemaps. Davis, known for his participation in the LIBRA project and subsequent involvement with MELANIA, picked up Solana meme tokens again. 

According to wallet data, Davis is unable to manipulate the market to his favor and is down $3M. His main trades include PUMP, TROVE, and PENGUIN. The trades were performed through a new wallet, while the old Kelsier ventures’ address was last traded in the past two weeks.

BREAKING: Hayden Davis is back

But this time he's down $3,000,000

Trading $PUMP, $TROVE, $PENGUIN and others

🧵 pic.twitter.com/VdtPX4zTdM

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) February 16, 2026

This is the first activity coming from Davis’ wallets since sniping YZY in August 2025. The YZY token proved profitable for Davis, giving him a way back into the game. He also regained access to the previously frozen $57M in stablecoins, allowing him to rebuild his assets. 

Hayden Davis picked new batches of Solana memes

For the new batch of trades, Davis used the wallets previously linked to sniping YZY. The investments included new tokens like KABUTO, LOUD, and BAGWORK.

Davis moved into the latest trending Solana meme tokens. This time, memes have a much shorter life cycle and even higher risk levels. Davis put $2.5M on PUMP and smaller amounts on other memes, but most trades led to losses. 

Davis acted as an individual trader, rather than a market-maker or a deliberate sniper. The tokens selected were in their first days of price discovery, and almost none of them rallied. 

Davis has also abandoned the creation of new memes after launching WOLF, a token with heavy insider holdings. For months, Davis or his previous team has not taken up similar meme launches, at least not with a high public profile. However, there are rumors that Davis may have been involved in the rug pull of the Eric Adams coin by the former NYC mayor. 

Solana meme tokens still produce occasional winners

Solana meme tokens are down to $4.6B in total valuation, led by TRUMP and PENGU. The occasional runner, like HOUSE, achieved over 248% in daily gains during one of its rallies. 

Other tokens, like PIPPIN, have occasional rapid daily gains, followed by a crash. PIPPIN has raised suspicions that its volume is not organic, and the coin has been used to launder funds.

To boost fairness, Pump.fun has now banned additional minting, unexpected tax increases, or draining the liquidity of tokens after graduation. Despite this, most of the graduating tokens rarely achieve a valuation over $10M. Most of the trading relies on short-term pumps, and Solana memes are often among the day’s best performers. 

As SOL remained below $85, ecosystem activity remained, but trading was on a smaller scale. Solana is still the venue for over 85% of new token launches.

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As 2026 gets underway, digital currencies are still in a difficult period, but despite significant price declines over the past year, some analysts think brighter times are coming.

Ethereum has declined even more precipitously than Bitcoin, which has lost between 45 and 50 percent since its 2025 peak. The second-largest cryptocurrency has dropped 60% from its previous highs and is currently trading close to $2,000.

Analysts predict a strong rebound ahead

Many in the industry are calling this downturn a “mini winter” or brief bear market rather than the start of a longer slump that could last several years.

Tom Lee, chief of research at BitMine Immersion Technologies and Fundstrat, is optimistic about the direction of pricing. Lee advised investors to purchase during price declines rather than attempting to anticipate precise market bottoms while speaking at the Consensus Hong Kong 2026 conference.

Gold had a great run in 2025, but Lee noted that it might have peaked, which might let Bitcoin beat it this year. He also mentioned Ethereum’s history of recovering from significant selloffs.

Since 2018, Ethereum has experienced eight 50%+ drops, each followed by a sharp V-shaped recovery. Each time, the cryptocurrency recovered in a sharp V-shaped pattern, with prices climbing back up as fast as they had fallen.

On Rug Radio with host Farokh Sarmad, Lee described current market conditions as needing time to work through problems, not a deep bear market. He said he has no regrets about aggressively buying Ethereum, viewing it as essential for growing areas like stablecoins, artificial intelligence integration, and the creator economy over the next 15 years.

Lee issued audacious price projections for 2026, predicting that Ethereum would touch $12,000 to $22,000 and Bitcoin might reach $200,000 to $250,000. These goals are predicated on the two cryptocurrencies’ past price correlations.

Technical analyst Tom DeMark, who advises BitMine, suggested Bitcoin could find support around $60,000. For Ethereum, he said the cryptocurrency might need to briefly dip below $1,800 or around $1,890 to form what he called a “perfected bottom” before starting a sustained climb higher.

Lee indicated the broader crypto winter could wrap up as soon as this month or by April at the latest, pointing to improving economic factors and late-cycle market sentiment.

Wall Street firms continue buying despite losses

Large institutions are still making purchases, but regular investors are still dubious. BitMine has rapidly increased its Ethereum holdings, now holding over 4.326 million ETH, or roughly 3.58 percent of the total supply. To generate extra returns, a large portion of this cache is staked.

As part of its strategy to become the largest corporate Ethereum holder, the corporation continues to purchase more every week, despite sitting on unrealized losses.

Big Wall Street companies have also been involved. Cathie Wood’s company, Ark Invest, recently purchased millions of shares in its exchange-traded funds. This indicates that institutional interest in stocks linked to Ethereum is still high.

Other analysts have also weighed in. Standard Chartered calls 2026 “the year of Ethereum,” predicting ETH to reach about $7,500 by year-end. The bank cites growing stablecoin use, real-world asset tokenization, and network improvements as key drivers, but warns about broader economic risks.

It has lowered its previous targets while still seeing Ethereum to outperform Bitcoin if investment flows and scaling solutions take hold.

J.P. Morgan-linked projections suggest trading in the $7,000 to $9,000 range early this year under favorable conditions.

Lee’s erroneous 2025 estimates had many question his dependability. Although he had set goals for Ethereum in the $7,000–$9,000 area and Bitcoin above $150,000–$200,000, his calls were unsuccessful due to market instability.

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Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Cardano, hopes to expand blockchain technology beyond the financial industry and into commonplace applications, potentially reaching billions of users on Facebook and Tinder.

Hoskinson said at the Consensus Hong Kong 2026 that dating apps could use blockchain to help users verify personal details like their salary, location, and height. By verifying that profile pictures are authentic, the technology may also lessen the prevalence of catfishing and phony accounts.

By integrating it into routine digital experiences, Hoskinson hopes to increase the transparency and reliability of online interactions.

Vision extends beyond financial applications

“I want to get to a point where video games are on it, a point where Facebook and other things run on this infrastructure,” Hoskinson said at the event. “That’s what’s going to bring 2-3 billion people in and that’s what’s going to change everything.”

Building on this goal, Hoskinson criticizes the industry’s current direction, pushing for a more user-friendly approach.

The co-founder of Cardano feels that financial goods have received too much attention in the blockchain industry. He wants consumers to have seamless experiences without having to know how the technology works.

“I don’t have to care how electricity works. I just flip the switch and magically it works,” he said, comparing it to electricity. “We have got to do that as an industry and stop ‘overfinancializing’ everything.”

Such a shift toward invisible, everyday utility becomes especially relevant given the ongoing challenges users face on traditional platforms.

His comments align with growing concerns about social media fraud and privacy. Data misuse on centralized platforms and catfishing could be addressed by blockchain technology.

Hoskinson also highlighted another key upcoming development in Cardano’s ecosystem that supports privacy for mainstream users.

Hoskinson discussed Cardano’s planned Midnight partner chain debut in late March. With this privacy-focused functionality, users of existing privacy currencies like Monero or Zcash will not be targeted.

“You don’t try to get anybody from Monero or ZCash over,” he said. Through practical applications, the team plans to focus on everyday users.

Despite the excitement created by these long-term goals, Cardano’s native coin, ADA, has seen short-term volatility.

The ADA token performs inconsistently

Over the past few days in mid-February 2026, price movements have reflected this ongoing uncertainty.

Since mid-February 2026, Cardano’s ADA token has been acting strangely. Its closing price on February 16 was $0.285681, which was less than $0.295266 on February 14 but higher than $0.281780 on February 15. ADA fell earlier on February 13 to $0.272692.

These fluctuations persist even as the network continues its methodical upgrades.

Network improvements have yet to overcome strong opposition. Unlike markets that value speed, Cardano approaches innovation with purpose.

At the same time, several recent advancements are helping to generate some renewed momentum.

If market circumstances improve, more liquidity may be available through the LayerZero cross-chain link and the upcoming USDCx stablecoin launch. Failure to break through would test lower support at $0.24 to $0.26 or further sideways volatility.

Forecasts suggest ADA may soon reach $0.30, with monthly highs of about $0.324 possible.

Through examination, mixed signals are discovered. Cardano is still declining but stabilized after a recent jump linked to cross-chain activities. Profit-taking prompted a test of significant long-term support at $0.244 after a brief increase close to $0.30. ADA seems to be in survival mode at $0.2800, with recent dips attributed to a drop in retail demand.

Despite obstacles, some signs suggest bigger players are more confident.

Major investors have shown confidence. Recent purchases of 220 million ADA by major investors may aid in a recovery if $0.271 holds and $0.303 breaks.

Regulated markets have also increased institutional interest.

Cardano’s enormous market value makes significant price adjustments difficult. ADA would require billions of dollars in new investment funds to increase from $0.26 to $1.

These factors contribute to a hopeful near-term outlook.

In the end, Hoskinson’s ambitious plan aims to transcend existing market conditions.

By making blockchain technology accessible to billions of regular people, Hoskinson’s approach signals a larger movement away from finance and toward real-world applications.

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Zerolend, a multichain decentralized lending protocol, has just announced it is shutting down its lending markets after years of building. This is part of a broader wave of projects in the DeFi sector facing shutdowns due to similar reasons.

The decision to sunset Zerolend operations gradually comes after around three years of building. According to the team, it was not an easy decision, but it was necessary in the face of unsustainable conditions. 

Why Zerolend is shutting down 

According to a post from the team, the main reasons behind the decision include:

Inactivity or significant drops in liquidity/activity in many of the supported chains

Oracle provides discontinuing support

Hacks and exploits 

There is also the problem of thin profit margins in lending, which led to prolonged losses. As part of the wind-down of the protocol, most markets have had their loan-to-value (LTV) ratios set to 0%, meaning borrowing is disabled and only withdrawals are allowed. 

The team has urged users to withdraw their funds as soon as possible via the app. For assets stuck in low-liquidity chains, the team promised upgrades that will enable recovery. The announcement and subsequent process are an attempt by the protocol to end things honorably rather than shocking its users with sudden death. 

The protocol burst onto the scene in early 2024 and grew significantly on L2 chains like Linea and Zksync. It currently has a TVL of $6.6 million, a value that is near all-time lows post wind-down.  

Source: Defillama

Other DeFi projects have shutdown for similar reasons 

Zerolend has announced plans to shut down, citing unfavorable conditions, but it is not the only project to do so. Some other DeFi protocols have announced shutdowns or strategic pivots amid the maturing market. 

A good example is Polynomial, a DeFi derivatives protocol that announced it was ceasing operations around February 14, 2026. This puts an end to the Polynomial chain and Polynomial trade. The process includes forced liquidations, liquidity layer closure, and full chain shutdown. 

The protocol had initially planned a TGE for Q1 2026, but that has been shelved with the team citing it as a worthless venture since the product is dying. In the future, the team will pivot to new projects with priority for early backers. 

Another good example of a DeFi protocol that has packed up is Alpaca Finance, a leveraged yield farming and lending protocol on BNB. It announced plans to fully sunset its activities by the end of 2025, citing revenue struggles and delisting from major exchanges like Binance. 

Elixir’s deUSD has also shut down after raking in heavy losses linked to the $93M collapse of Stream Finance, a protocol it was connected to. 

To be clear, what is happening is not a mass exodus of DeFi projects. If experts are to be believed, this is a natural pruning occurring in a maturing environment. Most of the protocols facing shutdowns are on the smaller end; meanwhile, the bigger, more prominent projects have been getting more attention. 

This suggests that the market is rallying around battle-tested projects while others face natural attrition. Some of the thriving protocols include Aave, the undisputed leader where on-chain lending is concerned, Morpho, a next-gen option in lending, and Compound, one of the original projects that sparked DeFi summer. 

While Aave is thriving, it has also had to make some strategic cuts in response to the market conditions. For example, it has had to shut down its Avara web3 brand to ensure 100% of its focus is channeled towards preserving its lending franchise.

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Binance’s stablecoin reserves have been declining since the end of November, almost three months from their peak. A decline of reserves recalls previous bear markets, though Binance remains the most liquid exchange. 

Binance was known for holding stablecoins waiting in the sidelines, with over $43.6B in reserves at one point. However, in the past three months, the reserves have been in constant decline. The outflows coincide with a period where whales cashed out BTC, ETH, or altcoins through Binance. 

Binance saw ongoing outflows of its stablecoin reserves, recalling the liquidity crunch during the 2023 bear market. | Source: Cryptoquant

As of February 16, Binance only held around $36B in stablecoins. As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, the outflow also marks the abandonment of BNB, the native asset of BNB Chain. 

A significant part of the outflows may come from panic withdrawals, as social media influencers called for traders to move their funds from Binance. The total outflows, including other crypto coins and tokens, may have taken up to 30% of Binance’s total reserves. Tokens like XRP saw significant withdrawals. ETH reserves fell to 3.7M tokens, the lowest since 2024. 

Stablecoin outflows may signal a bear market

Previous bear markets show that three months of stablecoin outflows mean a persistent loss of liquidity. The recent contraction of liquidity resembles some periods during the 2023 bear market. 

Outflows from Binance are an indicator that investors are rearranging their positions and liquidity. Instead of waiting to buy, capital is slowly leaking out of the exchange ecosystem. 

Binance has attracted some stablecoin deposits through its special yield programs, but this is not a sufficient incentive to keep funds on the exchange. The other chief reason was recent fears of insolvency, leading some traders to withdraw their funds. 

In December and January, stablecoin outflows accelerated. The drop was even steeper in February, with $3B lost over the past two weeks. 

Stablecoins have several alternative destinations, especially lending protocols. Decentralized on-chain protocols also hold risk, but are not under centralized control. 

BNB Chain continues to mark outflows

Decentralized on-chain liquidity is also drained from the Binance ecosystem. BNB Chain is among the biggest losers of liquidity on the weekly and monthly leaderboard, according to Artemis data. 

In the past three months, BNB Chain lost $219M in net liquidity, the second-biggest outflow after Arbitrum. BNB Chain still hosts a lively meme token market. The chain hosts $5.7B in liquidity, driven by PancakeSwap trading. 

As BNB sank to $615, interest in the ecosystem diminished. The loss of liquidity may affect the wider ecosystem, as BNB Chain remains one of the biggest venues for DeFi. 

BNB Chain still has 4.4M daily active users, with no rapid outflows. The chain hosts low-cost meme token activity and transactions, but more cautious behavior from whale-sized traders in DeFi.

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Crypto.com has become the first digital asset platform to secure ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification. This is the international standard for an Artificial Intelligence Management System (AIMS). 

The certification is issued by the International Organisation for Standardisation. It specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an AIMS within organisations. 

Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO, Crypto.com, stated, “We are proud to continue to lead and be recognised for our commitment to safety and security standards. This certification is the latest step in our commitment to being a trusted and secure environment for our global user base, and an important step as we continue to leverage AI tools and technologies.”

Crypto.com’s string of AI partnerships before the certification

The certification is designed to ensure that organisations manage risks associated with AI, including ethical considerations, transparency, accountability, and the impact of AI on individuals and society. 

Crypto platforms are increasingly relying on AI for fraud detection, security monitoring, risk modeling, customer protection, and operational automation. Therefore, this kind of framework has become critical.

According to Jason Lau, Chief Information Security Officer, Crypto.com, security and privacy remain a fundamental area of focus for the exchange.

This certification follows a string of partnerships with AI firms. In November, the company announced an integration with CoincidenceAI, an AI-powered trading platform that helps traders create, test, and automate trading strategies through a conversational interface. The AI is also connected to Bybit and Kucoin.

Later in December, the exchange and AI-powered crypto trading assistant Doblox announced a partnership. The integration allows users in approved jurisdictions to trade assets directly through and with insights from Doblox.

Additionally, Kris Marszalek recently paid $70 million for ai.com, the highest publicly disclosed price for a website domain. The transaction, finalized in April 2025, was conducted entirely in crypto.  

AI.com launched a consumer platform featuring autonomous AI agents. These agents are designed to operate on a user’s behalf, executing tasks such as trading stocks, managing calendars, and automating workflows. Marszalek said the platform aims to be the “front door to AGI” through a decentralized network.

The certification is an addition to the company’s existing compliance framework that includes ISO/IEC 27001 for Information Security Management, ISO/IEC 27701 for Privacy Information Management, ISO 22301 for Business Continuity Management, PCI:DSS compliance, and Service Organisation Control (SOC) 2 Type 2 compliance. The company is also independently assessed at Tier 4, the highest level for both NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy Frameworks.

Crypto integration with the robust AI industry

According to Morgan Stanley, AI’s capabilities will continue to improve exponentially, and there is still plenty of value to be created for both AI enablers and adopters. Demand for AI computing power will exceed supply.

Crypto firms are increasingly using AI to strengthen security as crypto activity grows in scale and complexity. AI systems are being used to monitor transactions in real time, detect anomalous behavior, flag potential fraud, and enhance anti–money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) processes by identifying patterns that traditional rules-based systems often miss.

As reported by Cryptopolitan earlier today, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is upgrading its AI-powered VISTA platform to strengthen real-time detection of crypto market manipulation. The move is intended to sharpen surveillance of suspicious accounts and trading anomalies as regulators intensify oversight of virtual asset markets.

Meanwhile, the AI sector has reached nearly $1.5 trillion in worldwide spending in 2025, according to Gartner. Analysts say that the momentum will intensify this year because the four largest US tech giants alone, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, plan to invest a combined $650 billion in AI infrastructure this year.

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Elon Musk has alleged that Jeffrey Epstein launched a campaign to short Tesla and persuaded Bill Gates to take a 1% short position when the company’s market cap stood at about $40 billion. 

The allegation comes as the US Department of Justice released roughly three million pages of Epstein-related records, naming several billionaires, including Musk and Gates. The documents viewed by Cryptopolitan show email exchanges between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein dating back to 2012 and 2013. 

While there has been no confirmation that any such visit occurred, the messages contradict Musk’s long-standing insistence that he didn’t know Epstein well. However, to some extent, the files favored him as they revealed that SpaceX servers began rejecting Epstein’s emails in 2014.

Musk later confirmed on X that he cut off communication. 

Yup 😂

That really made him upset. After I ghosted him, Epstein went on a massive campaign to short Tesla and got Gates to short 1% of Tesla stock when the market cap was $40B. As far as I know, Gates still has the short open.

Someone should ask him how that’s working out 🤗

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2026

Responding to a user who claimed Epstein had been aggressively sending invitations, Musk wrote, “Yup […] That really made him upset. After I ghosted him, Epstein went on a massive campaign to short Tesla and got Gates to short 1% of Tesla stock …” 

Musk calls out Gates for taking Epstein’s advice to short Tesla 

Musk weighed in on the post, once again bringing attention to the 1% short position of the company’s total shares outstanding that he claimed Gates has held against Tesla for the past eight years. “As far as I know, Gates still has the short open. Someone should ask him how that’s working out,” Musk wrote.

In December, Musk claimed that the position has since cost the Microsoft co-founder as much as $10 billion, as Tesla shares soared over the past few years. Tesla shares most recently closed at $417.44, with the stock up 17.3% over the past year and 100.4% over the past three years. 

Several other institutional investors have changed their positions in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 0.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. 

Additionally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,839,824,000. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Tesla by 5.9% during the second quarter.  Amundi also increased its Tesla shareholding by 20.4% in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth initiated coverage with a Buy rating and $550 price target, implying 31.9% upside potential. On the other hand, Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco maintained his Hold rating and $415 price target, suggesting that shares are fully valued at current levels.

Epstein advises on the structure of Tesla

A batch of DOJ documents shows that Epstein was involved with Tesla in 2018. Musk posted on social media that he was “considering taking Tesla private” in a move that never came to fruition. 

One of the CEO’s surrogates was sounding out Epstein for advice on financing the deal and potential board members for a reorganized Tesla. They also went back and forth over Musk’s leadership qualities.

That year, Musk was having a rough time. His companies were struggling, and his behavior on social media was becoming increasingly unpredictable, which seemed to be hurting his public image.

Musk took counsel from the high-powered former lobbyist and corporate consultant Juleanna Glover as he sought to limit blowback. It was Glover who would later backchannel with Epstein about a plan to take Tesla private.

The idea of buying Tesla was sketchily outlined in another of Musk’s now-infamous tweets. “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420,” he posted in August. This tweet caused a backlash because he had not secured those funds.

On September 27, the US SEC filed fraud charges against Musk, alleging “securities fraud for a series of false and misleading tweets.” 

Musk quickly settled to the tune of a $20 million fine, with Tesla paying an equal penalty, and stepped down as chairman of the electric vehicle company. In the weeks between Musk’s tweet and the SEC charge, Glover was working behind the scenes to make the deal a reality and sought Epstein’s counsel.

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European stocks ended the day with gains even though Pinewood Technologies collapsed in brutal fashion.

Traders across Europe spent the session reacting to the key points from the Munich Security Conference, and that steady flow of policy talk kept broad indexes supported. The STOXX Europe 600 finished at 618.56 after rising 0.14%, even as sector moves were all over the place.

Major indexes across Europe printed mixed numbers. The CAC 40 closed at 8,316.50 after a gain of 4.76. The FTSE 100 ended at 10,473.69 after a climb of 27.34. The IBEX 35 hit 17,848.00 with a strong jump of 175.60.

The FTSE MIB slipped 11.42 to 45,419.20. The DAX fell 102.38 to 24,812.50.

Why did Pinewood’s stock crash?

Shares in Pinewood Technologies fell almost one-third after Apax Partners dumped its £575 million offer. The company had said that it walked away because of “prevailing challenging market conditions”.

That remark hit the stock hard, and the shares dropped to just under £3. Even with that mess, broader Europe held firm because traders were more focused on regional themes than one troubled UK software group. NatWest Group gained 4.7% after it kicked off a £750 million share buyback. That rise helped offset the Pinewood drop inside UK trading.

Mining stock Rio Tinto fell 1% after it stopped work at its Simandou iron ore site in Guinea due to a fatal accident at the SimFer project. BHP Group dropped 0.7% ahead of earnings. Glencore slipped a little over 0.3%. Fresnillo was down 1%. Anglo American eased 0.2%.

The FTSE Industrial Metals and Mining Index was seen down almost 0.6%, which pulled on sentiment but did not erase the gains across Europe, per data from TradingView. Indexes from the rest of the region showed the same uneven tone.

The SMI closed at 13,656 after a gain of 55.33. The HEX printed 12,764.17 with a rise of 63.58. The AEX slipped 0.72. The BEL 20 fell 15.13. Portugal’s PSI20 closed at 9,058.6 after a gain of 59.65. Sweden’s OMXS30 was up 2.047. Denmark’s OMXC25 fell 8.88. The STOXX600 reading of 618.52 showed a gain of 0.82.

Meanwhile over in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.2% after GDP growth came in at 0.2% annualized for the December quarter instead of the expected 1.6%. Trading stayed thin with China, South Korea, and Taiwan closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

US markets were closed for Presidents’ Day, so Europe carried the main flow of global price action.

Currency moves were mild. USD/CHF moved to 0.769 after a rise of 0.002. EUR/GBP stayed at 0.869. EUR/USD slipped 0.002 to 1.185. EUR/JPY rose 0.76 to 181.9. GBP/USD slipped 0.002 to 1.363. EUR/CHF moved to 0.912 after a rise of 0.001. Bond yields barely did anything, as the UK 10-year sat at 4.401 after a tiny drop of 0.001.

The Bund 10-year was steady at 2.756. Italy’s 10-year traded at 3.385 after a 0.01 move. France’s 10-year stood at 3.344 after a tiny gain of 0.001.

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TRX traded at a market average price of $0.28, down 0.3% as Tron Inc. acquired an additional 177,925 TRX tokens. The acquisition raised its total treasury holdings to more than 681.9 million TRX. 

Tronscan data revealed that Tron has been purchasing TRX tokens daily. The company has purchased 179,649 TRX, 179,057 TRX, 176,558 TRX, 177,925 TRX, and 181,346 TRX  over the past several days. So far, the company has added about 3,656,868 TRX since January 22.

Tron treasury strategy boosts TRX token market performance

Tron Inc. announced it aims to profit from rising blockchain activity, wider network adoption, and growing institutional interest in the TRON ecosystem. The company revealed in Form 8-K filings with the SEC on February 12  that it plans to expand its holdings by purchasing roughly $50,000 worth of TRX each day for 360 days in a row.

Tron Inc. (NASDAQ: TRON) acquired 177,925 TRX tokens today at an average price of $0.28, further increasing its TRX treasury holdings to more than 681.9 million TRX in total. The company aims to further grow its Tron DAT holdings to enhance long term shareholder value. For live…

— Tron Inc. (@TRON_INC) February 16, 2026

Rich Miller, Chief Executive Officer of Tron Inc., explained that, “Building the largest TRX token treasury in the public markets is not symbolic but strategic.” He emphasized that the company’s growing TRX holdings reflect TRON’s network expansion and confidence in the blockchain’s scalability, practical use cases, and long-term potential for generating value.

Tron Founder Justin Sun also praised the strategy. He stated that accumulating TRX strengthens the company’s core treasury.

Sun’s remark coincides with TRX’s continued resilience amid the broader crypto market’s ongoing decline.

TRX peaked in 2024 at roughly $0.45 before retreating to its current level of 0.28, down 0.3% over the last day. The TRX token is now ranked #8 by market capitalization.

TRX outperformed  Bitcoin and Ethereum year-to-date, rising 17.6% while Bitcoin fell 29.4% and Ethereum dropped 27.7% over the same period. Tron’s market value dropped by just 4% over the past month, while the whole cryptocurrency market cap dropped by over 25%.

TRON network reports growth in tokens, revenue

Tron continues to report heavy network utilization. The blockchain recorded over 100 million monthly active addresses in January. The number of transactions also rose to 342 million during this time.

The TRX token supply page revealed that the token currently has a total supply of 94.7 billion tokens with a market valuation of over $26.4 billion.

TRON’s protocol revenue for yesterday totaled $5.56 million, a 3.07% decrease from the previous day. The network’s short-term revenue performance appeared stable, with $203.35 million over the last 30 days, up 0.20%.

Total protocol revenue fell 17.87% to $609.61 million over 90 days. TRON’s revenue, a measure of long-term growth and consistent ecosystem activity, increased 43.03% to $3.39 billion over the last 365 days.

TRON network’s stablecoins recorded notable transaction growth. The stablecoin overview page revealed that the blockchain had over 100 million monthly active addresses and 342 million transactions in January. 

TRON solidified its stablecoin settlement hub in the second half of last year, with low costs and fast payment confirmations across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Stablecoin supply increased 41%, powered by USDT, USDD, and TUSD, while monthly active users increased 38% to over 10 million. 

According to the stablecoin overview page, USDT dominates stablecoins on the network with a total supply of over 85.4 billion tokens. USDD and TUSD are next in line, with roughly 705 million and 168.5 million tokens, respectively. USDCOLD adds liquidity and usefulness to the ecosystem with 38.4 million tokens

Tronscan data also revealed that the blockchain currently has 72.75 million active participants in stablecoin transactions. The network processed 3,257,515 transactions yesterday alone, a 53.5% increase from the previous day. These high-volume transactions benefit platforms like SUN.io, which currently has $115.85 million in liquidity. 

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Anthropic is seeing revenue growth in India on developer adoption as artificial intelligence tools gain traction across private and public sectors, with the AI startup setting up an office in Bengaluru.

The US-based AI firm says its India revenue run rate has doubled in just four months, driven by intensive use by developers and productivity professionals, as well as early government deployments.

This comes as the AI startup also announced new partnerships in the country, which is the second-largest market for its Claude.ai. These partnerships will also support various public sectors, including education, judicial, and health services.

Revenue doubles as developers drive growth

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, commented on the unexpected speed of India’s growth during a speech in Bangalore. “Since my last trip here, the company has doubled its run rate revenue in India,” said Amodei.

Anthropic’s growth is primarily driven by developer-centric products. According to Amodei, Claude Code (“Claude”) is experiencing extremely high adoption among developers and may have even experienced an accelerated growth pattern relative to other developer tools, given the abundance of talented engineers in India.

Unlike other countries, Indian users employ AI technology very differently. One of the most distinctive aspects of India in comparison to the rest of the world is the extremely technical nature of Indians’ use of these technologies, according to Amodei.

The startup also announced that its India team will offer applied AI expertise to its growing enterprise customers, startups, and digital natives, helping them design, build, and scale Claude-powered solutions for their businesses.

Among the enterprises, Air India is using Claude Code to help developers ship custom software faster and at lower costs as part of the broader push to use agentic AI across its operations.

Globally, casual consumers blend with professional activities, which leads to a lower level of intensity than in India, where the majority of those adopting AI technologies are developers and are focused on enhancing productivity.

According to him, this level of intensity is indicative of a rapid experimentation culture where teams can quickly test new ideas and, if they don’t work, change direction and move on.

India’s adoption accelerates AI deployment and boosts Anthropic

Organizations beyond private enterprise are becoming interested in this technology too; for example, Amodei pointed out the work being done by the Indian government via the Ministry of Statistics in creating an “MCP-type” server for querying economic data and statistics.

The pace of these efforts, he believes, is abnormal as “government agencies in other parts of the world do not act as quickly as Indian government agencies do,” adding that the country’s “unique entrepreneurial spirit and technical expertise” contribute to this differentiation.

Amodei stated that as AI models will be performing these kinds of tasks in the future, humans will be able to transition from a job of doing their own work to one of being a supplemental supervisor for AI workers, thus increasing output by a factor of 10X to 100X.

He also stated that because of the aforementioned transition, there will be many start-ups across all industries (including biology, pharma/healthcare, finance, and legal) developing new products that utilize AI.

Business is also booming in the US. Anthropic’s user base increased by 11% after its viral Super Bowl ad, which bashed rival OpenAI and earned it bragging rights, according to BNP Paribas.

Visits to the Claude chatbot maker’s website jumped 6.5%, pushing Anthropic into the top 10 free apps on the Apple Store to beat competitors Meta, Gemini, and OpenAI.

According to data analyzed by BNP Paribas, OpenAI’s daily active users also saw a 2.7% bump post-game, and Google’s Gemini added 1.4%. AI brand ads took center stage at the Super Bowl, reaching an audience of about 125 million in the U.S. alone. However, Claude’s user base still lags behind those of ChatGPT and Gemini.

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Michael Saylor skipped the announcement of a weekly BTC purchase. Despite expectations of buying up to 1,600 BTC, the Executive Chairman of Strategy just sent out messages to calm the market. 

Michael Saylor’s Strategy did not make the usual BTC purchase announcement. Despite BTC hovering below $70,000, the company did not buy the dip. The previous week, Strategy acquired 1,142 BTC.

Instead, he mentioned one of Bitcoin’s main features, its non-stop trading. Despite this, the Year of the Horse celebrations put a damper on crypto activity and overall trading volumes. 

Markets closed. Bitcoin open. Happy Hodlday.

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) February 16, 2026

Strategy’s move was unexpected, as the company did not skip its BTC purchases, except for its quarterly report weeks. The skipped purchase arrived at a time of extreme market fear, as the Bitcoin fear and greed index is stuck at 12 points. 

Why did Strategy fail to buy more BTC?

Strategy was expected to buy more BTC based on its success with selling STRC preferred shares in the past week. 

Based on STRC’s preferred stocks traded in the $99-101 range, the Strategy was supposed to hold the equivalent of 1,459 BTC, a respectable weekly rise. The usage of STRC to raise funds also stops the MSTR common stock dilution, however briefly. 

On Monday, STRC returned below $100, meaning no new preferred shares were sold. For now, it remains uncertain if Strategy will announce a purchase by the end of the week, waiting out the market holidays in Asia, or its weekly raise will be used for cash reserves. For now, Strategy managed to calm the markets, while its MSTR common stock recovered to $133.

The chief concern for Strategy is that it will have to resort to depleting its cash reserves for dividends and to cover its loans maturing in 2028. The concerns may be moot in a bull market, but remain a threat if BTC crashes to a low price range.

Market downturn points to XRP liquidation risk 

The market slowdown during the Asian New Year celebrations may be the beginning of a more turbulent week. XRP open interest hovers just below $1B, mostly driven by rebuilding long positions. 

XRP may be one of the indicators, as the altcoin is among the most heavily shorted. Over $62M in liquidations are threatened if XRP falls to $1.44. The asset already hovered close to that range, at $1.49. 

XPR is seen as an indicator of overall market sentiment. The altcoin retains one of the highest mindshare levels on social media, but has not revisited a higher price range. According to researcher Rob Cunningham, Ripple still has the chance to establish itself as part of the banking payment infrastructure. 

If global banks moved from managing 50 fiat liquidity corridors to a single interoperable, ISO20022 aligned bridge asset on DLT rails, what efficiency gains emerge in time, cost, and risk?

Today’s cross-border banking model is built on:
•Correspondent banking
•Nostro/Vostro… pic.twitter.com/wojEAsUFIe

— Rob Cunningham | KUWL.show (@KuwlShow) February 16, 2026

Despite this, Standard Chartered lowered its XRP price forecast to $2.80 by the end of the year, down from a previous estimate of $8. 

Weakening altcoins are adding to BTC’s sentiment, once again raising the question of the depth of the bear market. Other leading altcoins like SOL, TRX, DOGE, and HYPE are also being predominantly shorted, with lower open interest.

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European banks powered through a sharp jump in cross-border deals as the total value of €17 billion showed a break from years of slow activity. The rise came after stronger profits and higher share prices pushed banks across Europe to take bigger bets again.

Last year’s total came from many large mergers that moved the sector to its highest level since the 2008 crisis.

The figure had been €3.4 billion the year before, so the scale of the change was hard to ignore for anyone who follows money, markets, or crypto.

Financial firms worldwide also pushed $660 billion in M&A, up from $454 billion in 2024. That shift kept the sector at 14% of total global deal value.

The main themes in 2025 were bigger deal sizes and stronger consolidation inside Europe, where banks wanted scale.

Banks in the Middle East also stayed active, with half of the largest banks in the region taking part in deals over the past five years, mostly linked to Islamic banking. In the United States, a market with more than 4,000 banks, midsize firms looked for mergers to grow, which gave the sector more space for activity, according to data from McKinsey.

Tracking sharp changes in deal value across markets

S&P Global said:-

“The European M&A market declined year over year in both deal value and volume, with the United Kingdom leading the charge despite remaining the top destination. Deal values dropped from $162.7B to $150.9B, with deal volume also dropping from 4,186 to 3,244, marking -7% and -23% decreases in activity.”

S&P Global also noted that Communication Services and Financials were the only sectors that grew, and most big deals came from foreign buyers. Nine of the top ten deals involved buyers from outside the region, and six involved buying a single asset or division, which showed strong demand for carve-outs and divestitures.

The Americas carried more than half of global deal value. Activity there hit $2.9 trillion in 2025, which beat the ten-year average of $1.9 trillion by 50%.The US economy stayed firm with falling rates, higher stock indexes, steady profits, and extended tax cuts under President Donald Trump.

Source: S&P Global

That mix pushed more companies toward deals. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in March approved a plan to reduce checks on mergers that create banks with more than $50 billion in assets.

In July, the Federal Reserve proposed changes that would make it easier for banks to keep a well-managed status. A bank would now lose that status only after several low ratings, not just one.

Europe’s deals, IPO limits, and private equity moves

EU banks completed only 19 cross-border mergers last year, even though the value was high. The public-offering market in Europe stayed weak, with a small IPO window. The IPOs that did happen came from sectors with strong demand and clearer earnings paths.

These sectors were healthcare, industrial tech, and consumer and retail. Large offerings were rare because many firms waited for better market conditions. Spin-offs stayed active because they depend more on company plans than on IPO conditions.

Private equity moved back into the picture. PE deal value rose 18% to $331 billion, equal to 33% of all deal value.PE kept a larger share of deals in EMEA than in the United States because several regions in EMEA have long-established PE markets.

The sector also had large dry powder levels, more access to IPO exits, and long-term bets on infrastructure and Europe’s competitiveness.

Sector numbers showed clear patterns. TMT led with 20% of all deal value in 2025, reaching $202 billion, up 9% from the year before.

Six of the 20 biggest deals in the region came from financial services, giving that sector 17% of deal value, up from 10% in 2024.

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YZi Labs is attempting to expand the board of directors at CEA Industries Inc. in order to have more influence over the company’s operations. Shareholders are currently unable to vote or submit consents as the filing remains under review by the SEC.

In July 2025, YZi Labs raised $500 million in a private placement (PIPE) to build the world’s largest corporate BNB treasury. However, by December 2025, YZi Labs accused the company’s asset manager, 10X Capital and BNC management of privately attempting to shift away from the BNB-only strategy and include other cryptocurrencies, such as Solana (SOL). 

Expanding the Board of Directors at CEA Industries ensures that YZi Labs can nominate people who align with their vision for the company’s future. 

Why is YZi Labs trying to change the board of CEA Industries?

YZi Labs Management Ltd. has filed a revised preliminary consent statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The group is attempting to expand the size of the Board of Directors at CEA Industries and to place specific nominees into those new positions.

CEA Industries is a company that provides engineering and technology for indoor farming. The company rebranded as the BNB Network Company (BNC) in order to become a digital asset treasury (DAT), holding Binance Coin (BNB) as its primary reserve, similar to how other companies hold Bitcoin. 

In July 2025, YZi Labs raised $500 million in a private placement (PIPE) that BNC was to use the capital to build the world’s largest corporate BNB treasury. By August, the company had acquired over 515,000 BNB, worth nearly $465 million at the time.

However, by December 2025, YZi Labs issued a formal notice accusing the company’s asset manager, 10X Capital and BNC management of privately attempting to shift away from the BNB-only strategy and include other cryptocurrencies, such as Solana (SOL). 

The fallout caused BNC’s stock to drop approximately 87% from its post-announcement highs. 

Most recently, in the latest episode of the fallout, the YZi Labs Team released a “BNC Shareholder Update” to thank investors for being proactive. They confirmed that the revised filing is currently under review by the SEC and explained that shareholders cannot vote or submit any consent forms at this time. Investors must wait for official updates on the timing of the vote once the SEC finishes its review process.

Expanding the Board of Directors at CEA Industries ensures that YZi Labs can nominate people who align with their vision for the company’s future. The group is led by Changpeng Zhao, who is the sole director of YZi Labs Management. 

Other participants include Max Baucus Sieben (a former U.S. Senator and Ambassador), David James Chapman, and Matthew Roszak. 

What is going on between YZi Labs and CEA Industries?

Beyond Changpeng Zhao and Max Baucus, the group includes Jiajin He, who is deemed to beneficially own over 2 million shares. Alex Odagiu is also listed as a participant with a smaller shareholding. Other named participants include Marie Teresa Goody Guillené and Ling Zhang.

Currently, YZi Labs Management directly owns 2,150,481 shares of common stock. However, they hold millions of shares through different types of warrants, including approximately 7.7 million Pre-Funded Warrants, 9.9 million Stapled Warrants, and 3.5 million Strategic Advisor Warrants.

Under the Beneficial Ownership Limitation, YZi Labs cannot exercise these warrants if doing so would give it more than 4.99% of the company’s total shares, forcing the group to use a different method to influence the company’s governance.

The status of the filing is currently preliminary. The SEC must review the language to ensure it follows all legal requirements for soliciting shareholder consents. Once the SEC is satisfied, YZi Labs will distribute a “WHITE consent card” to shareholders so they can officially vote for or against the board expansion and the new nominees.

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Japan posted a 0.1% increase in fourth-quarter output, which kept the country out of a technical recession but did not meet the 0.4% call from economists.

The number reversed the 0.7% fall recorded in the third quarter, yet the gain stayed very small. The annualized reading reached 0.2%, far below the 1.6% forecast and coming after a 2.3% fall in the prior quarter. Year-on-year growth landed at 0.1%, slowing from 0.6%, and the Cabinet Office data pointed to private spending as the only strong part.

Weak exports and public spending continued to weigh on the economy. Right after the release, the Nikkei 225 opened 0.12% higher, while the yen dropped 0.25% to 153.06 against the dollar.

Crypto traders watching macro trends noted how slow growth can feed into risk mood, and many kept a close eye on how Japan moves next.

Central bank raises outlook and pushes moderate expansion

Bank of Japan raised its growth view in January for the fiscal year ending March 2026, moving its forecast from 0.7% to 0.9%. It also lifted the fiscal 2026 outlook from 0.7% to 1%.

The central bank said it expects moderate expansion as other regions pick up speed. It pointed to a cycle where wages and prices rise together, backed by government steps and easy financial conditions. This update came as Japan worked with the U.S., its second-largest trading partner, on a $550 billion investment pledge tied to their trade deal.

NHK said last Friday that both sides still have no agreement on which projects will come first. Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa said he wanted the first deals done before Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump had announced the meeting before the Feb. 8 Lower House election. That vote gave Takaichi and the Liberal Democratic Party a wide win.

After the result, Takaichi said she would back growth by raising investment through “proactive” fiscal steps, though she did not go into detail. She had already promised a two-year break on food taxes and a move to lift defense spending to 2% of GDP.

These plans now sit against fresh soft data from Japan, which keeps drawing attention from anyone watching global liquidity, including crypto traders who track how big economies shape risk markets.

Regional markets respond and track weak Japan data

Asian markets spent Monday in quiet trade as the Lunar New Year kept China, South Korea, and Taiwan shut. Currencies and bonds held steady, while precious metals saw new pressure through the morning.

The weak numbers from Japan pulled some heat out of last week’s strong market run. The country recorded only 0.2% annualized growth for the December quarter, far under the 1.6% call. Government spending acted as a drag again. The result added more weight on Takaichi’s push for a larger fiscal path.

The Nikkei inched 0.2% higher after rising 5% the week before. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index outside Japan gained 0.4%. South Korea’s tech-heavy market climbed 8.2% for the week, while Taiwan rose almost 6%.

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