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South Korean prosecutors have recovered $21 million worth of bitcoin that was stolen from their custody last year.
The hacker returned the bitcoin after authorities blocked centralized exchange transactions involving the stolen assets, though prosecutors said the hacker’s identity remains unknown.
South Korean prosecutors have recovered roughly $21.4 million worth of bitcoin
BTC-1.65%
stolen from their custody last year, according to local media reports.
Last December, the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office discovered that they had lost the bitcoin seized from a raid on a gambling platform. An internal investigation revealed that the bitcoin was hacked in August after investigators mistakenly accessed a phishing website and entered recovery seed phrases.
On Tuesday, the hacker returned 320.8 BTC to the wallet held by authorities, local news outlet Digital Asset reported. Prosecutors said they had blocked centralized exchange transactions involving the hacker's wallet, making it difficult to liquidate the bitcoin. The hacker’s identity remains un known.
Prosecutors have since moved the returned bitcoin to a local exchange for safekeeping and will continue to track down the hacker's identity, the report said.
Meanwhile, the incident has prompted a nationwide review of investigative agencies' management of seized digital assets. Last week, the investigation revealed that the Seoul Gangnam Police Station has also lost track of 22 BTC stored in a cold wallet since 2021.
The Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency confirmed with The Block that it has launched an internal probe to determine the exact circumstances of the leak and whether there was any internal involvement.
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MARKETS•FEBRUARY 18, 2026, 5:47AM EST
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Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said decentralized finance may help lead crypto out of the current bear market, citing improving fundamentals and institutional investment.
Meanwhile, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor acknowledged that crypto winter is underway but expects a swift recovery, writing that “spring is coming — and bitcoin is winning.”
Decentralized finance could help lead crypto out of its current bear market, according to Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who said recent governance changes and institutional investment signal strengthening fundamentals across the sector.
In a memo to clients late Tuesday, Hougan said crypto winter often obscures meaningful progress. "In bear markets, investors tend to ignore good news. That can create opportunities for people who are paying attention," he wrote, pointing to developments at major DeFi protocols as evidence of improving conditions.
Hougan, who outlined the optimistic case for crypto in 2026 on The Block's Crypto Beat podcast earlier this week, argued that leading DeFi platforms already operate as "serious businesses with real users." He cited Uniswap's DEX trading volume, which regularly exceeds Coinbase's centralized exchange, and DeFi lender Aave's annual revenue of more than $100 million.
Strengthening token economics
"One of my highest-conviction beliefs is that the next crypto bull market will be focused on fundamentals. Crypto investors are tired of promises; they want to see real users, revenues, and value," Hougan said. "DeFi fits the bill."
However, DeFi tokens have historically struggled to capture that value because most were designed, due to regulatory concerns at the time, primarily as governance tools without direct economic rights, he argued, with Aave down 50% in the past year and Uniswap flat over the past five.
Hougan highlighted a recent governance proposal from Aave Labs as a potential turning point.
The proposal would commit Aave Labs to sending all revenue from Aave-branded products to the DAO treasury, which is controlled by token holders, while transferring intellectual property rights and restructuring incentives between developers and the community.
Hougan said this shift could help resolve longstanding misalignment between protocol success and token value. "In theory, every dollar of product revenue will flow to the DAO," he wrote, allowing token holders to decide whether to fund development, buy back tokens, or build reserves.
However, it has sparked debate within the Aave community. Some prominent community members have pushed back on the proposal, calling the funding request from Aave Labs "extractive," while others have raised concerns about how revenue will be defined and governed. Hougan acknowledged that the details remain important but said the broader shift toward stronger token economics could reshape the sector. "If Aave can do it, so can other DeFi assets," he wrote.
Hougan also pointed to growing institutional participation in DeFi as further evidence of momentum, noting recent investments by BlackRock in Uniswap tokens and Apollo in Morpho, an Aave competitor.
"Improving tokenomics. Institutional investment. Strong usage," Hougan wrote. "In bear markets, you want to look for areas that show strength. It sure looks like DeFi is one of them."
'Spring is coming'
Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday, Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor agreed that the crypto market is currently experiencing a significant downturn but described the environment as less severe than previous cycles and positioned for recovery.
"We are in a crypto winter," Saylor said, adding that it is "a much milder winter" and predicting it "will be shorter than previous winters."
Saylor attributed his optimism to growing institutional and financial system support, noting that the banking sector is supporting bitcoin
BTC-0.70%
more strongly today than four years ago, alongside continued capital inflows and technological progress across the digital asset ecosystem.
He echoed that outlook in a post on X, writing: "We may be in the middle of a crypto winter, but spring is coming — and bitcoin is winning."
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An Abu Dhabi investment vehicle backed by UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The deal was signed four days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration and never publicly disclosed.
Half was paid upfront, with $187 million going to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to entities tied to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s family; Eric Trump signed the agreement, among others.
Tahnoon has pushed the U.S. for access to powerful AI chips; the Trump administration has pledged to sell 500,000 powerful chips to the UAE annually, including to Tahnoon’s company G42.
An investment vehicle backed by Emirati Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan secretly acquired a 49% stake in
WLFI-16.08%
for $500 million just days before President Donald Trump's inauguration, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation published Saturday.
The deal, signed by Eric Trump on behalf of the project four days before the January 2025 inauguration, was never publicly disclosed. The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi entity backed by Tahnoon, the UAE's national security adviser and brother to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, the Journal reported.
Under the agreement, half of the $500 million was paid upfront, with $187 million flowing to Trump family-controlled entities and at least $31 million going to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, the real estate magnate who co-founded World Liberty and was later named U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff's son Zach is the current CEO of the project.
G42 executives helped manage Aryam Investment 1 and took board seats at World Liberty as part of the transaction, making Tahnoon's vehicle the crypto venture's largest outside shareholder, the Journal reported.
The disclosure helps explain a previously unexplained shift in World Liberty's ownership structure. As The Block reported in June 2025, DT Marks DeFi LLC, the Trump-linked firm behind World Liberty Financial, had quietly reduced its equity interest in the project's holding company from 60% to 40%, down from 75% in December 2024. The company did not explain at the time who had acquired the stake.
The math roughly tracks if Aryam's 49% stake came proportionally from all existing shareholders: a 75% stake diluted by a 49% outside investment would leave DT Marks with approximately 38%, close to the figure now disclosed on World Liberty's website.
Sheikh secures AI chips months after deal
The revelation intensifies scrutiny around World Liberty's deepening financial ties to UAE interests. Weeks before the Trump administration announced a framework allowing the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips annually, another Tahnoon-led firm, MGX, used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment into crypto exchange Binance. That transaction helped establish USD1 as one of the fastest-growing stablecoins by market capitalization, with over $5 billion now in circulation.
The overlapping timelines have drawn concern from Democrats. In September 2025, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Elissa Slotkin called for investigations into potential conflicts of interest involving Witkoff and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, citing a New York Times investigation that documented the proximity between World Liberty's UAE deals and the administration's chip export negotiations.
World Liberty Financial and the White House denied any wrongdoing in response to the Journal's reporting. Spokespeople told the outlet that Trump was not involved in the deal and that it did not influence U.S. policy decisions. The project has previously maintained that Trump and his family are not involved in day-to-day management, with operations handled by crypto-native executives including CEO Zach Witkoff and co-founders Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.
Tahnoon has been central to the UAE's push to become a global AI and technology hub. G42, the AI conglomerate he chairs, had previously faced Biden-era restrictions on advanced chip access due to national security concerns about the company's past ties to Chinese firms. Those restrictions were reversed under the Trump administration, which in November 2025 approved sales of computing power equivalent to 35,000 of Nvidia's most advanced GB300 processors to G42.
World Liberty Financial launched in October 2024 and has since expanded into stablecoin issuance, DeFi lending, and is pursuing a national trust bank charter to formalize its USD1 operations under federal supervision. The project lists President Trump and his sons Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron as co-fou nders.
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President Trump announced Kevin Warsh as his pick for Federal Reserve chair following a sharp surge in prediction market odds overnight.
Warsh, a former Fed governor with relatively crypto-friendly views, is widely regarded as a monetary policy hawk.
President Donald Trump announced Kevin Warsh as his pick to lead the Federal Reserve, confirming speculation that intensified overnight as prediction markets sharply shifted in his favor.
"I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Kevin Warsh to be the CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, highlighting his prior service as a Federal Reserve governor, his current role as a Hoover Institution fellow and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, and his work as a partner at Duquesne Family Office alongside Stanley Druckenmiller.
"I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best," Trump added. "On top of everything else, he is 'central casting,' and he will never let you down. Congratulations, Kevin!"
Warsh had emerged as the clear frontrunner ahead of the announcement, with Polymarket traders pricing his odds at 95% late Thursday, up from 39% earlier in the day. His implied probability on Kalshi also climbed to 96%, following the president's confirmation that he would announce his pick on Friday morning at the premiere of first lady Melania Trump's self-titled documentary last night.
Warsh, 55, previously served on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and formerly worked as a banker at Morgan Stanley, making him a well-known figure in U.S. economic policymaking circles.
President Trump's formal nomination ends weeks of speculation over his pick, though Warsh still requires Senate confirmation before he can begin a four-year term and officially replace current chair Jerome Powell, whose tenure is scheduled to end in May.
Warsh's bitcoin views and crypto investments
Warsh's comments on bitcoin at the Hoover Institution’s Inflation is a Choice event last July have drawn particular attention as digital asset markets digest the nomination. During that event, he rejected the notion that bitcoin poses a systemic threat to the Federal Reserve's ability to manage the economy and instead described it as an asset that could help inform policymakers.
"Bitcoin doesn't trouble me," Warsh said at the time. "I think of it as an important asset that can help inform policymakers when they're doing things right and wrong. It is not a substitute to the dollar. I think it can often be a very good policeman for policy."
Warsh also pointed to the concentration of global engineering talent in the United States, arguing that building emerging technologies domestically creates long-term economic advantages. "It's just the newest, coolest software that will provide us the ability to do things that we could never have done before," he said.
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Warsh has also been connected to the crypto industry through early investments in an algorithmic stablecoin project, Basis, and through advisory and investor roles with crypto index manager Bitwise.
However, Warsh's stance on digital assets remains nuanced and he has at times expressed support for central bank digital currency frameworks — something President Trump has vocally opposed and pledged would not happen during his election campaign.

As the sun rises on Sunday, March 2, 2025, bitcoin lingered beneath the $90,000 threshold at $85,803 globally, yet South Korea’s markets defied the trend, with BTC commanding a 2.18% premium to reach $87,673—a resilient divergence in an otherwise tempestuous climate.
Three Months, One Trend: South Korea’s Bitcoin Valuation Outpaces Global Markets
Bitcoin has navigated an unforgiving week, compounding a 30-day descent of 18.1%, as geopolitical tremors tied to Trump’s tariff policies injected volatility into financial markets. Against this backdrop, South Korea’s BTC valuations have consistently outpaced global averages throughout February, crafting a narrative of localized defiance.
Historical data from cryptoquant.com reveals this premium phenomenon has persisted since Dec. 16, 2024, threading a tale of contrast between regional enthusiasm and broader market trepidation. By the close of December, the bitcoin premium in South Korea reached 5.26%, and by the end of January 2025, it had risen to 7.27%. It did not stop there; on Feb. 8, the premium attained an 8.32% high relative to the weighted global average
South Korea’s bitcoin premium diminished late February and into early March, resting at 2.84% on March 1 before tapering to 2.18% as of Sunday, March 2, per current metrics. By 8 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) that day, the nation’s BTC valuation eclipsed global averages by $1,870—a persistent and present price anomaly.
Parallel to this, the Coinbase Premium Index and Gap, hosted on cryptoquant.com, oscillated through February, its erratic undulations hinting at U.S. investors’ cautious inertia. Notably, since Feb. 24, the index has languished in negative territory, framing a stark trans-Pacific contrast: South Korean traders propelled demand with vigor, while their American counterparts exercised restraint.
Beyond stablecoins’ dominance, the U.S. dollar remains BTC’s foremost trading partner, though the South Korean won trails closely behind, accounting for 3.20% to 5.6% of global transactions in the past week. Daily trading volumes for the euro, Canadian dollar, and British pound pale beside the won’s brisk activity. Stablecoins command the lion’s share of BTC volume, trailed by the greenback and the won—a trio that’s been shaping crypto’s liquidity hierarchy over the last year.
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BRICS will prioritize secure, transparent payment systems this year under Brazil’s leadership, advancing financial sovereignty and reducing reliance on Western financial networks.
BRICS Payment Systems Just Got Serious—Brazil’s 2025 Agenda Revealed
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Feb. 26 that Brazil will focus on developing secure payment systems during its BRICS presidency in 2025. Speaking at the BRICS Sherpas meeting in Brasilia, Lula da Silva stated:
Brazil is going during the period of its presidency to fully develop … transparent and safe payment systems.
The initiative is part of a broader strategy to strengthen financial infrastructure among BRICS nations, potentially reducing reliance on Western financial systems and enhancing economic cooperation within the bloc.
In addition to secure payment systems, Lula da Silva emphasized the need to expand trade between BRICS countries to further solidify their economic ties. He urged member states to boost bilateral trade, stating: “The BRICS community became the driver of positive changes in our countries and globally.” However, he acknowledged challenges, emphasizing: “At the same time, we face tasks to increase coordination [of efforts among BRICS members].” His remarks reflect ongoing efforts to deepen economic integration among BRICS nations.
BRICS countries have been increasingly focused on alternative payment systems, particularly following Western sanctions on Russia that restricted its access to the SWIFT financial network. As a result, member states have explored new mechanisms for trade settlements, including the use of local currencies and blockchain-based systems.
The bloc has also discussed the possibility of developing a BRICS common currency to facilitate trade and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar. Brazil’s leadership in 2025 could accelerate dedollarization efforts, further positioning BRICS as a challenger to the Western-dominated financial order. Lula da Silva’s push for secure payment systems aligns with this broader agenda of financial sovereignty and global influence.
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Bitcoin is currently trading at $85,634, with a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion and a 24-hour trade volume of $68 billion, moving within an intraday range of $82,133 to $87,686 as technical indicators reflect a market struggling between short-term recovery and persistent bearish pressure.
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Bitcoin‘s 1-hour chart signals a slight recovery following a local bottom at $82,133, with buyers stepping in to stabilize prices. However, resistance at $86,000 remains a critical barrier, preventing a stronger upward push. If bitcoin holds the $84,000–$85,000 range, a breakout toward $88,000 is possible. A failure to maintain this support level could lead to a retest of $82,000, reinforcing the broader bearish sentiment.
BTC/USD 1H chart via Bitstamp on Feb. 27, 2025.
On the 4-hour chart, bitcoin’s price trend remains short-term bearish, though signs of accumulation are emerging. Increased volume on upward movements suggests traders are buying at lower levels. Key resistance lies between $86,000 and $88,000, with a breakout above this zone potentially driving prices toward $90,000. However, failure to surpass this range could signal another leg down toward $82,000 or lower.
BTC/USD 4H chart via Bitstamp on Feb. 27, 2025.
The daily chart confirms the prevailing bearish trend, with strong downward momentum and increasing sell volume. Major resistance sits around $109,356, while support is near $82,133. The price must reclaim $90,000 to disrupt the current downtrend, but if support breaks, bitcoin could see further downside toward $78,000 or even $75,000 in the coming sessions.
BTC/USD 1D chart via Bitstamp on Feb. 27, 2025.
Oscillators present mixed signals, with the relative strength index (RSI) at 30, Stochastic at 17, and momentum at -10,014, all indicating a buying opportunity. Meanwhile, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) remains negative at -2,818, signaling ongoing bearish momentum.
Moving averages (MAs) continue to reinforce the downtrend, with the exponential moving average (EMA) and simple moving average (SMA) across multiple timeframes—10, 20, 30, 50, and 100—flashing sell signals. The only bullish signs come from the EMA 200 and SMA 200, suggesting long-term support near $85,647 and $81,879, respectively.
In conclusion, bitcoin faces critical resistance at $86,000–$88,000, and a breakout above this level is necessary for a bullish reversal toward $90,000 or higher. Failure to reclaim this range may lead to further declines, with $82,000 as the immediate support level and a potential drop toward $78,000. Traders should closely monitor price action, particularly around key resistance and support zones, as the market remains at a pivotal juncture.
Bull Verdict:
If bitcoin successfully breaks above $88,000 with strong buying volume, it could signal a shift in momentum, allowing the price to reclaim $90,000 and push toward higher resistance levels. A sustained move above this zone may indicate the end of the downtrend and the beginning of a new bullish cycle, targeting $95,000 and beyond.
Bear Verdict:
If bitcoin fails to break above $86,000–$88,000 and instead loses support at $84,000, the market is likely to see further declines. A drop below $82,000 could accelerate selling pressure, pushing prices toward $78,000 or even $75,000, reinforcing the prevailing bearish trend.
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