CoinPhoton

Bitcoin’s fall to around $60,000 should be viewed as a two-stage capitulation process rather than a single-day panic bottom, based on on-chain data analysis. The selling did not come from one uniform group, but from different investor cohorts surrendering at different times.
The first capitulation wave happened in November 2025 near $80,000, driven mainly by investors who bought earlier in the cycle and endured a long period of sideways price action. After months without a clear breakout, many exited positions out of exhaustion and loss of conviction. That phase reflected time-based fatigue turning into realized losses.
The second capitulation wave arrived in February 2026, when Bitcoin dropped toward $60,000. This time, selling was split between remaining older holders and newer dip buyers who had entered between roughly $80,000 and $98,000 expecting a bottom. When price continued lower, those newer entrants were forced to close at losses, creating a confidence-driven surrender layered on top of the earlier exhaustion-driven one.
On-chain metrics recorded some of the largest realized losses in dollar terms on record, with short-term holders absorbing the majority of the damage and net realized losses peaking around $1.5 billion per day. At the same time, volumes jumped sharply across spot, ETF, futures, and options markets, signaling broad, high-stress redistribution rather than routine profit-taking.
Instead of defining a precise bottom price, the data points to a bottoming zone built around network cost-basis levels. With two major surrender phases completed and weaker hands largely cleared, the next stage is likely to be consolidation and gradual rebuilding of risk appetite rather than an immediate straight-line recovery.

Changpeng Zhao and Barry Silbert agree that the biggest barrier preventing crypto payments from replacing bank transfers is the lack of practical privacy.
CZ argues that with current on-chain payments, salary and transaction details are fully transparent, meaning anyone can see how much a company pays each employee. This level of visibility makes businesses reluctant to use crypto for payroll and commercial payments. He says crypto needs compliant but shielded payment mechanisms to enable broader real-world adoption.
Silbert supports this view and calls privacy-focused crypto an “asymmetric bet” similar to early Bitcoin investments. He believes a portion of capital could shift from Bitcoin into privacy-oriented assets in the coming years. While still bullish on Bitcoin, he notes it is no longer truly anonymous due to blockchain analytics firms like Chainalysis and Elliptic.
Overall, both leaders see privacy — not AI or institutional adoption — as the key missing link for crypto payments to scale.

Ray Dalio says the decades-old global order built after World War II has effectively collapsed and is being replaced by a new era driven by raw power and intensifying great-power rivalry. In a recent post, he cited statements from leaders at the Munich Security Conference as confirmation that the rules-based framework is breaking down.
Dalio argues the world is entering “Stage 6” of his long-term Big Cycle model — a disorderly phase marked by weak rules, power politics, and multi-layered conflict. He says international relations function more like a law-of-the-jungle system than a legal system, with disputes settled through pressure, sanctions, and force rather than neutral arbitration.
He outlines five main conflict channels — trade, technology, geopolitics, capital, and military — noting that economic and financial warfare often comes before shooting wars. Dalio stresses that wars rarely go as planned and are usually more damaging than expected, urging leaders to avoid reckless escalation.
He highlights financial strength as the foundation of geopolitical power and identifies U.S.–China tensions, especially around Taiwan, as the most dangerous flashpoint. For investors, he warns that major geopolitical shifts often bring capital controls, asset freezes, market disruptions, and higher taxes, with gold historically serving as a defensive hedge. Despite the risks, he says decline is not inevitable if major powers manage finances responsibly and pursue cooperative, win-win relationships.

Crypto markets remain under pressure, but a recent report from Binance Research says the downturn looks like a macro-driven reset rather than a structural breakdown.
Prices have fallen sharply, with Bitcoin down roughly half from its late-2025 peak, as risk-off sentiment, strong employment data, and delayed rate-cut expectations weigh on risk assets. Altcoins have underperformed as speculative capital continues to unwind and investors rotate toward larger, perceived safer assets.
Despite weaker prices, several resilience signals remain. Spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management have only declined modestly, suggesting longer-term institutional positioning. Stablecoin supply is still near record highs, indicating capital has largely stayed within on-chain ecosystems.
The report also highlights continued growth in real-world asset tokenization, including tokenized Treasuries and yield products. A key milestone is BlackRock using Uniswap infrastructure to settle trades for a tokenized Treasury fund, signaling rising institutional use of DeFi rails. Binance Research expects volatility to remain elevated but sees ongoing progress in tokenization, DeFi, and institutional adoption as supportive for a future recovery when liquidity conditions improve.

Two legendary physical Bitcoin coins holding a combined 2,000 BTC — worth over $120 million — were recently moved on-chain after more than 13 years of inactivity, drawing widespread attention in the crypto community. These coins are part of the early “physical Bitcoin” series that stored private keys under tamper-evident hologram seals on metal coins or bars.
Mark Karpelès, former CEO of Mt. Gox, said he did not own the 1,000 BTC bars involved but confirmed he once held many smaller-denomination physical coins and distributed some as employee bonuses during the exchange’s peak years.
The coins were originally created between 2011 and 2013 by Mike Caldwell to make Bitcoin usable in face-to-face transactions. Production stopped after FinCEN ruled that selling pre-funded coins qualified as money transmission. Today, unopened coins carry not only their BTC value but also a significant collector premium, and it remains unclear how many early recipients still hold them intact.

Cboe moves to relaunch binary options under U.S. exchange rules
Cboe is seeking approval to bring back all-or-nothing binary options — contracts that pay a fixed amount if a condition is met and zero if it is not — in a new proposal filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The move aims to package probability-style trading inside regulated exchange infrastructure and retail brokerage channels.
Binary options are designed around a simple yes/no outcome and a single tradable price, making them easier for retail traders to understand than standard options. Instead of scaling profits with the size of a price move, these contracts settle at a fixed payout or expire worthless.
The timing reflects the growing popularity of prediction-style trading formats, where users treat prices like implied odds. However, Cboe is not attempting to replicate crypto-native venues such as Polymarket feature-for-feature. Rather, it is targeting the same user mental model while keeping products within regulated listing, clearing, and surveillance frameworks.
Regulatory boundaries remain a key constraint. U.S. exchanges face limits on which event-style contracts they can list and how closely products can resemble sports betting. Ongoing legal and jurisdictional disputes involving event-contract platforms like Kalshi and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission highlight how sensitive that line can be.
If approved and widely distributed through broker apps, the product could push probability trading further into mainstream retail markets. If restricted, analysts say adoption may lag more flexible open-market alternatives.

Coinbase CEO sparks backlash over stablecoin rewards ban comments
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, drew criticism after saying a ban on stablecoin rewards under the proposed CLARITY Act could actually make the exchange more profitable, even though he opposes the measure.
Armstrong argued that if rewards for holding stablecoins such as USDC were prohibited, Coinbase would no longer need to pay out large incentive amounts to users, improving short-term margins. He maintained, however, that allowing customers to earn rewards is better for users and helps U.S.-regulated stablecoins stay competitive globally.
His remarks triggered pushback on social media, with critics calling the stance disingenuous and noting that reward programs help exchanges attract users and drive trading volume and fee revenue. Armstrong later acknowledged that while rewards are a cost, they also contribute to broader crypto ecosystem growth and long-term business gains.
Disagreements between crypto firms and banks over stablecoin rewards remain unresolved, and the bill has reportedly stalled on this issue.

Kevin O’Leary awarded $2.8M in defamation case against BitBoy
A Florida federal judge has awarded $2.8 million in damages to investor and TV personality Kevin O’Leary in a defamation lawsuit against former crypto influencer Ben Armstrong, widely known online as BitBoy.
The ruling came as a default judgment after Armstrong failed to mount a legal defense, resulting in a loss on six counts of defamation per se. The case stemmed from social media posts published in March 2025 that falsely accused O’Leary of murder tied to a 2019 boating accident. O’Leary was a passenger in the incident and was never charged.
The judgment, entered by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, includes roughly $78,000 for reputational harm, $750,000 for emotional distress, and $2 million in punitive damages. Armstrong’s later attempt to overturn the default judgment was rejected by the court.
The decision adds to a growing list of legal troubles surrounding the former influencer, who has faced multiple arrests and lawsuits over the past two years.

Polymarket responds to Vitalik Buterin’s prediction market criticism
Polymarket pushed back after Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, warned that prediction markets are drifting too far toward short-term speculative betting and could become fragile in bear markets.
A Polymarket response said prediction markets should be viewed primarily as price-discovery and information-aggregation tools rather than pure gambling products. The platform argued that markets tied to politics, economics, and real-world events continue to generate useful signals for users and analysts.
According to the response, short-term speculative trading represents only one segment of activity, while longer-horizon and data-driven markets are expanding. Polymarket added that AI-powered hedging tools and consumer-focused use cases can be built alongside existing markets instead of replacing the current model.
The exchange comes as the prediction market sector sees rapid growth in volume and institutional participation across the digital asset ecosystem.

DeFi spot volume triples since the start of 2026
DeFi spot trading volume has surged roughly threefold since the beginning of 2026, signaling a strong rebound in onchain trading activity and user participation across decentralized exchanges.
Weekly data shows total spot volume climbing steadily from under $30B in early January to nearly $80B by early February. The rise has been gradual and consistent rather than driven by a single spike, suggesting sustained growth in trading demand and liquidity.
Major decentralized platforms contributing to the increase include Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Raydium, and Hyperliquid. Higher user activity, deeper liquidity pools, and renewed speculative interest have helped push aggregate DeFi spot volumes sharply higher to start the year.
The trend points to renewed momentum in decentralized trading as more capital rotates back into onchain markets.

Over $180M in tokens set to unlock next week
More than $180 million worth of tokens are scheduled to enter circulation between Feb. 16–22, 2026, adding notable new supply across multiple crypto projects.
Major upcoming unlocks include:
• ASTER — $57.9M on Feb. 17
• ZRO — $46.2M on Feb. 20
• YZY — $20.6M on Feb. 17
• ESPORTS — $13.2M on Feb. 19
• STBL — $11.4M on Feb. 16
• ARB — $10.9M on Feb. 16
• KAITO — $10.6M on Feb. 20
• PENGU — $5.2M on Feb. 17
• RIVER — $4.8M on Feb. 22
• ZK — $3.9M on Feb. 19
ASTER leads the schedule with 78.41 million tokens unlocking, valued at roughly $58M, representing the largest share of new supply hitting the market during the week. These events may increase short-term price volatility for affected tokens.

Robert Kiyosaki says he would pick Bitcoin over gold if limited to one asset
Robert Kiyosaki said he would choose Bitcoin over gold if forced to hold only a single asset, pointing to Bitcoin’s fixed supply as a structural advantage. While he supports diversification across gold, silver, and Bitcoin, he stated that a hard cap of 21 million coins makes Bitcoin more attractive than gold, whose supply can expand as mining increases when prices rise.
The Rich Dad Poor Dad author remains strongly bullish on silver, projecting it could reach $200 per ounce by 2026. He also warned that fiat currencies are steadily losing purchasing power and argued that savers holding government-issued money face the greatest long-term risk.
Kiyosaki urged investors to focus on scarce and tangible assets such as gold, silver, real estate, Bitcoin, and Ethereum as hedges against inflation and monetary expansion.

A wave of senior crypto operators stepped down or shifted roles in early 2026, with several moving into AI-focused companies. Because these leaders typically coordinate capital, developer ecosystems, and product distribution, their near-simultaneous exits created concern about a potential talent drain in crypto.
AI is attracting talent and funding at a much larger scale, offering faster product cycles, stronger distribution, and abundant capital. This makes it appealing for experienced operators seeking higher upside and learning velocity compared to crypto’s slower, regulation-heavy infrastructure buildout.
However, developer data does not show a collapse in crypto’s core builder base. Reports from Electric Capital indicate that while new developer inflow has slowed, experienced developers continue to grow, suggesting resilience among long-term contributors.
Industry leaders argue this is cyclical rotation rather than a true exodus. Crypto still holds structural advantages in neutral settlement, programmable money, and stablecoin-based financial rails, with ecosystems such as Solana and scaling platforms like zkSync continuing to mature.
The key risk is not total talent flight but coordination loss: when senior operators leave, productization, compliance alignment, and institutional adoption can slow. The long-term outlook depends on whether crypto can convert regulatory clarity and institutional interest into real user distribution before AI permanently absorbs too many top operators.

Tether is expanding its gold strategy by quietly accumulating about 27 tons of physical gold and investing $150 million into Gold.com to strengthen distribution to crypto users. The deal includes integrating Tether Gold (XAU₮) into Gold.com’s retail platform, allowing users to move from USDT into tokenized or physical gold more easily.
The move reflects growing demand for on-chain “risk-off” assets as market volatility rises and gold prices rally. Tokenized gold’s market cap has surged in parallel, though concerns remain around custody, legal ownership, redemption rights, and regulation, according to Reuters.
Alongside tokenized gold, tokenized Treasuries are also growing quickly, with data from RWA.xyz showing billions in on-chain government debt products used for yield and capital preservation.
Strategically, Tether is positioning gold as both a core reserve asset and a core user hedge product. By pairing stablecoin liquidity with a retail gold storefront, it aims to give crypto users a direct, in-ecosystem path to defensive assets during periods of market stress.

Ethereum’s draft standard ERC-8004 proposes a trustless infrastructure layer that gives AI agents portable onchain identities, reputation histories, and third-party validation records across EVM-compatible networks. The goal is to let autonomous AI systems discover each other, evaluate credibility, and interact economically without relying on centralized directories or marketplaces.
ERC-8004 defines three core onchain registries. The Identity registry mints each agent as an ERC-721 NFT with a unique identifier and a machine-readable registration profile describing capabilities and endpoints. The Reputation registry stores structured feedback from users or other agents, including scores, tags, and references to supporting evidence, creating tamper-evident and queryable trust signals. The Validation registry adds an optional higher-assurance layer where independent validators can score and cryptographically attest to the quality of an agent’s outputs or completed tasks.
Reference deployments are already live, and more than 21,000 AI agents have been registered across multiple EVM chains, with the largest share on Ethereum mainnet and fast-growing clusters on Layer 2 networks. Current use cases include crypto market assistants, DeFi guidance bots, automated trading systems, and creative or analytical AI tools. Some agents also integrate machine-to-machine payment rails alongside reputation tracking.
While ERC-8004 does not eliminate risks such as Sybil attacks or dishonest validators, it introduces a layered, programmable trust model for agent interactions. Supporters view it as early infrastructure for an emerging agent economy, where AI systems can build portable reputations and transact across chains, with market-driven feedback determining which agents are most trusted and widely used.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, raised concerns that modern prediction markets are becoming overly focused on short-term, high-engagement bets — particularly crypto price speculation and sports gambling — which he believes distort incentives and provide little long-term societal value.
He said prediction markets have matured enough to support professional traders and can complement traditional media by aggregating information efficiently. However, he warned that many platforms are converging on “dopamine-driven” use cases that prioritize volume and revenue, especially during bear markets when teams feel pressure to monetize quickly. In his view, relying too heavily on uninformed or financially desperate participants creates unhealthy product dynamics and encourages low-quality market behavior.
Buterin described three core participant groups in prediction markets: informed traders who contribute signal and earn profits, naive traders who tend to lose due to poor assumptions, and hedgers who knowingly accept negative expected returns in exchange for risk reduction. He argues that today’s platforms depend too much on naive traders, while the more sustainable path is to grow hedging use cases.
He proposes shifting prediction markets toward generalized risk-hedging tools — for example, allowing investors to offset political or macro risks tied to their portfolios. He also connects this idea to the future of stable-value assets, suggesting that instead of relying purely on fiat-backed stablecoins, markets could create personalized hedging baskets linked to price indices of real-world goods and services. That model, he says, could improve decentralization and better match users’ actual stability needs.
Overall, Buterin urges builders to move prediction markets toward long-term financial infrastructure and risk management functions rather than short-term speculative betting demand.

Cardano is seeing a wave of visible activity — including product launches, integrations, and major technical upgrades — but industry voices stress that its long-term strength depends on less visible behind-the-scenes work.
According to the CEO of Anastasia Labs, a healthy ecosystem relies not only on big announcements and ideas, but also on ongoing editorial, review, coordination, and cleanup efforts that turn early proposals into usable standards. He highlighted contributor Robert Phair for playing a key role in advancing the CIP process through consistent editing, reviews, and proposal support, calling this largely unseen work foundational to ecosystem maturity.
On the development front, founder Charles Hoskinson said the USDCx stablecoin is expected to launch on Cardano soon, alongside improved wallet-to-exchange user experience. Cross-chain protocol LayerZero is also set to integrate, significantly expanding Cardano’s interoperability and potential access to cross-chain liquidity and tokenized assets.
Additional updates include the upcoming Midnight mainnet launch, progress on the Ouroboros Leios scaling upgrade targeting major TPS gains, a V2 release of the Strike perpetual protocol, and the launch of Cardano futures on CME Group. Together, these moves signal both visible growth and critical foundational work across the ecosystem.

Stablecoin market rebounds, adds $7.25B in two weeks
The stablecoin sector rebounded after slipping from a record peak of about $311.837 billion to $300.722 billion on Feb. 1, adding back roughly $7.251 billion over the past two weeks, with most of the growth concentrated in the last seven days.
Data from DeFiLlama shows total stablecoin market cap rose 2.16% between Feb. 7–14 to about $307.973 billion, accounting for nearly 90% of the two-week expansion.
Tether (USDT) remains dominant with a market cap near $183.7 billion and about 60% share. Circle (USDC) follows at roughly $73.6 billion after a weekly increase of about $1 billion.
Among other issuers, PYUSD from PayPal posted one of the strongest weekly gains, while BUIDL from BlackRock jumped more than 23%, marking a sharp reversal after prior outflows. By contrast, USDe from Ethena and DAI recorded weekly contractions.
Newer entrants such as RLUSD from Ripple and USD1 from World Liberty Financial also continued to grow, pointing to steady capital rotation across fiat-backed tokens.

X to launch Smart Cashtags for stocks and crypto within weeks
X head of product Nikita Bier said Smart Cashtags will roll out in the coming weeks, enabling users to view stock and crypto data directly from their timeline.
The feature will support near real-time pricing for onchain assets, including smaller-cap tokens, and expands the current $TICKER tagging system by letting users link specific assets or smart contract addresses. Tapping a cashtag will show live price charts, related posts, and trading links. The platform clarified it will not execute trades or act as a brokerage.
Bier also said new enforcement measures are coming to curb crypto-related spam, bot activity, and harassment-driven engagement apps across the platform.
Smart Cashtags are part of X’s broader financial push, alongside its X Money wallet initiative and payments partnership with Visa, backed by owner Elon Musk.

BNB Chain hits 5 million daily active users
Data from Artemis shows BNB Chain reached about 5 million daily active users in February 2026, ranking ahead of Tron and Solana, with roughly 10% month-over-month growth based on blockchain analytics estimates.
Community replies on social media expressed strong enthusiasm despite recent FUD surrounding Binance, using memes and commentary to highlight continued ecosystem building on BNB Chain.
The user growth aligns with high onchain activity in DeFi and gaming apps, with more than 31 million daily transactions and around $14 billion in stablecoin market capitalization reported in early-2026 network reviews.