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Bitcoin briefly pushed toward $70,000 before pulling back to around $68,000, even as gold rallied on renewed Middle East tensions and rising safe-haven demand. Despite lingering “extreme fear” across crypto sentiment gauges, traders remain cautiously optimistic. Meanwhile, renewed scrutiny of Bitcoin ETF market mechanics is intensifying amid Jane Street speculation as Ethereum’s leadership rolls out new roadmaps aimed at scaling and countering quantum computing risks.
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News Roundup
Artificial Intelligence
Samsung's Galaxy S26 Billed as First 'Agentic AI Phone' (Decrypt)
AI Models Deployed Nuclear Weapons in 95% of War Simulations (Decrypt)
Claude AI Allegedly Used in Breach of Mexican Government Data (Bloomberg)
Nvidia Delivers Blockbuster Q4 2025 as Data Center Growth Drives Record Annual Revenue (Nvidia)
Perplexity Launches End-to-End AI Platform ‘Perplexity Computer’ (Perplexity)
Anthropic and OpenAI Soften Safety Language as AI Competition Intensifies (Decrypt)
ETH Zurich–Anthropic Study Warns LLM Pipelines Can De-Anonymize Users (Arxiv)
Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance
Morgan Stanley Has Plans For Bitcoin Custody, Trading, and Lending (Bitcoin Magazine)
World Liberty Financial Proposes $WLFI Staking Rewards for Governance Participants (Crypto Briefing)
Telegram Wallet Introduces Onchain Yield for BTC, ETH and USDT Holdings (The Block)
Starknet Unveils strkBTC to Enable Private Bitcoin Use in DeFi (The Block)
MetaMask and Mastercard Roll Out U.S. Self-Custodial Payment Card with Onchain Rewards (The Block)
MEV Capital AUM Plunges 80% as deUSD Depeg Fallout Reshapes Firm (The Block)
Decibel Launches Onchain Perps Exchange on Aptos With $58M War Chest (CoinDesk)
Citi Plans Bitcoin Integration Into Core Banking Systems and Custody Services (Bitcoin Magazine)
Grvt Integrates Aave to Let Traders Earn Yield on Perp Collateral (Cointelegraph)
Sygnum Launches Services Targeting $100B Corporate Crypto Treasuries (Cointelegraph)
Deutsche Bank-Backed AllUnity Launches Swiss Franc Stablecoin (Cointelegraph)
Exchanges
Gate Secures Malta Payments License to Expand EU Fiat and Stablecoin Services (Cointelegraph)
OKX Adds Chainalysis Alterya to Block Scam Withdrawals (Cointelegraph)
Exchange-Traded Products
Bitcoin ETF Market Mechanics Under Spotlight Amid Jane Street Speculation (Decrypt)
UK Retail Investors Barred From Holding Crypto ETNs in Stocks-and-Shares ISAs From April (Financial Times)
U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $506.51 million in net inflows on Feb. 25.
On Feb. 25, U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs saw $157.14 million in net inflows.
U.S. XRP spot ETFs posted $3.09 million in net inflows on Feb. 25.
On Feb. 25, U.S. Solana spot ETFs recorded $30.86 million in net inflows.
REX Shares Launches REX Growth & Income Universe ETF (GIF) (REX Shares)
Gaming
Axie Co-Founder Steps Away From Web3 Gaming to Focus on Defense (Cointelegraph)
Illuvium Targets December 2026 Launch for Overworld (Cointelegraph)
Infrastructure
Ethereum Foundation Unveils ‘Strawmap’ Roadmap (Justin Drake)
Flare and Xaman Enable One-Click DeFi Access For XRP Sitting Idle in Wallets (CoinDesk)
Vitalik Buterin Unveils Ethereum Roadmap to Counter Quantum Threat (CoinDesk)
Markets
Polkadot Surges 23% Ahead of Planned Halving Event (The Defiant)
Whale Loses $8.2M on Leveraged ARC Trade on Lighter (Cointelegraph)
Solana Rises 10% as ETF Inflows and Futures Activity Increase (Cointelegraph)
About 11.2 Billion PUMP Tokens Moved to Kraken as Team Distributes Locked Allocations (EmberCN)
Vitalik Buterin Sold 17,196 ETH, Surpassing Planned Allocation (The Block)
Uniswap’s UNI Surges 15% as Governance Vote Eyes Broader Fee Capture (CoinDesk)
Bitcoin Fails at $70K as Altcoins Outpace in Sharp Relief Rally (CoinDesk)
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims For The Week Ending Feb. 21: 212k, Exp. 215k, Prev. 208k (DOL)
Bitcoin Flash Crashes to $48K on Lighter as Thin Liquidity Amplifies Sell Order (CoinDesk)
Gold Rallies as Middle East Tensions Drive Safe-Haven Demand (Cointelegraph)
Bitcoin, Ethereum Traders Show Optimism Despite ‘Extreme Fear’ in Crypto (Decrypt)
Suspected Insider Wallets Net $1M Betting on Project Exposed by ZachXBT (Lookonchain)
Mining
American Bitcoin Reports $153 Million Loss in 2025 as BTC Holdings Top 6,000 (The Block)
Politics & Regulation
OCC Proposes GENIUS Act Rules to Govern U.S. Stablecoin Issuers (OCC)
Indiana Lawmakers Pass Crypto Rights Bill Banning Discriminatory Taxes (Cointelegraph)
China’s Top Court Calls for Tougher Crypto Crime Enforcement (DL News)
Treasuries
Venture Capital
Other News
Travala Launches Global Car Rentals Allowing Crypto Payments (Travala)
ZachXBT Alleges Insider Data Abuse at Axiom Tied to Employee Wallet Tracking (ZachXBT)
Former Goliath Ventures CEO Arrested in Alleged $328 Million Crypto Ponzi Scheme (Decrypt)
Crypto Mixer Use Rebounds as Users Shift Platforms (Decrypt)
Florida Man Charged in Alleged $328M Crypto Ponzi Scheme (CoinDesk)
Check This Out!
Nation-state Bitcoin holdings grew from two countries in 2016 to 23 in 2025. In 2025 alone, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan joined.
Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute, River
Meme of the Day
Source: GabeSter
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