Today's top news highlights:
1. Sam Altman: Founder of OpenClaw will join OpenAI
2. Tom Lee: The crypto bear market may end by April at the latest.
3. Fidelity analysts: The bottom of the crypto bear market may have been formed, and a new round of expansion is expected.
4. He Yiping's interview with "former Binance listing manager": Chase was not a listing manager and had no decision-making power.
5. Changpeng Zhao: Lack of privacy may be a missing link on the road to the widespread adoption of encrypted payments.
6. Data: ZRO, YZY, and other tokens will see a large unlock this week, with ZRO unlocking value estimated at approximately $49.1 million.
Regulatory news
A Florida federal judge ruled in favor of Kevin O'Leary in a defamation case against former cryptocurrency influencer Ben Armstrong (known online as "BitBoy"), ordering Armstrong to pay $2.8 million in damages.
In late March 2025, Ben Armstrong posted a series of messages on the X platform. In these messages, Armstrong accused O'Leary, known as "Mr. Wonderful" on the show "Shark Tank," and his wife of murder and claimed they paid millions of dollars to cover up a boat accident in 2019. In that accident, O'Leary's boat collided with another boat on a lake in Ontario, killing two people. O'Leary was a passenger and was never charged. His wife was charged with negligent navigation but was acquitted after a 13-day trial.
Ben Armstrong's post included publicly revealing O'Leary's private phone number and urging fans to "call the real-life murderer." This post resulted in Ben Armstrong's account being suspended for 12 hours.
Sam Altman: OpenClaw founder to join OpenAI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated in a post on the X platform: "Peter Steinberger (founder of OpenClaw) will be joining OpenAI to drive the development of the next generation of personal intelligent agents. He is a genius with many amazing ideas about how intelligent agents will collaborate to provide practical services to people. We expect this to soon become the core of our products. OpenClaw will exist as an open-source project within the foundation, and OpenAI will continue to support it. The future will be an era of highly multi-agent systems, and supporting open-source projects is an important part of achieving this goal."
Related reading: OpenClaw founder joins OpenAI with the goal of "developing an AI assistant that even my mother can use".
According to information updated today on the official website of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, VDX, a digital asset trading platform under Victory Fintech Company Limited, has obtained a license to operate a virtual asset trading platform. The company is authorized to conduct Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 7 (providing automated trading services) regulated activities. At the same time, its subsidiary VDX Custody Limited has also been licensed under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance to provide digital asset custody services. As of now, the number of licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong has increased to 12.
Project Updates
Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted Bitcoin Tracker information again on the X platform, and may disclose data on his increased holdings next week.
Bithumb will list its Lighter (LIT) token on the Korean won market.
According to an official announcement, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb will list the Lighter (LIT) token on the Korean won market.
Michael Saylor: Plans to convert convertible bonds into equity within 3-6 years
Strategy stated that even if the price of Bitcoin falls to $8,000, Strategy can ensure it has enough assets to fully repay its debts. In response, founder Michael Saylor retweeted and added that they plan to convert the convertible bonds into equity within the next 3-6 years.
Opinions & Analysis
Tom Lee: Crypto bear market may end by April at the latest.
According to Hokanews, Fundstrat co-founder and BitMine chairman Tom Lee stated that the prolonged downturn in digital assets may be nearing its end, with the crypto bear market either already over or expected to bottom out by April at the latest. He suggested the market may need one more dip to confirm the bottom. Lee's outlook indicates the current cycle may be following a similar historical pattern, where the capitulation phase is typically marked by a final wave of selling, followed by market stabilization.
Jurrien Timmer, Global Macro Director at Fidelity, stated on the X platform that Bitcoin's recent drop to $60,000, touching the support zone predicted months ago, suggests a potential bottom for the bear market and the start of a new expansion. He pointed out that the drop to $60,000 is relatively shallow, and as Bitcoin matures, volatility will gradually decrease. He anticipates a new bull market cycle after several months of consolidation, potentially reaching new highs.
Timmer's chart analysis suggests a correlation between Bitcoin's price and global money supply, with $60,000 acting as a technical support level. Another chart, "Bitcoin's Maturation Path," depicts its historical waves: from early highs of $2 and $24, to a breakout above $64,000, pointing towards the predicted sixth wave area of $290,425. This model integrates curves and macroeconomic variables to outline a long-term framework towards $1 million. He emphasizes that if cyclical patterns and adoption trends continue, Bitcoin is expected to follow a structured maturation path after consolidating around $60,000.
In response to an interview regarding "Chase, former head of listing at Binance," He Yi clarified that Chase was not a listing manager, but a BD (Business Development) person. She stated, "The listing team at Binance that conducts project analysis and due diligence does not communicate directly with the project teams. Contract terms are handled by the BD team, but they have no decision-making power. Therefore, each BD person needs to establish connections with countless projects. Listing and BD are handled by two separate teams with different reporting lines. Thank you for your attention. It's good to have different perspectives that can help people make judgments; there's no need to over-interpret yesterday's decisions for today's outcomes."
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao posted on the X platform: "The lack of privacy may be a missing link on the road to the popularization of crypto payments. Imagine if a company used cryptocurrency to pay its employees on-chain. With the current state of crypto technology, you could almost see how much each person in the company is paid (with just a click to send the address)."
In response to crypto KOL @mirrorzk's post, "The ship of the new era cannot accommodate people of the old era, and the information from former listing teams may not be accurate. Project teams need to be vigilant and careful in identifying information to avoid being deceived," Binance co-founder He Yi posted on the X platform, "Short-term prices are indeed greatly affected by liquidity, traffic, and token structure, but whether they can weather the cycle after the hype depends on whether there is revenue, whether there is empowerment, and factors such as issuance and burning. For example, BTC, ETH, and BNB have broken the shackles of the first three elements. The crypto world has been raising funds through storytelling for so many years; narrative is dead, practicality must prevail."
BlackRock Head of Digital Assets: Leveraged Volatility is Threatening the Bitcoin Narrative
Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, stated at the Bitcoin Investors Week conference that rampant leveraged speculation on crypto derivatives platforms is exacerbating market volatility and could undermine Bitcoin's long-term position as a stable institutional hedging tool. Mitchnick pointed out that while Bitcoin's fundamentals as a "global, scarce, decentralized monetary asset" remain solid, its short-term trading behavior is increasingly exhibiting characteristics of a "leveraged Nasdaq," a perception that will significantly raise the barrier for conservative institutional investors to allocate to this asset.
Mitchnick also refuted the argument that spot ETFs exacerbate market volatility. He stated that during the turbulent week, BlackRock's IBIT fund experienced only 0.2% redemptions. He argued that a large-scale liquidation by hedge funds should have resulted in billions of dollars in outflows, but the actual liquidation of billions of dollars occurred on leveraged platforms.
Coinbase CEO: Retail investors are buying BTC and ETH on dips
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated, "Based on our data, retail investors on Coinbase have demonstrated strong resilience in the current market environment: they have been buying on dips—we have observed an increase in both BTC and ETH native units held by retail investors. Furthermore, the vast majority of customers held native units in February that were equal to or higher than their December balance."
Matrixport's daily analysis suggests that a common observation for determining whether Bitcoin has entered a bear market is whether significant drops within 30 days occur more frequently. In a bull market, drops exceeding 20% within 30 days are relatively rare; however, in a bear market, such drops are more likely to occur repeatedly. Meanwhile, market momentum had already weakened by mid-2025: the 30-day rate of change (ROC) shows a continuously declining upward peak, with buying pressure also decreasing accordingly.
Experienced crypto investors understand that bear markets are a natural and recurring part of the cycle, often setting the stage for the next recovery and upward movement. However, bear markets typically don't descend in a straight line; even within a larger downtrend, there are often substantial rallies. Therefore, investors should remain disciplined and continuously seek out more cost-effective short-term opportunities as market conditions change.
Important data
According to Token Unlocks data, ZRO, YZY, ARB, and other tokens will see large-scale unlocking next week, including:
LayerZero (ZRO) will unlock approximately 25.71 million tokens at 7 PM Beijing time on February 20th, representing about 5.98% of its circulating supply, worth approximately $49.1 million.
YZY (YZY) will unlock approximately 62.5 million tokens at 11:00 AM Beijing time on February 17th, representing approximately 17.24% of its circulating supply, with a value of approximately US$20.6 million;
Arbitrum (ARB) will unlock approximately 92.65 million tokens at 9 PM Beijing time on February 16th, representing about 1.82% of its released supply, worth approximately $11.2 million.
KAITO will unlock approximately 32.6 million tokens at 8 PM Beijing time on February 20th, representing about 10.64% of its released supply, worth approximately $10.6 million.
MBG By Multibank Group (MBG) will unlock approximately 27.15 million tokens at 8 PM Beijing time on February 22, representing about 10.96% of its released supply, worth approximately $8.3 million.
A certain whale has increased its holdings of ETH by over $40 million in the past 20 hours.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, the whale 0x28eF, which previously purchased 60,784 ETH (worth $126 million), is continuing to buy ETH. In the past 20 hours, it has withdrawn 19,820 ETH (worth $40.14 million) from the Binance and OKX platforms.
According to Whale Alert, a dormant pre-mining address containing 1,430 ETH (worth $2,812,968) has just been activated after 10.6 years of dormancy (these ETH were worth only $443 in 2015).
