Today's top news highlights:
Market news: Silicon Valley investment giant Peter Thiel exits Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla
Strategy increased its holdings by 2,486 bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 717,131 bitcoins.
Dragonfly has completed its fourth fund raising, reaching $650 million.
Stake has raised $31 million in Series B funding, led by the National Bank of the UAE.
Three executives from cryptocurrency exchange Gemini resigned several months after its IPO.
Macro & Regulatory
The Arizona Senate Finance Committee passed a bill for a digital asset strategic reserve fund.
According to Cointelegraph, the Arizona Senate Finance Committee has passed the Digital Asset Strategic Reserve Fund Act (SB1649) by a 4-2 vote, and the bill will now be submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration.
According to Jinshi News, Chicago Fed President Goolsby said on Tuesday that if inflation continues to fall toward the 2% target level, there may be more room for interest rate cuts this year. Goolsby warned that service sector inflation remains high, and stated that if tariff-related price increases are a one-off event, it could provide policymakers with room to adjust. On the same day, San Francisco Fed President Daly stated that the Fed still needs to suppress inflation, and while artificial intelligence may help in this regard, moderate or slightly restrictive policies from the Fed are also crucial to achieving this goal. Fed Governor Michael Barr has a relatively more hawkish stance on interest rates, stating that given the continued risks to the U.S. inflation outlook, the next Fed rate cut may be a long time away.
According to The Block, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated in its latest court filings that it has "exclusive jurisdiction" over futures and event contracts (including prediction market contracts) under congressional authorization, and criticized some state governments for overstepping their authority in attempting to regulate prediction markets. The agency filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concerning a lawsuit between Crypto.com and the state of Nevada. Previously, Crypto.com's prediction market business sued Nevada, attempting to block its ban on offering sports event contracts on its platform; the trial court ruled that sports event contracts were not under the CFTC's jurisdiction, and Crypto.com has appealed.
Prediction market platform Kalshi sued in Nevada, USA
According to Business Insider, Nevada regulators have formally sued prediction market platform Kalshi, seeking a court order to prohibit Kalshi from continuing its "unlicensed sports betting business." The report also notes Kalshi's rapid growth, with trading volume on Super Bowl Sunday this year being 27 times that of last year. A Kalshi spokesperson declined to comment, but disclosed that the company has requested federal court to hear the case, stating that only federal law applies to prediction markets, and that the state's new enforcement action is based on the same issues being addressed in federal court.
According to Jinshi News, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that Japan should avoid lowering its consumption tax to prevent exacerbating fiscal risks. In its latest statement on the Article IV consultations with Japan, released Wednesday, the IMF noted, "The authorities should avoid lowering the consumption tax, as this non-targeted measure would erode fiscal space and exacerbate fiscal risks." The IMF predicts that by 2031, interest payments on Japan's outstanding public debt will double compared to 2025, as maturing debt is refinanced at higher yields. The IMF warned, "High and persistent debt levels, coupled with a deteriorating fiscal balance, make the Japanese economy vulnerable to a range of shocks." The IMF's forecast is consistent with the Japanese government's estimates.
According to the WSJ, diplomatic sources from Iran, the United States, and surrounding regions stated that the package of proposals put forward by Iranian diplomats included: a willingness to suspend uranium enrichment; transferring some of their uranium stockpiles overseas to third-party trustees such as Russia; and engaging in commercial cooperation with the United States. These proposals are closer to the core issue but still do not meet Trump's demand for a "clear and complete halt" to uranium enrichment. Trump has repeatedly stated his desire to reach an agreement that ensures Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons; simultaneously, he has amassed a large military force near Iran in case the agreement fails.
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted exercises at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically vital waterway through which approximately one-fifth of the world's oil shipments pass. In a live-streamed address on his personal website on Tuesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei warned, "More dangerous than American warships are weapons capable of sending them to the bottom of the sea," as Geneva negotiations continued that day. He also stated that the United States "could suffer a heavy blow that it may never be able to stand up again."
Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel stated that a stablecoin pegged to the euro would provide Europe with greater independence, freeing it from the dollar-pegged stablecoins that are set to be approved under the GENIUS Act.
Nagel supports the launch of a central bank digital currency pegged to the euro, as well as a euro-denominated payment stablecoin. In his opening remarks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's New Year reception in Frankfurt on Monday, he stated that EU officials are working to push forward the launch of a retail central bank digital currency. He believes that a euro-denominated stablecoin would also help "make Europe more independent in terms of payment systems and solutions."
The Bundesbank president's comments on stablecoins did not mention the risks he raised at the Euro50 conference last week. Nagel had previously warned that if dollar-denominated stablecoins significantly outsell euro-pegged stablecoins, domestic monetary policy "could be severely damaged, not to mention the potential undermining of European sovereignty."
Andrew MacKenzie, CEO of Agant, a sterling stablecoin issuer, said that the UK’s crypto regulatory framework is on the right track, but its pace of development is not fast enough to support the country’s ambition to become a global digital asset hub.
MacKenzie believes the UK government has repeatedly pledged to position London as a global hub for crypto and digital asset activities. However, legislation comprehensively covering stablecoins and broader crypto activities is not expected to be approved by Parliament until later this year, and may not come into effect until 2027.
Agant plans to issue a stablecoin called GBPA, fully backed by the British pound. The company has already registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), indicating its intention to target institutional investors, rather than the retail cryptocurrency market. Agant has positioned GBPA as infrastructure for institutional payments, settlements, and tokenized assets.
Project Updates
Market news: Silicon Valley investment giant Peter Thiel exits Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla
According to an article published on the X platform by AgggrNews, Silicon Valley investment giant Peter Thiel has exited Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla. It is understood that Peter Thiel's investment team previously acquired a 7.5% stake in ETHZilla (formerly 180 Life Sciences) through an entity.
Grayscale: The Grayscale Sui Staking ETF will begin trading on the NYSE Arca tomorrow.
Grayscale announced on its official Twitter account that its staking-enabled SUI exchange-traded fund, Grayscale Sui Staking ETF, will begin trading on the NYSE Arca tomorrow under the ticker symbol GSUI. The ETF will provide investors with the opportunity to directly invest in SUI, including its potential staking rewards. It is reported that the historical average annual yield of Sui staking rewards is 1.7% to 3.3%.
According to The Information, AI giant Anthropic's most optimistic recent forecast predicts it will pay at least $80 billion to Amazon, Google, and Microsoft by 2029 to run its Claude AI system on their cloud servers. However, this isn't the only way these tech giants profit from Anthropic: they also receive a share of the revenue generated if their customers purchase Anthropic's AI products, and this revenue stream is growing rapidly. Anthropic also reported that in 2024, it paid only about $1.3 million in AI sales royalties to cloud service providers.
Cloudflare clarified that there are currently no issues or outages.
According to Jinshi News, Cloudflare clarified that there are currently no issues or outages. Previously, data from the network monitoring website DownDetector showed problems with multiple network services. As of now, users have reported issues using YouTube, Google (GOOG.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) network services, and Cloudflare.
According to Cointelegraph, decentralized socialFi platform Zora has announced the launch of a new Attention Markets platform on the Solana chain, allowing traders to trade trending keywords, topics, hashtags, and trends online. Users can create "Trends" before a topic explodes in popularity and track profits and losses in real time. Zora co-founder Jacob Horne stated that currently, launching a Trend requires 1 SOL to suppress spam. Trends themselves do not offer creator rewards, but pairs associated with a Trend can receive creator incentives.
Monad Foundation acquires Ponder, an open-source blockchain data indexing framework
Monad officially announced that the Monad Foundation has acquired Ponder, an open-source framework for blockchain data indexing. The specific acquisition amount has not yet been disclosed. The Ponder team will join the Monad Foundation to contribute to the protocol, open-source tools, and standards, while also providing support for applications to leverage Monad's performance and decentralized features.
Arkham: JellyJelliy open interest surges, suggesting possible manipulation by a group.
Arkham posted on social media that there has been a surge in open interest for JELLYJELLY, suggesting possible manipulation of the coin. Monitoring shows a simultaneous spike in open interest on OKX and Bybit platforms, alongside a gradual accumulation of the coin on centralized exchanges like MEXC, Kucoin, and Bitget. JELLYJELLY has reportedly risen 24% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at $0.069.
According to Coinglass data, JELLYJELLY's 24-hour contract trading volume reached $104 million, while the spot trading volume was only $1.45 million, with a market capitalization of $68.21 million.
According to Financefeeds, stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK has obtained a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), allowing it to offer digital asset services regulated by the EU’s Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act (MiCA) in Malta and to expand these services throughout the European Economic Area (EEA).
This license enables BVNK to operate under the unified EU regulatory framework for crypto and digital asset service providers. BVNK stated that this approval strengthens its role as a regulated bridge between the traditional euro payment track and stablecoin settlements, primarily targeting companies seeking compliant cross-border settlement solutions.
Three executives from cryptocurrency exchange Gemini resigned several months after its IPO.
According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Space Station Inc. announced on Tuesday that its Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Legal Officer will be leaving the company immediately.
According to documents filed by Gemini with Bloomberg Terminal, three executives, Marshall Beard, Dan Chen, and Tyler Meade, have left the company, effective immediately. Notably, Marshall Beard, who also served on Gemini's board of directors, has resigned. The company stated that his departure was not due to any disagreements with the company.
Binance Alpha will airdrop today at 18:00, with a minimum of 242 points required.
According to official sources, Binance Alpha will airdrop tokens today at 18:00. Users with at least 242 Alpha points can claim tokens on a first-come, first-served basis until the airdrop pool is exhausted or the airdrop event ends. More details will be announced soon.
Analysis & Opinions
According to Forbes, industry insiders believe Ethereum is currently in a "gap period between narratives," where the market tends to price uncertainty when a clear long-term value logic is lacking. In recent years, the mainstream narrative has focused on scaling primarily occurring at Layer 2, with the mainnet maintaining security, decentralization, and a streamlined architecture. This path successfully attracted capital and development resources. However, the current market focus is shifting towards zero-knowledge technology and privacy capabilities returning to the foundational layer, leading to misaligned expectations among some investors who built valuation models based on the old approach. Complete on-chain transparency presents a real obstacle for institutional funds; large corporations and funds are unwilling to have their trading strategies tracked in real time. If Ethereum hopes to attract trillions of dollars in institutional funding, protocol-level privacy capabilities will become a key competitive variable.
According to Jinshi News, Mark Spitznagel, founder and chief investment officer of the "Black Swan Fund" Universa Investments, stated that the multi-year upward trend in US stocks is far from over—at least for now. In a recent letter to investors, Spitznagel wrote that the market will continue to operate in the "Goldilocks zone" over the next year—with declining inflation and interest rates, a slowing but not excessive economic slowdown, and a shift towards market euphoria—leading to a continued rise in the stock market that ends in a surge. However, he added that "the biggest bubble in human history" is now in its final stages. Spitznagel's hedge fund has been operating for nearly two decades, focusing on tail risk hedging, i.e., protecting investors' portfolios from the impact of the next major crash.
Vitalik Buterin: Network-layer anonymity is a key missing link in privacy infrastructure
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in an article on the X platform that network-layer anonymity is a crucial component that has long been lacking in the current privacy technology ecosystem, and it is key to improving on-chain and off-chain privacy primitives. While current privacy technologies cover on-chain privacy solutions and off-chain zero-knowledge applications, significant gaps remain in network-layer anonymity capabilities. Furthermore, in some application scenarios, bandwidth requirements are low but latency is extremely sensitive; therefore, achieving a balance between low latency and high anonymity will be of significant value to the development of related technologies.
Binance co-founder He Yi shared an article titled "The Evolution of the Listing Cycle" on the X platform and responded, stating: "From the platform's perspective, the first stage was a chaotic period where many projects failed and left. Binance began restricting investors and project teams to unlock tokens according to milestones or timelines. The second era, the IEO era, arose because of concentrated liquidity, giving Binance more influence. It could advise project teams to offer lower TGE prices to retail investors without charging listing fees, a win-win situation. The bear market also introduced long and short positions and leverage, leading to the 'golden age' that everyone fondly remembers. The third era saw the rise of AMMs and the emergence of VCs. With the professionalization of industry KOLs and institutions, the actual pricing power of CEXs was diluted, and compliance standards were implemented, leading to the rise of Airdrop."
Binance co-founder He Yi stated in an article on the X platform that since Binance's launch over eight years ago, BNB has achieved a cumulative return of 5354 times, with numerous users benefiting from the Binance, BNB, and BNB Chain ecosystem, forming the community's most solid fundamentals. He Yi thanked the "Binance Angels" volunteers for their long-term contributions, noting that many have quietly dedicated themselves for 5 to 8 years. Regarding the company's operating philosophy, He Yi emphasized Binance's principle of "harmony brings wealth." She cited game theory, stating that in complex environments, the optimal solution is "you treat me well, I will treat you well," acknowledging that while the industry is constantly changing, Binance will exist long-term, neither causing trouble nor fearing it. She also reminded users that investment decisions require independent research. Furthermore, He Yi pointed out that while Binance is committed to building a platform that users can trust, investment decisions still require users to conduct their own research (DYOR).
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded to "Why Wall Street Always Misunderstands or Underestimates Coinbase" in a post on the X platform. He stated that traditional financial institutions are showing a clear divergence in their attitudes towards the crypto industry. Some leading financial institutions are actively embracing crypto assets; five Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs) have already begun collaborating with Coinbase, and approximately half of the major financial institutions are accelerating their crypto business development and recruiting related talent. As regulatory clarity gradually increases, the acceptance of the crypto industry by traditional finance is continuing to improve.
According to a Wintermute research report, as spot trading volume continues to shrink, leverage has become the main driver of short-term volatility. Without "structural buying" (long-term funds capable of absorbing selling pressure) to absorb volatility, the market will experience sharp rises and falls on both the bullish and bearish sides. From a technical perspective, BTC has found support near its 200-week moving average, which historically has often been a bottoming point for bear markets. Wintermute believes that until clear signals emerge at the macro level, every rebound should be seen as an opportunity to mitigate risk, rather than a reason to chase momentum.
For crypto, the key to getting back on an upward trajectory still depends on macroeconomic clarity. The 200-week moving average is holding, and the market hasn't suffered structural damage, meaning that once macroeconomic uncertainty subsides, the recovery could be faster than current sentiment suggests. In the short term, we're in a range-bound, slightly downward trend; the market is leveraged, and $70,000 remains a significant near-term resistance level. Finally, a recovery is possible in the second half of 2026, but most participants have likely exhausted the patience needed to reach that point.
Crypto KOL Edgy stated on the X platform that 85% of tokens issued in 2025 were operating at a loss. Many venture capital-backed projects barely broke even, with a significant number even incurring substantial losses. A chart from Galaxy Research shows that in the second quarter of 2022, crypto venture capital firms raised nearly $17 billion through over 80 new funds; however, since 2022, venture capital returns have been declining, the number of new funds has hit a five-year low, and last quarter's fundraising amount was only 12% of that in the second quarter of 2022.
Furthermore, the $8.5 billion invested by venture capital firms last quarter was not new funding, but rather surplus funds raised in 2022. The total capital deployed from 2023 to 2025 is roughly equivalent to the total amount raised in 2022 alone. The model of raising funds, issuing tokens, and dumping them on retail investors is coming to an end. Edgy believes that as the influence of venture capital firms diminishes and VCs recede, the truly winning projects will be those with real users and real revenue. At that time, there will be fairer issuance methods and less insider dumping.
Investment and Financing
AI agent startup Temporal raises $300 million in Series D funding, led by a16z.
According to Reuters, AI agent startup Temporal announced the completion of a $300 million Series D funding round, valuing the company at $5 billion. The round was led by a16z, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. The company stated that this funding round was not intended to "chase a hot trend in artificial intelligence," but rather to build a platform to address the reliability challenges commonly faced by AI agents in complex, long-running processes. Current users include AI companies like OpenAI, Snap, Netflix, and JPMorgan Chase.
Sports prediction and trading platform PRED has raised $2.5 million in seed funding, led by Accel.
According to official sources, sports prediction and trading platform PRED has completed a $2.5 million seed funding round led by Accel, with other investors including Coinbase Ventures’ Base Ecosystem Fund (BEF) and Reverie.
Pred is built on Base and claims an execution speed of only 200 milliseconds, making it closer to the standards of financial exchanges than any service offered in the traditional sports betting industry. Pred is currently in internal testing and uses an invitation-only registration process.
Dragonfly has completed its fourth fund raising, reaching $650 million.
According to Fortune, crypto VC Dragonfly has completed its fourth fund raising, raising $650 million.
Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb stated that the fourth fund is their largest investment to date, and they believe the cryptocurrency revolution is still in its early stages of exponential growth. He added, "Proxy payments, on-chain privacy, tokenization of everything—the cryptocurrency landscape is poised for explosive growth, and we want to support the founders who lead the way."
Stake has raised $31 million in Series B funding, led by the National Bank of the UAE.
Digital asset real estate investment platform Stake has raised $31 million in its Series B funding round. The round was led by Emirates NBD, with participation from Mubadala Investment Company, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Property Finder, STC NICE, Wa'ed Ventures, GFH Partners, and Ellington Properties.
The funds will be used to invest in artificial intelligence, tokenization, and new product development. The company raised a total of $5 million in its seed round; $8 million in pre-Series A funding; $14 million in Series A funding; and has now raised $31 million in Series B funding, bringing its total to $58 million.
mechanism
Strategy increased its holdings by 2,486 bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 717,131 bitcoins.
According to an official announcement, Strategy announced the purchase of 2,486 BTC for approximately $168.4 million, at an average price of approximately $67,710. As of February 16, 2026, Strategy holds a total of 717,131 BTC, with a cumulative investment of approximately $54.52 billion and an overall average holding price of approximately $76,027.
According to a post by Jeff Park, Chief Investment Officer of ProCap, on the X platform, the latest 13F filing of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) reveals that Laure Ltd is the largest new holder, with a holding of approximately $436 million, and holds only IBIT. Jane Street was the second largest IBIT holder in Q4 2025. It's worth noting that Laure Ltd currently has no official website or publicly disclosed background, nor any historical investment portfolio; its corporate structure indicates it is a Ltd entity.
BitcoinTreasuries announced on the X platform that Charles Schwab, with $12 trillion in assets under management, has increased its holdings in Strategy (MSTR) by 91,859 shares. Its total holdings now reach 1.27 million shares, valued at $168 million.
K3 Capital's linked address withdrew 20,000 ETH from Binance 8 hours ago.
According to Arkham's monitoring, the K3 Capital-linked address withdrew 20,000 ETH from Binance 8 hours ago, worth approximately $40.1 million.
According to Onchain Lens, the Trump Meme team distributed wallets to send 9.089 million Trump tokens, worth $31.45 million, to the BitGo custodial wallet.
According to Onchain Lens, the address associated with the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Fi withdrew 313.31 million WLFI tokens from Binance in the past 11 hours, worth approximately $33.76 million.
BlackRock deposited 1,701 BTC and 22,661 ETH into Coinbase.
According to Lookonchain, BlackRock's ETF address just deposited 1,701 BTC (approximately $115.2 million) and 22,661 ETH (approximately $44.5 million) into Coinbase Prime.
Important data
Market data shows that spot gold and silver continued to rise. Spot gold broke through $4,930/oz, up 1.09% on the day; New York gold futures touched $4,950/oz, up 0.90% on the day. Spot silver touched $75/oz, up 2.03% on the day; New York silver futures rose 2.00% on the day, currently trading at $75.05/oz.
According to Globenewswire, digital asset management company CoinShares released its latest financial report, disclosing that as of December 31, 2025, its total assets under management reached $7.4 billion, with its physical digital asset ETPs reaching $2.8 billion (despite the cryptocurrency market downturn, it still recorded a net inflow of $662 million in the second half of 2025). Furthermore, CoinShares announced that its board of directors has decided to pay a 2025 dividend of $0.33 per share, totaling approximately $21.5 million, prior to the completion of its merger with Vine Hill Capital Investment Corp.
According to Token Terminal data, the total market capitalization of RWA assets on the Ethereum blockchain (including tokenized funds, tokenized commodities, and tokenized stocks) has exceeded $15 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 200%.
Arthur Hayes deposited 1,000 ETH, worth nearly $2 million, into the CEX 10 hours ago.
The two addresses purchased another 2,600 ETH, worth approximately $5.161 million.
