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PANews reported on February 23 that, according to official sources, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has added IoTeX (IOTX) to its trading alert list. Deposits and withdrawals are currently closed; only withdrawals will be restored later.

Author: PA一线

This content is for market information only and is not investment advice.

Updated Feb 23, 2026, 11:23 p.m. Published Feb 23, 2026, 9:18 p.m.

4 min read

Nearly $400 million was lost to crypto exploits in January 2026 alone, according to industry estimates. (Photo by Joshua Michaels on Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)Summary

IoTeX is offering a 10% white-hat bounty, about $440,000, and a promise not to pursue legal action if hackers return roughly $4.4 million stolen from its ioTube cross-chain bridge within 48 hours.The Feb. 21 exploit stemmed from a compromised validator owner private key on the Ethereum side of the ioTube bridge, which IoTeX and outside experts describe as an operational security failure rather than a flaw in the Layer 1 blockchain or its smart contracts.IoTeX traced the stolen funds across chains, identified bitcoin addresses holding about 66.6 BTC, and is rolling out a mainnet upgrade with a default blacklist of malicious addresses, but experts warn that assets already swapped and bridged may be difficult or unlikely to recover.IoTeX, a blockchain project focused on Internet-of-Things devices, offered a 10% white-hat bounty to the hacker or hackers who exploited a private key on its cross-chain bridge ioTube, siphoning millions of dollars, in exchange for the voluntary return of funds within 48 hours.

With this move, IoTeX is offering the $440,000 if the malicious actor or actors return roughly $4.4 million they stole, according to an IoTeX X post, to which IoTeX co-founder and CEO Raullen Chai pointed “as a source of truth” on Monday.

A number of crypto projects have offered similar 10% bounties to hackers after being breached. Hackers sometime return funds in exchange for this bounty.

Chai told CoinDesk that the team sent an onchain message offering not to pursue legal action or share identifying information with law enforcement if the remaining funds are returned.

“This is regarding the ioTube bridge exploit on Feb. 21, 2026,” Chai said in the message. “All fund movements across Ethereum, IoTeX, and bitcoin have been fully traced.”

The message states that exchange deposits have been flagged and frozen and offers a 10% bounty for the return of remaining funds.

Chai also said IoTeX is rolling out a new chain version, Mainnet v2.3.4, requiring node operators to upgrade. The update includes a default blacklist of malicious externally owned account (EOA) addresses.

“This blacklist contains a list of malicious or problematic EOA addresses that will be filtered by the node,” Chai said.

The offer comes after a Feb. 21 exploit in which a compromised validator owner private key enabled unauthorized control over ioTube’s bridge contracts.

IoTeX said the incident is “under control,” saying that its Layer 1 blockchain was not affected and that the breach was isolated to the Ethereum-side infrastructure of the bridge.

The IOTX token fell roughly 22% following the exploit, dropping from $0.0054 to below $0.0042 before partially rebounding.

Cross-chain bridges have been one of crypto’s main failure points, with several high-profile exploits in recent years. According to industry reports, more than $3.2 billion has been lost due to cross-chain bridge hacks, making them a prime target for advanced threat actors.

Responsibility and key controlIoTeX framed the exploit as an operational issue specific to the bridge rather than a failure of its Layer 1 network.

“IoTube is IoTeX’s own cross-chain bridge built and maintained by their team,” Nick Motz, CEO of ORQO Group and CIO of Soil, told CoinDesk. “The breach came down to a compromised validator owner private key on the Ethereum side, which is fundamentally an operational security failure, not a smart contract vulnerability discovered by an outside actor.”

Motz agreed that IoTeX’s Layer 1 was not compromised but said user funds were entrusted specifically to the bridge.

“When you build and operate the bridge infrastructure and the key management is what fails, it’s difficult to separate yourself from that outcome,” he said.

Nanak Nihal Khalsa, co-founder of human.tech, said responsibility in crypto often comes down to key custody.

“Yes, whoever holds the private key is responsible for securing it,” Khalsa said. “Is that a reasonable responsibility? It’s hard to say. But that’s how the industry works right now.”

He added that liability norms remain unsettled compared to traditional finance and called for stronger wallet and multisig setups to reduce similar risks.

The estimates divergeOn-chain analysis by security firm PeckShield estimated more than $8 million worth of assets were affected, saying the attacker swapped funds into ether (ETH) and began bridging them to bitcoin BTC$61,650.42 via THORChain.

“The hacker has swapped the stolen funds to $ETH and has started bridging them to #BTC via #Thorchain,” the firm wrote.

Another onchain investigator, Specter, said on X that “the private key of @iotex_io may have been compromised,” resulting in an estimated $4.3 million loss.

“Once assets are routed through THORChain […] recovery becomes extremely difficult,” Motz said.

IoTeX said it has identified four bitcoin addresses holding 66.78 BTC worth roughly $4.3 million at current prices and that the addresses are being monitored in cooperation with exchanges.

A CoinDesk review of those addresses on Feb. 23 confirmed they held roughly 66.6 BTC.

IoTeX did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

“Containment is not the same as recovery,” he added. “The assets with actual market value were swapped and bridged. Those are, in my assessment, unlikely to be recovered.”

Khalsa similarly cautioned that recovery prospects are uncertain. “It’s hard to predict how much, if any, can be recovered,” he said.

IoTeX revised its figure upward to approximately $4.3 million, reflecting the direct asset drain but excluding minted tokens. Motz said broader estimates may better capture the severity of the breach.

“Private key compromise rather than smart contract bugs is emerging as a dominant attack vector,” Motz said, noting that such incidents target operational security rather than audited code.

Before offering the 10% bounty, IoTeX said a compensation plan would be in place within the next 48 hours.

UPDATE (Feb. 23, 2026, 23:21 UTC): Adds context on bounties offered after hacks.

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PANews reported on February 24th that, according to CoinDesk, the IoTeX public blockchain project's cross-chain bridge ioTube suffered a loss of approximately $4.4 million on February 21st due to a compromised Ethereum-side validator owner's private key . IoTeX sent an on-chain message to the attackers, promising a white-hat bounty of approximately 10% (about $440,000) for returning the funds within 48 hours, without pursuing legal action or providing their identity information to law enforcement. The project team stated that they have fully tracked the flow of funds, flagged and frozen the relevant exchange deposit addresses, identified four Bitcoin addresses holding approximately 66.6 BTC, and will introduce a malicious address blacklist through the mainnet v2.3.4 upgrade.

Author: PA一线

This content is for market information only and is not investment advice.

Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.

Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.

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Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.

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On February 21, 2026, IoTeX, a Layer-1 blockchain designed to link Internet of Things devices with decentralized applications and real-world artificial intelligence, faced a targeted security breach involving a compromised private key. The incident affected the project’s cross-chain bridge system, known as ioTube, leading to unauthorized access and asset drainage estimated at approximately $2 million by the company’s leadership.

The exploit occurred early that Saturday, between roughly 7 and 9 a.m. UTC.

Attackers used a validator owner private key to seize control of two key Ethereum-side smart contracts: TokenSafe, which holds bridged assets, and MinterPool, responsible for token issuance across connected networks including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Base.

This granted the perpetrator the ability to withdraw tokens directly from the vault and mint additional units without exploiting any code vulnerability in the contracts themselves.

Security researchers and on-chain analysts, including firms like PeckShield and investigator Specter, initially flagged much larger figures—up to $8.8 million—based on observed movements.

These estimates incorporated drained holdings of USDC, USDT, IOTX, WBTC, and other tokens, plus newly minted CIOTX (a cross-chain variant for DePIN liquidity) and CCS tokens.

However, IoTeX co-founder Raullen Chai quickly clarified the scope in statements to media and on social platforms.

He noted that the confirmed economic impact stands at around $2 million, primarily involving USDC, USDT, IOTX, and WBTC.

Many of the additional minted tokens, such as the deprecated CCS, carry negligible or zero market value, while CIOTX holdings were promptly frozen and slated for upgrades to prevent further movement.

Crucially, the core IoTeX Layer-1 blockchain, its consensus mechanism, and all native smart contracts stayed fully secure and operational in their primary environment.

The breach remained isolated to the bridge’s Ethereum-facing components, leaving user funds on the main IoTeX chain untouched. Chai emphasized this distinction, posting that “all funds are safe on the IoTeX chain.”

The team’s response was rapid and coordinated.

Within hours of detection, operators paused bridge functions to limit damage, conducted a complete on-chain trace of the stolen assets, and initiated widespread freezes.

Major exchanges collaborated to block deposits from identified attacker addresses, while law enforcement was engaged for tracing and potential recovery.

The main chain itself was temporarily suspended to roll out strengthened security protocols, with full resumption—including exchange deposits—projected within 24 to 48 hours.

Market reaction followed swiftly.

The native IOTX token dropped about 9 percent in the immediate aftermath, trading near $0.0049 with trading volume surging over 500 percent as uncertainty spread.

Analysts observed the attacker swapping drained assets for ETH on decentralized exchanges before bridging portions, including around 45 ETH, to Bitcoin via THORChain in an apparent laundering attempt.

Founded in 2017, IoTeX has built a reputation for advancing decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and bridging blockchain with physical devices through partnerships with industry leaders.

🚨 Update on the recent security incident:

Our team has contained the situation and the IoTeX chain is being secured. Current data confirms the exploit impact is around $2M USD (including USDC, USDT, IOTX, and WBTC).

Investigations show this was a sophisticated, long-planned…

— IoTeX (@iotex_io) February 21, 2026

This incident highlights ongoing challenges in the sector, where private key compromises continue to represent a leading cause of losses in cross-chain systems.

Bridge exploits have accounted for a disproportionate share of crypto thefts in recent years, often stemming from key management oversights rather than smart-contract bugs.

Despite the setback, IoTeX leadership described the situation as contained and under control.

Recovery efforts focus on freezing the majority of traceable assets, and the project pledged continued transparency with regular community updates.

While the financial toll appears limited compared to early reports, the event serves as a reminder for blockchain projects to prioritize proper private key custody, multi-signature controls, and rapid incident response in an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape.

As operations prepare to restart, stakeholders will watch closely for full asset recovery details and any long-term security enhancements. For a network positioned at the intersection of IoT, AI, and decentralized finance, rebuilding confidence through decisive action remains paramount.

PANews reported on February 27th that, according to an IoTeX announcement, due to an attack on the ioTube cross-chain bridge on February 20th and the unauthorized issuance of CIOTX on the Ethereum side, IoTeX plans to immediately deprecate CIOTX on Ethereum/Base/Solana and permanently close the relevant bridges. The attacker's minting will not be recognized. Eligible holders must submit their transaction hashes through the claims portal; after verification, IOTX will be issued on the IoTeX chain at a 1:1 ratio. BSC/Polygon/IoTeX are unaffected by the issuance and will reopen the bridges after auditing for users to migrate back to IOTX independently, before permanently delisting them. IoTeX will also notify CEX/DEX/DeFi to completely delist or remove CIOTX integrations.

TLDR February recorded crypto security breaches totaling $26.5M to $35.7M, marking the lowest monthly figure since March 2025 A $10M oracle manipulation attack on YieldBlox’s Stellar-based lending platform represented the month’s largest single exploit Private key compromise led to approximately $8.9M in losses for IoTeX on February 21 Compared to January’s $86M in losses, February saw a dramatic 69%+ decline, and remained far below the $1.5B Bybit breach from February 2025 Phishing scams persisted as a major vulnerability, responsible for $8.5M in February theft February witnessed a dramatic downturn in cryptocurrency theft, with blockchain security experts reporting the lowest monthly losses in nearly a year. Leading security platforms PeckShield and CertiK documented total losses between $26.5 million and $35.7 million throughout the month.

#PeckShieldAlert In Feb. 2026, the crypto space saw 15 main hacks totaling $26.5M, representing a 98.2% YoY decrease compared to Feb. 2025 ($1.5B, including the $1.4B #Bybit drain) and a notable 69.2% MoM decrease from Jan. 2026 ($86.01M in losses).#Top5 Hacks :… pic.twitter.com/Svp7SZWp5w

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 1, 2026

This represents a significant improvement from January’s $86 million figure, marking a decline exceeding 69% in just one month. The contrast becomes even starker when compared to February 2025, when the massive $1.5 billion Bybit exchange compromise dominated the statistics.

While February recorded 15 separate security incidents, two major attacks drove the majority of financial damage. The most significant breach targeted YieldBlox, a decentralized autonomous organization operating a lending protocol on the Stellar blockchain, resulting in $10 million in stolen assets.

On February 22, an exploiter took advantage of low liquidity conditions within the USTRY/USDC trading pair. Through a strategically executed abnormal transaction, the attacker artificially pumped the token’s valuation by 100x, manipulating the system into permitting massive undercollateralized loan withdrawals.

The month’s second-largest security failure struck IoTeX, a blockchain platform focused on Internet-of-Things applications, on February 21. Unauthorized access to a compromised private key granted the attacker entry to the project’s token safe.

The perpetrator rapidly converted stolen tokens into ETH before moving funds through multiple cross-chain bridges toward Bitcoin. While CertiK’s analysis estimated damages near $9 million, IoTeX representatives contested this figure, claiming actual losses were closer to $2 million.

Foom.Cash, a privacy-focused protocol, suffered the third-largest attack with $2.2 million in losses. The exploit leveraged a cryptographic vulnerability to manufacture fraudulent zkSNARK proofs, generating fake authentication credentials that bypassed protocol security measures.

What Drove the Drop According to PeckShield’s analysis, February’s reduced numbers stem largely from the absence of any catastrophic “mega-hack” comparable to previous incidents like the Bybit breach. Additionally, a significant Bitcoin price downturn early in the month, with values falling beneath $70,000, redirected market focus away from protocol vulnerabilities.

Kronos Research’s Dominick John attributed the improvement to enhanced risk management protocols, elevated counterparty vetting standards, and superior real-time security monitoring deployed across major cryptocurrency platforms. He highlighted that artificial intelligence-powered code auditing tools and automated vulnerability detection systems are identifying weaknesses before exploitation occurs.

Phishing Still a Problem Despite encouraging overall trends, phishing schemes continue plaguing the crypto ecosystem. These social engineering attacks claimed $8.5 million during February.

The proliferation of “drainer-as-a-service” operations, including platforms like Angel Drainer and Inferno Drainer, has democratized sophisticated phishing campaigns. These services supply turnkey solutions including replica websites, counterfeit social media profiles, and pre-built malicious smart contracts, requiring only a revenue-sharing agreement with operators.

PeckShield recommended that both institutional players and high-value individual wallet holders implement multi-signature cold storage solutions while maintaining rigorous private key security protocols.

Notably, wallet drainer-related losses have shown substantial year-over-year improvement, declining from $494 million throughout 2024 to $83.85 million across 2025.

Every year, crypto projects publish roadmaps. Neat timelines. Color-coded phases. Quarterly milestones with checkmarks that nobody checks. We've done it too.

We're not doing it this year.

Not because we don't have a plan. We do. But because the honest thing to say is: we don't know what the world looks like in twelve months, and neither does anyone else.

AI is compressing decades of change into quarters. Models that didn't exist in January are obsolete by June. Entire product categories appear, get commoditized, and get replaced — in weeks. The rate of change itself is accelerating, and any roadmap precise enough to look credible is precise enough to be wrong.

So instead of pretending to be prophets, we're going to do something different. We're going to tell you the three challenges we need to address — and our current best thinking on how to approach them. Not a map, but a compass. Not predictions, but directions of search.

Challenge 1: How does IoTeX become AI's interface to the physical world — and make money doing it?This is the existential challenge.

In 2025, we laid important groundwork. Quicksilver gave AI agents a way to request and verify live machine data — at peak, over 3,000 daily AI agent queries. ioID crossed the path toward a million device identities. We demonstrated machine-to-machine payments with Coinbase's x402 protocol. We proved the concept: AI agents can interact with physical-world infrastructure through a blockchain protocol.

But proving a concept isn't proving a business. And in 2026, the question has shifted from "can we connect AI to physical devices" to something far more urgent: Who pays for this, and why? The obvious answer is humans. But humans won’t be the only customers. The physical internet has many users. Construction sites that need continuous monitoring. Retail chains that need real-time analytics. Factories that must enforce safety compliance. But the next customers won’t be people at all. They will be machines. AI agents optimizing logistics networks. Delivery systems routing fleets in real time. Autonomous operations managing warehouses, ports, and supply chains. Robotics will become constant consumers of physical intelligence. Warehouse robots navigating crowded environments. Traffic systems coordinating intersections. Drones monitoring infrastructure, agriculture, and energy grids. All of them need the same primitive. Perception. Verification. Automation. They need to see the world. They need to trust what they see. They need to act on it. That is what they will pay for. The customers of the physical internet are not only humans. They are machines. And the machine economy is just beginning.

AI is blind to the physical world. That's the opportunity. AI can read every webpage, parse every database, analyze every financial filing. The digital world is transparent to it. But ask a simple physical-world question — Is it raining in Shoreditch right now? How crowded is this intersection at 5pm? — and it's helpless. No eyes, no ears, no real-time perception.

This matters because AI agents are moving from answering questions to taking actions — booking, buying, routing, managing. An AI that can't perceive the physical world can only operate in half of reality. Our goal: make IoTeX the protocol through which AI sees, verifies, and acts on the physical world.

Vision first. We're starting with cameras. Over a billion deployed globally, hundreds of thousands streaming publicly — no new hardware needed. And vision AI just crossed the cost threshold: analyzing a frame is 100x cheaper than two years ago, making continuous monitoring viable for the first time. A single camera frame captures more than a hundred IoT readings — foot traffic, weather, commercial activity, crowd density — all at once.

To start, we're building products that turn any live video stream into AI-readable intelligence. Point it at a camera, ask a question in plain English — "Is the parking lot full?" "Are workers wearing hard hats?" — and get a structured, real-time answer. Not pre-trained object detection with fixed categories, but open-ended visual understanding in natural language (aka Visual Question Answering VQA).

Once vision is proven, we expand to other physical-world data. Quicksilver already demonstrated this in 2025 with weather, vehicle telemetry, and compute data. The architecture generalizes. Vision is the beachhead — hardest problem, richest data.

Adoption over narrative. We have hypotheses about where this is valuable — location intelligence, workplace safety, construction monitoring, retail analytics. But hypotheses aren't customers. We measure success by whether someone opens their wallet, not by TVL or partnerships announced. Many small experiments, fast iteration, kill what doesn't work. Product and protocol deliberately decoupled: if a product fails, the chain keeps getting stronger.

Challenge 2: How does IoTeX keep getting more decentralized and unconditionally trustless?Here's an uncomfortable truth most crypto projects avoid: almost every blockchain would stop evolving if its core team walked away tomorrow. Blocks would keep being produced. But upgrades? Security patches? Adaptation to new threats? Gone. IoTeX is no different today. That's a problem we intend to solve.

In 2025, the network processed nearly 200K daily transactions across 130+ applications, holding at 40% of supply, and institutional validators like Animoca joined the delegate set. But these measure activity, not resilience. The real question is harder: If the core team resigns tomorrow would IoTeX keep running, keep upgrading, and keep getting stronger? We think the answer needs to be yes, and we're working on several fronts:

Trustless bridging through math, not keys. Cross-chain bridges typically rely on multisig wallets — trusted parties holding private keys. Keys can be stolen, coerced, or lost. We're working on replacing this trust assumption with zero-knowledge proofs: a bridge that mathematically proves IoTeX consensus happened correctly, verified on Ethereum, with no trusted intermediaries. We're actively engaging with the Ethereum Foundation on this, particularly in the context of their Native Rollup work which shares technical building blocks with our approach.

AI-operated consensus delegates. Running a delegate node today requires human operators — expensive, scarce, and a centralizing force. What if AI agents could operate nodes at a fraction of the cost? What if one delegate could spawn multiple AI operators, each independently monitoring the chain and responding to incidents? This would break the equation where decentralization = f(token price). If nodes are cheap to run, decentralization stays robust even in bear markets.

A second client implementation. One codebase is a single point of failure. Ethereum learned this with the Geth supermajority problem. We need a protocol specification rigorous enough that an independent team can build a second client from scratch — so that no single piece of software is existential to the network.

Independent security and development structures. A security council that functions without the Foundation. A contributor guild that pays developers directly based on contribution, not employment. Bug bounties funded by the protocol itself.

None of these have neat quarterly deadlines. Some depend on governance votes. Some depend on external developments. That's precisely why a traditional roadmap would be dishonest. What we can commit to is the *direction*: every decision we make should move IoTeX closer to surviving — and thriving — without us.

Challenge 3: How does IoTeX fund itself sustainably, forever?Most blockchain projects treat "sustainability" as a tokenomics problem — adjust inflation, add a fee burn, hope the math works out. We think that's backwards. The best version of sustainability is the simplest one: build products that make money.

Think about how a successful public company works. It generates revenue, reinvests profits into R&D, and buys back shares to return value to shareholders when cash exceeds needs. Nobody asks Microsoft "what's your inflation schedule?" — the business funds itself. We think a blockchain protocol can work the same way. Not overnight, but as a north star.

In 2025, IoTeX protocol revenue reached $110K in Q3, up 16% QoQ. A start, but not self-sustaining. The question for 2026: can we build products that generate enough revenue to fund protocol development, security, and growth independently?

Product revenue first. If we find product-market fit for physical-world AI, revenue can directly fund core development, security, ecosystem grants — and eventually buy back and burn IOTX, returning value to holders the way a profitable company returns value to shareholders. This is the ideal path and the one we're working hardest toward.

Protocol mechanisms as complements, not crutches. Fee burns, treasury allocations, staking adjustments, inflation — these tools exist and other chains have used them with varying success. They may play a role. But we view them as complements to a real business, not substitutes. A fee burn without genuine transaction volume is theater. A treasury without real revenue is just inflation with extra steps.

Governance matters as much as economics. However the protocol funds itself, who decides how funds are spent matters just as much. Transparent on-chain spending, community oversight, progressive decentralization of control — no single entity, including us, should have unilateral say over the protocol's financial future.

The flywheel we're building toward: products generate revenue and transactions → revenue funds development and buybacks → transactions strengthen the network → a stronger network attracts more builders and products. It doesn't exist today. Building it starts with Challenge 1: making something people pay for.

The current model has a shelf life. We'd rather have this conversation openly than pretend the status quo is fine.

Why an Anti-Roadmap?This isn't the absence of a roadmap. It's a deliberate argument against them.

2025 proved why. Nobody predicted vision AI would get 100x cheaper, that AI agents would hit production, or that Coinbase would ship a machine payment protocol. Every shift changed what we should build. A rigid roadmap would have told us to keep executing last year's plan while the world moved on.

Roadmaps optimize for predictability — the appearance of control. The winning strategy in an AI-accelerated world is adaptability. Spot opportunities in weeks, not quarters. Kill plans that stopped making sense. Say "we were wrong, here's what we're doing instead."

What we can promise:

Transparency about what we don't know. We'd rather say "we're searching for product-market fit" than pretend we've found it.Speed of iteration. Ship fast, measure honestly, kill what doesn't work.Structural resilience. Designed for a world where any single thing can fail — including us — and the system keeps going.The three challenges — giving AI eyes on the physical world, building infrastructure that outlives its creators, funding itself forever — are compass bearings, not milestones. If these questions interest you, we want to hear from you. Not as spectators, but as builders.

The internet was built for humans. The next version will be built for machines. Machines that perceive the world. Machines that transact. Machines that act. If that future arrives, the infrastructure connecting AI to reality will matter. That is the question IoTeX is trying to answer.

If you don't want to read this article, I used AI to summarize for you. TL;DR version:

Challenge 1: Make IoTeX AI's interface to the physical world

Vision-first: turn live camera streams into AI-readable intelligence via VQA — no new hardware, 1B+ cameras already deployed, 100x cheaper vision AIExpand beyond vision: generalize Quicksilver architecture to all physical-world dataRevenue as the metric: paying customers over TVL or partnerships; fast experimentation, kill what doesn't workProduct and protocol deliberately decoupled — if a product fails, the chain keeps getting strongerChallenge 2: Make IoTeX unconditionally decentralized

ZK-bridging: replace multisig trust with zero-knowledge proofs; engaging with Ethereum Foundation / Native Rollup workAI-operated delegates: break the "decentralization = f(token price)" equationSecond client implementation: eliminate single-codebase riskIndependent structures: security council, contributor guild, protocol-funded bounties — all functioning without the FoundationChallenge 3: Fund IoTeX sustainably, forever

Product revenue first: fund development, security, grants, and IOTX buyback/burn from real business incomeProtocol mechanisms (fee burns, treasury, staking) as complements, not crutchesTransparent on-chain spending, community oversight, no unilateral controlThe flywheel: products → revenue & transactions → development & buybacks → stronger network → more buildersOur commitments: Transparency about unknowns. Speed of iteration. Structural resilience — survives any single point of failure, including us.

The IoTeX Team

Posted by the IoTeX Foundation

One month ago, on February 21, 2026, IoTeX faced an unprecedented challenge when our ioTube bridge was exploited. Today, we want to take a step back and review everything that happened, including IoTeX's recovery efforts this past month. We are committed to sharing the full picture with our community – you deserved transparency from day one, and you still do.

This is not just an incident post-mortem. It is a record of how the IoTeX Foundation, our Delegates, our exchange partners, and most importantly, our community came together under pressure and emerged stronger.

What HappenedIn the early hours of February 21, 2026, our team detected a security breach targeting the Ethereum-side of the ioTube bridge. A sophisticated attacker — later attributed by Chainalysis to the same group behind the $49M Infini exploit — had compromised an employee's machine through a suspected social engineering attack, enabling them to dwell for a prolonged duration within our infrastructure.

On February 21, 01:51 UTC, they initiated the attack by first upgrading an ioTube bridge Validator contract to a malicious version. This authorized the attacker to drain ~$4.4M in bridge reserve assets (WBTC, ETH, USDC, USDT, DAI, PAXG, UNI, BUSD, CCS) and mint 410M CIOTX tokens in an attempt to extract further value from the network.

It was a professional, patient, and carefully planned attack. What followed was our response.

Our team detected the incident at 8:01 AM UTC on February 21 — within hours of the exploit firing. Our first public community alert went out at 9:39 AM UTC, less than two hours after detection. By 10:03 AM UTC, our validator network had voluntarily suspended the IoTeX chain as a precautionary measure. By that evening, on-chain tracing of all stolen fund movements had been completed.

Let us be clear about something important: the IoTeX L1 chain itself was never compromised. The incident was isolated strictly to the Ethereum-side ioTube bridge contracts. Your IOTX on-chain and on exchanges was safe the entire time. The total supply and circulating supply of IOTX was never affected.

Within 72 hours of the attack:

29 attacker wallets had been identified and blacklistedMainnet v2.3.4 was developed, tested, and deployed — permanently freezing ~45M IOTX in attacker wallets at the network levelThe IoTeX chain was back online as of February 24, 06:06 AM UTCFormal reports had been filed with the FBI and global law enforcementOur team was actively coordinating with Binance and 20+ exchange partners on asset freezesWe want to specifically thank our IoTeX delegates — including iotexcore, binancenode, samsungnext, iosg, ankr, rockx, metanyx, fuzzland, smartstake, and many others — whose around-the-clock coordination made the chain halt and subsequent recovery possible in record time.

Transparent Communication, From the Very BeginningWe published our first full technical incident report within 24 hours. Over the weeks that followed, we published another three official updates that comprehensively covered root cause analysis, chain recovery status, impact clarification, asset tracing, compensation plan, and governance roadmap. We also hosted a live community Q&A on Discord. We published every key development publicly and transparently as it happened to the IoTeX community.

That commitment to transparency extended to our communications to exchanges as well. When DAXA — the Digital Asset Exchange Association representing Korea's major exchanges — issued an Investment Warning against IOTX and asked detailed technical questions, we responded with full forensic documentation, on-chain evidence, precise timelines, and a complete remediation roadmap, addressing every follow-up question in detail in the past whole month.

We believe our community and our regulatory partners deserve the same quality of information. That will never change.

100% Compensation for All Impacted UsersFrom the moment we published our first update, we made one unconditional promise: every affected user will receive 100% compensation, regardless of how much of the stolen funds are ultimately recovered. All compensation is funded entirely from the IoTeX Foundation Treasury in stablecoins and non-IOTX reserves, with zero IOTX liquidation on public markets.

We first executed upon that promise by launching the ioTube Claims Portal on March 2, nine days after the incident. The compensation structure is outlined below:

Tier 1 (≤ $10,000 affected): 100% immediate payout in stablecoins — covering over 90% of all affected walletsTier 2 (> $10,000 affected): $10,000 immediate payout + remaining balance in quarterly tranches over 12 months + a 10% Loyalty Bonus in 12-month staked IOTXAs of today, the compensation claim portal is live and payouts are commencing. If you were affected and have not yet submitted your claim, please visit iotube-claims.iotex.io to submit your claim.

Every cent recovered from the attacker will be directed exclusively to compensating affected users or reimbursing the Foundation Treasury. Any recovered funds will be held in a public multi-sig wallet, and we will continue to provide transparent updates on compensation and recovery on a regular basis.

All Major Exchanges Resume Operations Within One MonthImmediately following the incident, deposits and withdrawals were paused across major exchanges as a standard precaution. Our exchange relations team moved immediately, notifying 20+ partners and coordinating closely throughout the recovery. The results speak for themselves:

Within one week: Binance, Coinbase, Bitget, Gate.io, HashKey, KuCoin, MEXC, LBank and more had fully resumed IOTX deposits and withdrawals.

Within one month: a total of 11 exchange partners were fully operational with IOTX deposits and withdrawals re-opened.

IOTX trading itself was never halted on any major exchange throughout the entire incident. Your exchange-held IOTX was safe and tradeable at all times.

Korean Exchanges: Lifting the DAXA Investment WarningAmong the most challenging situations we faced was the Investment Warning issued against IOTX by three major Korean exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone — under DAXA oversight. This kind of warning can have serious implications for trading access and market perception.

We are proud to report that following our comprehensive formal responses to DAXA, the DAXA Investment Warning has been lifted and Korean exchanges have resumed normal deposits and withdrawals for IOTX. This was largely due to our responsiveness and transparency in addressing each and every question from DAXA in full – we provided on-chain evidence, a detailed incident timeline, our complete compensation plan, our security remediation roadmap, and proof of supply integrity.

To our knowledge, IoTeX is one of the only projects that has successfully navigated a DAXA Investment Warning review of this nature in this timeframe. This outcome reflects the quality of the work our team put into response, and the trust we have worked to build with exchanges over the years. We thank DAXA for their fair and thorough cooperation throughout the past month.

Securing the Future of IoTeX: Multiple IIPs, Systemic ReformThe most important thing we can do beyond making affected users whole is make sure this never happens again. We are not simply patching what broke, but replacing it with something fundamentally more secure.

IIP-56: Full Deprecation of CIOTX Across All Networks has passed. CIOTX has been permanently deprecated on Ethereum, Base, Solana, BSC, and Polygon. All exit channels are closed for the attacker-minted tokens and legitimate holders will be compensated through the Claims Portal.

IIP-57: Trustless ZK-Proof Bridge is in the community review phase. This is the future of cross-chain infrastructure on IoTeX: a bridge that mathematically proves IoTeX consensus happened correctly, verified on Ethereum, with zero intermediaries and zero private keys to steal. We are working with the Ethereum Foundation on this and when complete it will be the most secure bridge architecture in the industry.

Beyond the IIPs detailed above, we have completed a comprehensive infrastructure overhaul:

All bridge contracts transitioned to multi-signature governanceAll GCP and AWS credentials rotated and compromised service accounts decommissionedHardware Security Modules (HSMs) deployed for all sensitive keys, eliminating software-based key storage permanentlyReal-time transaction monitoring with automated alerts and on-chain circuit breakersOrganization-wide security hardening, including mandatory hardware 2FA, endpoint protection, social engineering awareness trainingIndependent third-party security audit of all bridge infrastructure currently underwayExpanded bug bounty program launchedThis was the hardest month in IoTeX's history. A sophisticated, well-funded, and patient adversary targeted us, executed their attack, and exploited weaknesses in our system. There is no minimizing that.

What we can say, with evidence, is this: we detected it fast, we moved decisively, we communicated openly, we protected the core network, we made every affected user whole, we handled every regulatory and exchange relationship with professionalism and transparency, and we used this moment to drive structural reforms that will make IoTeX significantly more secure than it was before.

The IoTeX L1 was never compromised. Our community never lost faith. Our exchange partners stepped up. Our delegates worked around the clock. And the IoTeX Foundation honored every commitment we made.

The fundamentals of IoTeX — our technology, our team, our community, our mission to empower Real-World AI — are intact and stronger than ever. The best days of IoTeX are still ahead. Thank you for standing with us.

— The IoTeX Foundation, March 2026

If you were affected by the ioTube bridge incident, please submit your compensation claim at iotube-claims.iotex.io.

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In his latest livestream titled “Cargo Cults and the Reality of Crypto,” Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson delivered an extensive monologue on what he perceives as the current state of digital assets, community behavior, and ongoing legal battles in the sector. The discussion delved into industry history, the fate of long-forgotten projects, and the sometimes-troubling culture that can arise around certain tokens.

Cardano Founder Speaks Out On HEX Broadcasting from Colorado, Hoskinson began by explaining his recent move back to his farm and expressing excitement about nearing completion of construction. He quickly shifted focus to a broader assessment of the crypto landscape, noting that tens of thousands of cryptocurrency projects exist and that new ones frequently emerge, while older ones fade or even reawaken.

“As many of you know, there are probably more than 30,000 cryptocurrency projects floating around,” Hoskinson said. “We pay attention to maybe 50 to 100 at any given time that are interesting in novel.” He categorized most projects into three buckets: Failed or fading projects (e.g., Peercoin, NXT, Feathercoin), projects that were outright scams (e.g., BitConnect, Celsius, and Luna) and the third bucket, projects that are “curiosities,” with unusual communities and nontraditional approaches to tokenomics, marketing, or culture.

From this framework, the Cardano founder homed in on how certain projects—what he labeled as the “third bucket”—tend to behave. He singled out Hex and PulseChain as an example, stressing that those communities have repeatedly demanded his input in Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions. “Every single AMA I have done for the last probably five years […] there’s been at least one person saying, ‘What do you think of Richard Heart? What do you think of PulseChain? What do you think of Hex?’”

He stated that, technically speaking, he remains largely uninterested: “Don’t know much about it […] outside of the fact that I know Richard Hart is an incredibly ostentatious and unusual person who buys lots of luxury goods […] and seems to have a popular YouTube channel.”

While not assigning guilt or innocence, Hoskinson highlighted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought forward a personal case against Hart for alleged fraud and misappropriation of $12.1 million. He contrasted that situation with ongoing SEC cases against companies such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, which focus on whether certain assets are securities:

“Cases like the one against Richard are different and those will persist,” he argued, further noting that the SEC complaint includes claims of personal misconduct and misuse of funds, rather than solely token classification questions.

Hoskinson also mentioned reports of an Interpol Red Notice tied to Hart, along with allegations related to tax evasion in Finland and an assault case. He cited this as evidence that the situation extends beyond civil disputes and may invite coordination from the IRS and US Department of Justice in criminal matters.

“There is an Interpol red notice […] that’s an undebatable, undeniable thing,” the Cardano founder asserted, though he acknowledged that some within these communities believe the charges to be fabricated.

After referencing these details, Hoskinson revealed that he has been bombarded with accusatory comments and tweets from certain PulseChain and Hex supporters. He said their aggressive approach ultimately discourages any possibility of collaboration: “You will achieve absolutely nothing by further harassment […] all you’ve achieved is whatever little interest I may have had of actually looking into your ecosystem is now over.”

He then drew parallels to other crypto founders or personalities who, in his view, foster contentious communities—specifically comparing the situation with Craig Wright and his Bitcoin SV (BSV) backers: “This is what happened in the BSV community with Craig. We all watched it [… ] and honestly, ask yourself, how many people are waking up today and saying, ‘Boy, I can’t wait to build my next project on BSV’?”

Hoskinson concluded with what he deemed “unsolicited advice,” urging these communities to evaluate the kind of ecosystems they want to become—independent of their founders—and whether the current approach will foster partnership or repel potential collaborators. “If you’re truly a cryptocurrency and you’re truly decentralized, you should be self-governing and you should be different from your founder,” he said. “If that’s the case, you have to ask yourself again what type of ecosystem do you want to be?”

Despite the harsh tone, Hoskinson wished the communities luck, emphasizing that Cardano itself intends to remain neutral and uninvolved: “I have nothing against anyone in the PulseChain community, the Hex community […] I don’t care about your ecosystem,” he stated, adding that he will not be engaging further on the issue.

At press time, Cardano traded at $0.95.

Cardano finds support at the 0.236 Fib, 4-hour chart | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com

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A US judge ruled that the SEC lacked jurisdiction over Heart’s crypto activities. The SEC accused Heart of misappropriating $12.1 million for luxury purchases. A US judge has dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) fraud lawsuit against Hex founder Richard Heart. The judge ruled that the US lacked jurisdiction over the case.

On February 28, US District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s claims against Heart. The regulator accused him of raising over $1 billion through unregistered crypto offerings. It also alleged that he misappropriated $12.1 million to buy luxury items, including the world’s largest black diamond.

However, Amon ruled that the SEC failed to prove Heart’s activities targeted US investors. She stated that his alleged fraudulent actions occurred globally, not within US jurisdiction. The court also found no link between the misappropriated funds and the United States.

The SEC alleged that Heart spent investor funds on personal luxury purchases. These included McLaren and Ferrari sports cars, four Rolex watches, and a 555-carat black diamond called “The Enigma.” The regulator also claimed that his projects Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX were unregistered securities.

Despite these accusations, the judge ruled that the SEC could not prove the transactions occurred in the US. Heart’s promotions on YouTube and social media targeted a global audience. The court determined that this was not enough to establish US jurisdiction.

Heart Celebrates Legal Victory Heart responded positively to the ruling. He stated that winning a case against the SEC is rare. He also emphasized that Hex has operated flawlessly for over five years.

Following the court’s decision, PulseChain, PulseX, and HEX saw a sharp increase in value. HEX surged 78%, PulseX rose 67%, and PulseChain gained 36%. Heart credited the ruling for the price surge and expressed relief over the outcome.

Despite his legal win in the US, Heart still faces challenges in Finland. Authorities arrested him in September 2024 on tax fraud and assault allegations. However, he remains missing, and Interpol issued a Red Notice against him in December. Authorities managed to seize $2.6 million worth of watches believed to belong to Heart. Meanwhile, he continues promoting his cryptocurrencies on social media.

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A US federal court has dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit against Richard Heart, the founder of HEX, citing jurisdictional overreach.

Following the decision, tokens associated with Heart—HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX—have surged in value, with HEX leading the rally with a nearly 80% gain.

Judge Rules Against SEC in Richard Heart CaseOn February 28, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled in favor of Richard Schueler, widely known as Richard Heart, dismissing the SEC’s lawsuit against him.

The agency had accused Heart of conducting an unregistered securities offering, alleging that he raised over $1 billion in cryptocurrency assets.

It also claimed that Heart and his blockchain project, PulseChain, misappropriated at least $12 million for luxury purchases, including high-end cars, watches, and a rare black diamond.

Heart resisted these claims, arguing that the SEC lacked jurisdiction over his activities. He maintained that the regulator failed to prove that his actions specifically targeted US investors or violated domestic securities laws.

US District Judge Carol Bagley Amon sided with Heart, stating that the SEC did not establish a sufficient legal basis for its case.

The judge also found that Heart’s marketing efforts were globally available and not specifically directed at US investors. The SEC had claimed Heart extensively promoted his projects through websites and social media.

However, the court determined that simply providing information online does not constitute sufficient grounds for jurisdiction.

“Heart did not directly message US-based investors or respond to questions through his websites. Rather, Heart disseminated ‘how to’ information, which alone is not sufficient. Accordingly, Heart’s website contacts simply provided globally available information and lack sufficient interactivity to constitute a significant contact,” Judge Amon wrote.

Additionally, the judge ruled that the SEC failed to demonstrate that Heart’s alleged misconduct, including misappropriation of funds and deceptive transactions, took place within the US.

“The alleged misappropriation occurred through digital wallets and crypto asset platforms, none of which were alleged to have any connection with the United States,” the Judge ruled.

Meanwhile, the ruling also determined that even if the SEC had proven jurisdiction, its complaint lacked substantial evidence of domestic securities law violations. As a result, the case was dismissed.

“Even if the SEC had established personal jurisdiction over Heart, the Complaint cannot stand because it fails to adequately plead that either the transactions or conduct at issue were domestic under the federal securities laws,” Judge Amon stated.

HEX and PulseChain Surge Following Legal VictoryReacting to the court’s decision, Heart described the ruling as a rare victory for the cryptocurrency industry.

He emphasized that HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX should be allowed to operate freely, stating that HEX has functioned without issue for over five years.

“This type of victory over the SEC is quite rare. PulseChain, PulseX and HEX are not securities and should be allowed to flourish. HEX has operated flawlessly for over 5 years. Today’s decision in favor of a cryptocurrency founder and his projects over the SEC brings welcome relief and opportunity to all cryptocurrencies,” Heart stated.

HEX Price Surge After SEC’s Legal Defeat. Source: GeckoTerminalFollowing the decision, the tokens linked to Heart experienced massive price gains.

According to CoinGecko data, HEX gained over 77% in the past 24 hours, trading at $0.003979. Meanwhile, PulseChain rose more than 65% to approximately $0.01575 at press time.

Today’s edition of the weekly recap covers a legal setback in the Heart case, an upcoming White House crypto summit, and the Trump family’s planned metaverse expansion. Meanwhile, MetaMask adds Bitcoin and Solana support.

Judge dismisses case against HEX founder U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon has dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit against Hex founder Richard Heart. Heart, who also founded PulseChain and Pulsex, was accused of raising over $1 billion through unregistered cryptocurrency offerings and defrauding investors out of $12.1 million to purchase luxuries (i.e. the largest black diamond). The judge ruled that there was insufficient connection between Heart’s alleged conduct and the U.S. Heart, a U.S. citizen, resides in Finland, where he was accused of tax evasion and assault. Trump to host White House crypto summit President Donald Trump will host a cryptocurrency summit on March 7, featuring industry leaders and administration officials. The event will be coordinated by crypto and AI czar David Sacks and Bo Hines, executive director of the digital assets working group. Trump family explores metaverse A recent trademark application shows the Trump (TRUMP) family’s intention to develop a TRUMP-branded metaverse. This expands their cryptocurrency ventures beyond meme coins and NFTs. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing was submitted on an “intent to use” basis. MetaMask plans Bitcoin and Solana integration The popular cryptocurrency wallet will add native support for Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) ecosystems this year. This will eliminate the need for users to manage multiple wallets or use wrapped tokens. Full Bitcoin support is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025, while Solana integration is targeted for May. Bybit hackers move stolen funds to Bitcoin MetaMask Head of Security Taylor Monahan reported that Bybit hackers have transferred at least 209,384 Ethereum (ETH) (approximately $480 million) to Bitcoin. This is more than half of the estimated 400,000 ETH stolen from the exchange. According to Arkham Intelligence tracking, at least $240 million was laundered using THORchain, with most funds converted to native BTC. North Korea’s Lazarus Group moved another 62,200 ETH ($138 million) on March 1. This leaves them with just 156,500 Ethereum remaining from the original theft, according to an analysis by crypto researcher EmberCN. SEC agrees to drop Consensys lawsuit The SEC agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against Consensys, the developer of MetaMask, which had alleged securities law violations. According to Ethereum co-founder and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin, the SEC will file a motion to end the case. In another development, the SEC formally filed to dismiss its case against Coinbase with prejudice on Thursday, confirming the agreement announced last week and ensuring the case cannot be refiled. BitMEX seeks deal The cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform co-founded by Arthur Hayes in 2014 is exploring potential buyers. BitMEX has faced regulatory challenges since 2020, when it was charged with failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering measures, eventually pleading guilty. Metaplanet seeks additional Bitcoin acquisition funding The Japanese firm is looking to raise 2 billion yen ($13.6 million) through zero-interest ordinary bonds, with proceeds set aside for additional Bitcoin purchases. SEC and Tron request case pause The SEC, the Tron (TRX) Foundation, and Justin Sun filed a joint motion Wednesday asking a federal judge to temporarily halt the regulator’s ongoing legal action. The regulator had initially sued Tron, Sun, and BitTorrent in July 2023, alleging market manipulation, fraud, and issuing unregistered securities. ZachXBT joins Paradigm as security advisor The pseudonymous blockchain investigator has taken a position with research-driven investment firm Paradigm as an incident response advisor to support their portfolio companies. Paradigm cofounder Matt Huang praised ZachXBT’s accomplishments, noting the investigator has helped recover over $350 million for victims of hacks and scams. SEC drops Uniswap investigation The SEC has terminated its investigation into Uniswap Labs, the company behind the decentralized exchange protocol, according to Tuesday’s announcement. Uniswap had received a Wells notice last April indicating the SEC’s intent to bring charges for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities broker and exchange. Strive CEO urges GameStop to adopt Bitcoin reserves Matt Cole, CEO of Strive Asset Management, has formally requested that GameStop consider adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset. The letter to Chairman and CEO Ryan Cohen suggests Bitcoin adoption could position GameStop as a market leader. Sam Bankman-Fried breaks X silence The former FTX CEO posted publicly for the first time in two years. His Monday evening posts addressed the challenges of firing employees, suggesting terminations often result from company-role mismatches rather than employee shortcomings. OKX affiliate reaches $505 million DOJ settlement Cryptocurrency exchange OKX’s affiliate Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd has agreed to pay over $505 million in penalties after pleading guilty to serving U.S. customers without proper licensing and failing to follow anti-money laundering regulations. The settlement includes a $420.3 million criminal forfeiture and an $84.4 million criminal fine. Strategy completes nearly $2 billion Bitcoin purchase The company formerly known as MicroStrategy has acquired 20,355 Bitcoin at an average price of $97,514 per coin. This marks a total investment of almost $2 billion. Zhao reveals 98.48% portfolio concentration in BNB Binance founder Changpeng Zhao disclosed his cryptocurrency holdings on Binance’s social platform, revealing that BNB (BNB) comprises 98.48% of his portfolio. His remaining assets include a modest 1.32% allocation to Bitcoin, followed by smaller positions in stablecoins EURI (0.17%) and USDT (0.03%). Pump.fun explores automated market maker development The popular Solana-based meme coin launchpad is reportedly testing an in-house automated market maker (AMM) that could replace Raydium as the default decentralized exchange for new tokens.

The whale, the hack and the psychological earthquake that hit HEX

SEC says it won’t re-file fraud case against Hex’s Richard Heart

Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.

Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.

4 minutes ago

UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.

Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.

4 minutes ago

Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH

According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.

4 minutes ago

Sources: Iraqi officials once considered withdrawing from OPEC, but current plans are to remain a member and pursue a higher quota.

A senior Iraqi oil ministry official said that if OPEC quotas are not significantly increased, Iraq will be forced to consider all available options. Sources said Iraqi officials had considered withdrawing from OPEC, but the current plan is to remain a member and push for higher quotas. (Jinshi)

4 minutes ago

Kepler Cheuvreux raises ASML’s European share price target from €1,460 to €1,830.

Kepler Cheuvreux has raised the target price for ASML’s European shares from €1,460 to €1,830.

4 minutes ago

Stifel: U.S. economy in "overheated expansion" as AI investment cycle outweighs consumer pressure

U.S. large diversified financial services holding company Stifel has raised its year-end S&P 500 target and rolled out a stock allocation framework for a "high-growth, high-inflation" environment. The firm lifted its year-end S&P 500 target to 7,800 points, noting the U.S. economy is entering a "running hot" state—where economic growth is strengthening alongside mounting inflationary pressure. Stifel’s models show U.S. growth momentum is picking up while inflation momentum is clearly overheating, a trend that will reshape the market’s leading sector structure in the second half of the year. Instead of traditional consumer sectors, Stifel’s top picks are investment-led cyclical industries, including banks, transportation, materials, energy, semiconductors, software and equipment. The firm adds that fixed-asset investment in AI remains on the rise: large tech firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are projected to combine for roughly $725 billion in total capital expenditures in 2026, some $100 billion higher than prior estimates. This means the AI investment chain is likely to continue outperforming the consumption chain squeezed by inflation. Stifel advises investors to reduce exposure to discretionary consumer, consumer staples, communication services and some financial services sectors, as these areas see weaker earnings revisions. Conversely, the firm favors cyclical value stocks and hedges with defensive value sectors such as insurance, autos, energy and banks.

4 minutes ago

Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.

Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.

4 minutes ago

UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.

Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.

4 minutes ago

Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH

According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.

4 minutes ago

Sources: Iraqi officials once considered withdrawing from OPEC, but current plans are to remain a member and pursue a higher quota.

A senior Iraqi oil ministry official said that if OPEC quotas are not significantly increased, Iraq will be forced to consider all available options. Sources said Iraqi officials had considered withdrawing from OPEC, but the current plan is to remain a member and push for higher quotas. (Jinshi)

4 minutes ago

Kepler Cheuvreux raises ASML’s European share price target from €1,460 to €1,830.

Kepler Cheuvreux has raised the target price for ASML’s European shares from €1,460 to €1,830.

4 minutes ago

Stifel: U.S. economy in "overheated expansion" as AI investment cycle outweighs consumer pressure

U.S. large diversified financial services holding company Stifel has raised its year-end S&P 500 target and rolled out a stock allocation framework for a "high-growth, high-inflation" environment. The firm lifted its year-end S&P 500 target to 7,800 points, noting the U.S. economy is entering a "running hot" state—where economic growth is strengthening alongside mounting inflationary pressure. Stifel’s models show U.S. growth momentum is picking up while inflation momentum is clearly overheating, a trend that will reshape the market’s leading sector structure in the second half of the year. Instead of traditional consumer sectors, Stifel’s top picks are investment-led cyclical industries, including banks, transportation, materials, energy, semiconductors, software and equipment. The firm adds that fixed-asset investment in AI remains on the rise: large tech firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are projected to combine for roughly $725 billion in total capital expenditures in 2026, some $100 billion higher than prior estimates. This means the AI investment chain is likely to continue outperforming the consumption chain squeezed by inflation. Stifel advises investors to reduce exposure to discretionary consumer, consumer staples, communication services and some financial services sectors, as these areas see weaker earnings revisions. Conversely, the firm favors cyclical value stocks and hedges with defensive value sectors such as insurance, autos, energy and banks.

4 minutes ago

PANews reported on November 7th that, according to Lookonchain, three new addresses withdrew 4,920 ETH (approximately $16.25 million) from Tornado.Cash and sold it at a price of approximately $3,302. Lookonchain stated that Richard Heart (founder of HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX) purchased 162,937 ETH (approximately $619 million) this year at approximately $3,800 and deposited it all into Tornado.Cash two days ago; it is currently unclear whether the aforementioned sell-off is related to him or was the work of a hacker.

Feb. 19, 2026, 5:43 PM UTC

Binance.US and an affiliated cryptocurrency website are off the hook, for now, in a proposed class action alleging they suppressed the ranking of a digital asset that could hurt their business.

The companies were back in the US District Court for the District of Arizona after they failed to get US Supreme Court review of their jurisdictional arguments for dismissal. District court judge Susan M. Brnovich agreed with their new argument that the HEX token holder leading the suit, Ryan Cox, failed to state a claim.

Brnovich gave Cox a chance to refile his suit, which targets two entities associated ...

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ApeChain has evolved from an ecosystem experiment into exchange‑grade infrastructure. With Binance expanding native integrations, user access has become significantly smoother and less restrictive.

Consequently, ApeCoin [APE] faces its first real test beyond NFTs. This test will determine whether new liquidity converts into sustained on-chain usage rather than speculative flow.

ApeCoin’s on-chain activity points to structural stagnation rather than volatility.

At press time, the Daily Active Addresses remained range-bound around 10,100–10,700, while transaction counts stabilized near 71,400 per day, keeping TPS below 1.

As a result, usage looks consistent but shallow. Moreover, the daily fees of roughly $145 highlight limited economic intensity despite steady transaction flow.

Source: DefiLlama Activity surged at launch in late 2024, when active addresses briefly exceeded 50,000, and TVL peaked near $34 million. However, momentum faded through 2025 as speculative interest cooled and capital rotated elsewhere.

Due to this, TVL has since fallen over 80% to roughly $4.5–5.7 million, while DEX volumes now average around over $50,000 daily.

Meanwhile, new address creation sat near 343 per day, at press time, signaling slow organic inflow rather than renewal.

Therefore, revival hinges on non-NFT dApps, deeper liquidity, and renewed Ape ecosystem demand, not further infrastructure upgrades alone.

ApeCoin moves beyond its regulatory shadow Regulatory risk once dominated ApeCoin’s narrative, but that overhang has largely cleared.

In October 2022, the SEC opened its investigation into Yuga Labs, spooked by speculative NFT pricing, token-linked incentives, and concerns that ApeCoin and BAYC NFTs resembled securities.

As a result, uncertainty weighed on adoption and capital commitment. However, conditions shifted in March 2025 when the SEC closed the probe without enforcement.

Then, in October 2025, a federal court ruled that ApeCoin [APE] and BAYC NFTs failed the Howey Test, removing structural legal risk.

By that point, on-chain activity had already stalled, with ApeChain TVL down over 80% from roughly $34 million to near $5 million.

Now, Binance’s ApeChain integration reframes the narrative. After resolving its own regulatory disputes, Binance’s involvement signals renewed institutional confidence.

Hence, regulatory clarity now supports execution-focused growth rather than suppressing it.

Whale and Exchange Flows reflect fading conviction Exchange activity around ApeCoin reveals reaction, not conviction.

Following ApeChain’s October 2024 launch, exchange inflows and outflows spiked sharply as APE rallied nearly 100%, indicating short-term positioning rather than durable accumulation.

Source: Santiment Soon after, flows normalized, signaling that liquidity was exiting as quickly as it entered. Meanwhile, whale transactions above $100,000 surged during the launch window, then stalled as prices rolled over.

Wallets holding 1–10 million APE declined from 175 to 166, confirming early distribution instead of strategic buildup.

Source: Santiment As 2025 progressed, new holder growth slowed from roughly 54,000 in late 2024 to about 15,000 in Q2 2025, reinforcing fading demand.

Into early 2026, exchange flows remain episodic and non-directional, while whales stay sidelined.

As a result, ApeCoin’s weakness suppresses ApeChain momentum, keeping the ecosystem niche until conviction-driven capital returns.

Final Thoughts ApeChain’s exchange-grade integration removes access friction and regulatory drag, but ApeCoin now faces a usage test it has yet to pass beyond NFT-led liquidity.

On-chain stability masks structural weakness as shallow fees, falling TVL, and sidelined whales signal liquidity without conviction or durable demand.

3 Token Unlocks to Watch in the Third Week of February 2026

Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.

Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.

4 minutes ago

UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.

Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.

4 minutes ago

Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH

According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.

4 minutes ago

Sources: Iraqi officials once considered withdrawing from OPEC, but current plans are to remain a member and pursue a higher quota.

A senior Iraqi oil ministry official said that if OPEC quotas are not significantly increased, Iraq will be forced to consider all available options. Sources said Iraqi officials had considered withdrawing from OPEC, but the current plan is to remain a member and push for higher quotas. (Jinshi)

4 minutes ago

Kepler Cheuvreux raises ASML’s European share price target from €1,460 to €1,830.

Kepler Cheuvreux has raised the target price for ASML’s European shares from €1,460 to €1,830.

4 minutes ago

Stifel: U.S. economy in "overheated expansion" as AI investment cycle outweighs consumer pressure

U.S. large diversified financial services holding company Stifel has raised its year-end S&P 500 target and rolled out a stock allocation framework for a "high-growth, high-inflation" environment. The firm lifted its year-end S&P 500 target to 7,800 points, noting the U.S. economy is entering a "running hot" state—where economic growth is strengthening alongside mounting inflationary pressure. Stifel’s models show U.S. growth momentum is picking up while inflation momentum is clearly overheating, a trend that will reshape the market’s leading sector structure in the second half of the year. Instead of traditional consumer sectors, Stifel’s top picks are investment-led cyclical industries, including banks, transportation, materials, energy, semiconductors, software and equipment. The firm adds that fixed-asset investment in AI remains on the rise: large tech firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are projected to combine for roughly $725 billion in total capital expenditures in 2026, some $100 billion higher than prior estimates. This means the AI investment chain is likely to continue outperforming the consumption chain squeezed by inflation. Stifel advises investors to reduce exposure to discretionary consumer, consumer staples, communication services and some financial services sectors, as these areas see weaker earnings revisions. Conversely, the firm favors cyclical value stocks and hedges with defensive value sectors such as insurance, autos, energy and banks.

4 minutes ago

ApeCoin [APE] broke out of a multi-month descending channel and touched a six-month high of $0.28, then retraced. 

As of this writing, ApeCoin traded at $0.20, up 90% on the daily charts. Over the same period, the altcoin’s trading volume rose 6031% and crossed the $1 billion mark, while the market cap rose to $152 million. 

But what’s driving the altcoin’s upward momentum?

ApeCoin whale takes $2.27 million ApeCoin rose, largely driven by whale activity. However, on-chain monitors have suggested possible insider trading activity.

According to Onchain Lens, a possible APE insider placed two orders (long and short) and made over $2.27 million, a 14x return. The insider deposited 75 ETH, worth $174K, to open long and short positions.

According to Lookonchain, the insider went long APE before the surge and closed near the top, resulting in a $1.79 million profit. He then immediately flipped short and made another $488K.

Futures activity hits ATH, liquidation exceeds $82 million With the whale turning to speculative trading, the altcoin experienced increased demand for futures positions. 

According to CoinGlass data, Open Interest rose 228% to $119 million, while derivatives volume surged 6460% to $2.9 billion.

Source: CoinGlass Such a surge in both OI and volume suggested increased participation in the Futures market, with traders taking both short and long positions. 

In fact, the Long/Short Ratio remained above 1 across OKX and Binance. However, the overall ratio remained below 1 at 0.95, suggesting higher demand for short positions. 

Interestingly, with the demand for these positions and increased price volatility, the market experienced massive liquidations. 

Source: Coinglass CoinGlass data showed that the altcoin recorded $82.69 million in total liquidation. Long positions worth $45.6 million and short positions worth $37.08 million were liquidated. 

Profit-taking hits a 6-month high While the activity was largely recorded on the Futures side, the price uptick brought about increased profit realization.

As ApeCoin jumped to October levels, holders who have remained active through the past months chose to cash out. On the 24th of April, Spot netflow rose to $3.18 million, then dropped to $1.3 million at press time.

Source: CoinGlass A positive netflow suggests that sellers have largely dominated the market. Often, increased selling activity has strengthened downside risk, leading to lower prices.

Despite the selling spree, ApeCoin’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) remained elevated and sat at 88 at press time. RSI levels suggested that buyers remained strongly active in the market and are eyeing another upside move.

Source: Tradingview If demand holds even with sellers cashing out, APE will hold $0.2 support and flip the EMA 200 at $0.23. However, if the speculation fades and sellers continue to cash out, the altcoin will drop to $0.13, with $0.11 as critical support.

Final Summary An ApeCoin whale realized $2.27 million in profit, making a 14x return amid insider trading claims.  APE surged 90% to a six-month high of $0.28, then retraced to $0.20 at press time. 

ApeCoin [APE] was one of the hot altcoins in the crypto market in the past 24 hours. It has ralled 22% in 24 hours, and its Open Interest [OI] was up by nearly 40% in a day.

The daily trading volume has surged by 230%, according to CoinMarketCap data.

An AMBCrypto report had covered its swift gains a few days ago.

On Friday, the 24th of April, APE rallied by 174.4% within 20 hours. The move spanned from $0.101 to $0.278. Since making this local peak, APE retraced 50.3% over the weekend to reach the $0.138 support on Monday, the 27th of April.

The high volatility could have been engineered, social media posts speculated.

Driven largely by whale activity, AMBCrypto pointed to how a possible APE insider made $2.27 million by going long before the surge, then switching to a short position to catch the retracement.

The race to profit from the APE rally In recent weeks, the tough market conditions have primed more traders to chase speculative pumps, hoping to make easy money by riding the move higher. The derivatives data showed that APE’s weekend retracement did not dissuade traders from chasing the current move.

CoinGlass data showed that ApeCoin’s daily perpetuals volume was $604 million, up 265.6% from the previous day. The top trader long/short ratio was at 1.375, meaning whales and big traders preferred to remain long.

Source: APE/USDT on TradingView These top traders might be on to something. From a structural standpoint, APE has a bullish outlook on the 1-day chart. The break (orange) came on Friday, the 17th of April.

Since then, the $0.1378 high has also been taken out and retested as support. The momentum does not show a divergence on this timeframe, and the explosive OBV reflected the spot trading volume in recent days.

Source: APE/USDT on TradingView Despite the possible insider trading and the negative implications for the rally from that possibility, traders can maintain a bullish outlook. The technicals and price action support it.

The retest of $0.1368, the 78.6% retracement level of last week’s rally, has yielded a bullish reaction. As things stand, the $0.278 and $0.320 levels are the next bullish targets.

A drop below $0.136 would be a warning to the bulls, while a plunge below $0.0984 will invalidate this idea.

Final Summary ApeCoin has a bullish outlook on the price charts after its explosive move past local highs last Friday. High speculative interest could introduce increased volatility and liquidity hunts in the short-term, but the uptrend remains intact for now.

Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.

Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.

4 minutes ago

UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.

Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.

4 minutes ago

Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH

According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.

4 minutes ago

Sources: Iraqi officials once considered withdrawing from OPEC, but current plans are to remain a member and pursue a higher quota.

A senior Iraqi oil ministry official said that if OPEC quotas are not significantly increased, Iraq will be forced to consider all available options. Sources said Iraqi officials had considered withdrawing from OPEC, but the current plan is to remain a member and push for higher quotas. (Jinshi)

4 minutes ago

Kepler Cheuvreux raises ASML’s European share price target from €1,460 to €1,830.

Kepler Cheuvreux has raised the target price for ASML’s European shares from €1,460 to €1,830.

4 minutes ago

Stifel: U.S. economy in "overheated expansion" as AI investment cycle outweighs consumer pressure

U.S. large diversified financial services holding company Stifel has raised its year-end S&P 500 target and rolled out a stock allocation framework for a "high-growth, high-inflation" environment. The firm lifted its year-end S&P 500 target to 7,800 points, noting the U.S. economy is entering a "running hot" state—where economic growth is strengthening alongside mounting inflationary pressure. Stifel’s models show U.S. growth momentum is picking up while inflation momentum is clearly overheating, a trend that will reshape the market’s leading sector structure in the second half of the year. Instead of traditional consumer sectors, Stifel’s top picks are investment-led cyclical industries, including banks, transportation, materials, energy, semiconductors, software and equipment. The firm adds that fixed-asset investment in AI remains on the rise: large tech firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are projected to combine for roughly $725 billion in total capital expenditures in 2026, some $100 billion higher than prior estimates. This means the AI investment chain is likely to continue outperforming the consumption chain squeezed by inflation. Stifel advises investors to reduce exposure to discretionary consumer, consumer staples, communication services and some financial services sectors, as these areas see weaker earnings revisions. Conversely, the firm favors cyclical value stocks and hedges with defensive value sectors such as insurance, autos, energy and banks.

4 minutes ago