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Answer: Two spot SUI ETFs with staking, GSUI and SUISTwo U.S.-listed spot Sui ETFs with staking are live: news/grayscale-sui-trust-sec-filing/”>grayscale sui Staking ETF (GSUI) and Canary Staked sui etf (SUIS). Both products combine spot exposure to Sui with on-chain staking.

The structures are designed so staking rewards accrue within the funds rather than through direct token custody by investors. Ticker visibility and exchange listings make access similar to other crypto ETPs.

Why it matters for Sui investors and market structureStaking inside an exchange-traded product brings network yield into a regulated wrapper. That may broaden institutional access while standardizing operations like custody, validator selection, and reward accounting.

For market structure, staking-enabled spot ETPs can influence secondary-market liquidity and create new demand channels. However, they introduce operational and validator risks that differ from non-staking crypto ETPs.

BingX: a trusted exchange delivering real advantages for traders at every level.

According to CoinDesk, Canary Capital listed the Canary Staked SUI ETF (SUIS) on Nasdaq with staking functionality, giving regulated exposure to Sui and on-chain yield in a single vehicle. The report places the launch on February 18, 2026.

As outlined in GlobeNewswire’s coverage of issuer communications, staking rewards are reflected in the funds’ net asset value (NAV) net of fees, rather than paid out as cash distributions. The same disclosures flag risks such as slashing, lockups, and reliance on third-party custodians and validators.

Before quoting issuer commentary, it is important to note that statements from fund sponsors describe objectives, not guarantees of outcomes or returns. Said Steven McClurg, CEO at Canary Capital, “The Canary Staked SUI spot ETF (SUIS) brings exposure to SUI in a registered, exchange-traded structure, while also enabling investors to benefit from net staking rewards generated through SUI’s proof-of-stake mechanism.”

GSUI vs. SUIS: listings, staking mechanics, and regulatory contextWhere they trade, tickers, and how to accessAs reported by TradingView, Grayscale’s Sui Staking ETF (GSUI) began trading on nyse Arca on February 18, 2026. The data also show Sui trading near $0.96 at the time of writing, alongside very high measured volatility.

SUIS is listed on Nasdaq, and GSUI on NYSE Arca. Investors generally access these exchange-traded products via brokerage platforms that route to the respective listing venues during market hours.

Custody, validators, and 40 Act status clarificationBased on issuer materials summarized by GlobeNewswire, neither fund is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. These are commodity- or grantor-trust style ETPs, not 40 Act mutual funds or ETFs.

The disclosures indicate that staking is facilitated through third-party custody and external validator services; the funds do not self-validate. Rewards, less fees and expenses, increase the trust’s Sui holdings and thus the NAV.

FAQ about Grayscale Sui Staking ETF (GSUI)How do staking rewards work in these Sui ETFs, are they paid out or reflected in NAV?Rewards are accrued in-kind to the fund and reflected in NAV after fees, not paid as cash distributions.

What risks come with staking inside an ETF (lockups, slashing, custody/validator risk)?Key risks include lockups, potential slashing, validator underperformance, and third-party custody or operational failures.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Cardano's open interest has remained below $500 million in the last few days. According to CoinGlass data, Cardano open interest was down 2.49% in the last 24 hours to $431.89 million, a drop from the above $500 million figure typically seen.

This comes amid the current uncertainty on the markets that has left market sentiment in the fear zone. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remains in extreme fear as the crypto market continues to struggle following October's sell-off. The broader crypto market has lost almost $2 trillion in value over the same period, according to data from CoinGecko.

Recent months have seen a turbulent stretch for digital assets marked by continued bouts of volatility and shifting risk appetite. Cardano was impacted, currently trading at multimonth lows.

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At the time of writing, ADA was trading up 1.29% in the last 24 hours to $0.285 and up 13% weekly.

The crypto market saw mixed trading on Wednesday as investors anticipated the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes and key inflation data.

The markets will be keeping an eye out for the FOMC meeting minutes, which will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET, offering insights into policymakers’ decision-making at the Fed’s January meeting.

The Central Bank kept its key interest rates steady in January at a range between 3.5% and 3.75%, in line with traders’ expectations.

Investors are also looking ahead to the release of the personal consumption expenditure price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, on Friday, which will provide further insights into the state of the economy.

What's next for ADA price? The next resistance levels for ADA lie at $0.34 and $0.57 if the current rise continues.

If the bulls do not give up much ground to the bears, the possibility of a break above $0.30 continues. That suggests Cardano may remain inside the descending channel for some more time. A break and close above the downtrend line signals a potential short-term trend change.

Sellers will have to pull the Cardano price below the support line to extend the downward move toward the next support at $0.20.

On Wednesday Feb. 18, Lucie, a renowned Shiba Inu executive, issued a critical warning to users after scammers targeting the Shiba Inu community resurfaced with another scheme.

TL;DR

CryptoQuant data puts Binance’s ETH exchange supply ratio near 0.0296, the lowest since August 2024, signaling accelerated withdrawals. With less ETH parked on the venue, immediate spot-sell liquidity looks tighter even as ETH trades around $1,950 in a relatively stable range. A small rebound toward 0.03 may reflect tactical repositioning, but the broader trend still favors reduced exchange inventory into the next volatility phase, if demand improves supply can pinch. Ethereum’s reserve share on Binance has slipped to its lowest point since August 2024, with CryptoQuant showing the exchange supply ratio around 0.0296. The big signal is that Binance is holding a smaller slice of ETH right when sentiment is still risk controlled. A falling ratio implies fewer coins are parked on the exchange relative to circulating supply, tightening what is instantly available for spot selling. In practical terms, it reads like accelerated outflows, and a strategic preference to keep ETH off platform until conditions improve. It changes near-term liquidity for traders and market makers.

Exchange supply tightens as ETH holds near $1,950 A declining exchange supply ratio is commonly read as coins leaving centralized venues for private wallets, custody setups, or staking protocols. The operational read-through is reduced sell-side liquidity on Binance, which can be structurally constructive for supply dynamics. At 0.0296, the metric suggests less ETH is sitting in an immediately tradable pool, potentially reflecting accumulation behavior and a deliberate shift toward longer-horizon positioning. Historically, lower exchange balances reduce the inventory that can be mobilized for quick spot selling, which can soften exchange-driven selloffs when volatility spikes. That is why outflows matter for market structure today.

The supply contraction is happening while ETH trades near $1,950, a level that reflects a sharp pullback from prior cycle highs but has held within a relatively stable range in recent weeks. The notable divergence is weaker price structure paired with shrinking exchange supply, which hints that spot sellers are not pressing the sell button. Instead of sending ETH to Binance to unload into softness, holders appear to be withdrawing, which can dampen immediate selling pressure. That does not guarantee a reversal, but it reframes the tape as a positioning story, not just price alone.

After the sharp decline, the exchange supply ratio has ticked slightly back toward 0.03 in recent days. The nuance is that a modest rebound can signal tactical repositioning without breaking the broader downtrend in exchange-held supply. Some ETH may be returning to Binance for short-term trading, but the move is small versus the prior drawdown. For now, the structural backdrop still points to reduced exchange inventory, a setup that, if paired with improving demand, could tighten the market balance when the next volatility phase arrives. Execution will depend on flows across spot, custody, and staking.

Altcoin selling pressure reached an all-time high, as those assets suffered even deeper losses compared to BTC. Even worse, recovery may be months or years away, as there are rarely any signs of investors buying the dip. 

Altcoins are under overwhelming selling pressure, with no signs of buyers. The buy/sell quote volume ratio signals that selling is at an all-time peak, accelerating in the past weeks. 

Altcoin selling pressure increased exponentially, passing even the worst selling during the 2022-2023 crypto winter. | Source: Cryptoquant While altcoins have offered relief rallies during previous market downturns, their higher volatility erased any real demand. 

Altcoins have historically sold off during BTC bear markets, but in 2026, the pace of selling is at its steepest, marking unprecedented records. 

The recent bear market may also cause the disappearance of another wave of projects, similar to other dead chains and coins. Even blue-chip tokens are seeing a sell-off, with only ETH showing signs of silent accumulation. 

Why are altcoin prices failing?  Altcoins and tokens belong to projects that have had years to prove their utility. While some networks had success, others carried a minimal number of transactions. Despite the hype, those networks never carried an on-chain economy. 

Altcoin seasons were extremely brief, ending within days. Even the concept of blue-chip altcoins suffered, as most assets crashed deeply following the October 10 liquidation event. 

The altcoin season index stagnated around 30 points, only due to the underperformance of BTC. Most altcoins have erased the gains from their local peaks, and are unwinding in both dollar terms and against BTC. 

Altcoin liquidity spread to memes Liquidity flowed to altcoins in expectation of eventual pumps. During previous cycles, even bearish altcoins outperformed. 

This time around, liquidity has spread to a much wider selection of tokens. The previous altcoin pumps were also unpredictable and required traders to wait for months. 

Meme tokens can deliver short-term rallies and do not require traders to lock funds for the long term. Some of the speculative and retail funds for altcoins moved back to the meme trenches. Other traders moved back to DEX swaps, as centralized exchanges carried a more limited selection of altcoins. 

Altcoin derivative trading also slowed down on centralized markets due to the more significant risk of liquidations. Some of the activity switched to perpetual futures DEXs. 

Additionally, some of the altcoin capital reverted to BTC, while others parked their gains in stablecoins and switched to DeFi for passive income.

Altcoin trading volumes also declined more rapidly during periods of corrections. In November, altcoins made up over 59% of Binance trading activity. By February, the share of altcoins had fallen to 33.6%, an almost 50% drop. 

The share of altcoin trading on Binance shrank in the past months, down to 33.6% of total volumes. | Source: Cryptoquant The big question is whether there may be another altcoin market. For some, altcoins entered a bear market in 2022 and never really recovered. Only a handful of top assets with full DeFi ecosystems survived the previous crypto winter and remained as relevant projects. 

The recent volume shift showed BTC was seen as safer during periods of uncertainty and market stress. Аnother destination for available liquidity is the RWA markets, where tokenized metals replace some of the hot altcoins. 

XRP Ledger has activated the XLS-81 “Permissioned DEX” amendment enabling gated trading venues for regulated institutions, but XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is still struggling to regain momentum. The Members-Only Exchange XLS-81 creates controlled versions of XRPL's built-in decentralized exchange where only approved participants can place and accept trades.

Pi Network’s eligibility for the new ISO 20022 gold standard is contested as the core team prioritizes MiCa.

Market Sentiment:

Bullish Bearish Neutral

Published: February 18, 2026 │ 3:46 PM GMT

Created by Kornelija Poderskytė from DailyCoin

With Pi Network (PI) being built on a modified version of Stellar Lumens (XLM), market watchers are guessing whether Pi Coin has the same regulatory-compliant status like XLM. Previously, Stellar Lumens (XLM) was named along with Ripple (XLM), Algorand (ALGO) & a few more DLT-based blockchains as compliant with SWIFT’s new global messaging standard.

Stellar-Derived Pi Coin Touches Base With MiCa, Not ISONotably, the fact that Pi Network (PI) is built on Stellar’s code doesn’t guarantee a spot in this carefully selected list. While Pi’s core dev team is actively exploring the mobile mining chain’s alignment with various cross-border platforms, the current regulatory environment suggests Pi is lined up better for EU’s MiCa regulations, prioritizing this instead of ISO 20022.

📢 MiCA Whitepaper — Pi Network Announces📄

Pi Network is taking a major step toward regulatory clarity and global adoption by releasing its MiCA-aligned Whitepaper.

Key highlights:
✅ Regulatory-ready framework under Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)
✅ Transparent governance… pic.twitter.com/dxIYus42YR

— Flex (@Flexl0y) February 16, 2026 Right now, Pi Network’s focus is on the gradual mainnet migration, as well as the 100 dApps plan, enabling a mega rich ecosystem of decentralized applications (dApps) within Pi Network – bridging comes later. With over 21 million Pioneers now on the mainnet, the DeFi utility boost is expected to bring liveness back to the community that’s been downtrodden with consecutive price dips.

🚨 Migration Update Alert 🔥
⏳ 14-Day Pending Period is active — make sure you complete your security steps!
✅ Complete 2FA to secure your Pi 🔐
🔄 Missing 2FA = Pi safely returned (security feature, NOT a penalty) 🛡️
♻️ Migration will automatically be re-queued once verified… pic.twitter.com/vtF4CClmCZ

— Pi Community ᵖⁱ ⁿᵉᵗʷᵒʳᵏ (@pi_communityy) February 18, 2026 Aspiring to be the next Bitcoin (BTC), Pi Network (PI) launched with immense success, topping $2.99 a week into the mainnet launch back in March, 2025. Soon enough, Pi Coin’s price started losing numerous key thresholds, known as demand zones. Dipping 92% since the milestone, Pi’s price has recently bounced off the cycle low of $0.13.

Pi Coin’s Price Rebounds Despite All-Around Market Dip44.46% up from the all-time low, Pi Coin’s price saw another 5.5% upswing on Wednesday, reclaiming the $0.18 resistance level & several key trend-lines. If Pi’s price manages to sustain above the Smoothed Moving Average (depicted in purple), the mobile-mining altcoin could take a swing at restoring August 2025 levels, as the top wick flashed $0.46.

Despite trading inside crypto’s TOP 50 by global market cap, Pi Coin’s $1.69 billion market capitalization edges older altcoin competition, but lower-ranked cryptos like Near Protocol (NEAR) & Polygon (POL) outscore Pi Network’s trading volumes roughly 2-3 times.

To illustrate, Pi Network’s $31 million volume comes closer to Algorand’s (ALGO) at $24 million, despite being twice bigger in current market valuation. For a push towards $0.46, Pi Coin would need to increase its market share by roughly $2.5 billion, judging from current CoinGecko data.

On The Flipside Near-term selling activities skyrocketed a day after Pi Network’s node upgrade went live, as Pioneers cashed out almost 3 million Pi coins in a matter of 24 hours to centralized platforms. Check out DailyCoin’s trending crypto scoops today:
Shiba Inu Clings To Support: Is SHIB Surviving The Grind?
Peter Thiel Dumps ETHZilla, Quits ETH Treasury Play

People Also Ask:Is Pi Coin eligible or compliant with ISO 20022 as of February 2026?

Pi Network is not officially listed as ISO 20022 compliant in major 2026 sources; established compliant coins include XRP, XLM, ADA, HBAR, ALGO, QNT, IOTA, and XDC.

Does Pi’s use of Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) make it automatically ISO 20022 qualified?

No, building on a modified Stellar Consensus Protocol provides low-energy, scalable consensus similar to Stellar (XLM), which is ISO 20022 compatible. However, compliance requires specific messaging standards, data fields, and interoperability implementations

Could ISO 20022 alignment drive Pi back to $0.46 or higher?

Speculative claims link potential ISO adoption (via Stellar ties) to price surges like XRP/XLM, but with no confirmed compliance or major banking partnerships, it’s unlikely to trigger a direct rally to $0.46 soon.

What elso does Pi Coin price depend on right now?

Price recovery depends more on mainnet maturity, reduced migration sell pressure, listings, and broader adoption.

DailyCoin's Vibe Check: Which way are you leaning towards after reading this article?

Market Sentiment

100% Bullish

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Popular Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo has predicted that the next 10 years will be crucial for Bitcoin, as they mark the end of the long-term debt cycle, and sovereigns will seek safe havens to hedge risks. Woo continues to tweet about Bitcoin’s long-term outlook, often pointing out macro trends that will shape the market, and has attracted significant attention from the crypto community. 

Woo tweeted late yesterday:

Image Source: X However, Woo ended the tweet by saying gold moons without BTC, which continues his early stance that Bitcoin is reeling from Quantum D-day threats. According to Woo’s earlier tweets, the premier digital asset’s price was negatively affected as soon as the Quantum threat became real in 2025.

He believes that the “Q-Day” threats would require significant mitigation from the Bitcoin network, and even then, the reported 4 million BTC, widely considered lost, could re-enter circulation if the underlying encryption were compromised. These 4 million BTC, representing 8 years of enterprise accumulation, would have to be factored in any long-term valuation narrative of the premier cryptocurrency, Woo argued. 

Woo described the Quantum threat as a cloud hanging over Bitcoin’s head and said it could cause further problems. According to estimates, the Q-Day might take more than 5-15 years to challenge BTC encryption, and that is a long time to trade with a threat hanging over your heads, Woo tweeted. 

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While Woo continues to raise awareness about Q-Day, other analysts believe the threat has been blown out of proportion and that there is no imminent quantum doom facing Bitcoin or even a portion of its supply. 

In the report titled Quantum Vulnerability in Bitcoin: A Manageable Risk, CoinShares argues that while the new threat is a foreseeable engineering challenge, the threat to the BTC ecosystem is not imminent and will take time. The most vulnerable coins include the early 1.6–1.7 million BTC with visible, on-chain public keys (around 8% of the supply). These BTC are distributed across tens of thousands of wallets, each holding varying amounts, so tracking down and unlocking these reserves can take forever. But CoinShares does admit that the challenge remains. 

Strategy, one of the largest BTC-holding companies in the world, has also emphasized that there is no imminent threat to Bitcoin and has established a Bitcoin security program to coordinate with cybersecurity experts going forward.

Journalist

Posted: February 18, 2026

Jito [JTO] has emerged as one of the top-performing tokens over the last 24 hours, recording an 11% daily surge until press time.

The rally followed the project’s announcement to build a new market layer on the Solana network. The timing of the current surge suggests that the market is pricing in the potential impact of this expansion.

Whale activity strengthens the bullish case AMBCrypto’s analysis of the token’s order flow data indicated an increased accumulation from large holders at the ongoing trading range.

Jito’s large players looked to be positioning early, so big orders could accelerate momentum. Moreover, retail traders often follow visible strength, which could amplify the market volatility further.

Source: CryptoQuant

Spot volume signals aggressive participation Despite the optimism, Jito’s Spot Volume Bubble Map indicated overheating conditions at the time of writing. Trading activity has intensified sharply as aggressive entries flooded the market.

While overheating conditions confirmed strong trader participation, these developments sometimes precede brief consolidations or pullbacks before continuation.

Momentum remains strong—but volatility risk is increasing.

Source: CryptoQuant

The $0.311 breakout confirms JTO’s structural shift The latest rally pushed Jito above the key $0.311 resistance level. This breakout confirmed a continuation of the bullish structure that resumed after the token bounced from descending trendline support on the 6th of February.

The market has shifted from compression to expansion. Holding above $0.311 would strengthen JTO’s breakout.

However, the stochastic RSI flashed a warning shot. At the time of writing, Jito’s RSI was just bouncing from an overbought region. This pointed to a potential short correction before long-term bullish bias returned.

Source: TradingView

$0.50 liquidity cluster in focus That’s not all; the $304K liquidity cluster at around the $0.50 price level sets the price level as a key target if the current bullish momentum is sustained.

Liquidity clusters often act as magnets during trending conditions. If whale accumulation and the increasing trading activity proceed, the price may gravitate toward this zone.

However, failure to sustain volume could lead to short-term consolidation before another attempt higher.

Source: Coinglass

What could be next for Jito? Jito’s 11% surge reflects more than just speculative interest. It combines fundamental catalysts (market layer expansion on Solana), strong whale accumulation, technical breakout above resistance, and rising Spot participation.

Momentum is clearly building. Now, whether the rally extends toward $0.50 will depend on sustained volume and continued whale support.

Final Summary Jito surges by 11% after announcing a market layer on Solana, with whales aggressively accumulating at current levels. A confirmed breakout above $0.311 puts the $0.50 liquidity cluster in focus if momentum sustains.

An obscure Hong Kong firm has disclosed a $436 million position in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, a revelation that is fueling speculation about Chinese capital flowing into crypto through offshore side doors.

Laurore Ltd, a previously unknown entity, reported the stake in BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The disclosure serves as a rare, quantifiable signal that professional money managers in Asia’s financial hub are quietly building bridges to digital assets through regulated American investment vehicles.

The filing arrives at a complex juncture for the cryptocurrency market, with risk appetite cooling in the United States even as demand remains strong in jurisdictions where regulatory clarity is improving.

While the identity of the ultimate beneficial owners behind Laurore remains shielded, market observers suggest the structure bears the hallmarks of a sophisticated access vehicle designed to bypass capital controls or reputational risks.

How big is the IBIT stake, and why does it matterLaurore’s position is large enough to stand out on its own and structured in a way that makes it hard to ignore.

In a Form 13F for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, Laurore reported owning 8,786,279 shares of IBIT, valued at about $436.2 million. The filing lists an address in Central, Hong Kong, and is signed by a director named Zhang Hui.

To put the holding in context, IBIT is one of the largest public-market gateways into BTC. As of Feb. 17, the fund reported net assets of about $51.5 billion and roughly 1.34 billion shares outstanding.

BlackRock IBIT ETF Cumulative Flow and Net Assets (Source: SoSoValue)Laurore’s 8.79 million shares represent about 0.65% of the ETF’s total shares outstanding, a meaningful slice for a new filer, even though it remains below 1% of the overall product.

However, what made the disclosure stand out is not just its dollar value but also the filing’s opacity.

Jeff Park, chief investment officer of ProCap, noted that Laurore is a new entity with no website, no press coverage, and no digital footprint beyond the SEC filing.

Park described “Zhang Hui” as the Chinese equivalent of “John Smith,” calling it a “non-anonymous anonymous” name.

He also pointed to the “Ltd” suffix, which he said suggests a Cayman Islands or British Virgin Islands structure, the classic offshore wrapper for accessing US markets.

Meanwhile, he noted that the portfolio consisted solely of IBIT shares, with no other equities, technology stocks, or hedges.

Laurore SEC Filing Showing its BlackRock IBIT Exposure (Source: SEC 13F Filing)This indicates an investment vehicle designed for a specific exposure rather than a broad US portfolio that happens to include a BTC allocation.

Moreover, Park tied that structure to a motive.

He said Chinese investors cannot legally hold Bitcoin directly and suggested that, if the filing reflects what he suspects, it could be an early sign of institutional Chinese capital moving into Bitcoin through a regulated US ETF rather than through exchanges or gray-market channels.

He described the setup as operating through what he called the most “transparent non-transparent” place imaginable.

That framing matters because spot BTC ETFs have become the most straightforward institutional wrapper for holding Bitcoin exposure.

For allocators that do not want to manage custody, exchange access, or internal crypto infrastructure, a large, liquid ETF can handle most of the operational burden.

Other Hong Kong firms have disclosed a similar pathLaurore is not an isolated case, as it appears to be part of a broader pattern in which Hong Kong-based managers use US ETFs to gain exposure to BTC.

Avenir Tech Ltd, another filer based in Hong Kong, previously reported owning 14,766,760 shares of IBIT, a stake valued at approximately $691.2 million in a 13F filing for the quarter ended March 31, 2025.

At the same time, Yong Rong Asset Management Ltd, another Hong Kong-based firm, also has a limited exposure to the Bitcoin fund.

These filings are notable given that the region also has its own Bitcoin funds.

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However, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas previously explained that US ETFs have become irresistible due to their combination of low fees and high volume.

Essentially, this increases the likelihood that more quiet vehicles will emerge as the ETF market continues to mature.

Why does Hong Kong keep appearing, even with China’s stance unchangedHong Kong’s role is central to the story because it offers a regulatory posture distinct from Beijing’s, while remaining close enough to mainland capital and networks to serve as a bridge.

Mainland China’s official stance on crypto trading remains restrictive, and authorities have repeatedly signaled that speculative activity is unwelcome.

Yet Hong Kong has spent the past two years positioning itself as a compliant, institution-friendly gateway for digital assets, including through a licensing regime and a push to expand market infrastructure.

Last year, Hong Kong eased certain virtual-asset rules to promote trading and liquidity, including allowing locally licensed platforms to share global order books with overseas affiliates.

The same policy push included tokenization pilots designed to bring “real-value” use cases on-chain, an approach presented as financial modernization rather than speculative crypto trading.

Beijing, meanwhile, has been more hostile towards the growth of the emerging industry.

Earlier this month, Chinese financial regulators extended the existing crypto ban to target stablecoin issuances and the tokenization of real-world assets.

According to the authorities:

“[We are] reiterating that virtual currencies do not have the same legal status as fiat currency, that conducting virtual currency-related business activities within China constitutes illegal financial activity, and that overseas entities and individuals are prohibited from illegally providing virtual currency-related services to domestic entities in any form.”

However, this effectively shows that China and Hong Kong's differing regulatory tracks can coexist.

Hong Kong can pursue regulated market development, and the mainland can maintain restrictions on direct crypto trading and asset tokenization.

In that landscape, a Hong Kong entity holding a US-listed BTC ETF can appear to be a structure that shifts the most politically sensitive elements away from the mainland, even if the exposure remains economically similar.

Meanwhile, that does not mean the capital is mainland institutional money.

However, it does mean that the architecture exists for capital from the mainland to express exposure while reducing operational friction and, potentially, reputational risk.

Mentioned in this articlePosted in

Bitcoin slips ~2% in 7d as MUFG touts stablecoins’ price-stable payments.

Summary

TC trades near $68k, with a 7d move of about -2.25%, and a 24h range around $66.7k–$69.1k.​ MUFG’s Hardman says stablecoins better meet money’s role via price stability, fast settlement, and low-cost transfers versus BTC’s higher volatility. Stablecoins, often fiat-pegged, are gaining attention as digital cash and could see higher adoption in payments while BTC remains mainly a store-of-value asset. An analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has stated that stablecoins represent a more suitable currency option than Bitcoin for payment purposes, according to recent commentary from the Japanese financial institution.

Lee Hardman, an analyst at MUFG, one of Japan’s three largest banks, said stablecoins have attracted increased attention compared to other digital assets due to their function as digital cash.

Hardman stated that stablecoins better fulfill the requirements of money by offering price stability and fast, low-cost payment services, according to the analyst’s assessment. The analyst noted that Bitcoin’s high price volatility limits its use as a daily payment method.

Stablecoins are pegged to fiat currencies and maintain stable value, making them more likely to be used as a medium of exchange and payment, Hardman said.

The comments come as interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies continues to expand globally, with financial institutions increasingly evaluating various digital asset classes for potential use cases.

15h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Mikaia A.

Summarize this article with:

They were said to be moribund. Swallowed by the crisis shaking the crypto industry. Memecoins smelled burnt. Yet, Pump.fun just pulled out the big guns. The Solana platform changes the rules of the game. Gone are the days of creators pocketing fees without working: room for traders. A 180-degree turn that makes the crypto-sphere vibrate. Explanations.

In brief Pump.fun modified its rules so that creators return their fees to traders instead of pocketing them. The platform’s revenues collapsed from 148 million dollars in January 2025 to 31.8 million one year later. Out of 58.7 million wallets, fewer than 13,700 users became millionaires on Pump.fun. PUMP’s spot volume jumped 56% in 24 hours after the Cashback Coins announcement. The Pump.fun revolution: end of privileges for ghost creators Pump.fun opened its eyes after the launch of Pump Fund. Out of its 58.7 million wallets, a tiny fraction really benefited from the system. The numbers hit like a guillotine: 4.76 million earned between 1,000 and 10,000 dollars. Fewer than 13,700 became millionaires. Meanwhile, ghost creators stacked fees without bringing anything. The platform therefore decided to react.

“Not all tokens deserve Creator Fees“, Pump.fun stated on X. “However, many tokens succeed without a team or project leader, disproportionately rewarding deployers who do not deserve these fees.”

Specifically, creators must now choose before launch. Either they keep the 0.3% fees, or they fully return them to traders. An irrevocable decision that lets the market decide.

Memecoins in crisis: the collapse of fees that changed everything This shift is not a whim. It is a matter of pure survival. In January 2025, Pump.fun collected 148.1 million dollars in fees. An absolute record in memecoin history. In January 2026, only 31.8 million remained. The drop is dizzying: minus 75.6% in one year. February follows the same worrying slope. The urgency is there, raw, relentless.

CEO Alon admitted in January: the old system encouraged low-risk tokens, not true trading. It had to change or die. So Pump.fun changes strategy. And tries to restart the engine with Cashback Coins. The first effects are already visible. PUMP’s spot volume jumped 56% in 24 hours.

110 million dollars moved through the platform. Traders are coming back to sniff out the good deal. But the path remains strewn with obstacles.

Cashback Coins: the bold bet dividing the crypto community One big unknown remains: will it really work? The community wonders. Coos, a well-known X user, asks the uncomfortable question:

Won’t this reduce incentives for devs? Devs will have fewer reasons to push the coins over time, since the most lucrative moment is when the coins are still on pf. Let’s hope not to see more quick farms than we already have.

With fewer fees at stake, will creators still launch memecoins? Or will we see an explosion of express farms to grab cashback? The PUMP token sends mixed signals. At 0.002179 dollar, it compresses under a downtrend line. Volumes pick up again, but RSI remains below 50. Buyers have not regained control. The bet is on. Verdict in the coming weeks.

The state of Pump.fun in numbers

58.7 million: number of wallets that interacted with the platform; Only 13,700 reached millionaire status on Pump.fun; -75.6%: the dizzying drop in fees between 2025 and 2026; 0.002179 $: the price of the PUMP token at the time of writing; 56%: the increase in spot volume in 24h after the Cashback Coins announcement. As for the suspicions of cash out on Kraken that stirred the community, answers have already been provided by the team. Pump.fun’s future is at stake in this troubled period. Its new model appeals to traders but angers some creators. Will it find the magic balance? The survival of memecoins may depend on it. The crypto industry holds its breath.

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La révolution blockchain et crypto est en marche ! Et le jour où les impacts se feront ressentir sur l’économie la plus vulnérable de ce Monde, contre toute espérance, je dirai que j’y étais pour quelque chose

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TL;DR

Satoshi’s one million BTC and the old addresses could require a freeze if quantum computing manages to compromise Bitcoin. Roughly 6.89 million Bitcoins could become exposed. The protocol would require an upgrade to mitigate the risk, but a social consensus to freeze dormant coins would take time. The CEO of CryptoQuant, Ki Young Ju, stated that the 1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto could need to be frozen if quantum computing reaches the capability to attack Bitcoin. His proposal also includes the old addresses that have held unmoved coins for years.

According to Ju, under certain conditions, a sufficiently powerful quantum machine could derive a private key from a public key exposed on the blockchain. Once a public key appears on-chain, the risk remains indefinitely. In that scenario, a coin that appears secure today could become transferable by an attacker.

How Many BTC Are at Risk? The executive maintains that the Bitcoin protocol will require an upgrade to mitigate that risk. Users who fail to adopt that improvement would remain exposed. The alternative for the old coins would be a protocol-level freeze or the possibility that they end up in the hands of quantum attackers.

Approximately 6.89 million BTC are vulnerable to potential quantum attacks. Of that total, 1.91 million BTC correspond to P2PK addresses that inherently display the public key. Up to 4.98 million BTC may have exposed a public key in prior transactions. In addition, 3.4 million BTC have remained dormant for more than a decade, including the 1 million Bitcoins linked to Satoshi.

The Factor of Social Debate and Consensus Ju notes that, at present, a quantum attack against Bitcoin is not economically viable. However, a sharp reduction in the cost of that technology would alter that balance. The volume of Bitcoins at risk represents hundreds of billions of dollars at current prices, which would constitute a sufficient incentive if the technological barrier declines.

The CEO recalls that the Bitcoin community took more than three years to resolve the block size debate and that the process resulted in hard forks. He also points out that the SegWit2x proposal failed to secure sufficient support. A decision to freeze dormant coins would follow a similar dynamic. Ju states that technical solutions move quickly, while social consensus requires more time

Traders and long-term holders must justify the tax deductions, and Singapore successfully removes the burden completely. Bitcoin capital gains tax is a prime concern in a lot of countries, and Singapore has removed that friction for eligible investors. Singapore is once again gaining limelight in the crypto industry, as it has removed capital gains tax on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This initiative has strengthened Singapore’s crypto tax policies and sends a strong message to global investors. 

Over a prolonged period, Singapore has made a reputation for financial stability and regulatory clarity. Now, this 0% crypto tax strengthens its aim to lead digital finance in Asia. Investors do not worry about Bitcoin capital gains tax killing profits. 

This flips the game for high net worth individuals and institutions. Crypto markets reply swiftly to regulatory shifts. When a prominent economy offers tax clarity and 0 capital gains tax, investors pay attention. This will also help in intensifying capital inflows and reshaping regional competition, and other countries may soon apply after seeing this. 

Investors always look for efficiency, and taxes, in most cases, control where capital flows. And, with Singapore’s 0% crypto tax, investors are eligible to keep their complete gains from long-term Bitcoin holdings, and the country gets a massive edge over high-tax jurisdictions.

Removing The Burden  A lot of countries apply Bitcoin capital gains tax rates between 15% and 30%. Traders and long-term holders must justify those deductions, and Singapore successfully removes the burden completely. This makes a captivating environment for wealth preservation and portfolio growth. 

This policy lines up with the wider strategy of Singapore. The nation highly backs crypto-friendly regulation while maintaining strict compliance standards. Regulators aim at anti-money laundering and investor protection, not punishing revolution. With this balance, the ecosystem became stronger and more sustainable. 

Bitcoin capital gains tax is a prime concern in a lot of countries, and Singapore has removed that friction for eligible investors. This makes powerful incentives for relocation and asset restructuring. Although, investors must adhere to residency rules and compliance obligations. With this, Singapore has made a defining movement in the crypto industry. 

Highlighted Crypto News Today: 

American Businessman Robert Kiyosaki Forecasts Giant Crash, Gets Called Out

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High-risk ‘shitcoin’ volumes contracted; 50% drop remains unverifiedTrading activity in high‑risk altcoins has contracted, but the headline claim of a 50% drop is not independently verified in the available reporting. The observable signal is thinner order books and reduced turnover across smaller tokens, which elevates execution costs and slippage even without a confirmed headline figure.

Capital appears to be rotating toward Bitcoin and other deep‑liquidity majors rather than exiting news/crypto/”>crypto entirely. This rotation can suppress measured volume in the long tail while masking risk via temporarily stable prices until liquidity shocks surface.

Why it matters: Bitcoin dominance and ETF inflows guide rotationCapital concentration changes market structure. As reported by crypto.news, analysis tied to CryptoQuant describes “structural liquidity exhaustion” in altcoins and notes capital crowding into Bitcoin‑oriented ETFs and corporate treasuries, bypassing smaller tokens.

In such phases, Bitcoin dominance often rises because institutions prioritize regulated wrappers and two‑sided markets with deeper depth. That can leave smaller assets reliant on speculative flows, heightening gap‑risk and widening spreads during stress.

At the time of this writing, Bitcoin trades near $67,500, and 24‑hour turnover is roughly in the mid‑teens billions of dollars, presented as contextual market data.

BingX: a trusted exchange delivering real advantages for traders at every level.

For traders, thinner altcoin books mean more slippage per unit of size and a higher risk that stop orders fill outside intended ranges. Liquidity providers may retrench to majors, reducing passive depth and making long‑tail prices more jumpy.

Portfolio risk skews toward correlation and funding strain when rotation accelerates. Managing clip size, using firm quotes, and monitoring per‑pair depth becomes as important as headline price moves.

Signals to track this rotation and liquidity stressCryptoQuant’s Ki Young Ju flags drying altcoin liquidity; Coinbase Institutional contextOne analytics leader has warned that altcoin liquidity is fading, underscoring that many projects lack access to durable external demand. “Altcoin liquidity is drying up. If your altcoin is not playing the liquidity game, its long-term risk is likely high,” said Ki Young Ju, CEO at CryptoQuant.

Institutional flows also help explain rotation dynamics; as reported by Cointelegraph, Coinbase Institutional’s head of strategy has highlighted sovereign wealth funds accumulating Bitcoin even as retail participation wanes.

Liquidity concentration: depth in BTC/ETH/SOL vs long-tail altcoinsDepth tends to pool in BTC, ETH, and SOL pairs on major venues, where market makers operate reliably across cycles. Long‑tail tokens often depend on speculative bursts; when those fade, spreads widen and execution quality deteriorates.

FAQ about altcoin liquidityWhy are funds rotating from altcoins into Bitcoin right now?Structural liquidity has tightened in smaller tokens while regulated Bitcoin vehicles attract flows, concentrating depth and lowering execution risk in the majors.

Which metrics best track this rotation: Bitcoin dominance, ETF inflows, order book depth, or stablecoin exchange flows?Track Bitcoin dominance, spot etf net flows, per‑pair order‑book depth, and stablecoin exchange flows together to confirm rotation breadth and liquidity stress.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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Bitcoin price remained in a tight range this week, and the waning Coinbase Premium Index points to more downside as institutional demand wanes.

Summary

Bitcoin price has formed a bearish pennant pattern on the daily chart. The Coinbase Premium Index has remained in the red, a sign of weak demand from the US. Futures open interest has continued falling this month. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $67,420 on Wednesday, down modestly from last weekend’s high of over $70,000. It has slumped by double digits from its all-time high of $126,300.

One major risk facing Bitcoin is that institutional demand has largely waned in the United States, which explains why the Coinbase Premium Index has remained in the red throughout this year. Coinbase is the most preferred platform for Bitcoin investing by American investors.

Coinbase Premium Index | Source: CoinGlass Additionally, only a handful of Bitcoin treasury companies are accumulating Bitcoin as they did last year. Strategy continued buying Bitcoin last week, bringing its total holdings to over 717,000. American Bitcoin and Strive have also bought Bitcoin this year.

Meanwhile, SoSoValue’s data shows that spot Bitcoin ETF outflows have jumped in the past few months. All these funds have shed over $8 billion in assets since October last year, and the trend is continuing.

According to Bloomberg, institutions have largely given up on Bitcoin because it has not fulfilled its role as a hedge against inflation and equity market stress. It has also not served its perceived role as a hedge against currency debasement.

Bitcoin’s futures open interest has continued falling in the past few months and now sits at $44 billion, down sharply from last year’s high of over $95 billion. Also, demand for borrowed exposure on CME has remained muted into the past few months.

Bitcoin price technical analysis suggests a crash BTC price chart | Source: crypto.news  The daily timeframe chart shows that Bitcoin price is flashing red alerts. For example, the coin is slowly forming a large bearish pennant pattern. It has already completed forming the vertical line and is now in the process of forming the triangle section.

The Supertrend indicator has remained red since January 19 this year. It has also remained below the 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages.

Therefore, the coin will likely continue falling, with the initial target being the year-to-date low of $60,000. A drop below that level will signal further downside, potentially to the psychological $50,000 level, as Standard Chartered analysts predicted last week.

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HYLQ Strategy Corp has completed a strategic digital asset investment in qLABS, acquiring qONE tokens in an over-the-counter transaction with the Quantum Labs Foundation.

The qONE token trades on the booming Hyperliquid platform and is the native token of the qLABS ecosystem. HYLQ Strategy is the second public company to invest in quantum-safe tokens. qLABS partner 01 Quantum, as a founding member, is also a holder of qONE tokens.

According to the terms of the agreement shared in a company press release, HYLQ purchased 18,333,334 qONE tokens for an aggregate purchase price of $0.006 in an investment totalling $100,000, inclusive of bonus tokens.

The transaction was executed directly with the Quantum Labs Foundation and settled in USDC. This strategic investment represents HYLQ’s commitment to supporting quantum-resistant infrastructure within the Hyperliquid ecosystem, making this the first institutional investment in quantum-safe cryptographic solutions built natively on Hyperliquid.

qLABS is the world’s first quantum-native crypto foundation, developing blockchain solutions resistant to quantum computing threats.

qLABS Launching Quantum-Safe Protection for Digital Assets The foundation will launch the Quantum-Sig smart contract wallet to provide quantum-safe protection for digital assets at the user and asset level.

A separate L1 Migration Toolkit is in the works. Its design will help Layer-1 blockchains transition their core infrastructure to quantum-resistant cryptography ahead of Q-Day. Q-Day is the anticipated moment when quantum computers become powerful enough to break current cryptographic systems.

The qONE token, launched on Hyperliquid on 6 February 2026, serves as the ecosystem utility token, granting access to quantum-resilient wallet functions, protocol governance, and the broader quantum-safe infrastructure developed by qLABS.

qLABS leverages IronCAP™ by 01 Quantum Inc. (TSXV: ONE), a NIST-approved post-quantum cryptography system.

HYLQ Strategy CEO Matt Zahab, commenting on the company’s investment in qLABS’ Quantum Labs Foundation, said:

“As quantum computing advances toward Q-Day, protecting crypto assets from quantum threats is becoming increasingly critical.”

He added: “qLABS is building essential quantum-resistant infrastructure natively on Hyperliquid, addressing a systemic risk that threatens the entire blockchain industry. This investment aligns perfectly with HYLQ’s mandate to support innovative companies within the Hyperliquid ecosystem that are building foundational infrastructure for the future of decentralized finance.”

HYLQ Stock Price is up 28.5% YTDYear-to-date, HYLQ Strategy (HYLQ:CNSX CA) stock is up 28.5% at CAD0.90. In addition to its primary Canadian listing, the stock also trades over-the-counter in the US (HYLQF: OTCMKTS US). HYLQ is not to be confused with the competing digital asset treasury company, Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR), which trades on the Nasdaq.

According to Ada Jonuse, Executive Director at qLABS, qONE owners will be able to stake their tokens to earn yield and acquire protocol governance rights.

This means that HYLQ – at some point in the future – may be able to generate yield for its shareholders as a direct result of its $100,000 investment in qONE. An exact date for staking going live is yet to be revealed.

“Staking and governance participation are features to be enabled further down the roadmap when our core products are live and implemented in a full operational environment,” Jonuse explains.

“Because our 100% focus lies on security, in the early stage of the ecosystem, key decisions will be taken by the core team with gradual decentralization envisioned over the years.”

The centralization risk is acknowledged and mitigated through staking-based governance participation, time-weighted and activity-weighted voting, and progressive decentralization as emissions and unlocks occur.

Governance is expected to decentralize meaningfully as protocol usage grows.

Staking rewards will be set dynamically, which means yield is determined by the size of the staking pool, protocol usage, and fee generation, as well as the staker’s proportional contribution.

Jonuse says this approach “aligns incentives with real economic activity rather than fixed inflation.”

The price of the qONE token has been on a bullish run since launch, but the discounted token price offered to HYLQ triggered a sharp pullback, followed by an equally sharp bounceback. qONE was trading at $$0.01569 in the European morning session.

Why launching qONE on Hyperliquid was probably a smart moveSince last year’s 10 October record liquidation event, which wiped out $19 billion in value and marked the start of the current bear market, Hyperliquid and its native HYPE token have decoupled from other crypto assets.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum struggle with institutional outflows, retail investor apathy, and stagnant price action, HYPE surged to new highs, recently trading around $30.05.

YTD Performance Comparison (1 Jan – 17 Feb 2026)

Asset Price (1 Jan 2026)Price (17 Feb 2026)YTD ReturnHYPE~$25.00$30.05+20.2%Bitcoin (BTC)$88,731.99$68,000.00-23.4%Ethereum (ETH)~$3,000.00$1,988.56-33.7%Launching on Hyperliquid is looking increasingly like a very smart move by the qLABS team. As Jonuse points out, “Hyperliquid is a top player in DeFi and soon a venue for trading pretty much all assets on-chain.

“While Quantum-Sig wallet technology will protect any EVM or Solana assets, and our core innovation can be used to upgrade any smart contract-based chain, we are launching on Hyperliquid to highlight the importance of this chain.

“Launching $qONE on Hyperliquid positions us at the intersection of cutting-edge security infrastructure and an actively expanding ecosystem, allowing $qONE to benefit not only from technical alignment but also from narrative-driven adoption and visibility.”

Two of the most easily-recognizable financial giants are joining forces together to examine XRP’s payment rails as adoption buzz grows.

Market Sentiment:

Bullish Bearish Neutral

Published: February 18, 2026 │ 2:29 PM GMT

Created by Kornelija Poderskytė from DailyCoin

Two of Wall Street’s biggest names are reportedly exploring how the XRP Ledger could fit into their digital-asset plumbing, a sign that blockchain experimentation is drifting back toward the mainstream after a year dominated by cautious pilots and quieter balance sheets.

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The freshest industry reports say BlackRock, Franklin Templeton & Mastercard have been evaluating possible integration paths that would use the XRP Ledger for payments-adjacent rails and settlement-style workflows. Details appear preliminary and, in some versions of the reporting, framed as exploratory rather than a committed buildout.

What’s being Explored & What Isn’t Confirmed YetThe thrust of the discussions centers on interoperability: how a public blockchain network could connect with existing financial infrastructure without forcing institutions to take on unnecessary custody, volatility, or compliance risk. The XRP Ledger’s pitch, as described in circulating accounts, is speed and cost efficiency for moving value and data.

📢 $XRP: Slowly, Then All At Once?
Odelia Torteman, Director of Corporate Adoption at XRPL Commons, confirmed that Global Institutions (BlackRock, Mastercard) are Evaluating the XRP Ledger for Real-World Financial Applications 🌐 pic.twitter.com/O2dSsiRW8z

— 🇬🇧 ChartNerd 📊 (@ChartNerdTA) February 17, 2026 What remains unclear is the scope. There’s no definitive timeline, no confirmed product launch, and no indication that either firm has selected the XRP Ledger as an exclusive option. Market watchers noted the language around “exploring” matters—large institutions often run parallel proofs of concept before committing to a single stack.

Why This Serves a Game-Changer For The MarketThe timing lands in a broader crypto cycle where narrative has swung back toward “real-world” use cases: payments, settlement, tokenization, and compliance-friendly rails. Even without a formal announcement, the idea of blue-chip firms evaluating a specific public network can quickly influence sentiment around that ecosystem and its developer activity.

It also speaks to an ongoing strategic tension for traditional finance: private, permissioned systems are easier to control, but public networks offer liquidity, network effects, and rapid iteration. Any serious attempt to bridge the two—especially by household financial brands—tends to draw attention from investors looking for signals of institutional direction.

If the exploration moves forward, the next meaningful checkpoints would likely be technical validation, compliance framing, and a clearly defined use case that can be tested without exposing either firm to outsized operational or reputational risk.

Delve into DailyCoin’s hottest crypto news right now:
Clarity Act Looks Close, But Banks & The Industry Keep Clashing
Shiba Inu Clings To Support: Is SHIB Surviving The Grind?

DailyCoin's Vibe Check: Which way are you leaning towards after reading this article?

Market Sentiment

100% Bullish

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Bitcoin Cash Sets Multiple Records in February Amid Extreme Market Fear Prefer us on Google

Bitcoin Cash breaks records despite prolonged cryptocurrency market downturn.Average transaction values surge, signaling renewed large investor activity.Layla upgrade expectations drive accumulation and bullish price forecasts.As the cryptocurrency market endures a prolonged downturn that began last September, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has emerged as an unexpected bright spot. In February 2026, BCH broke several key records, reinforcing the network’s resilience amid heightened uncertainty.

Why are holders choosing to stay with BCH? And how could this trend influence its price?

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Average Transaction Value on the BCH Network SurgesThe most striking milestone came in February, when the average transaction value on the BCH network surged past $2 million. This marks an all-time high since the network forked from Bitcoin in 2017.

For comparison, the average transaction value on the BCH network last year hovered around $20,000. The current figure represents a 100-fold increase.

Bitcoin Cash Average Transaction Value. Source: BitinfochartsHistorical data shows that spikes in average transaction value have tended to precede major price rallies, as seen in 2018 and 2021. The new record suggests that large investors may be returning to the market.

Another notable record highlights BCH’s relative strength amid widespread market fear: Bitcoin Cash Dominance (BCH.D), which measures BCH’s market capitalization as a share of the total crypto market.

Data from TradingView shows that since last September, nearly $2 trillion has exited the broader crypto market. Despite this capital outflow, BCH.D has climbed steadily from 0.25% to 0.48%. This marks its highest level since April 2024.

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Crypto Total Market Cap vc. Bitcoin Cash Dominance. Source: TradingViewThe rise in BCH.D during a period of market-wide capital withdrawal suggests that many holders are retaining their BCH positions. This dynamic has helped the asset maintain a price level around $560 for several consecutive months.

Layla Upgrade Fuels OptimismWhy are holders accumulating and holding BCH? Expectations surrounding the upcoming Layla upgrade may provide the answer. The upgrade is scheduled to be activated in May 2026.

The Layla upgrade represents one of the most significant updates to the Bitcoin Cash network since its fork. According to BCH developer Jason Dreyzehner, the upgrade will enhance token utility, improve resistance to quantum computing threats, and strengthen privacy features.

The announcement has intensified discussions about BCH and drawn increased investor attention.

“CT starts shilling BCH. Triggers are simple, but will it work out as with ZEC, XMR, and other privacy?” investor Hexdrunker said.

A recent analysis by BeInCrypto suggests that positive sentiment surrounding the Layla upgrade could push BCH toward $650 in the near term.

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Ten years after the famous hack, the DAO Security Fund has decided to stake the untouched ETH and use the yield to fund Ethereum security initiatives, honor claims indefinitely, and professionalize governance and key management. Feb 18, 2026, 1:00 p.m.

In the summer of 2016, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, known as the DAO, became the defining crisis of Ethereum’s early years. A smart contract exploit siphoned millions of dollars’ worth of ether (ETH) from that initial project, and the community’s response — a contentious hard fork to recover those funds, splintered the original chain from the current one, leaving the old chain behind, known as Ethereum Classic.

The DAO was once the largest crowdfunding effort in crypto’s history, but faded into a cautionary tale of governance, security, and the limits of “code is law.”

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Now, nearly a decade later, that story has taken an unexpected turn. What was lost, or rather, left untouched, is being repurposed as a ~$150 million (at today’s prices) security endowment for the Ethereum ecosystem.

The endowment, known now as the DAO Security Fund, will stake some of the 75,000 dormant ether (ETH) and deploy the yield through community-driven funding rounds to support Ethereum security research, tooling and rapid-response efforts, while keeping claims open for any remaining eligible token holders.

At the center of this story is Griff Green, one of the original DAO curators and a veteran of Ethereum decentralized governance.

“When the DAO hack happened [in 2016], obviously, I jumped into action and basically led everything but the hard fork,” Green said of assembling the white hat group that rescued funds on the original Ethereum chain. “We hacked all these hackers. It was straight up DAO wars”.

That effort, alongside others, helped salvage funds that might otherwise have been lost forever.

At the time, the hard fork restored roughly 97% of the DAO’s funds to token holders, but left a small fraction, roughly 3%, in limbo. These “edge case” funds came from quirks of the original smart contracts: people who paid more than expected, those who burned tokens to form sub-DAOs, and other anomalies that didn’t cleanly map back.

Over time, that leftover balance, once only worth a few million, ballooned into something far more significant due to ether’s [ETH] appreciation. “The value of the funds we control has grown dramatically… well over 75,000 ETH,” a blog post for the new DAO fund states.

Green and his fellow curators have spent the last decade quietly helping people recover funds and managing these residual balances. But as he tells it, the landscape has shifted. “Six volunteers were securing $300 million with decade keys. It didn’t make sense,” he told CoinDesk in an interview. “With all these AI hacks and stuff, we just got kind of scared.” Their old security model simply is no longer fit to guard nine-figure sums, Green shared.

Rather than let these funds sit idle in perpetuity, the team has decided to stake the ETH and use the yield to fund Ethereum security initiatives, honor claims indefinitely, and professionalize governance and key management. “We can stake these funds, keep claims open forever, and use the staking rewards to fund Ethereum security projects,” Green explained.

The fund will distribute capital through decentralized mechanisms such as quadratic funding, retroactive public goods funding, and ranked-choice voting for proposals.

'Financial backbone of the world'For Green, the revival is also personal.

The DAO hack was Ethereum’s first existential test, exposing how experimental the ecosystem still was. Nearly a decade later, he argues, the industry remains vulnerable in different ways.

“MetaMask, hot wallet keys, just any kind of private keys on your daily driver computer is probably the main fuel for a whole cyber crime industry,” Green said. “The fact that we have hot keys with billions of dollars sitting on like 10,000 laptops spread out throughout the world has an industry of cybercrime.”

The persistence of hacks, phishing schemes and smart contract exploits frustrates him. “Not only amazes me, it disappoints me and frustrates me,” he said, describing the state of Ethereum security today.

That urgency is shaping how the new fund will operate. Unlike the Ethereum Foundation’s more top-down grantmaking process, the DAO Security Fund is designed as a bottom-up experiment, allowing participants in the DAO to decide how to distribute funds. Round operators will apply to distribute funds, security experts will help set eligibility standards, and staking rewards will provide a renewable pool of capital.

If Ethereum is to become what many believe it is, the core infrastructure for global finance, Green says security must come first.

“Ethereum is at the cusp of being the financial backbone of the world, if it fixes security,” he said.

The DAO Security Fund, in Green’s view, is therefore both a continuation of unfinished work and a forward-looking vehicle for safeguarding Ethereum as it scales.

Read more: Ethereum OGs revive the DAO with $220 million security fund, Unchained reports

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.

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Moonwell's $1.12 nightmare: A pricing glitch just let bots seize millions in ETH collateral

2 hours ago

A misconfigured Chainlink price oracle on DeFi lender Moonwell briefly valued Coinbase Wrapped ETH (cbETH) at about $1 instead of roughly $2,200.

What to know:

A misconfigured Chainlink price oracle on DeFi lender Moonwell briefly valued Coinbase Wrapped ETH (cbETH) at about $1 instead of roughly $2,200, leaving the protocol with nearly $1.8 million in bad debt.The error, triggered by a governance-approved oracle change that used only the cbETH-to-ETH ratio, allowed liquidation bots to seize 1,096.317 cbETH as if it were nearly worthless and enabled some users to borrow cheaply against minimal collateral.Moonwell quickly cut supply and borrow caps but could not immediately correct the oracle due to a required governance vote and five-day timelock, underscoring how critical and fragile price oracles are for DeFi applications.

The ETF aims to provide investors with a regulated and convenient way to gain exposure to SUI without requiring direct acquisition, storage, or management of the underlying token.

Grayscale Investments has rolled out a new exchange-traded product that gives investors exposure to SUI, the native token of the Sui Network, while seeking to generate returns through network staking, according to a Wednesday announcement.

The fund, called Grayscale Sui Staking ETF, trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker GSUI. Operating as a passive vehicle, it aims to track the value of SUI held, including any SUI earned through staking once eligibility conditions are met.

The ETF charges a 0.35% annual management fee, though Grayscale is waiving this charge for the first three months or until the fund reaches $1 billion in assets under management.

Krista Lynch, Grayscale’s SVP of ETF Capital Markets, said that the launch of GSUI represents a milestone in bringing exchange-traded access to the Sui ecosystem.

“GSUI is structured to provide investors with exposure to SUI and its staking activity through an ETP, offering a convenient way to gain exposure to a network designed for scalable, real-world applications,” Lynch noted.

For the Sui Network, the launch reinforces its increasing traction among institutional players due to its scalable infrastructure and financial backing, according to Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Mysten Labs.

“This milestone further cements Sui’s growing role in the institutional adoption of digital assets, as Sui is backed with both the infrastructure required to support real-world applications at scale and the trust of leading financial partners,” Abiodun stated.

The Sui network employs a delegated proof-of-stake system where token holders assign their holdings to validators who confirm transactions. Historical yields from this process have ranged between 1.7% and 1.9% annually after fees.

Currently, Grayscale offers more than 40 investment products encompassing over 45 digital assets. It was the first US company to introduce Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs.

In the past month, BTC selling revealed the steepest capitulation since 2022. The Aggregate 30D Realized Cap turned sharply negative, showing the ongoing absorption of real losses. 

The BTC downturn from $90,000 to the $60,000 range was caused by the steepest capitulation since 2022. The market downturn showed multiple sources of selling pressure, coming from ETFs, strategic trader whales, as well as long-term holders.

This time around, the supply of stablecoins has remained flat, with no new minting and inflows of liquidity. 

In early February, signs of a market capitulation were already present, and the selling has only deepened. At the current price range, the question of a local market bottom is still uncertain. Previous deep capitulations could continue for a while before a price reversal. 

For BTC, even a price rally may not be enough to sustain a lasting recovery, as some holders may sell at or near their breakeven levels. 

The ongoing capitulation kept BTC stuck in a range above $67,000, as any attempts to break out above $70,000 led to selling. The capitulation may continue, as predictions see BTC sliding as low as $50,000. 

BTC realized cap declines as selling continues The BTC realized market cap has been in decline since the October 2025 downturn. The metric is still a lagging indicator, which shifts more slowly. Some of the selling in the past months was still at a relatively high range. 

Currently, only 55% of the BTC supply is held in profit, down from over 99% in October 2025. The longer period of weakening prices has led to a mix of strategic selling, panic, and capitulation. 

The BTC supply in profit fell sharply from 99% in October, down to around 55%, putting pressure even on older wallets. | Source: Cryptoquant A significant part of the selling may be due to forced liquidations, rather than deliberate shedding of positions. Despite this, some notable whales have started to divest, with ongoing BTC inflows into Binance in the past month. The other major source of price pressure may be a miner capitulation as pools now more actively sell off their rewards. 

The recent selling also keeps the BTC fear and greed index in the “extreme fear” territory at 12 points, with almost no recovery in the past few days. 

Is BTC facing a longer bear market? The short-term price movements for BTC may include rallies to a higher price range. Sideways trading is also a possibility. 

There is no consensus for the end of the drawdown, and for some, the directionless trading may continue until the end of the year. 

BTC is now down by 45% from its price record, moving with continued losses for 135 days since the peak. Previous price cycles have shown that over 200 days are often spent in sideways trading, while rallies last only a few weeks or even days.

For now, silent accumulation may continue, but selling pressure remains, and a local bottom for BTC is expected at a later stage in the cycle.

Grayscale Investments announced that its Sui Staking ETF (GSUI) is set to begin trading on NYSE Arca. The product allows for gaining SUI exposure while earning staking rewards, historically ranging between 1.7% and 3.3% annually. Grayscale Investments officially announced that it is launching its staking-enabled SUI exchange-traded fund, the Grayscale Sui Staking ETF, which will begin trading on the NYSE Arca on Wednesday through the X post under the ticker symbol of $GSUI.

Grayscale Sui Staking ETF became auto-effective with an 8-A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and also submitted a CERT filing on February 17, which signals an approval from NYSE Arca for the listing and trading of Sui ETF shares. 

As mentioned before, Bank of New York Mellon will serve as the transfer agent and the administrator of the Grayscale Sui Staking ETF. Meanwhile, Coinbase is named as the prime broker, and Coinbase Custody Trust Company as the custodian of the trust.

The product represents a significant evolution beyond traditional spot Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs and specifically provides investors with exposure to the SUI crypto while simultaneously getting the rewards from staking those underlying assets on the Sui blockchain network. As Sui staking rewards have historically an average annual yield for SUI staking rewards that ranges from 1.7% to 3.3%.

With the new (GSUI product, Grayscale intends to draw in investors who are curious about the Sui ecosystem by giving them a way to interact with the digital asset market through a regulated exchange. Grayscale’s product selection continues to grow with the launch of $GSUI, meeting the increasing demand for cryptocurrency investment options.

SUI Price Update The price of the SUI is at $0.9774, at the time of writing, as the price moved slightly higher intraday, but the token remains down more than 37% over the past month, and the 24-hour trading volume has fallen by over 22%, which indicates reduced participation and weak confidence among traders.

Meanwhile, the Coinglass derivatives data shows open interest standing at approximately $510.68 million, with a 0.37% increase over the past hour and a 0.01% rise over four hours. With that, SUI appears to be consolidating near the psychologically important $1 level, with declining spot activity but slightly rising derivatives. 

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This Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, XRP tests its 200-week moving average, altcoins register a five-year cumulative sell extreme and Arthur Hayes maps two Bitcoin paths as AI-driven credit stress builds.

Bitcoin is still in the $60,000-$69,000 range after a reset from October 2025 highs, while XRP defends a structural level that has historically defined cycle pivots. Meanwhile, CryptoQuant data shows $209 billion in cumulative net selling across altcoins over 13 months.

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XRP is holding its 200-week moving average near the $1.40-$1.50 zone.Altcoins show -$209 billion cumulative buy/sell difference since January 2025.Arthur Hayes outlines "deflation-first, QE-later" roadmap for Bitcoin.XRP holds 200-week supportThe weekly chart by TradingView remains, probably, the main point of view for XRP. Where it differs from other time frames is the illustration of how the price of XRP is compressing directly above the 200-week moving average, currently around the $1.42 region. Price action is stabilizing near $1.47 after repeated tests of this band, a level that historically separates structural bull phases from prolonged bear markets.

The 200-week MA is not a short-term trading indicator. It is a long-cycle equilibrium reference. In prior cycles, weekly closes below this metric often triggered multi-month weakness, while sustained defenses marked accumulation zones.

XRP/USD Weekly Chart by TradingViewMomentum indicators show fading strength. RSI has rolled over from prior peaks and now sits in the midrange, indicating neither oversold capitulation nor bullish expansion. The broader structure reflects distribution since the October 2025 peak.

XRP is not collapsing yet. The price of the coin is compressing at a level institutions monitor. In an environment where altcoin liquidity is deteriorating, holding a 200-week support becomes a relative strength signal.

If this band fails on high volume, the next historical demand pocket aligns closer to the $1 region, where prior capitulation zones formed. If it holds and weekly closes build above $1.60, recovery becomes technically credible.

XRP is a binary zone right now.

Altcoins face worst sell-off since 2021: CryptoQuantAccording to the latest CryptoQuant research, the one-year cumulative buy/sell quote volume difference for altcoins, excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, shows -$209 billion since January 2025. That is a five-year extreme.

The chart does reflect 13 consecutive months of net CEX spot outflows. The last equilibrium between demand and supply occurred in January 2025, when cumulative flow was near zero. Since then, the line has moved in one direction.

Key data points:

Cumulative buy/sell difference: -$209 billion.Duration: 13 months of continuous net selling.Bitcoin reference: $68,800 versus $125,000+ October 2025 ATH.It is fair to say, based on CryptoQuant data, that this is not rotation within altcoins but capital exiting the segment as retail participation has withdrawn, smart money rotated and no institutional altcoin accumulation is visible on centralized spot venues. 

Altcoin Sell Pressure Just Hit a 5-Year Extreme

“Retail is out. Smart money rotated. No institutional alt accumulation in sight. This is not a dip. It's 13 months of continuous net selling on CEX spot.” – By @IT_Tech_PL pic.twitter.com/xtu8MIK0Fd

— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) February 18, 2026 The absence of buyers matters for XRP and all non-BTC majors. Even strong technical supports weaken when structural liquidity drains. While Bitcoin retains macro narrative relevance, altcoins face structural demand decay.

Historically, multiquarter net selling periods end only when:

Macro liquidity expands, or,Capitulation produces forced seller exhaustion.At present, neither condition is confirmed.

Arthur Hayes shares two scenarios for Bitcoin amid "AI financial crisis"In his Feb. 18, 2026, Substack essay entitled "This is Fine," BitMEX cofounder Arthur Hayes describes Bitcoin as a "global fiat liquidity fire alarm" and warns of an emerging "AI financial crisis."

Bitcoin’s drop from $126,000 in October 2025 to roughly $60,000 occurred while the Nasdaq 100 remained relatively flat. Hayes interprets this divergence as early signaling of tightening dollar liquidity and deflationary pressure before traditional markets fully adjust.

BTC/USD Weekly Chart by TradingView with Hayes' Essay PostHis thesis centers on labor displacement. He estimates that a 20% reduction among 72.1 million U.S. white-collar workers, with average salaries near $85,000, could produce:

$330 billion in consumer credit defaults.$227 billion in mortgage losses.Approximately 13% write-down of total U.S. commercial bank equity.Smaller regional banks would fail first. Depositor runs would follow. Credit would freeze faster than during 2008 due to digital speed and AI amplification.

Hayes outlines two Bitcoin scenarios:

Scenario oneThe decline to $60,000 marked the majority of the downside. Equities eventually correct or stabilize. As soon as the Federal Reserve signals renewed quantitative easing in 2026, Bitcoin rebounds sharply.

Scenario twoBitcoin falls below $60,000 as equities, private credit and risk assets reprice the AI shock. Bank failures accelerate. Liquidity panic intensifies. Only then does the Fed deploy emergency stimulus, igniting a new cycle and sending Bitcoin to fresh all-time highs.

Both paths share the same structural arc: short-term deflationary pressure, followed by large-scale fiat expansion.

Hayes's tactical advice is consistent with prior cycles: preserve liquidity, limit leverage, accumulate when the policy reversal becomes visible.

Crypto market outlook as of February 2026The three segments connect through liquidity with XRP defending a long-cycle support, while altcoin liquidity registers a five-year extreme negative flow. Bitcoin is pricing macro stress earlier than equities. Hayes argues that monetary expansion in 2026 is inevitable once systemic pressure escalates.

Key levels to monitor:

Bitcoin: $60,000 as immediate macro pivot. Below this opens air toward prior consolidation zones. A reclamation of $70,000-$72,000 would signal stabilization.XRP: Weekly closes relative to the 200-week MA near $1.42. Loss of this level shifts risk toward $1. Recovery above $1.60 improves structural footing.If deflation intensifies before Fed intervention, risk assets face further repricing. If liquidity returns earlier, Bitcoin will likely lead the recovery, with select majors such as XRP following only after sustained capital inflow.

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