Crypto News and Headlines

ESMA Reminds Firms of Their Obligations Under CFD Product Intervention Measures Amid Rising Offerings of Perpetual Futures

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a reminder that firms must verify whether newly offered perpetual futures and similar derivatives fall within the scope of existing CFD product‑intervention measures. The regulator highlights that many of these instruments, including...

Over 400,000 BTC Bought Between $60k and $70k During Bitcoin’s Latest Downturn

Glassnode data shows more than 400,000 BTC were bought between $60,000 and $70,000 as Bitcoin’s price slumped 50% from its October all‑time high. The supply in the $60K‑$70K band rose 43% since the start of the year, reaching roughly 1.43 million...

The Ghost of the iPhone: Why Michael Saylor Thinks Bitcoin Is Mirroring Apple’s Legendary ‘Valley of Despair’

Michael Saylor likens Bitcoin’s 45% decline to Apple’s 2013 slump, arguing that deep corrections are typical for breakthrough tech investments. Bitcoin fell from $125,000 to about $63,000, echoing Apple’s valuation drop, while Saylor notes that regulated derivatives markets are tempering...

IEX Head of Cross Asset Product Joins Kraken to Lead Global Derivatives

John Palmer, former IEX head of cross‑asset product, has been hired by Kraken as global head of derivatives, bringing extensive experience from IEX, Cboe and Goldman Sachs. His appointment follows Kraken’s recent acquisition of an FCA MTF license to launch...

Permissibility Is the Real Prize for Banks in Crypto Bill

The U.S. market‑structure bill’s permissibility section would formally allow banks and their holding companies to own and transact in digital assets, effectively expanding the range of activities deemed permissible under the National Bank Act. Critics argue that simply placing an...

Brazil Cuts Bitcoin Miner Import Duty to Zero and Companies May Plug Them Into Stranded Solar Next

Brazil's foreign trade council approved a resolution that eliminates import duties on high‑efficiency SHA256 Bitcoin miners—those above 200 TH/s and under 20 J/TH—effective through January 2028. Three days later, French utility Engie signaled interest in installing such miners at its 895 MW Assu...

Step Finance Shuts Operations After $27 Million January Hack

DeFi portfolio tracker Step Finance announced it will cease operations immediately after a January hack that stole approximately 261,854 SOL, valued at $27 million. The breach caused the native STEP token to tumble nearly 96% and it fell an additional 36%...

Bitcoin ETF Sell-Off Is ‘Purification’ of Bull Case, Investor Says

Eric Jackson of EMJ Capital argues that the recent $200 million outflow from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs is a cleansing phase, not a failure, positioning Bitcoin for a new wave of long‑duration institutional capital. He notes Bitcoin’s price has slipped to...

After P2P Pause, Nigeria’s Quidax Turns to Lisk for Regulated Stablecoin Rails

Quidax, Nigeria’s newly licensed crypto exchange, has teamed up with Swiss blockchain platform Lisk to deliver regulated stablecoin and ether trading on Lisk’s layer‑2 network. The partnership arrives just weeks after Quidax halted its peer‑to‑peer service, signaling a shift from...

Coinbase USDC Revenue May Multiply 7x as Payments Grow, Bloomberg Says

Bloomberg Intelligence projects Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue, which already represented 19% of its 2025 earnings, could increase between two and seven times if USDC usage in payments accelerates. The exchange earned $1.35 billion from stablecoins in 2025, up from $911 million in 2024,...

CoinShares Lists an ETP on Hyperliquid on Xetra with Zero Fees and a Staking Yield of 0.5%

CoinShares International listed the CoinShares Physical Hype ETP (ticker LIQD) on Germany's Xetra exchange, providing regulated exposure to Hyperliquid's native HYPE token. The product is fully backed by physical HYPE, carries a 0% management fee and offers a 0.5% annual...

Tokenization Moves Into Production as Collateral Leads the Way

Tokenization is moving from experimental labs into core derivatives infrastructure, with Franklin Templeton and DTCC executives highlighting its ability to embed contracts directly in assets and replace multiple ledgers with a shared record. The technology promises near‑instant settlement and 24/7...

RedotPay Weighs US IPO that Could Raise $1B at over $4B Valuation: Report

Hong Kong‑based stablecoin payments firm RedotPay is exploring a U.S. IPO that could raise more than $1 billion and value the company at over $4 billion. The offering would be underwritten by JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies, with a potential New York...

BVNK Secures MiCA Licence in Malta to Expand European Stablecoin Operations

BVNK, an enterprise stablecoin infrastructure provider, secured a Crypto‑Asset Services Provider (CASP) licence from Malta’s Financial Services Authority, aligning it with the EU’s MiCA framework. The licence allows BVNK to passport MiCA‑regulated digital‑asset services across all European Economic Area members....

Esperanza Securities Launches Asia S First Approved Entertainment Token Investment

Esperanza Fintech Securities secured approval from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission to launch Asia's first regulated tokenized investment platform focused on live entertainment. The firm will issue security tokens through a managed fund, lowering entry barriers and enabling secondary‑market...

TRM Labs, Finray Technologies Partner for Crypto and Fiat Monitoring

TRM Labs and Finray Technologies have integrated Finray’s XZiel compliance engine with TRM’s blockchain intelligence, creating a unified system for monitoring crypto and fiat transactions. The platform delivers real‑time risk alerts, automated case management and a detailed audit trail across...

Malaysia Allows Brokers to Offer Digital Asset Trading Under Securities Rules

Malaysia’s Securities Commission issued a practice note allowing licensed stockbrokers with Capital Markets Services licences to provide broking services for approved digital assets under existing securities rules. Brokers must obtain regulator concurrence, use locally registered exchanges or vetted foreign platforms,...

Crypto Coin Minute for February 24th, 2026 at 05:15 AM Pacific Time.

On February 24, 2026, leading cryptocurrencies slipped roughly 5% as AI‑related risk concerns rattled riskier assets. Bitcoin fell to $63,057, Ethereum to $1,825, with similar declines across XRP, Binance Coin and Solana. At the same time, Pharos Network announced an...

Crypto Traders Attempt to Frontrun ZachXBT’s Upcoming Exposé

Crypto traders dumped high‑revenue altcoins MET, HYPE and PUMP after on‑chain analyst ZachXBT announced a forthcoming exposé on insider trading within a major DeFi business. MET fell 6.5%, HYPE 4.4% and PUMP 6.6% as investors rushed to exit. A Polymarket...

Crypto.com Secures Conditional Approval for National Trust Bank Charter

Crypto.com has secured conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter Foris Dax National Trust Bank, operating as Crypto.com National Trust Bank. The bank will deliver custody, staking and trade‑settlement services under OCC supervision,...

W3C Updates DID v1.1 Draft as Wallet and Agent Identity Use Cases Expand

The W3C released a Working Draft of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) version 1.1, tightening how DID documents express cryptographic keys and verification methods. The clarification aims to ensure consistent interpretation across implementations, a critical step for digital wallet ecosystems and machine‑to‑machine...

Bitcoin Whales Intensify Exchange Deposits During Extended Market Downturn : Analysis

On‑chain data shows Bitcoin whales are funneling record‑size deposits into centralized exchanges as the market endures a prolonged bear phase in early 2026. The exchange whale ratio climbed to 0.64, the highest since 2015, while average deposit size reached 1.58 BTC,...

Trump's 'Board of Peace' Is Exploring a USD Stablecoin for Gaza: FT

A Trump‑initiated “Board of Peace” is studying a U.S.‑dollar‑pegged stablecoin for Gaza. Israeli entrepreneur Liran Tancman leads the effort, partnering with the 14‑member National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and the UN Office of the High Representative. The digital...

Stablecore Marks Jack Henry Integration to Enable Stablecoin Payments And Acceptance

Stablecore has joined Jack Henry’s Fintech Integration Network, allowing its stablecoin and digital‑asset services to be delivered through the Banno digital‑banking platform used by over 1,000 banks and credit unions. The integration adds tokenized deposits, asset management and digital‑asset‑backed lending...

The New Frontier of Stablecoin Reporting

The Genius Act, the first U.S. federal framework for payment stablecoins, imposes strict issuer eligibility, dual federal‑state oversight, one‑to‑one reserve backing, and monthly reporting verified by accountants. The AICPA responded with a March 2025 presentation and disclosure framework, recently updated to...

Hedge Funds Retreat to Cash as Bitcoin Trading Turns Defensive

Crypto hedge funds are dramatically cutting exposure as Bitcoin steadies in a narrow mid‑$60,000 range, a full 50% drop from its October peak. The market’s steepest single‑day fall in four years triggered a wave of liquidations, prompting managers to prioritize...

New German Firm to Offer ETF White Labelling

Chartered Investment, a German fintech, received BaFin approval to operate a regulated fund platform and launched Opus PRIME, a white‑label service for active and thematic ETFs. The subsidiary will also support tokenised fund units, leveraging AI and blockchain to streamline...

Ari10 Parent Morphic Financial Group Secures Dutch MiCA License for EU Expansion

Morphic Financial Group, the London‑based parent of digital payments platform Ari10, has obtained a Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) licence through its Dutch subsidiary WEB3 Holding B.V. The Dutch regulator’s approval makes Morphic one of the first Central and Eastern European...

Banks, Operators to Drive Africa’s Stablecoin Tipping Point

African banks and mobile network operators are poised to accelerate stablecoin adoption, turning the continent’s burgeoning mobile‑money ecosystem into a mainstream digital payments layer. Ripple’s Reece Merrick highlighted that once banks and telcos embed stablecoins in custody, payments and treasury...

BNP Paribas Asset Management Issues Tokenised Money Market Fund Share Class on Ethereum

BNP Paribas Asset Management issued a tokenised share class of a French‑domiciled money‑market fund on the public Ethereum blockchain, using its AssetFoundry™ platform. The pilot employs a permissioned access model, keeping transaction records public while restricting token holding and transfers...

Exploring the Future of Crypto and Stablecoins

Fintech Times podcast featured Yap Global founder Samantha Yap discussing the rapid expansion of digital assets and Web3. The conversation highlighted stablecoins as a catalyst for faster, cheaper cross‑border payments and examined the UAE’s proactive regulatory sandbox. Yap noted that...

CoinShares Slashes Fee on Flagship Bitcoin ETP to 0.15% Amid European Price War

CoinShares has permanently lowered the management fee on its flagship Bitcoin ETP, BITC, to 0.15 percent, making it one of the cheapest physically‑backed Bitcoin products worldwide. The fund, the largest of its kind in Europe, holds over $1.3 billion in assets under...

Crypto Exchange BTCC Adds TradFi CFDs

BTCC has launched BTCC TradFi, a cross‑market platform that lets users trade forex, commodities, indices and stocks using USDT as margin and settlement currency. The service builds on the exchange’s tokenized precious‑metal success, which generated $5.72 billion in 2025 trading volume...

Hedge Funds That Piled Into U.S. Bitcoin Funds Are First To Exit

Sonic Labs Launches Spawn, the First AI Platform for Building Web3 Apps From Natural Language

Sonic Labs unveiled Spawn, an AI‑powered platform that converts natural‑language prompts into complete Web3 applications, automatically generating smart contracts, compiling, deploying them on the Sonic testnet, and building a fully integrated frontend. The tool abstracts the entire stack—from Solidity code...

OpenAI Employee’s AI Agent ‘Accidentally’ Sent $442K to Beggar

OpenAI engineer Nik Pash launched the Lobstar Wilde AI agent to turn $50,000 of Solana tokens into $1 million through automated trades. The bot mistakenly transferred roughly $442,000 worth of its own LOBSTAR tokens to a user who requested a small...

Missouri Lawmakers Advance New Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Bill

Missouri lawmakers have moved House Bill 2080, a revived proposal to create a state Bitcoin strategic reserve, to the House Commerce Committee for public hearing and vote. The bill would empower the state treasurer to invest, purchase, and hold cryptocurrency...

Michael Saylor Hints at Strategy’s 100th Bitcoin Buy

Michael Saylor’s treasury firm Strategy is poised to make its 100th Bitcoin purchase, bringing its total holdings to 717,131 BTC. The firm has bought Bitcoin for 12 consecutive weeks, maintaining a buying streak despite a declining market price of around...

Trump Family's Crypto Venture Says It Faced 'Coordinated Attack'

Wellspring Debuts Treasury Management Tool for Small Businesses

Wellspring has launched Wellspring Institutional, a treasury management platform tailored for small and midsize businesses. The solution merges traditional banking APIs with regulated stablecoin settlement rails, delivering centralized cash visibility, domestic and cross‑border payments, and yield generation on idle balances....

Vitalik Buterin Floats Simulated Transactions to Enhance Crypto Security

Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin proposed using transaction simulations to boost wallet and smart‑contract security. He argues that showing users a preview of on‑chain consequences lets them confirm intent before execution. The approach pairs simulations with spending limits and multisig approvals...

Cannae Holdings Inc (CNNE) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Canaan Inc. posted Q4 2025 revenue of $196 million, up 30.4% quarter‑over‑quarter and 121.1% year‑over‑year, marking its strongest quarter in three years. Product revenue surged 39.1% to $165 million, driven by large North American orders, while computing power sold hit an all‑time high...

North Korea’s Crypto Theft Machine Shows No Signs of Slowing After ByBit Hack : Analysis

Elliptic reports North Korea stole a record $2 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, pushing its total illicit haul past $6 billion and financing the regime’s weapons programs. The ByBit breach, which yielded $1.46 billion, saw more than $1 billion laundered within six months via...

Bitcoin’s Calm Price Action Is a Trap: The Steady ETF Bid that Supported It Has Already Disappeared

Bitcoin’s price stability is increasingly deceptive as spot ETF inflows, once a reliable daily catalyst, have turned sporadic. Early February still saw sizable net inflows—$562 million, $471 million and $145 million—but the consistency that previously propelled rallies has faded, ushering an "ETF fatigue"...

Europe Will See Gold Become the First Trillion-Dollar On-Chain Asset

European banks and asset managers are increasingly tokenising gold, positioning it as the continent’s first trillion‑dollar asset on blockchain. The metal’s entrenched legal status, central‑bank reserve role, and existing custody standards make it a natural fit for regulated on‑chain settlement....

ProShares' Stablecoin-Ready ETF Sees $17 Billion Debut, Sparking Speculation About Circle

ProShares launched the GENIUS‑compliant Money Market ETF (IQMM) with a record $17 billion in first‑day trading volume. Analysts initially linked the surge to Circle’s USDC reserves, but data show Circle’s BlackRock‑managed fund held steady around $64 billion. Morningstar identified an internal transfer...

The SEC Just Gave Cardano a 75-Day Shortcut to a Spot ETF that Took Bitcoin 240 Days

The SEC’s new generic listing standards let a spot crypto ETF qualify once a regulated futures contract has traded for six months. CME launched Cardano (ADA) futures on February 9, 2026, so the earliest the futures‑eligibility condition can be met is...

DRC Launches AXIS Programme and Sovereign Gold Reserve Token Framework

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Mines and the Social Fund signed an agreement to launch the AXIS Programme and its Sovereign Gold Reserve Token (SGRT), a debt‑free financing tool linked to gold production. Led by the FSRDC with...

SportFi’s Next Act: Onchain Markets Built Around Match-Day Results

SportFi is moving beyond fan‑token collectibles toward on‑chain markets that react to match‑day results. Chiliz’s roadmap proposes mint‑and‑burn mechanics that tie token supply directly to wins, losses, and other outcomes, turning tokens into programmable assets. This outcome‑linked model creates real‑time...