crypto

According to Cointelegraph, Robinhood's head of cryptocurrency, Johann Kerbrat, recently stated that amid the ongoing market downturn, crypto investors are gradually shifting their focus to assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. He pointed out that many investors view the current market as "a buying opportunity" and are beginning to explore more options beyond the top two or three cryptocurrencies.At the same time, Kerbrat revealed that cryptocurrency holders on the Robinhood platform are not just holding tokens but are actively exploring use cases such as staking and DeFi, which continue to show strong appeal amid market uncertainty.However, the Altcoin Season Index data shows that the market still primarily favors Bitcoin, with a Bitcoin season score of 33/100. Additionally, the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF has seen net outflows for five consecutive weeks, totaling approximately $3.8 billion, reflecting that market sentiment has remained in a state of "extreme fear" since early February.

The founder of OpenClaw, Peter Steinberger, responded on social media regarding "a user being banned after mentioning Bitcoin in OpenClaw's Discord," stating, "We have strict server rules, and users agree to comply with them upon entering the server. One of these rules is a complete ban on mentioning cryptocurrencies."Afterward, Peter Steinberger inquired about the user's account name, indicating that he would manually re-add them to OpenClaw's Discord group.

According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 8, down 1 point from yesterday. The average for the past 7 days is 9, and the average for the past 30 days is 13.

According to Cointelegraph, data shows that the cryptocurrency market has largely retraced the gains made after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Total3 (the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum) surged over 91% after the election results were announced on November 5, 2024, rising from about $600 billion to $1.16 trillion by December 2024. The market then fell back to around the $900 billion range and briefly rebounded to $1.13 trillion on January 18, 2025.In October 2025, Total3 reached a new high of about $1.19 trillion but subsequently faced a significant decline, breaking the structural uptrend. Currently, Total3 is approximately $713 billion, down about 40% from the October 2025 peak, and is nearing the mid-November 2024 levels, with no clear signs of sustained recovery in the market.In terms of mainstream assets, Bitcoin has seen a maximum drop of over 50% from its peak to its low, dipping to around $60,000 before rebounding to about $68,000; Ethereum has retraced about 60% from its historical high of nearly $5,000 in August 2025. Sentiment indicators are also at low levels. CMC's Fear and Greed Index reports a score of 14, indicating "extreme fear," and on February 5, it briefly dropped to 5, one of the lowest levels on record.

The latest report from blockchain analysis company Elliptic points out that a cryptocurrency exchange related to Russia, known as the "shadow network," is assisting in evading international sanctions through large-scale cryptocurrency transactions and names five platforms, most of which have not yet been sanctioned and still provide Russian entities with funding channels to bypass traditional banking regulations. Among them, ABCeX is identified as the largest, having processed at least $11 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.The report also notes that although Exmo claims to have exited the Russian market, on-chain data shows that it still shares custodial wallet infrastructure; Rapira, registered in Georgia and with an office in Moscow, is said to have direct transactions exceeding $72 million with the sanctioned exchange Grinex; Bitpapa evades monitoring by frequently changing wallet addresses; and Aifory Pro provides cash-to-crypto exchange services in Moscow, Dubai, and Turkey.Analysis indicates that the previously targeted cryptocurrency-related sanction evasion infrastructure in Russia has not disappeared but has instead dispersed across more platforms.

According to FinanceFeeds, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams has warned that search engine ads impersonating Uniswap continue to appear, resulting in users losing all their high-value crypto assets. Scammers purchase ads for keywords like "Uniswap" to place fake websites at the top of search results, with designs that closely resemble the official site. Once users connect their wallets and authorize transactions, their funds can be immediately transferred away.These types of attacks rely on user signature authorization rather than protocol-level vulnerabilities. An X platform user "Ika" reported losing crypto wallet assets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars after clicking on a fake link in the search results. Screenshots he disclosed show that the fake link was at the top of the search results, making it highly misleading. Similar incidents occurred in October 2024, where scammers replicated the Uniswap website interface and induced users to connect their wallets through subtle button changes.Data from security firm CertiK indicates that in January 2026, the crypto industry lost approximately $370.3 million due to exploits and scams, marking a nearly 11-month high and nearly four times the losses of January 2025. One single social engineering attack resulted in losses of about $284 million. A total of 40 related security incidents were recorded in January. Analysis points out that current crypto asset losses are increasingly stemming from phishing links, false ads, and social engineering attacks, rather than underlying smart contract vulnerabilities. As the DeFi ecosystem expands, brand impersonation and interface fraud are becoming significant risks affecting user trust.

According to Forbes, the probability of the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill (Clarity Act) passing recently rose to 90%, before falling back to around 70%. It may become a key variable for the next phase of the Bitcoin market. Many believe that this bill could be a "major trigger" for a Bitcoin rebound, similar to how the previous "Genius Bill" boosted market sentiment for stablecoins.Dennis Porter, co-founder of the Satoshi Action Fund, stated that once the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill is signed, "the floodgates will open," and trillions of dollars in capital may wait to enter the market after the compliance framework is established. The market generally believes that if the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill makes substantial progress, it will become an important catalyst for a new wave of capital inflow into the cryptocurrency market.

According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 9, up 1 point from yesterday. The average over the past 7 days is 9, and the average over the past 30 days is 14.

According to Coinmarketcap data, the performance of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization is as follows, with the top five gainers: Kite (KITE) up 18.83%, current price $0.2764; LayerZero (ZRO) up 14.35%, current price $1.6; Morpho (MORPHO) up 14.34%, current price $1.56; Render (RENDER) up 8.39%, current price $1.49; Decred (DCR) up 7.4%, current price $23.84.The top five losers: Pi (PI) down 4.94%, current price $0.1732; Aave (AAVE) down 4.79%, current price $116.42; Chiliz (CHZ) down 3.59%, current price $0.03654; Dash (DASH) down 3.3%, current price $33.31; Arbitrum (ARB) down 2.89%, current price $0.09582.

According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 8, up 0 points from yesterday. The average over the past 7 days is 9, and the average over the past 30 days is 14.

According to GlobeNewswire, Nasdaq-listed company Robinhood released its operational data for January 2026, revealing that users, assets, and trading volume continue to grow steadily.As of the end of January, the platform's total assets amounted to $324 billion, a month-over-month increase of 1% and a year-over-year increase of 59%; nominal stock trading volume reached $227.3 billion, a month-over-month increase of 21% and a year-over-year increase of 57%; cryptocurrency trading volume reached $22.9 billion, a month-over-month increase of 8% and a year-over-year increase of 12%, with Robinhood App trading volume at $8.7 billion and Bitstamp trading volume at $14.2 billion; event contract trading volume was 30 million contracts, a month-over-month increase of 17%.Robinhood also disclosed that as of February 17, it had repurchased approximately 2.1 million shares of Class A common stock this quarter, totaling about $173 million, which is more than double the number of shares repurchased in the fourth quarter of 2025.

According to the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced that a Chinese national, Fei Liao, has been sentenced to federal prison for participating in the laundering of funds obtained from a cryptocurrency investment scam. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced to 40 months in prison by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in 2026.Liao was also ordered to forfeit over $2.3 million in seized funds and to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution to victims. The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs for the Eastern District of Texas and was investigated by the Tyler branch of the United States Secret Service, with federal prosecutor Robert Austin Wells handling the prosecution. Court documents show that Liao assisted in laundering funds from "Pig Butchering" and other cryptocurrency investment scams by setting up shell companies and bank accounts with others.Such scams typically contact victims through social media, dating platforms, or unsolicited phone calls, establishing a trust relationship before inducing them to invest in cryptocurrency. After victims transfer funds to accounts controlled by the scammers, the fraudulent platform displays high returns, encouraging further investment, ultimately leading to victims being unable to withdraw funds and suffering significant losses.Law enforcement agencies remind individuals that if they encounter similar scams, they can report them to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and provide as much information as possible, including the name of the investment platform, cryptocurrency addresses, transaction hashes, bank account information, and contact details of the suspects, while also retaining communications and transfer records with the scammers.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, this morning's third meeting on the "Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill" (the CLARITY Act) regarding stablecoin yields was smaller than last week's, with representatives from Coinbase, Ripple, a16z, and the Crypto Industry Association in attendance, but no bank representatives present individually; the banking industry's voice was conveyed through the industry association.The situation at this meeting was notably different: the White House led the discussion, rather than allowing cryptocurrency companies and banks to dominate the conversation as in previous meetings. Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the White House Cryptocurrency Committee, brought a draft text that became the focal point of the discussion.The text acknowledged the concerns raised by banks last week in the "Prohibition of Yields and Interest Principles" document, while clearly stating that a key goal of stablecoin-related legislation is to prohibit earning yields on idle stablecoin balances. The debate has narrowed down to whether crypto companies can offer stablecoin rewards tied to specific activities, with banks' concerns seeming to stem more from competitive pressure than the initially perceived worry about deposit outflows.Sources from the banking sector indicated that they are still working to include a study on deposit outflows in the draft—this study would examine the growth of payment stablecoins and their potential impact on bank deposits. Additionally, the banking industry is encouraged by the proposed anti-tax avoidance provisions, which would empower the SEC, the Treasury, and the CFTC to enforce the ban on paying yields on idle balances, imposing a civil penalty of $500,000 per day for each violation.Sources stated that discussions could be finalized by the end of the month, with negotiations continuing in the coming days.

Matrixport released a research report on platform X, which pointed out that Bitcoin recently experienced a rapid decline, with implied volatility in options soaring at one point and then partially retreating. The price of Bitcoin dropped from around $85,000 to a low near $60,000, before stabilizing around $66,000.Meanwhile, the implied volatility for March 2026 quickly surged from just over 40% to a panic high close to 65%, reflecting a strong demand for downside protection during the decline. Subsequently, implied volatility fell back to around 50%, indicating that some tail risk hedges are being unwound, and short-term pressure has eased. The crypto market is approaching a critical turning point: volatility remains high, sentiment lingers at extremely low levels, and market liquidity continues to flow out. Traders are gradually unwinding their crash hedges, resulting in a noticeable reduction in overall positions and a significant decline in participation.Historically, such combinations often appear before the initiation of significant directional trends. The macro environment is showing signs of improvement, but the prices of crypto assets have not followed suit significantly, and this divergence is typically difficult to sustain in the long term.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao stated that cryptocurrencies never needed a bailout and will never need one.On February 19, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Basset and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, urging the government not to use taxpayer funds to bail out the cryptocurrency industry. In her letter, Warren warned that any form of bailout would mean "transferring wealth from American taxpayers to cryptocurrency billionaires," which is not only "extremely unpopular" but could also directly benefit President Trump and his family's cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial.

According to The Block, the White House held a third closed-door meeting on Thursday, inviting representatives from the crypto industry to discuss the stablecoin reward mechanism with banking groups. The meeting lasted for several hours and was described by attendees as a "constructive dialogue," but no final compromise has been reached.Ji Hun Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, stated that the meeting advanced the framework building based on previous discussions, aiming to enhance U.S. competitiveness while protecting consumers. Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal also described the discussions as "cooperative in tone and constructive," suggesting that negotiations will continue.The stablecoin holding reward mechanism is a key point of contention in the current crypto market structure legislation. Sources revealed that the White House proposed some principled plans allowing companies to offer rewards based on specific activities or account balances, but the banking sector remains cautious. It is still uncertain whether a next round of meetings will be held. Attending organizations included Ripple, the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Council for Innovation, and several major banking associations.