Blockchain

• Cohen & Company Capital Markets Blockchain Head on stablecoins, tokenized equities, and why Bitcoin may be our generation’s generational wealth play.

• The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

• Federal Reserve researchers sing praises of prediction markets A deep look at predictions on Kalshi called such platforms valuable to policymakers and researchers, according to a

• Fed’s Neel Kashkari calls crypto ‘utterly useless,’ dismisses stablecoins as ‘buzzword salad’ The Minneapolis Fed president said stablecoins don’t beat Venmo and argued crypto fa

• Institutional ownership of Sharplink’s common stock has grown to 46% as of Dec. • 31, according to the latest available 13F filings.

• IQMM follows the GENIUS Act’s 93-day Treasury requirement, effectively narrowing reserve management to short-term government paper.

• Vitalik: Why the trading app is building it own L2 while Ethereum founder cools on them Centralized exchanges are moving forward building their own blockchain infrastructure even

• Anchorage Digital launches U.S.-compliant stablecoin rails for international banks to streamline cross-border transactions. • Service includes minting, custody, treasury manageme

• Crypto for Advisors: crypto vaults explained Crypto vaults explained: Learn about risk layers (smart contract, redemption), composability and how RWAs will change DeFi yields. •

• Decibel is building on Aptos to become the world’s most powerful and trusted decentralized exchange, driving innovation in trading and markets. • Mainnet Beta is imminent, and Te

• The firm has invested in infrastructure like DoubleZero and Monad, the stablecoin app Payy, and ICO capital formation platform MetaDAO.

• Trump-linked World Liberty taps BlackRock-backed Securitize for hotel tokenization The companies are working to structure and tokenize loan revenue tied to the Trump Organization

• Mike McGlone softens bitcoin downside target to $28,000 after backlash over $10,000 call Market analysts said the extreme downside scenario risked influencing real capital flows,

• UXLink: Partnership Growth Model Overview Key Insights UXLink operates as a partner-facing onboarding layerthat structures user acquisition through referrals, quests, and Proof-o

• Bitdeer plans $300 million convertible note offering to expand high-performance computing; shares drop 18%, down 37% this month.

• UAE sits on $344 million unrealized profit from its bitcoin mining operations Royal family-linked mining rigs are producing about 4 BTC a day, turning state-backed infrastructure

• CME Group will begin offering 24/7 cryptocurrency futures and options trading on May 29 as volumes hit record highs.

• Rootstock saw QoQ growth in Q4 in total transactions and merged-mining participation, reflecting slightly higher throughput alongside stronger miner-secured network security. • I

• Finish the job on digital asset market structure Legislators must choose whether America leads the next generation of finance or watches from the sidelines. • In Washington, the

• CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Bitcoin (BTC) Drops 0.3% as All Assets Decline Binance Coin (BNB) was also among the underperformers, down 0.5% from Wednesday. • CoinDesk Indices

• Voltage launched a USD-settled Bitcoin Lightning Network revolving credit line following a $1 million institutional Lightning transaction.

• Soil has launched what it describes as the first compliant real-world asset-backed yield protocol on XRP Ledger for RLUSD.

• Why bitcoin’s rare oversold RSI crash signals a long, slow grind ahead History suggests the current move could lead to consolidation around the $60,000 region in the months ahead

• Figure is debuting its tokenized stock along with upsized $150 million offering The FGRD token represents common shares of the company issued natively onchain with instant settle

• SocGen taps XRP Ledger for euro stablecoin distribution The French banking giant expands its euro stablecoin to a third blockchain, deepening institutional use of XRPL for compli

• Blockchain data may predict drug overdose surges months in advance: Chainalysis Larger crypto payments to darknet markets were linked to higher stimulant hospitalizations and dea

• TL;DR - Darknet market activity remains resilient, with aggregate DNM flows reaching nearly $2.6 billion in 2025, underscoring the persistence of crypto-enabled drug markets desp

• Illicit networks accounted for $141 billion of the trillions of stablecoin volume in 2025 Sanctions-related activity accounted for 86% of illicit crypto flows last year, with mos

• Stablecoin volume reached $35 trillion in 2025 as illicit share stays below 0.5% Even as sanctions-linked networks drove $141 billion in illicit stablecoin flows last year, TRM d

• Crypto markets feel the chill, Base, ether.fi reorganize layer-2 landscape Your day-ahead look for Feb. • 19, 2026 What to know: You are viewing Crypto Daybook Americas, your mor

• Bitcoin, ether rise as altcoins lag in low-volatility trade Bitcoin and ether tick higher, but weak altcoin breadth, heavy liquidations and elevated options hedging suggest trade

• The bank of the future: 77% of stablecoin users say they’d open a wallet with their bank today YouGov survey published by Coinbase and BVNK also found that 71% of users would use

• Uniswap’s community is mulling expanding protocol fees to bolster revenue collection across all remaining v3 pools on the Ethereum mainnet.

• South Korean prosecutors have recovered about $21 million worth of bitcoin stolen from their custody last year. • Hacker returns $21M in Bitcoin stolen from South Korean authorit

• Arkham attributes approximately $344 million in unrealized profit to wallets linked to UAE royal family-affiliated mining operations.

• Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 built on Arbitrum designed to support tokenized real-world assets and onchain financial services. • Robinhood’s L2 testnet hits 4M transact

• Bitcoin, ether, xrp ETFs bleed while Solana bucks outflow trend U.S. • spot crypto ETFs saw broad-based redemptions led by bitcoin and ether funds, while Solana products drew fre

• Bitcoin’s $40,000 put becomes second-largest options bet ahead of February expiry next week Heavy positioning at lower strikes signals rising demand for downside protection for b

• Ether, XRP, Solana slide in crypto retreat despite tech-led lift in Asia stocks Major tokens stayed under pressure even as risk sentiment improved in equities, with a firmer doll

• Bitcoin is about to log its longest losing streak since 2022 as geopolitical nerves hit risk trades Geopolitical tensions lift the U.S. • dollar and crude prices, adding pressure

• Coinbase lets XRP, ADA and dogecoin holders borrow up to $100,000 without selling The exchange is widening access to its Morpho-powered lending product after a wave of liquidatio

• Bitcoin can bounce higher - but the market still lacks fuel for a real run Recent trading shows bitcoin staging short-lived rallies that quickly fade amid a stronger dollar, hawk

• Bitcoin shakes off U.S. • session losses as Trump says U.S. • trade deficit cut by 78% Investors are focused less on the accuracy of Trump’s trade figures and more on how renewed

• South Korea’s Hanwha makes a $13 million bet on ‘seedless’ crypto wallets The South Korean financial firm backs the U.S.-based blockchain company to accelerate enterprise wallet

• S&P Global gave the majority of the bonds the less-than-stellar rating of BBB-, according to a Feb.

• ‘We continue to give a slight edge to the states in this legal fight primarily because the states have historically been the regulators of sports gambling.’

• Ether.fi will migrate roughly ‘70,000 active cards, 300,000 accounts, and millions in user TVL to Optimism,’ over the coming months.

• Bitcoin sinks to $66,000, U.S. • stocks lose steam as Fed minutes mention possible rate hike Bitcoin is now on track for its fifth consecutive weekly decline, and losing this lev

• DeFi lending protocol Moonwell and CrossCurve have both recently suffered exploits connected to smart contracts.

• Welcome to In The Stables, a weekly briefing on the most important developments shaping the global stablecoin ecosystem. • Each edition delivers clear, data-driven insights into

• Sam Altman’s OpenAI unveils ‘EVMbench’ to test whether AI can keep crypto’s smart contracts safe Developed with Paradigm, the tool is OpenAI’s attempt to determine whether modern

• users, excluding those in New York, can now borrow up to $100,000 in USDC without selling the four tokens, Coinbase said.

• Apex Group plans to test USD1’s stablecoin infrastructure within traditional fund administration, aiming to speed settlement for tokenized assets.

• This is the first time Solomon has said he owns the cryptocurrency, something he previusly said could be ‘a store of value case.’

• CLARITY Act: Primer and Outcome Analysis Key Insights The CLARITY Act is stalled in the Senate amid unresolved debatesover stablecoin rewards restrictions, the balance of SEC vs.

• The Protocol: Zora moves to Solana Also: EF’s Stańczak to leave ED role, XRPL member-only DEX and Ethereum revives the DAO. • What to know: Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s we

• The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

• The Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 is ’evolving its foundational software by moving to a unified, Base-operated stack.'

• Coinbase’s Base moves away from Optimism’s ‘OP stack’ in major tech shift Base launched in 2023 and quickly became one of the most widely used Ethereum layer-2 networks. • What t

• Optimism’s OP token falls after Base moves away from the network’s ‘OP stack’ in major tech shift Base launched in 2023 and quickly became one of the most widely used Ethereum la