Crypto

History suggests the current move could lead to consolidation around the $60,000 region in the months ahead before the next leg upward.

OpenAI and Paradigm have released EVMbench—a framework for evaluating AI agents' ability to find vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts.

The FGRD token represents common shares of the company issued natively onchain with instant settlement and built-in lending tools.

The French banking giant expands its euro stablecoin to a third blockchain, deepening institutional use of XRPL for compliant digital assets and onchain settlement

“Bitcoin going to zero” Google searches have spiked to their highest level since the FTX collapse, even as institutional buyers accumulate BTC and macro uncertainty hits record highs. Google searches for “Bitcoin going to zero” have surged to their highest level since the post‑FTX panic in November 2022, according to Google Trends data for the past five years.  The spike aligns with Bitcoin’s latest drawdown from its Oct. 6, 2025, all‑time high near $126,000 to about $66,500 at the time of writing on Thursday, according to data from CoinGecko, leaving the asset almost 50% below its peak.  At the same time, the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index has plunged into extreme fear around 9, levels previously seen during the Terra ecosystem collapse and the FTX fallout in 2022. Read more

Ledn Closes $188M Bitcoin-Backed Bond Sale The post Ledn Closes $188M Bitcoin-Backed Bond Deal – Is Crypto Credit Back From the Dead? appeared first on Cryptonews.

Larger crypto payments to darknet markets were linked to higher stimulant hospitalizations and deaths in Canadian health data. Blockchain transaction data tied to cryptocurrency payments may provide an early signal of emerging drug crises, according to a new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The study, which examined illicit market activity across darknet drug and fraud ecosystems, found that crypto flows connected to darknet markets reached nearly $2.6 billion in 2025, showing that online drug markets continue to operate at scale despite repeated law-enforcement takedowns. Vendors typically receive payments from personal wallets and centralized exchanges. Beyond measuring criminal activity, Chainalysis argued that the data can track real-world health outcomes. Crypto payments to suppliers of fentanyl precursor chemicals declined sharply beginning in mid-2023. Months later, overdose deaths also fell in the United States and Canada after peaking in 2023. Read more

Canary, Grayscale Launch First US Sui ETFs With Staking Rewards The post Canary and Grayscale Launch Sui ETFs With Staking Rewards in the US appeared first on Cryptonews.

ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel argued a wholesale CBDC and euro-pegged stablecoins could boost the euro’s international role.

Some analysts note withdrawals can reflect conviction, as traders rarely shift assets off platforms during panic phases suddenly.

Robinhood Layer-2 Testnet Hits 4M Transactions in First Week The post Robinhood Layer-2 Testnet Logs 4 Million Transactions in Crypto First Week appeared first on Cryptonews.

Dragonfly Capital closed its fourth fund at $650 million this week, the same size as its 2022 vehicle, raised into a venture market Fortune calls a “mass extinction event.” The headline reads like a vote of confidence: institutional capital returning, crypto winter thawing, alt season loading. But peel back one layer and the picture warps. […] The post Crypto VC funding surging again sounds like a rally, until you trace where the money actually lands appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Polymarket’s lawsuit challenges state authority and could redefine whether the CFTC controls US prediction markets or whether states set their own rules. Polymarket’s federal lawsuit against Massachusetts could determine whether prediction markets are regulated solely by the CFTC or also by states. The dispute centers on whether event contracts qualify as financial derivatives under the Commodity Exchange Act or as gambling under state laws. The lawsuit followed state-level actions against platforms like Kalshi, with Massachusetts and Nevada moving to restrict sports-related prediction contracts. Read more

Sanctions-related activity accounted for 86% of illicit crypto flows last year, with most of those flows routed through stablecoin platforms, according to TRM Labs.

Your day-ahead look for Feb. 19, 2026

Solana Faces $870M Token Unlock – SOL Price Impact Ahead The post Solana Faces $870 Million Token Unlock – What It Means for SOL Price appeared first on Cryptonews.

Brian Armstrong downplayed fears that quantum computing will break blockchain encryption, pointing to Coinbase’s new advisory council.

Robinhood plans a mainnet launch later this year as the testnet hosts experimental assets, including stock-style tokens. Robinhood’s Ethereum layer-2 network processed 4 million transactions in its first week of public testnet activity, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. In a Thursday post on X, Tenev said developers have begun experimenting with applications on the L2 network, which was built for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and blockchain-based financial services. “The next chapter of finance runs onchain,” he wrote. The trading platform launched the Robinhood Chain testnet last week as an Ethereum layer 2 built using Arbitrum technology. The launch followed about six months of private testing and is intended to serve as a high-throughput environment for financial applications. Read more

Local media reported that the stolen 320 Bitcoin was returned to a wallet controlled by authorities, with the unknown hacker seemingly having a sudden change of heart. South Korean prosecutors say they recovered more than 320 Bitcoin that disappeared from government custody in 2025 after the cryptocurrency was returned to an official wallet this week, local media reported. The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office said it unexpectedly recovered 320.88 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $21.3 million at the time of writing, local media outlet The Chosun Daily reported on Thursday. Prosecutors confirmed to the outlet that the unknown hacker returned the stolen Bitcoin to the authorities’ cryptocurrency wallet on Tuesday, and it was later transferred to a secure domestic digital exchange wallet also controlled by authorities. The Bitcoin went missing from prosecutors’ custody during an investigation in August 2025, authorities said at the time. Prosecutors later discovered the loss during a routine inspection of seized f...

Bitcoin and ether tick higher, but weak altcoin breadth, heavy liquidations and elevated options hedging suggest traders remain cautious.