Crypto

The EU regulated blockchain earlier than most major economies. Its sandbox now tests whether dialogue unlocks innovation inside legal fences. The European Union, often criticized for prioritizing rulemaking over innovation, is pointing to the European Blockchain Sandbox as an example of how regulation can boost innovation. After three cohorts of confidential dialogues, the initiative has produced a 230-page best practices report and drawn in nearly 125 regulators and authorities. The European Commission tapped law firm Bird & Bird and its consortium partners to lead the initiative, which matches blockchain use cases with regulators for confidential dialogues aimed at clearing legal challenges. Read more

After the aggressive sell-off toward the $1.8K region, the market has transitioned into choppy consolidation, while lower timeframes are now approaching a decisive breakout point. The key question is whether this compression resolves to the upside or results in continuation within the dominant downtrend structure. Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, […]

Lagarde Early Exit Report Puts ECB Digital Euro Plans at Risk The post Lagarde Exit Report Raises Questions Over Digital Euro Timeline and Stablecoin Policy appeared first on Cryptonews.

ARK Invest Buys $6.9M Coinbase After $39M Selloff The post Cathie Wood Reverses Course, Buys $6.9M in Coinbase Stock – Is ARK Betting on a Rebound? appeared first on Cryptonews.

Crypto tax platform, Awaken Tax, polled 1,000 crypto holders about a radical shift from self-disclosure to automatic reporting of transactions.

The exploit saw the Moonwell protocol exploited for $1.78 million after cbETH was mispriced at $1.12 instead of about $2,200, intensifying debate around AI-co-authored smart contracts. Moonwell, a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol deployed on Base and Optimism, was exploited for about $1.78 million after a pricing oracle for Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) returned a value of about $1.12 instead of $2,200, creating a mispricing that attackers were able to use for profit. Moonwell said in an incident post-mortem that a governance proposal executed on Sunday misconfigured the cbETH oracle by using the cbETH/ETH exchange rate alone, causing the system to report cbETH at about $1.12. The protocol said liquidation bots and opportunistic borrowers exploited the mispricing, leaving roughly $1.78 million in bad debt. The pull requests for the affected contracts show multiple commits co-authored by Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, prompting security auditor Pashov to publicly flag the incident as an exampl...

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.

WLFI Rallies 20% as Whale Accumulation Builds Before Mar-a-Lago The post WLFI Crypto Surges Toward $0.12 as Whale Buys $2.75M Before Trump-Linked Forum appeared first on Cryptonews.

Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial is up on whale buying and a short squeeze, amid scrutiny over its $500 million UAE deal.

Social engineering and impersonation-related scams were the most frequent attack vectors targeting crypto investors in AMLBot’s investigations last year. About two-thirds of crypto incidents investigated by blockchain analytics company AMLBot in 2025 were driven by social engineering rather than technical exploits, according to a report based on the company’s internal casework. AMLBot said 65% of the incidents it reviewed last year involved access and response failures, such as compromised devices, weak verification and delayed detection, instead of vulnerabilities in blockchains or smart contracts. The company said its analysis drew on about 2,500 internal investigations and should not be read as an industry-wide measure of crypto crime, according to a Wednesday report shared with Cointelegraph. Read more

Your day-ahead look for Feb. 18, 2026

Bitwise's February announcement arrived as two moves packaged as one. The crypto asset manager announced a partnership with Morpho to launch curated yield vaults and simultaneously acquired Chorus One's institutional staking business. It looks like a deliberate assembly: curation mechanisms to filter protocol risk, infrastructure to deliver returns, and enough operational scaffolding to make the […] The post TradFi is selling crypto income on Wall Street but a hidden switch decides who gets in appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Founders Fund Exits Ethereum Treasury Firm ETHZilla, SEC Shows The post Peter Thiel Quietly Exits Ethereum Treasury Firm ETHZilla – Warning Sign for the DAT Model? appeared first on Cryptonews.

Once holding over 100,000 ETH, ETHZilla liquidated some to cover debt and repurchase stock.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is reportedly weighing an early exit from the bank just as the EU enters a crucial phase for the digital euro. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde is considering leaving before her eight-year term ends in October 2027, the Financial Times reported, citing a person “familiar with her thinking.”  Lagarde, who took office in November 2019, is said to be weighing an early exit ahead of France’s April 2027 presidential election so that outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz can agree on a successor, the FT reported Wednesday. An ECB spokesperson pushed back on the report, telling Cointelegraph: “President Lagarde is totally focused on her mission and has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term.” Read more

Crypto firms serving Californians are mandated to secure DFAL licenses or file license applications by mid-2026.

Analyst warns Bitcoin nearing Phase 2 bear market as volatility and liquidity trends point to further downside risk across crypto markets.

A Wells Fargo strategist said bigger US tax refunds may revive retail risk-taking by late March, potentially sending fresh cash into Bitcoin and momentum stocks. US tax filers may see bigger refunds in 2026 compared with previous years, a development one Wall Street strategist said may boost risk appetite for digital assets and tech stocks preferred among retail investors. In a note cited by CNBC, Wells Fargo analyst Ohsung Kwon said the coming refund wave may help bring back the so-called “YOLO” trade, with as much as $150 billion potentially flowing into equities and Bitcoin (BTC) by the end of March. Kwon said the extra cash could be most visible among higher-income consumers. “Speculation picks up with bigger savings…we expect YOLO to return,” wrote Wells Fargo analyst Ohsung Kwon in a Sunday note seen by news outlet CNBC. “Additional savings from tax returns, especially for the high-income consumer will flow back into equities, in our view,” he added. Read more

BlackRock has sharpened the staking posture for its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB), outlining a plan to keep most of the fund’s ETH staked and earning rewards rather than held in custody. In its latest amended filing, the sponsor said that under normal market circumstances, it would seek to keep 70% to 95% of […] The post BlackRock will skim 18% of staked Ethereum ETF rewards from investors — and ETHB exits could take weeks appeared first on CryptoSlate.

$150B in US Tax Refunds Could Fuel Fresh Crypto Inflows, Historical Data Suggests The post $150B in US Tax Refunds Could Fuel Fresh Crypto Inflows, Historical Data Suggests appeared first on Cryptonews.