On 20 February 2026, Tether announced it will discontinue its offshore yuan-pegged stablecoin CNH₦ as part of a broader product reshuffle. New token issuance has already been halted, and holders have until February 2027 to redeem, while the company shifts resources toward USD₦, USA₦ and its Hadron tokenization platform and continues liquidating EUR₦.

Anthropic has released a limited research preview of Claude Code Security, an AI-driven tool on its Claude Code platform that scans entire codebases for vulnerabilities and suggests fixes. Powered by the Claude Opus 4.6 model, it reportedly uncovered more than 500 flaws in live open-source projects, while the announcement on February 21 2026 coincided with sharp declines in several cybersecurity stocks. The launch also followed reports that the same model was linked to a $1.78 million exploit at DeFi lending protocol Moonwell, underscoring the dual-use nature of advanced AI in cyber offense and defense.

In the first 50 days of 2026, Bitcoin fell 23% from about $88,700 to near $68,000, while market capitalization slid 24% from roughly $1.76 trillion to $1.34 trillion. ETF products saw $2.9 billion in outflows as leverage unwound. Binance's Open Interest dropped from roughly $16 billion to near $ 6 billion, amplifying cross-exchange volatility.

A 30‑day MVRV snapshot places Ethereum at -14.3%, the most undervalued among major caps, followed by Bitcoin at -6.9%, Chainlink at -5.1%, XRP at -4.1%, and ADA at -2.0%. Recent readings also note ETH struggling near $2,000 and BTC at $68,000, 46% below its last all‑time high.

Russia's tax service says more than 5,500 crypto miners are now declaring their output, split between 1,500 companies and sole proprietors and 4,000 individuals. Mining was legalized by laws adopted in August and October 2024, and both registered operators and small-scale users must submit monthly reports via FNS accounts, with an online registration process available.

On February 21, 2026, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor stuck to a no‑sale approach, even as the firm's 717,131 BTC position and a reported $12.4 billion net loss drew attention. Bitmine's Tom Lee also stayed constructive on Ethereum, while CryptoQuant data showed whale cohorts' unrealized profit ratios turning negative amid ETH's pullback.

At press time, Hyperliquid's HYPE traded at $30.30, up 4.75% over 24 hours, with volume up 14.5% to $207.95 million. A bullish breakout has put near-term targets back in play, and Arthur Hayes said he plans to add HYPE while projecting $150 by July 2026, with traders watching whether $29 support can fuel a move toward $36.

On Friday, Feb. 20, Japan-based SBI Holdings announced blockchain-based security token bonds totaling about $64.6 million for individual investors, registered and managed on distributed ledger infrastructure. The bonds will distribute rewards and interest payments in XRP through to their March 2029 maturity, with an indicative annual interest range of 1.85% to 2.45% and semiannual payments.