Ethereum outlined a draft "Strawmap" extending upgrades through 2029 to evolve into a high‑performance Gigagas network with lower latency and faster finality. The plan explores erasure coding and P2P changes alongside a BFT‑style finality path. As of late February 2026, ETH hovered near $2,066 after a 6.5% rebound, while sentiment remained volatile.

SBI Holdings and Startale Group have introduced JPYSC, a Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin whose issuance will be handled by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and distribution supported by SBI VC Trade. The stablecoin, described as Japan's first trust bank-backed model, targets institutional, cross-border and onchain use cases, with a launch planned for the second quarter of this year pending regulatory approval.

Accenture Plc (ACN) snapped a three-day losing streak on February 26, 2026, with shares surging 8.29% to close at $207.38. The rally follows a strategic partnership with French AI powerhouse Mistral AI, signaling a shift in investor appetite toward software and consulting victims of the hardware-led AI rally.

Crypto analyst Willy Woo says recent investor selling in Bitcoin appears largely exhausted, allowing BTC to trade sideways and possibly retest the mid-$70,000 area before facing resistance. He expects the bearish phase to end around the fourth quarter, with other analysts warning of months of range-bound price action between $60,000 and $70,000 after a steep drawdown.

Swyftx lead analyst Pav Hundal said on Thursday that Ether has already absorbed much of the short-term macro risk and industry news, making a period of subdued, sideways price action likely. He argued that confidence is still recovering from October's $19 billion liquidation cascade and that weak consumer sentiment, reflected in an "Extreme Fear" reading on the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, remains a key overhang even as large holders like BitMine Immersion Technologies keep adding to their Ether positions.

XRP recently pulled back after failing to break above $1.50 but is still trading above $1.40 and the 100-hourly Simple Moving Average. The price is finding support near $1.380 while facing resistance around a bearish trend line at $1.410, with further hurdles at $1.420 and $1.450. A sustained move above these levels could open the way for $1.50 and higher, while a drop below $1.3820 may trigger deeper losses toward $1.3430 and $1.3250.

Plasma's XPL token climbed 18% while still trading about 94% below its $1.68 all-time high, even as 88.89 million new tokens worth roughly $10.79 million were unlocked. Leveraged traders on Binance are heavily tilted long and exchange balances show net outflows, suggesting active demand is attempting to absorb the added circulating supply.

Chainalysis' annual report finds ransomware leak events climbed 50% in 2025 to nearly 8,000, while on-chain ransom payments slipped 8% to $820 million. The firm cites regulatory pressure, enforcement against laundering infrastructure, and more refusals to pay, prompting a pivot toward small and mid-sized targets.