On February 27, 2026, $8.7 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options are scheduled to expire on Deribit, potentially amplifying volatility. According to Deribit, Bitcoin accounts for $7.7 billion in notional exposure and Ethereum about $975 million, with max pain levels at $75,000 and $2,200.

On February 26, 2026, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index climbed to 16 from 11 over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, as Bitcoin rebounded from a weekly low of $60,074. BTC last traded near $67,729 after touching $69,953.53 intraday, while Ethereum rose to $2,050 (+2.8%) and BNB advanced 4% to $625.

In the last 24 hours, Shiba Inu's open interest reportedly declined by 5% to 9.9 trillion SHIB worth $62.79 million, even as the token staged a modest price rebound. Over the same period, SHIB's price rose from $0.000006066 to a high of $0.000006486, with trading volume jumping 36.5% to $141.48 million. Market participants remain cautious as the meme coin struggles below its 26-day EMA and continues to print lower highs and lower lows.

The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index turned positive after nearly two months in the red, with BTC priced at least $10 higher on Coinbase than on Binance. On February 25, 2026, Bitcoin traded at $67,151.18, up 5.98% in 24 hours. Analysts cautioned this is not a full trend reversal, but it points to rising U.S. interest.

According to the latest CoinShares data, crypto investment products posted $288 million in weekly outflows, marking a fifth consecutive week of redemptions and bringing total withdrawals to $4 billion. Bitcoin led the decline with $215 million in outflows, while Ethereum and Tron also saw institutional selling. In contrast, XRP and Solana attracted modest inflows of $3.5 million and $3.3 million respectively, with Chainlink adding $1.2 million, even as overall market sentiment remained bearish.

XRP's latest uptick left short sellers on the wrong side of a 1,190% liquidation imbalance over a four-hour window, per CoinGlass, with $112,260 in shorts cleared versus $8,700 on longs. The token traded at $1.43, up 2.38% on the day, after touching $1.44, as ETF inflows reached $4.05 million.

Bitfinex stated on Feb. 20, 2026 via X that existing quantum computers are far from capable of compromising Bitcoin's cryptography and that the associated risk is still theoretical. The exchange argued that millions of stable qubits and large-scale Shor's algorithm would be needed, giving developers time to migrate to new wallet designs, lattice-based signatures and proposals like BIP 360, with any real threat only expected to emerge around the mid-2030s to 2040s.

Ripple Labs has minted 20,000,000 new RLUSD tokens on the Ethereum network, adding to a series of recent issuance moves and burns. RLUSD’s circulating supply has climbed to 1.55 billion, an increase of over 2% in 24 hours, and the token has moved into the crypto top 50 by market capitalization. Ripple is pushing RLUSD growth through active treasury operations and new partnerships, including an integration-focused deal with Zand in the UAE.

According to developer Mononaut, Bitcoin's mining difficulty has jumped by about 15% to 144.4 trillion, marking one of the largest increases on record and fully reversing the previous epoch's sharp downward adjustment. As of February 20, 2026, this rebound in hashrate to 1 ZH/s is pressuring miners in the short term while Bitcoin trades around $68,104.38 with rising whale accumulation.