Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake has unveiled the Strawmap, a long-term coordination plan that envisions seven network forks by 2029 and five core aims across speed, scale, security, and privacy. The framework offers investors a timeline to judge execution as the market debates whether ETH can credibly advance toward a $10,000 valuation.

XRP has drawn about $150 million in new capital this year while Bitcoin and Ethereum saw roughly $1.5 billion in outflows. On Feb. 18, analytics flagged XRP sentiment reaching a five-week high, highlighting rotation away from the majors. Coinbase also began allowing XRP as collateral for up to $100,000 USDC loans.

BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) aims to keep 70% to 95% of its ETH staked under normal conditions, while maintaining a 5% to 30% unstaked liquidity sleeve for creations, redemptions, and expenses. The fund's filing outlines that 18% of gross staking rewards will go toward fees shared by the sponsor, Coinbase as prime execution agent, and staking providers, and notes that validator activation and exit queues on Ethereum can delay both reward generation and withdrawals for weeks or longer during congestion.

Bitcoin’s sharp drop toward $60,000 and subsequent rebound acted as a stress test that highlighted contrasting trader behavior on Coinbase and Binance. On Coinbase, Brian Armstrong described retail users steadily accumulating Bitcoin and Ethereum, while on-chain data showed a mostly negative Coinbase Premium Index that pointed to weaker US spot aggression. By contrast, Binance saw heavy short-term holder inflows and mid-sized entity selling, with around 8,700 BTC per day sent to the exchange at the height of volatility and roughly 7,000 BTC reportedly sold at market over two days.

Bitcoin derivatives data show traders heavily favoring downside exposure while spot price holds in a tight range below $70,000. Over the last 24 hours, BTC slid to $65,092 before rebounding to $66,947, with funding rates and options pricing indicating crowded shorts and elevated demand for downside protection. Recent spot ETF outflows in the hundreds of millions of dollars further underline weak spot support even as short squeeze risk remains in play.

On Feb. 12, RippleX said Token Escrow (XLS-85) went live on the XRPL mainnet, bringing conditional locking to trustline IOUs and Multi-Purpose Tokens beyond native XRP. The issuer-permissioned feature targets institutional settlement, while XRPL's reserve model links object growth to baseline XRP balances; base and owner reserves were cut on Dec. 2, 2024.

Over the past month, the XRP Ledger has overtaken Solana in on-chain real-world asset value excluding stablecoins, with roughly $1.756 billion versus Solana's $1.682 billion, according to RWA.xyz. The shift has been driven by a rapid increase in represented assets on XRPL, which concentrate value in a small number of institutional-style issuances rather than broad retail distribution. In contrast, Solana continues to lead in holder count and transfer volume, highlighting a trade-off between value concentration and network participation.

Prediction markets saw trading volume jump from $15.8 billion in 2024 to $63.5 billion in 2025, with activity staying strong into January 2026 as three platforms captured over 95% of global flow. A CertiK report warns that this growth relies heavily on centralized Web2-style authentication, creating critical single points of failure even as on-chain settlement and oracle designs continue to evolve.

US banks and crypto firms are clashing over whether stablecoin rewards should be allowed under the CLARITY market-structure push. Total stablecoin supply reached $311.332 billion in mid-January, according to DeFiLlama, and Standard Chartered has warned about approximately $500 billion of potential deposit outflows by the end of 2028. The GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, and pending implementation by July this year, frames the backdrop.