In 2022, US regulators sanctioned Tornado Cash, sharply reducing its activity but failing to curb overall crypto mixer use for long. Research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance indicates mixer transactions rose to about 32,000 in 2025, up from roughly 21,000 in 2024 and 16,000 in 2023, with Railgun now handling 71% of volume. The data suggests sanctions discouraged many compliant users while illicit actors shifted to alternative tools and unlabeled wallets, as 95% of mixer funding in 2025 came from addresses without identified entity ties.

Bitcoin has been confined between $60,000 and $70,000 for weeks, briefly slipping under $67,000 on Thursday. On February 27, 2026, Willy Woo said the investor-driven sell-off appears spent, pointing to a month of sideways trade and a likely rejection of any mid-$70,000 rebound, with the bear trend ending in Q4 2026. On February 26, 2026, Matt Hougan argued the decline was simply holders selling, with some reallocating to AI investments.

Crypto sentiment has deteriorated, and, according to reports, the Fear & Greed Index recently fell to 11. Analyst Jesse Eckel contends AI-driven equity gains are masking strain and could steer retail toward smaller crypto tokens. An AI model cited in the discussion targets Bitcoin at $155,000 by end-2026 and $240,000 in 2027.

On February 23, 2026, the Coinbase Bitcoin premium moved back above zero after spending most of the month negative since heavy selling on February 6. Market data showed BTC around $66,150 on Binance futures with a 0.40% hourly uptick, while spot was near $65,070 and down roughly 3% for the day.

Bitcoin climbed to around $68,600 on Saturday before reversing to the mid-$64,000s, with traders facing heavy long-side liquidations exceeding $508 million in the last 24 hours. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has dropped to 5 out of 100 and recent data shows seven-day net realized losses near $500 million per day, while analysts highlight an unusually negative Sharpe Ratio that some view as a potential low-risk accumulation signal.

On-chain data for XRP recently showed realized losses nearing $2 billion within one week, the largest spike since 2022 and a level that previously appeared before a 114% rally. XRP was trading around $1.45 at the time, gaining about 1.50% over 24 hours but losing roughly 24% over the month, as traders debated whether this capitulation-style move could signal a new cycle phase.

A longtime Bitcoin supporter posting as Pumpius on X has argued that XRP could become the primary bridge asset for central banks and eventually surpass Bitcoin in scale. His claim comes amid discussions about faster settlement rails, recent currency volatility that prompted a rare dollar/yen quote check by the Federal Reserve’s trading desk, and Ripple’s stated goal of attracting larger regulated institutions to the XRP Ledger by 2026. The comparison highlights the sizeable gap between Bitcoin’s multi-trillion-dollar market cap and XRP’s sub-$100 billion valuation, underscoring how much capital would need to shift for such a scenario to unfold.

On February 16, the Arizona Senate Finance Committee approved Senate Bill SB1649 in a 4–2 vote, moving forward a plan to create a state-managed digital asset reserve that could include XRP among its holdings. The proposal would allow the state treasurer to hold, custody, and invest cryptocurrency assets that come into state possession, with market participants and legal experts watching how the fund's valuation, custody, and governance rules will be defined.

Strategy has extended its Bitcoin accumulation run to a 12th consecutive week, with Michael Saylor flagging what the firm describes as its upcoming 99th BTC trade. The latest purchase totaled 1,142 BTC for just over $90 million, lifting the company's stack to 714,644 BTC, valued at a little above $49 billion at prevailing market prices. Despite a Q4 loss of $12.4 billion and earlier share price pressure, the firm continues buying below its reported $76,000 average cost while Bitcoin trades around $68,000 after prior declines.