In 2025, Chainalysis reported that ransomware incidents climbed by about 50%, with attackers shifting their focus toward small and mid-sized businesses instead of major corporate targets. Nearly 8,000 leak events were logged, yet on-chain ransom payments fell to $820 million, down eight percent year-on-year. Analysts linked the falling payouts to stricter enforcement against laundering networks, cheaper dark‑web access, and AI‑driven tools that have boosted low‑cost but less profitable attack campaigns, while separate data showed crypto theft of $370.3 million in January 2026.

On February 27, 2026, up to eight major wallets on Polymarket's ZachXBT prediction market were flagged for unusually large gains after backing Axiom. The market drew over $39M in volume, with 3,630 wallets participating and early odds near 15% enabling outsized profits; one leading wallet bridged USDC to Ethereum.

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.

On February 26 2026, Foom.Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy protocol promoted as an evolution of Tornado Cash, suffered an exploit that led to losses of roughly $2.26 million in tokens. An attacker allegedly abused a misconfigured Groth16 zkSNARK verifier across Ethereum and Base, enabling forged proofs that drained 24.28 trillion FOOM tokens, with about $427,000 taken by the exploiter and around $1.83 million shifted in a white-hat rescue. The team has not yet publicly outlined remediation steps or the full impact.

On Thursday, Representatives Scott Fitzgerald, Ben Cline and Zoe Lofgren introduced the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act to curb prosecutions of developers without custody or control of others' crypto assets by narrowing Section 1960. The Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund backed the proposal, which they say could influence cases involving Roman Storm and Samourai Wallet.

Bloomberg is partnering with Kaiko to make its licensed financial data available directly on blockchain networks, the companies said on Thursday. The first application targets tokenized Treasurys and repo activity on the Canton Network for banks and asset managers, aiming to fix inconsistent datasets across tokenized markets estimated at about $25 billion excluding stablecoins.

On Feb. 25, 2026, the European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority launched a joint consultation on revised suitability guidelines for EU banks and investment firms. The consultation closes on May 25, 2026, includes a public hearing on April 15, 2026 (14:00–15:30), and would repeal the 2021 guidelines once the new text enters into force.

On February 26, Senate Democrats held a closed-door session to revisit the CLARITY Act ahead of a March 1 deadline set by the White House. The draft would split oversight between the SEC and CFTC, while rules on stablecoin yields remain the chief sticking point. a16z escalated GOP outreach and pledged $50 million to a new $100 million super PAC.