Ripple is set to unlock 1 billion XRP from escrow on March 1, 2026, continuing its monthly release system. In February, 1 billion XRP—valued at about $1.63 billion—was opened, with roughly 700 million re-escrowed and 300 million added to supply. By press time, XRP traded at $1.43, up 0.6% over 24 hours.

On February 21, 2026, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets updated guidance to permit broker-dealers to apply a 2% capital haircut to proprietary positions in qualifying payment stablecoins under Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1. Many firms had treated these assets with a 100% haircut; the change, subject to strict reserve, transparency and regulatory criteria, may enhance liquidity.

Ethereum has traded sideways around the $2,000 level after a 50% drop from its mid-January high, while an Arkham-tracked whale holds a $200 million ETH long. Despite this leveraged bet, unrealized profits for large holders have turned negative and weak spot demand leaves open the risk that $2,000 becomes a bull trap rather than a durable support.

Binance launched a USD1 rewards initiative distributing 235 million WLFI tokens over four weekly airdrops between February 20, 2026 and March 20, 2026. Eligible users holding USD1 across Spot, Funding, Margin, or USDⓈ-M Futures accounts can earn weekly allocations, with Margin and Futures collateral balances receiving a 1.2x multiplier and a 0.01 USD1 minimum balance required.

Santiment reported on Friday that retail calls for Bitcoin to reach $150K–$200K, and even $50K–$100K, are drying up, framing the pullback in hype as a healthy sign as sentiment returns to neutral. Bitcoin fell to near $60,000 on Feb. 6 and was around $67,847 at publication, while the Crypto Fear & Greed Index registered a score of 8 in "Extreme Fear" on Saturday.

On Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that President Trump could not rely on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to maintain broad import tariffs, leaving around $130 billion in paid duties unresolved. Hours later, Trump invoked Section 122 to introduce a temporary 10% tariff on goods from all countries, while bitcoin held near $68,000 despite previous market sell-offs during earlier tariff moves. Crypto investors are now watching to see whether this new trade action will trigger another sharp downturn similar to those seen in February and April last year.

Optimism's OP token has suffered steep losses after Base decided to move away from the OP Stack toward its own unified stack, cutting into Optimism's activity and revenue. As OP trades at all-time lows, open interest has jumped by nearly 60% since 18 February while price dropped 29.3%, signaling heavy short positioning and intense selling. Technicals such as deeply oversold RSI and fresh lows on the A/D indicator leave room for a short-covering bounce toward the $0.14–$0.16 area, even as the broader trend remains bearish.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad," disclosed that he recently bought 1 Bitcoin for about $67,000 and outlined two reasons for this move. He links the purchase to expectations of massive U.S. dollar printing amid debt concerns and to Bitcoin's capped 21 million supply. He also reiterated a 2013 prediction of a major stock market crash, which he now believes is imminent.