Options tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum with a combined notional of $8.7 billion are scheduled to expire. The expiring derivatives reference both assets and amount to $8.7 billion in notional value.

Bitcoin has historically reached market bottoms roughly 23 months after setting a previous all-time high, according to market commentary. The current point in the cycle is now around 23 months from the last ATH, highlighting this timing pattern in Bitcoin's price history.

Citibank said on February 27 it will roll out a Bitcoin custody solution for institutional clients in 2026, integrating digital assets into its core banking infrastructure, according to BlockBeats. The plan, disclosed by Nisha Surendran, head of digital asset custody, at an industry event, calls for institutional‑grade custody with key management and wallet systems, supports 24/7 operations, SWIFT messaging and API integration, and extends tax reporting, compliance management and risk control processes to Bitcoin holdings so institutional investors can manage them in the same way they handle stocks or bonds. Citi currently oversees approximately $30 trillion in assets and intends to launch core custody first, followed by advanced offerings such as asset segregation and collateral management. Industry experts say the initiative could encourage more traditional capital allocation to Bitcoin, while cautioning that regulatory evolution and cybersecurity remain important hurdles.

Vitalik Buterin stated on X that Ethereum's scaling roadmap is split into shortterm and longterm tracks, with nearterm upgrades such as Glamsterdam adding blocklevel access lists for parallel verification, ePBS increasing the share of slots used for block verification, and gas repricing plus a phased multidimensional gas mechanism to better align costs with execution time, according to Odaily Planet Daily. In the first phase under Glamsterdam, "state creation" gas will be priced separately from "execution and calldata" and excluded from the roughly 16 million transaction gas limit, while an EVMlevel "reservoir" dimension will default to consuming dedicated dimension gas before drawing from the reservoir, later moving to multidimensional pricing where different dimensions have distinct floating gas prices. For longterm scaling, Buterin highlighted blobs and ZKEVM, with blob capacity targeted via continuous PeerDAS iterations toward about 8 MB per second so Ethereum block data can be stored directly in blobs, and a staged ZKEVM adoption where ZKEVMcapable validator clients are planned by 2026 for around 5% of the network, expanding to more nodes by 2027 as formal verification progresses and eventually shifting to a mandatory 3of5 proof mechanism and ongoing security and VM work including RISCV.

A former Israeli defence minister said the coming weeks will define the Middle East for decades, marking a critical period for the region. The statement has fueled speculation about potential military action against Iran, though no specific plans or timelines were disclosed.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs booked $254.4 million in net inflows on February 26, with BlackRock's IBIT taking in $275.8 million as outflows from Fidelity's FBTC at $51.5 million and ARK's ARKB at $44.9 million partially offset the day's gains. Across three trading sessions, spot Bitcoin ETFs accumulated $1.02 billion in net inflows, and Wednesday alone accounted for $506.51 million, while flow activity this week has been concentrated in IBIT. Ethereum ETFs recorded $6.6 million in net inflows on February 26, led by BlackRock's ETHA with $15.3 million, while Fidelity's FETH posted $19.2 million in outflows; Solana ETFs added $0.5 million for the day, and over the three-day window Ether products accumulated about $173 million and Solana funds roughly $35 million. Spot XRP ETFs logged +848.59K XRP in net inflows, driven by Canary's XRPG with 520.27K XRP and Bitwise's product with 328.32K XRP.

PayPal, MoonPay and MO launched PYUSDx, a platform enabling developers to issue app-specific stablecoins backed by PayPal USD, according to a project announcement. The infrastructure allows application developers to create their own stable tokens tied to PayPal's dollar-pegged asset. PayPal's head of crypto said the next phase of stablecoin adoption is occurring at the application layer.

Vitalik Buterin detailed Ethereum's scaling roadmap, citing short-term Glamsterdam upgrades: blocklevel access lists, ePBS and multidimensional gas. Longer term, it seeks more blob throughput via PeerDAS and gradual ZKEVM adoption, with multiproof validation after security and formal verification mature, according to Buterin.