XRP's latest uptick left short sellers on the wrong side of a 1,190% liquidation imbalance over a four-hour window, per CoinGlass, with $112,260 in shorts cleared versus $8,700 on longs. The token traded at $1.43, up 2.38% on the day, after touching $1.44, as ETF inflows reached $4.05 million.

Cardano's ADA is trading within a descending channel on the 4-hour chart, hovering around the $0.28–$0.30 area after earlier rejecting the $0.38–$0.40 range. If current resistance holds, analysts warn the price could slide toward $0.22–$0.24, though oversold conditions and an anticipated CME ADA futures listing are seen as potential catalysts for a sharp rebound. At the same time, Cardano's ecosystem is being advanced by developers and community contributors focused on the Cardano Improvement Proposal process and long-term network resilience.

Google data shows that searches for "Bitcoin is Dead" have surged to a record reading of 100 on a relative scale, alongside multi‑year highs for phrases about Bitcoin going to zero. While Bitcoin trades around $68k following a 47% decline since October 2025, some analysts view this spike in pessimistic search interest as a sign of a possible long‑term market bottom, though they do not expect an immediate reversal.

On February 21, 2026 at 15:30, Bitcoin traded near $68,000 as total crypto market capitalization stood around $2.33–$2.41 trillion, up ~1% in 24 hours. According to this report, extreme fear persists (Index 14), and a push above $69,000 could trigger over $800 million in short liquidations amid tariff changes taking effect on February 24.

This week, the Shiba Inu team launched the Shib Owes You (SOU) recovery framework on Ethereum to help users affected by the Shibarium exploit in September. K9 Finance, which says it is the largest impacted community, claims it was left out of the SOU NFT claim and has urged affected users to contact the SHIB team. As the program rolls out alongside K9's planned sunset of its Shibarium products on Feb. 25, 2026, Shiba Inu contributors have also warned about fake SOU portals seeking to drain user wallets.

On February 20, 2026, Sam Bankman-Fried used a proxy to publish a "10 Myths" X thread from prison, disputing that FTX was insolvent and challenging aspects of his fraud case. He claimed customers are receiving 119%–143% of November 2022 claim values and rejected personal-life rumors, while critics point out his conviction stands and findings on customer fund misuse remain.

Bitfinex stated on Feb. 20, 2026 via X that existing quantum computers are far from capable of compromising Bitcoin's cryptography and that the associated risk is still theoretical. The exchange argued that millions of stable qubits and large-scale Shor's algorithm would be needed, giving developers time to migrate to new wallet designs, lattice-based signatures and proposals like BIP 360, with any real threat only expected to emerge around the mid-2030s to 2040s.

On Feb. 21, on-chain data showed that Shiba Inu's exchange netflow jumped by over 6% to 138,022,600,000 SHIB, signaling stronger selling pressure as market volatility persists. The token's price continues to trade around $0.0000065, with weak demand weighing on recovery expectations despite some traders still hoping for a rebound after the current downturn.