Crypto

Big Questions: Has Beijing been amassing a secret war chest of gold so that it can one day dethrone the US dollar via economic warfare?

High TPS figures promise scale, but every additional transaction increases the burden on the very nodes meant to keep networks decentralized. Blockchain transactions per second (TPS) numbers are often treated as a performance gauge, but they don’t tell the full story of whether a network can scale in practice. Carter Feldman, founder of Psy Protocol and a former hacker, told Cointelegraph that TPS figures are often misleading because they ignore how transactions are actually verified and relayed across decentralized systems. “Many pre-mainnet, testnet or isolated benchmarking tests measure TPS with only one node running. At that point, you might as well call Instagram a blockchain that can hit 1 billion TPS because it has one central authority validating every API call,” Feldman said. Read more

Down sizably ahead of the jobs data, bitcoin rose modestly to $67,500 following the news.

XRP looked increasingly bearish at $1.40, with a key indicator suggesting that a downward move below $1 was possible in the coming weeks. XRP (XRP)  has retraced nearly 63% from its multi-year high of $3.66 to trade at $1.36 on Wednesday, a technical setup that may have bearish implications for its price, according to a market analyst.   Key takeaways: XRP appeared bearish below $1.40, with chart technicals pointing to a further drop toward $0.70-$1. Read more

They're promising speeds 500x Solana and 100,000x that of Ethereum, and some of the biggest financial players in the world have taken note.

Ripple’s XRP remains under clear bearish pressure, but instead of accelerating lower, the market has transitioned into a compression phase. The price action is now stabilizing near a key psychological floor, with volatility declining as both sides hesitate to commit aggressively. Ripple Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, XRP’s decisive breakdown below […]

Bitcoin encountered renewed selling pressure at the key $70K resistance level, resulting in a clear rejection. As a result, the price action has transitioned into a consolidation phase above the critical $60K support zone, with further fluctuations likely in the near term. Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, BTC’s rebound from […]

The FCA has begun legal proceedings against the exchange for “illegally promoting crypto asset services to UK consumers.”

Arkham CEO denies shutdown reports as the exchange pivots from a CEX to a fully decentralized model amid record DEX derivatives growth. Arkham Exchange is not shutting down, despite reports to the contrary, and is instead redesigning itself as a decentralized trading platform, the company confirmed to Cointelegraph. The crypto trading platform launched by data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence is shifting from a centralized model to a fully decentralized exchange (DEX), Arkham CEO Miguel Morel told Cointelegraph on Wednesday. Morel’s comments clarify an earlier report from CoinDesk suggesting Arkham Exchange was shutting down. “The future of crypto trading is decentralized, and that’s what we’re building towards,” Morel said. Read more

"Really nice chart, pure strength," one popular analyst stated.

Hong Kong is looking to build its digital assets economy, its leaders said on stage.

Bitcoin’s recent moves track liquidity stress more than Fed rate cuts. Here’s how balance sheet policy and cash flows shape crypto markets. Bitcoin now responds more to liquidity than to rate cuts. While rate cuts once drove crypto rallies, Bitcoin’s recent price action reflects actual cash availability and risk capital in the system, not just borrowing costs. Interest rates and liquidity are not the same. Rates measure the price of money, while liquidity reflects the amount of money circulating. Bitcoin reacts more when liquidity tightens or loosens, even if rates move in the opposite direction. When liquidity is abundant, leverage and risk-taking expand, pushing Bitcoin higher. When liquidity contracts, leverage can unwind quickly, which has often coincided with sharp sell-offs across stocks and commodities. Read more

Last week’s downturn was driven by yen carry trades and macro leverage, highlighting how deeply digital assets are now tied to traditional markets, panelists at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 said.

Denmark’s largest bank is ending an eight-year ‘ban’ on crypto services in response to growing customer demand and improved regulation.

Your day-ahead look for Feb. 11, 2026

Mandiant, which operates under Google Cloud, has tracked the suspected North Korean scammers since 2018, and AI has helped scale up malicious attacks since November 2025. North Korea-linked threat actors are escalating social engineering campaigns targeting cryptocurrency and fintech companies, deploying new malware designed to harvest sensitive data and steal digital assets. In a recent campaign, a threat cluster tracked as UNC1069 deployed seven malware families aimed at capturing and exfiltrating victim data, according to a Tuesday report from Mandiant, a US cybersecurity company that operates under Google Cloud. The campaign relied on social engineering schemes involving compromised Telegram accounts and fake Zoom meetings with deepfake videos generated through artificial intelligence tools. Read more

The European Commission's 20th sanctions package proposes a comprehensive ban on all cryptocurrency transactions involving Russia, an escalation from targeting specific bad actors to attempting to sanitize the rails themselves. The question is whether the EU can raise the cost of evasion sufficiently by controlling chokepoints: regulated exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and third-country financial intermediaries. The […] The post Blanket crypto ban targets Russia rails but one chokepoint decides whether flows die or just relocate offshore appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The U.K. asset manager teamed up with Ripple to bring traditional fund structures onchain in its first tokenization push.

Hong Kong’s SFC will allow licensed brokers to offer digital asset margin financing and set a framework for crypto perpetuals for professionals. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission said Wednesday it will allow licensed brokers to provide virtual asset margin financing and outlined a framework for trading platforms to offer perpetual contracts to professional investors. Under the new guidance, brokers may extend virtual asset financing to securities margin clients with sufficient collateral and strong credit profiles. Initially, only Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) will be eligible as collateral.  The regulator also set out a high-level framework for licensed virtual asset trading platforms to develop leveraged perpetual contracts. Access will be restricted to professional investors.  Read more

Extreme FUD lingers after Bitcoin’s $60,000 rebound, with bearish social sentiment outweighing bullish posts.