Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 21:31 Feb 20, 2026
A Trump-tied hotel development in the Maldives and the Dubai Land Department announced details on tokenizing their real estate projects this week. Entities in Dubai and the archipelagic nation of the Maldives are moving forward with tokenized real estate development projects worth millions of dollars, combined. On Friday, the Dubai Land Department announced that it would launch the second phase of a real estate tokenization pilot program. The move followed about $5 million worth of real estate in Dubai being tokenized, allowing the resale of about 7.8 million tokens. The tokenization infrastructure partner for the pilot, called Ctrl Alt, which is also licensed as a Virtual Asset Service Provider in Dubai, will issue “Asset-Referenced Virtual Asset management tokens” to facilitate the transfer of the tokens on secondary markets. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 21:00 Feb 20, 2026
Despite the sharp multi-month market downtrend, Bitcoin whales added 236,000 BTC since December 2025, with order size data showing large players building new positions. Large Bitcoin (BTC) holders have steadily increased their holdings in recent months, with the total balance climbing back to levels last seen before the October 10, 2025, market crash. At the same time, crypto exchange data shows whale-related outflows averaging 3.5% of exchange-held BTC over a 30-day rolling period, the highest since late 2024. Bitcoin wallets or “whales” holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC, have rebuilt reserves over the past three months. The cohorts increased their total balance to 3.09 million, from 2.86 million BTC on Dec. 10, 2025, a 230,000 BTC addition that restores their balance to pre-October 2025 levels. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:15 Feb 20, 2026
Despite bearish pressure and weak US economic data, Bitcoin's recovering hashrate and new onchain security protocols raise the chance for a surge to $70,000. Key takeaways: A minor 4.3% Bitcoin price increase to $69,600 could trigger over $600 million in forced liquidations for bearish traders. Rising network hashrate and the BIP-360 quantum security proposal are helping to diminish long-term technical concerns. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:14 Feb 20, 2026
The prediction market's Dutch arm, Adventure One, allegedly offered illegal bets, including on elections in the Netherlands. The Netherlands Gambling Authority said it imposed a penalty on prediction markets platform Polymarket's Dutch arm, Adventure One, for offering gambling to residents without a license. In a Tuesday notice, Dutch authorities ordered the Polymarket company to “cease its activities immediately,” or face up to $990,000 in fines. According to authorities, Adventure One was in violation of Dutch law for offering illegal bets, including those on local elections, and the company had not responded to requests to address these activities. ”Prediction markets are on the rise, including in the Netherlands,” said the Netherlands Gambling Authority’s director of licensing and supervision, Ella Seijsener. “These types of companies offer bets that are not permitted in our market under any circumstances, not even by license holders.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:00 Feb 20, 2026
As Bitcoin and altcoins continue to sell off, venture capital is raising millions for blockchain-based financial infrastructure, while real-world assets continue to draw capital. Crypto markets have erased nearly $1 trillion in value over the past month, yet parts of the industry tied to infrastructure and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are telling a different story. Tokenized Treasurys are expanding, venture firms are still raising capital and Bitcoin-focused companies are consolidating their footprints. This week’s Crypto Biz looks at the widening gap between spot markets and capital formation — from Nakamoto’s $107 million acquisition spree to Dragonfly’s new $650 million fund, the continued rise of tokenized RWAs and why Paradigm says Bitcoin miners may have a growing role in stabilizing the power grid. Bitcoin holding company Nakamoto has agreed to acquire BTC Inc and UTXO Management in a combined $107 million deal, expanding its footprint across Bitcoin media, events and financial services. Read mor... -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:55 Feb 20, 2026
The United States Supreme Court ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump could not use national emergency powers to levy tariffs during peacetime. US President Donald Trump announced a 10% global tariff on Friday following the Supreme Court's ruling striking down his authority to levy tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Trump was critical of the Supreme Court’s decision, calling the decision “ridiculous” at Friday’s press conference, and said that he will levy the tariffs under different legal methods, including the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and the Trade Act of 1974. Trump said: Trump’s tariffs have repeatedly caused severe downturns in markets considered high risk, including crypto and equities, as the threat of tariffs fuels uncertainty and shakes investor confidence. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:27 Feb 20, 2026
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that tariffs could help pay down the $38 trillion, and growing, US national debt. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued a ruling on Friday striking down most of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with six of the nine Supreme Court justices ruling that the Executive Branch lacks authority to levy tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). “IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs,” Friday’s ruling said, adding that the president has “no inherent authority” to impose tariffs during peacetime using the statutes in the IEEPA. The ruling read: Trump claimed that the purported inflow of drugs from Canada, China and Mexico, as well as the “hollowing out” of the US industrial base, constituted a national emergency under IEEPA that justified the tariffs, which the court rejected. In a press briefing following the decision, Trump lashed out at the justices who voted to strike down the tariffs and vowed to get th... -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:00 Feb 20, 2026
Crypto illiquidity is pressuring DeFi lending companies, but Wall Street giants continue to increase their exposure to the world’s largest Ethereum treasury company. Large institutional investors continued to add exposure to crypto treasury companies over the past week, even as bear-market illiquidity forced another round of shakeouts across decentralized finance (DeFi). The biggest corporate shareholders of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, increased exposure to the Ether (ETH) treasury company during Q4 2025 despite a broader market sell-off. Still, ongoing bear-market illiquidity is forcing some protocols to wind down operations, with DeFi lender ZeroLend shutting down. Crypto analytics platform Parsec has also shuttered, citing crypto market volatility as the main reason. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:20 Feb 20, 2026
The failure of the bulls to start a strong recovery in Bitcoin and the major altcoins suggests that the bears intend to remain active at higher levels. Key points: Bitcoin bulls are struggling to sustain the intraday rallies, indicating that every minor rise is being sold into. Select major altcoins are showing weakness, signaling a drop to their strong support levels. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:02 Feb 20, 2026
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty climbed to 144.4 trillion after January storms briefly slashed hash rate, while some US miners offset downtime by selling electricity back to the grid. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty jumped about 15% to 144.4 trillion on Feb. 20, according to CoinWarz data, reversing an 11% drop earlier this month that marked the sharpest decline since China’s 2021 mining ban. The earlier decline followed a sharp drop in hash rate after severe winter storms swept across much of the United States, disrupting power grids and forcing miners offline. In late January, Foundry USA, the largest mining pool by hash rate, briefly saw its computing power fall to about 198 exahashes per second from nearly 400 EH/s, before recovering. Hash rate measures the total computing power securing the network, while mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, about every two weeks, to keep block production near its 10-minute target. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:17 Feb 20, 2026
After four years contributing, BGD Labs said it would be leaving the DAO, citing changes to the organization and taking an “adversarial position“ to its liquidity protocol. BGD Labs, a core technical contributor to decentralized finance protocol Aave, said it will conclude its involvement with the project’s DAO on April 1 after four years. In a Friday forum post on Aave, BGD cited an “asymmetric organizational scenario,” which it said the DAO has “badly executed” without consideration of contributors’ expertise. The contributor added that Aave had taken an “adversarial position” of the third version (v3) of its protocol to promote features in the fourth (v4). “While all previous points that BGD should just keep contributing on the v3 side exclusively, the situation created makes it nonsensical to us: every time we think/will think about improving v3, there will be some type of implicit/explicit artificial constraint,” said BGD. “We are not really interested in being in that position, as we think it is a waste... -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:15 Feb 20, 2026
Bitcoin stayed rangebound within a "downward trajectory" as the Supreme Court concluded that some US trade tariffs were illegal and liable for a refund. Bitcoin (BTC) saw choppy price action after Friday’s Wall Street open as markets reacted to the US Supreme Court decision on President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. Key points: The US Supreme Court rules that certain US tariffs are illegal, sparking a modest risk-asset response. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:03 Feb 20, 2026
Private equity, which has the second-highest risk weighting, carries a 400% weight under the current Basel III banking framework. Crypto treasury executives are calling on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), an international banking regulatory body, to revise the 1,250% risk weight for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under the Basel III framework. The 1,250% capital requirement means that banks must back any Bitcoin (BTC) on their balance sheets at a 1:1 ratio with approved collateral, making BTC holding more costly than other asset classes. For comparison, cash, physical gold and government debt carry a 0% risk weight under the Basel III framework. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 14:03 Feb 20, 2026
US Federal Judge Aleta Trauger granted Kalshi a preliminary injunction against Tennessee, finding its sports event contracts fall under CFTC jurisdiction. A US federal judge in Tennessee temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its gambling laws against prediction markets operator Kalshi’s sports event contracts. The ruling, issued by Judge Aleta Trauger of the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on Thursday, allows Kalshi to continue offering sports-related event contracts to users in the state while its lawsuit against Tennessee regulators proceeds. Trauger found that Kalshi is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that federal commodities law preempts Tennessee’s attempt to regulate its sports markets as illegal gambling. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:32 Feb 20, 2026
Stablecoin ecosystem A7A5 has faced accusations of sanctions evasion and, according to some analysts, is creating an alternative, sanctions-free financial network. As cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly intertwined with the traditional financial world, it’s also forming the foundation of a parallel, shadow financial system. A January report from TRM Labs found a surge in illicit or illegal crypto use to an all-time high of $158 billion. This included a massive increase in crypto flows related to sanctions evasion. This was led primarily by A7A5, a Russian ruble-based stablecoin launched by Russia-based company A7. Some $39 billion in sanctions-related crypto flows were attributed to the A7 wallet cluster. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:46 Feb 20, 2026
House Democrats are pressing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over World Liberty Financial’s push for a national trust bank charter, citing systemic risk. Democrats in the US House of Representatives are pressing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over how regulators are handling World Liberty Financial’s bid for a national trust bank charter to issue a dollar-backed token. In a letter on Thursday, 41 House Financial Services Committee Democrats led by Representative Gregory Meeks cited systemic risk, foreign ownership and potential political pressure on the bank chartering process. They asked Bessent to explain what safeguards exist to prevent foreign government officials or politically connected investors from using the charter process to gain leverage over the US financial system. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:33 Feb 20, 2026
Tether’s USDT is nearing its largest monthly supply drop since the collapse of FTX, with whales and smart money traders continuing to reduce their USDT holdings. Tether’s USDT, the world’s largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin, is heading for its steepest monthly supply decline in years as big holders step up redemptions, according to blockchain data. The circulating supply of USDt (USDT) has fallen by about $1.5 billion so far in February, following a $1.2 billion decrease in January, according to Artemis Analytics data reported by Bloomberg. This puts USDT on track for its biggest monthly drop in three years, since the weeks following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022. The USDT supply logged a $2 billion decrease in December 2022 after the collapse of FTX and its 150 subsidiaries sent shockwaves through the crypto industry. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:22 Feb 20, 2026
Spot Bitcoin ETFs are approaching a five-week outflow streak, with $2.7 billion in net redemptions year-to-date, as BTC posts one of its weakest starts to a year. Selling pressure in US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs continued Thursday, with analysts noting the cryptocurrency is on track for one of its worst yearly starts. Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs saw $165.8 million in outflows Thursday, bringing weekly losses to $403.9 million, according to SoSoValue data. The redemptions moved the funds closer to a possible five-week outflow streak, with year-to-date (YTD) losses totaling $2.7 billion. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:51 Feb 20, 2026
Metaplanet’s Simon Gerovich addressed critics who accused the company of hiding losses and key details of its Bitcoin bets, as investor anger over leveraged Bitcoin treasuries spreads. Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich pushed back against accusations from what he called “anonymous accounts” that the company misled investors about its Bitcoin strategy and disclosures. Critics on X have argued that Metaplanet delayed or withheld price‑sensitive information about large Bitcoin (BTC) purchases and options trades funded with shareholder capital, obscured losses from its derivatives strategy and failed to fully disclose key terms of its BTC‑backed borrowings. In a detailed X post on Friday, Gerovich argued that Metaplanet promptly reported all Bitcoin purchases, option strategies and borrowings, and that critics were misreading its financial statements rather than uncovering misconduct. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:43 Feb 20, 2026
Lawmakers criticize South Korea’s Financial Services Commission after Bithumb mistakenly credited 620,000 BTC and the probe faces delays. South Korean lawmakers are stepping up pressure on financial regulators after crypto exchange Bithumb mistakenly credited customers with Bitcoin it did not hold, an error that briefly sparked a rush to sell and renewed questions about oversight of the country’s fast-growing digital-asset market. Lawmakers said the Financial Services Commission (FSC) failed to detect critical flaws in Bithumb’s internal systems despite at least three inspections since 2022, The Korea Times reported Thursday. Representative Kang Min-guk of the main opposition People Power Party said the incident was more than a technical mishap, claiming structural weaknesses in the crypto market, including gaps in regulation and oversight. Read more
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