Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 17:05 Feb 19, 2026
As both the SEC and CFTC explore 24/7 trading hours for US capital markets, several traditional financial exchanges file to expand hours in anticipation of such a move. CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, said Thursday that crypto options and futures contracts will begin trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week on May 29, pending regulatory approval. “CME Group Cryptocurrency futures and options will trade continuously on CME Globex with at least a two-hour weekly maintenance period over the weekend,” according to the parent of The Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s announcement. All trading activity on market holidays and weekends will be cleared, settled and posted the following business day, with regulatory reporting also filed on the following day, CME Group said. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 16:52 Feb 19, 2026
Public Bitcoin miners are developing 30 gigawatts of AI-focused power capacity, nearly triple current levels, as post-halving margin pressure reshapes the industry. Public Bitcoin miners are planning about 30 gigawatts of new power capacity aimed at artificial intelligence workloads, nearly three times the 11 GW they currently have online, as they race to offset shrinking mining margins and reposition for the next growth cycle. The buildout, compiled by TheEnergyMag across 14 publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) miners, underscores how aggressively the industry is pivoting away from traditional hashpower amid persistently weak hashprice conditions. On paper, the planned expansion amounts to what TheEnergyMag described as “a small country’s worth of power infrastructure.” In reality, much of the 30 GW sits in development pipelines, interconnection queues or early-stage plans, rather than operational facilities. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 16:25 Feb 19, 2026
Bitcoin fed into "extreme bearish sentiment" as a tight BTC price range fueled daily crypto liquidations of over $200 million. Bitcoin (BTC) fielded fresh downside predictions Thursday as BTC price action kept long liquidations high. Key points: Bitcoin price analysis sees lower levels coming amid a lack of a “strong bounce.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:17 Feb 19, 2026
Initial features will support basic transfers, setting the stage for subsequent upgrades, including privacy features for tokenized real-world assets. Dash, a layer-1 blockchain protocol with privacy-preserving features, announced on Thursday the integration of Zcash’s “Orchard” shielded pool into the Dash Evolution chain, a secondary layer on the L1 network that supports smart contract functionality. The integration will go live following the completion of cybersecurity audits and is expected to launch in March, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. Initially, the integration will support basic transfers of Zcash (ZEC) from one party to another on the Evolution chain, with subsequent upgrades adding Orchard’s privacy features for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), the announcement said. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 14:10 Feb 19, 2026
Crypto’s reputation is improving, but investors still complain that their banks are blocking their accounts for interacting with digital assets. Across the globe, it remains common for crypto users to have their bank accounts frozen and transfers blocked, even as institutional adoption rises. Panos Mekras, co-founder and CEO of blockchain fintech Anodos Labs, began dealing with crypto in Greece in the late 2010s. Most Greek banks didn’t allow transfers to crypto exchanges back then. Mekras experienced blocked card payments until one bank finally permitted his transfers, but first, he was questioned to ensure he understood he was interacting with a “risky” counterparty. Mekras told Cointelegraph that those early rejections are symptomatic of how banks treat digital assets as inherently high risk. That label often led to account closures or sudden freezes without explanation, ultimately pushing his business to rely solely on onchain tools and payment rails. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 14:00 Feb 19, 2026
Voltage has launched a US dollar‑settled revolving credit line that plugs directly into Bitcoin and Lightning payment flows, letting businesses send instant, Lightning‑style payments. Bitcoin infrastructure company Voltage has announced the launch of Voltage Credit, a programmatic revolving line of credit designed to let businesses send payments with Lightning-style instant finality while still repaying the credit line in US dollars from a standard bank account or in Bitcoin. In a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph, the company, which provides enterprise-grade solutions for regulated businesses, said it was targeting chief financial officers and treasurers who wanted “send now, pay later” flexibility on the fastest payment rails available, without having to hold crypto on their balance sheet. Rather than positioning it as just another Lightning-backed loan, Voltage pitched the product as an embedded piece of the payment flow, and the “first revolving line of credit that delivers instant payment finali... -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:35 Feb 19, 2026
Carlo Kölzer says tokenization is not threatening but is reshaping traditional markets after the company's 360T platform integrates Kraken-backed xStocks. A Deutsche Börse Group executive said tokenization is a natural evolution of market infrastructure, not a threat to traditional markets, and added that the exchange operator is positioning itself to integrate tokenized and traditional assets. Carlo Kölzer, head of digital assets at Deutsche Börse and CEO of the group’s trading platform 360T, expressed a bullish outlook on real-world (RWA) asset tokenization, forecasting a future in which digital and traditional markets operate in a closely linked ecosystem. “Our role as Deutsche Börse Group is not just to build a bridge between two separate worlds, but to create a truly hybrid market,” Kölzer told Cointelegraph, describing the company’s vision for a unified trading environment. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:16 Feb 19, 2026
“Bitcoin going to zero” Google searches have spiked to their highest level since the FTX collapse, even as institutional buyers accumulate BTC and macro uncertainty hits record highs. Google searches for “Bitcoin going to zero” have surged to their highest level since the post‑FTX panic in November 2022, according to Google Trends data for the past five years. The spike aligns with Bitcoin’s latest drawdown from its Oct. 6, 2025, all‑time high near $126,000 to about $66,500 at the time of writing on Thursday, according to data from CoinGecko, leaving the asset almost 50% below its peak. At the same time, the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index has plunged into extreme fear around 9, levels previously seen during the Terra ecosystem collapse and the FTX fallout in 2022. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:00 Feb 19, 2026
Larger crypto payments to darknet markets were linked to higher stimulant hospitalizations and deaths in Canadian health data. Blockchain transaction data tied to cryptocurrency payments may provide an early signal of emerging drug crises, according to a new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The study, which examined illicit market activity across darknet drug and fraud ecosystems, found that crypto flows connected to darknet markets reached nearly $2.6 billion in 2025, showing that online drug markets continue to operate at scale despite repeated law-enforcement takedowns. Vendors typically receive payments from personal wallets and centralized exchanges. Beyond measuring criminal activity, Chainalysis argued that the data can track real-world health outcomes. Crypto payments to suppliers of fentanyl precursor chemicals declined sharply beginning in mid-2023. Months later, overdose deaths also fell in the United States and Canada after peaking in 2023. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:27 Feb 19, 2026
Polymarket’s lawsuit challenges state authority and could redefine whether the CFTC controls US prediction markets or whether states set their own rules. Polymarket’s federal lawsuit against Massachusetts could determine whether prediction markets are regulated solely by the CFTC or also by states. The dispute centers on whether event contracts qualify as financial derivatives under the Commodity Exchange Act or as gambling under state laws. The lawsuit followed state-level actions against platforms like Kalshi, with Massachusetts and Nevada moving to restrict sports-related prediction contracts. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:55 Feb 19, 2026
Robinhood plans a mainnet launch later this year as the testnet hosts experimental assets, including stock-style tokens. Robinhood’s Ethereum layer-2 network processed 4 million transactions in its first week of public testnet activity, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. In a Thursday post on X, Tenev said developers have begun experimenting with applications on the L2 network, which was built for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and blockchain-based financial services. “The next chapter of finance runs onchain,” he wrote. The trading platform launched the Robinhood Chain testnet last week as an Ethereum layer 2 built using Arbitrum technology. The launch followed about six months of private testing and is intended to serve as a high-throughput environment for financial applications. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:52 Feb 19, 2026
Local media reported that the stolen 320 Bitcoin was returned to a wallet controlled by authorities, with the unknown hacker seemingly having a sudden change of heart. South Korean prosecutors say they recovered more than 320 Bitcoin that disappeared from government custody in 2025 after the cryptocurrency was returned to an official wallet this week, local media reported. The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office said it unexpectedly recovered 320.88 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $21.3 million at the time of writing, local media outlet The Chosun Daily reported on Thursday. Prosecutors confirmed to the outlet that the unknown hacker returned the stolen Bitcoin to the authorities’ cryptocurrency wallet on Tuesday, and it was later transferred to a secure domestic digital exchange wallet also controlled by authorities. The Bitcoin went missing from prosecutors’ custody during an investigation in August 2025, authorities said at the time. Prosecutors later discovered the loss during a routine inspection of seized f... -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:16 Feb 19, 2026
Bitmine’s top holders continued to increase exposure, showing steady institutional demand for the largest Ether treasury company from Wall Street heavyweights. The largest shareholders of Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) stock increased their investments in the leading Ethereum treasury company in the fourth quarter of 2025 despite a wider crypto market crash and poor stock price performance. Morgan Stanley, the top reported holder, increased its position by about 26% to more than 12.1 million shares, valued at $331 million at quarter end, according to its Form 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. ARK Investment Management, the second-largest holder, increased its stake by about 27% to more than 9.4 million shares worth $256 million, its filing shows. Several other top institutional holders also increased exposure. BlackRock increased its BMNR holdings by 166%, Goldman Sachs by 588%, Vanguard by 66% and Bank of America by 1,668%. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:09 Feb 19, 2026
The Bitcoin lender reportedly packaged thousands of Bitcoin-backed consumer loans into rated bonds, giving investors a new way to take crypto‑linked risk without holding BTC. Bitcoin-backed loan platform Ledn sold about $188 million of bonds tied to Bitcoin‑collateralized consumer loans into the mainstream asset‑backed securities (ABS) market, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. In a first-of-its-kind deal, one of the two tranches — the investment‑grade portion — was reportedly priced at a spread of about 335 basis points over a benchmark rate, implying that investors are demanding 3.35 percentage points in extra yield to hold crypto‑linked credit risk rather than conventional consumer ABS. The deal is structured through Ledn Issuer Trust 2026‑1, which securitizes a pool of 5,441 short‑term, fixed‑rate balloon loans extended to 2,914 US borrowers, backed by 4,078.87 Bitcoin (BTC) held as collateral, according to S&P Global Ratings’ preliminary documentation on Feb. 9. Rea... -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:47 Feb 19, 2026
US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs have shed $238 million this week, potentially setting up the first five-week outflow streak since March 2025. US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to bleed on Wednesday as market sentiment remained negative and BTC briefly dipped below $66,000. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $133.3 million in net outflows on Wednesday, bringing weekly losses to $238 million, according to SoSoValue data. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led outflows, with over $84 million exiting. Trading volumes remained subdued at less than $3 billion, highlighting a persistent lack of activity even as analysts had previously noted potential inflection points amid the slowdown in outflows. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 06:55 Feb 19, 2026
Address poisoning works by cluttering your transaction history with fake entries, tricking you into sending funds to a scammer’s address by mistake. Address poisoning exploits behavior, not private keys. Attackers manipulate transaction history and rely on users mistakenly copying a malicious lookalike address. Cases such as the 50-million-USDT loss in 2025 and the 3.5 wBTC drain in February 2026 demonstrate how simple interface deception can lead to massive financial damage. Copy buttons, visible transaction history and unfiltered dust transfers make poisoned addresses appear trustworthy within wallet interfaces. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 01:20 Feb 19, 2026
OpenAI said it is becoming increasingly important to evaluate the performance of AI agents in “economically meaningful environments” as their adoption grows. OpenAI has launched a new benchmark that evaluates how well different AI models detect, patch, and even exploit security vulnerabilities found in crypto smart contracts. OpenAI released the “EVMbench: Evaluating AI Agents on Smart Contract Security” paper on Wednesday, in collaboration with crypto investment firm Paradigm and crypto security firm OtterSec, to evaluate how much the AI agents could theoretically exploit from 120 smart contract vulnerabilities. Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 came out on top with an average “detect award” of $37,824, followed by OpenAI’s OC-GPT-5.2 and Google’s Gemini 3 Pro at $31,623 and $25,112, respectively. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 23:30 Feb 18, 2026
A drop in Solana’s dApp revenues, along with limited institutional and retail investor interest, adds vulnerability to SOL’s $78 support. Key takeaways: SOL is struggling to hold $80 as a 75% drop in futures' open interest shows that traders are heading for the exits rather than opening new bets. Solana remains heavily dependent on retail and memecoin activity, while Ethereum maintains its lead in high-value decentralized finance. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 22:45 Feb 18, 2026
Bitcoin’s “short-term holder stress” metric has fallen to lows not seen since 2018, suggesting the market has capitulated and possibly bottomed. A key Bitcoin (BTC) on-chain metric is flashing its most extreme capitulation signal since 2018, hinting at a potential cycle-low setup. Bitcoin’s short-term holder stress has dropped to its lowest level since the 2018 bear market bottom, according to new on-chain data from Checkonchain. The Short-Term Holder (STH) Bollinger Band metric shows the oscillator falling into its deepest oversold territory in nearly eight years. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 22:02 Feb 18, 2026
The Base engineering team said the protocol would remain open-source and encouraged developers to continue building unique implementations. Base, a decentralized Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, said Wednesday that it is transitioning from running on L2 blockchain protocol Optimism’s tech stack to running on its own, unified software architecture. Launched in 2023 as an Optimism chain, Base is shifting to its own tech stack to reduce dependencies on external service providers and shorten the time it takes to ship new upgrades, according to an announcement from Base. The team said: The transition is also expected to simplify the Base network’s sequencer, which helps network validators to order transactions, the Base engineering team said. Read more
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