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This Week’s Top Stories

“Meta to enter Stablecoin space later this year.” – Tuesday, 24 February 2026 

• Anonymous sources stated this week that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been in contact with third-party companies to help facilitate stablecoin-based payments within its apps. The move would represent a renewed interest in digital payments and stablecoins.

“Ethereum Foundation publishes ‘strawmap’ roadmap for Ethereum toward 2029.” – Thursday, 26 February 2026 

• This week, Justin Drake introduced the “strawmap” roadmap, outlining seven proposed protocol forks through 2029, based on a cadence of roughly one fork every six months.
• The roadmap sets five long-term goals: faster L1, targeting finality in seconds; 1 gigagas/sec throughput; high-throughput L2 via data availability sampling; post-quantum cryptography; and native privacy-preserving ETH transfers.

“Terraform Labs sues Jane Street for alleged insider trading prior to Terra-Luna collapse.” – Monday, 23 February 2026 

• The administrator overseeing Terraform Labs' liquidation has sued Jane Street, accusing the trading firm of engaging in insider trading that accelerated the Terra-Luna collapse back in 2022.
• According to Todd Snyder, Jane Street abused market relationships to rig the market in its favor during the escalation and de-pegging of TerraUSD. Snyder already sued Jump Trading in December, claiming that Jump actively exploited the ecosystem by entering into a backdoor deal to inflate the value of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD before it imploded.
• Jump reportedly also appears in the latest complaint against Jane Street, as Snyder claims that some of the non-public information was leaked to Jane Street through Jump Trading.

A Quick Crypto Overview: A dump to start a volatile week in crypto

The week started with a dump during the night into Monday, as the crypto market started to sell off around 1 am Swiss time on Monday morning. Bitcoin continued trading to the downside until Tuesday afternoon before the US market open, where Bitcoin bottomed at around $62’500. Bitcoin has since recovered the entire correction and is currently trading higher than before the drop on Sunday night. Ethereum is currently trading above $2’000 and is up roughly 5 percent against Bitcoin since the Tuesday lows. 

UNI and MORPHO continued to rally this week after the positive news catalysts we mentioned last week, with BlackRock and Apollo Global partnering with the crypto projects and buying tokens as part of the deals. 

Roughly 80 percent of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are either positive on the week or trading flat, while coins such as ATOM, BCH, or ZEC are still down double-digit percentage points since Sunday. The total crypto market cap is up 8 percent from Tuesday’s low. 

The US stock market is also looking back on a volatile week, with the S&P 500 slightly down on the week, trading at 6’900 at the time of writing. Gold traded flat this week, still hanging out around the $5’180 level after a quick spike to the upside on Monday, when gold traded at $5’250 for a couple of hours. 

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of talk about IGV, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF, an index which has sold off quite heavily since October 2025. Interestingly, Bitcoin has been trading alongside the IGV ETF, which is currently also up 8 percent from its Monday lows. The IGV price action might be something to keep an eye on during the coming days and weeks, as many traders seem to focus on it in combination with Bitcoin and crypto in general. 

Chart of the Week: “How to buy Bitcoin” on Google Trends

The number of Google searches for “How to buy Bitcoin” has been increasing steadily over the past few months and reached a new five-year high this month. Google Trends metrics are often used to gauge retail investor sentiment and interest in assets such as Bitcoin. When looking at the Google Trends data over the past 15 years, we can see that the largest spike and current all-time high for “How to buy Bitcoin” occurred in December 2017, at the end of the bull market. The second-highest number of searches was recorded in January 2021 amid the Elon Musk and Tesla news surrounding Bitcoin and Dogecoin during the great bull run of 2020 and 2021. 

Now the question remains: is this recent spike in Google searches a bullish or bearish sign? As outlined above, there are arguments for both. In 2017, it marked the top of the bull run, but the market had traded essentially up only for a long period of time before the all-time high in Google searches was reached. In January 2021, it was essentially the start of the most explosive phase of the bull run, but it was also a completely different situation in terms of price action than right now, as Bitcoin had reached a new all-time high above $20’000 in December 2020. 

It is an interesting observation, and time will tell how this will affect the market over the coming weeks and months. A drop in Google searches could be a first indication of fading interest. Let’s keep an eye on it.

What’s Happening Onchain? ZachXBT Investigation & EF with plans to stake 70K ETH 

This week, ZachXBT, the infamous onchain investigator announced on X that he will publish a major investigation into insider trading of one of crypto’s most profitable businesses. Yesterday, he revealed that multiple employees of the crypto trading platform Axiom allegedly abused internal permissions to query sensitive user data and track private wallet activity for insider trading. Axiom stated that it has revoked access to the relevant tools and will continue to investigate and hold the violators accountable. Updates will be provided as the investigation progresses. 

Axiom has seen huge monthly trading volumes of up to $6 billion in 2025, with multiple months around the $5 billion volume level. In January, the platform saw roughly $2.8 billion in total volume. The net monthly revenue of Axiom reached more than $46 million in May of last year and was around the same level from May to September of last year. October, November, and December were slightly lower, at around $15 to $20 million in net revenue. January 2026 saw a large spike to almost $30 million, likely amid the short revival of onchain trenches activity.

In other news, the Ethereum Foundation announced plans to stake around 70’000 ETH, with all rewards returning to the treasury. The Foundation has already deposited 2’000 ETH for staking and will gradually add more in an effort to strengthen network security while supporting core activities such as protocol research, ecosystem development, and community grants. 

Digital Asset Fund Flows: $288M in Outflows last week & a turnaround this week? 

Last week, digital asset investment products saw net outflows of $288 million in their fifth consecutive week of outflows, bringing total outflows for the five-week period to $4 billion. Bitcoin saw $215 million in outflows, while short-bitcoin products saw the largest inflows at $5.5 million. Ethereum saw the second-largest outflow, totaling $36.5 million. 

It currently looks like this week could mark the turnaround and the first week with net inflows in over a month. The Bitcoin spot ETFs are currently sitting at roughly $800 million in net inflows, the Ethereum spot ETFs at $100 million, and the Solana spot ETFs are continuing their positive streak with roughly $50 million this week. The SOL products have not recorded a single day with net outflows in February. 

Market Sentiment: Crypto is still in extreme fear, stocks in neutral territory 

While crypto market sentiment continues to be stuck in extreme fear (13), the stock market Fear and Greed Index is back in neutral territory (45). Interestingly, the number of bullish AAII members decreased further, while the number of bearish members saw a spike to the upside. Almost 40 percent of AAII members feel bearish about the stock market over the next six months, the highest level since November 2025 and well above the historical 31 percent.

Other Relevant News 

• Missouri’s 103rd General Assembly introduced House Bill 2080 (Rep. Keathley) to create a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Fund in RSMo Chapter 30. Managed by the State Treasurer, the fund accepts resident Bitcoin donations or bequests, stores them securely for at least five years, and may later transfer, sell, or convert them. – Link

• Bitdeer announced that its Bitcoin holdings have been reduced to zero, and all of its Bitcoin holdings have been sold. – Link

• Brazil’s central bank is advancing a regulatory framework for institutional virtual asset service providers (VASPs), outlining licensing, compliance, and supervisory standards with phased implementation through 2027. – Link

• According to Bloomberg, Gemini is restructuring after a sharp crypto market downturn, cutting up to 25% of staff, exiting the UK, EU and Australia. – Link 

• Bitmine Immersion Technologies said it acquired an additional 51’162 ETH over the past week. – Link 

• Strategy announced that it has acquired 592 BTC for ~$39.8 million at ~$67,286 per bitcoin last week. – Link 

Looking Ahead: Sideways market, but until when? 

The markets continue to trade sideways for the moment. If you look at the S&P 500, for example, it has essentially been in a range since the end of December 2025, without any real movement to either side. This sideways price action seems to be compressing, and a break to either side is becoming increasingly likely over the coming weeks. The crypto market has also been trading in a range, but only since the start of February, and it is not compressing as much as the S&P 500, at least not yet. The question remains how the crypto market would react in the event of a breakdown in the US stock market indices. 

While Bitcoin is trading sideways, the lower timeframes are not showing any real signs of strength yet. Bitcoin reached a new lower low this week, with the lowest daily close around $64’000, compared to last week’s $66’400, both levels to keep an eye on. A daily close above $69’000, on the other hand, could open the door to a move higher. 

Below, you can find some of the key data releases and events to watch out for next week. 

Monday, 2 March 2026 

Switzerland – Retail Sales 

USA – ISM Manufacturing Prices 

Tuesday, 3 March 2026 

Japan – Unemployment Rate 

Eurozone – CPI, Core CPI 

Wednesday, 4 March 2026 

Switzerland – CPI 

Eurozone – Unemployment Rate, PPI 

Thursday, 5 March 2026 

Switzerland – Unemployment Rate 

USA – Initial Jobless Claims 

Friday, 6 March 2026 

Eurozone – GDP 

USA – Retail Sales, Unemployment Rate, Nonfarm Payrolls