On February 16 2026, an analysis examined whether current crypto infrastructure can adequately support neobanks and bank-like services. The discussion highlighted unresolved conflicts around stablecoin issuers paying interest, the dominance of card-based products, and the risks of DeFi lending and fake platforms. It also noted that despite user-friendly crypto cards and wallets, complexity, regulation, privacy exposure on public chains, and intense competition still hinder fully fledged crypto neobanks.

Following the February 15 difficulty recalculation, Bitcoin recorded its largest six-month decline in mining difficulty, reverting toward August 2025 levels. The shift, linked to seasonal and elective shutdowns, eases pressure on miners as BTC trades near $68,841.76 and below estimated production costs.

Huione Guarantee has been disposing of its remaining Telegram channels, including through an auction that requires a 10,000 USDT deposit, after winding down activity and closing Huione Pay in late 2025. Research indicates that while its operations have been scaled back and rebranded, USDT-based laundering risks have migrated to smaller P2P markets and alternative payment services.

Strategy's preferred dividend stock STRC traded above $100 again after two weeks of inactivity, opening room for fresh issuance and renewed Bitcoin exposure. At these levels, Strategy processed STRC volumes large enough to potentially fund the acquisition of up to 1,557 BTC while still servicing its 11.25% monthly dividend obligations. The long-term sustainability of this approach remains closely tied to a continued Bitcoin bull market and stable performance of related equity such as MSTR.

In January and February 2026, Ethereum whale wallets holding more than 1,000 ETH reduced their balances by up to 1.5% while the broader crypto market weakened. ETH dropped to $1,949.35 and open interest fell to $10.19B, leaving some recent buyers in unrealized loss territory as leverage declined and accumulation shifted toward smaller wallets.

On February 10, 2026, Kaito AI announced a partnership with Polymarket to build attention markets that quantify social media mindshare and sentiment. The first prediction pairs are slated to begin launching in March, with dozens expected initially and potentially thousands by year end, covering influencers, brands, and trends.

Solana is adding SushiSwap as a native DEX in February 2026, with routing handled through the Jupiter aggregator and swaps exposed directly in the SushiSwap interface. The DEX currently holds about $66M in total value locked and generates roughly $3M in annual fees, while Solana’s broader DEX ecosystem remains driven by meme tokens and active bot trading. Despite this growth in on-chain activity and Meteora’s strong USDC liquidity, SOL is trading around $84.40 with open interest near a six-month low of $2.2B and faces uncertainty about reclaiming the $95–$100 range.

Updated on February 9, 2026, the report said crypto mining stocks rose as operators pivot to AI infrastructure, even as BTC trades below $70,000. Cango sold 4,451 BTC, retaining 3,645 BTC, raising around $305M for capex, while miner reserves eased to 1.8M BTC and hashrate recovered to 963 EH/s.

Open interest on major prediction markets has climbed to $1.066B, with $564M locked in trading pairs, marking the first time the sector exceeds the $1B threshold. Polymarket still leads by daily user activity and wallet inflows, while Kalshi and Opinion show strong but more concentrated volumes across sports and other categories. Recent growth has been driven by new wallets, diversified markets, and event-focused contracts around the Super Bowl, the winter Olympics, and politics.