CME Group has introduced cash-settled futures contracts linked to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM), with trading on these products beginning on February 9. With these additions, the exchange now lists futures on seven leading crypto assets, a set it estimates reflects more than 75% of total cryptocurrency market value. The firm also reported an average daily volume of 278,300 crypto derivatives contracts in 2025, equivalent to about $12 billion in notional value, and plans to launch a Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures product on March 16, subject to regulatory approval.

Core Scientific reported fourth-quarter revenue of $79.8 million, down from $94.9 million a year earlier, as bitcoin mining income fell to $42.2 million from $79.9 million. At the same time, colocation services revenue increased to $31.3 million from $8.5 million, supported by an expansion of high-density infrastructure. The company ended the year with $533.4 million in liquidity but posted a negative adjusted EBITDA of $42.7 million, and its shares slipped slightly in after-hours trading.

War-related headlines continue to dominate the news, yet crypto markets appear resilient as an AI-powered ChatGPT model outlines bullish scenarios for XRP, Solana and Shiba Inu into the end of 2026. The tool suggests XRP could climb from about $1.41 toward $10, Solana might rally from roughly $89 to around $600, and Shiba Inu may target $0.00012 from near $0.0000057 if key resistance levels break. These projections depend on wider market conditions, institutional adoption and technical signals, and should not be treated as investment advice.

BitMine Immersion Technologies recently purchased 50,928 ETH for about $103 million, lifting its total Ethereum holdings to 4,473,587 ETH, or roughly 3.71% of circulating supply. Following the disclosure, BMNR shares jumped more than 9% while Ethereum traded around $2,037 after a steep monthly decline. The company is pursuing a target of controlling 5% of ETH supply and has staked over 3 million ETH as part of a strategy to generate substantial validator yield.

On March 1, Ripple Labs released 1 billion XRP from escrow in three transactions worth about $1.377 billion, while the token ended February with a 16.45% monthly price decline. Over the same weekend, Solana led major cryptocurrencies with an 11% rebound to an intraday high of $88.89 after a $500 million liquidation event, and Elon Musk amplified a viral thread comparing Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei to FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried.

Riot Platforms reported that its revenue reached a record $647.4 million in 2025, up from $376.7 million in 2024, as it accelerated its shift into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure. The bitcoin miner produced 5,686 BTC in 2025, holds over 18,000 bitcoin, and has begun generating revenue from a data center lease with AMD, while its average mining cost rose to $49,645 per bitcoin.

Bitcoin futures open interest has fallen to $32 billion, the lowest level since August 2024, even as BTC’s price recently bounced from $63,000. At the same time, options data shows a put-to-call premium near 0.7 and $7.5 billion in CME futures open interest, indicating that institutions still participate but with reduced bullish leverage. Onchain holdings by public companies and daily spot ETF volumes above $3 billion further suggest that institutional exposure has not disappeared.

Vitalik Buterin has outlined major execution-layer changes aimed at Ethereum's state tree and virtual machine, calling them the primary bottlenecks for proof efficiency. His plan highlights EIP-7864's binary state tree, potential adoption of hash functions like BLAKE3 or Poseidon, and a longer-term transition to a RISC-V-based VM. The phased roadmap includes using the new VM for precompiles, then for direct contract deployment, and eventually relegating the EVM to a compatibility layer.