On February 18, 2026, Coin Bureau said the World Uncertainty Index hit a record high as tariff tensions escalate, while ADA compressed near the $0.28 demand zone. Bitcoinsensus projected expansion targets from $3, and a side-chain mainnet expected by March 2026 plus the Midnight token could influence liquidity. Midnight (NIGHT) has a 24 billion supply and $10 million Wednesday volume, versus ADA’s $346 million daily turnover.

Aptos proposed a comprehensive tokenomics revamp that reduces annual staking rewards from 5.19% to 2.6%, adds a protocol hard cap of 2.1 billion APT, and permanently locks 210 million APT by the foundation. Circulating supply stands at 1.196 billion APT, with major unlock changes slated for October 2026. APT trades near $0.88, down about 4.5%.

Stellar Lumens is being reconsidered as a network built from inception for asset issuance and redemption rather than a general-purpose smart contract platform. Its architecture emphasizes fiat-backed tokens, anchors, and an on-chain order book for routing payments, while XLM mainly serves as a utility for fees and account reserves. As more financial products appear as tokenized instruments, debates around Stellar’s federated consensus, validator trust model, and anchor reliability are resurfacing among investors.

Ether.fi said in a Wednesday announcement it will migrate its non-custodial ether.fi Cash card product from Scroll to OP Mainnet. Over the coming months, the team plans to move ~70,000 active cards, ~300,000 accounts and millions in user TVL, citing OP Mainnet's liquidity, broader asset access and the ability to cover gas fees.

Crypto analyst Javon Marks expects Shiba Inu could climb more than 400% to about $0.000035, citing a bullish RSI divergence while the token trades near $0.00000632. He also targets Ethereum at roughly $4,900, arguing that ETH’s price trajectory will be crucial for SHIB’s recovery, even as separate models project much milder SHIB gains through 2026.

Coinbase expanded its onchain, Morpho-powered loan product by accepting XRP, Dogecoin, Cardano and Litecoin as collateral. The exchange said eligible U.S. customers outside New York can borrow up to $100,000 in USDC without selling those tokens. The program, launched last year with bitcoin and ether, has recorded more than $1.9 billion in originations, according to company data.

Base is preparing to move off the OP Stack and consolidate its infrastructure into a single, Base-operated software stack centered on the base/base repository. The Layer 2 network says the change, set to roll out over the coming months, will give it tighter control over releases, faster upgrade cycles, and a stack more closely aligned with its own scaling roadmap.

Arizona lawmakers advanced a proposal to place XRP in a state-managed digital asset reserve, while XRP held above $1.40 and traders eyed nearby resistance. The fund would be overseen by the state treasurer and sourced from seized assets, with technical levels at $1.50, $1.54, $1.91 and $2.13 in focus.