According to TF1 Info, early on a Monday morning in Le Chesnay, Yvelines, three individuals impersonating police officers held a French couple in their late fifties hostage in their home and forced them at knifepoint to transfer the equivalent of €900K in bitcoin. After the assailants fled in a white van around 9 a.m., the slightly injured woman managed to free her husband and seek help, while the Versailles prosecutor's office opened an investigation into kidnapping and armed robbery by an organized gang.

Bitcoin has rebounded to around $70,000 after a weekend slide into the mid‑$60,000 range that followed US‑Israel strikes on Iran and heightened energy‑market stress. The move higher has coincided with comments from President Donald Trump suggesting the Iran conflict could be resolved "very soon", a drop of more than 7% in Brent crude to about $91 a barrel from a recent $119.50 peak, and renewed demand in futures and spot ETF markets. On‑chain and derivatives data indicate war‑related pressure is easing, with analysts viewing the episode more as a short‑term positioning and liquidity shock than the start of a new bear phase.

Bitcoin has fallen to a seven-day low around $65.6k while Brent crude climbs to about $118–119 per barrel, its highest level since 2022. In response to the Iran war scare and Strait of Hormuz risks, traders have shifted on-chain into Hyperliquid's tokenised oil perpetuals, where crude prices jumped roughly 18% in a week and both volume and open interest grew sharply. Despite this derivatives boom and rising use of tokenised traditional assets, Hyperliquid's HYPE token continues to trade just over $30, nearly 50% below its September peak.

On March 5, Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin published a long post on X urging developers to pursue much bolder, open‑minded experimentation at Ethereum’s application layer without weakening the blockchain’s core security and censorship‑resistance properties. He argues that the current stack around L2s, wallets, DeFi, oracles and emerging AI agents often recentralizes risks and should be rebuilt as AI‑native, privacy‑first applications that still inherit Ethereum’s trustless guarantees. Buterin also criticizes a short‑term, casino‑style culture around memecoins and NFTs, calling instead for "sanctuary tech" that can serve users facing real censorship, capital controls or economic stress.

Paraguay's state electricity company ANDE has signed an MoU with infrastructure firm Morphware to develop a government‑run Bitcoin mining program using confiscated mining machines and surplus power from the Itaipú dam. The initial pilot will connect about 1,500 seized rigs at utility sites, with authorities having accumulated close to 30,000 ASIC miners through raids on unmetered, illegal operations since early 2024.

Solana's price has retreated into the high-$70 range after failing to hold above $95 earlier in the year, according to CoinMarketCap. Derivatives indicators show open interest down about 2% to roughly $5.09 billion, funding rates turning negative, and a long-to-short ratio below 1, with traders focused on support at $75–$67 and resistance near $82–$83.

On February 18, Grayscale Investments and Canary Capital launched the first U.S.-listed staking ETFs tied to SUI on NYSE Arca and Nasdaq, giving regulated exposure to the token and on-chain rewards. Despite this development, SUI traded below $0.95 and has shed about 40% over the past month, with weak derivatives activity, falling DeFi TVL and an upcoming March 1 token unlock adding pressure around key technical support.

According to flow reports, digital asset products saw about $173 million in outflows for a fourth straight week, while Solana-focused ETFs drew roughly $31 million in new money. The SOL price remains range bound around the mid 80s, with resistance near 92 and support clustered in the low 80s. Traders are watching for a decisive break from the 77 to 90 zone to set direction.

Dogecoin's price has fallen about 3% over the last 24 hours, hovering around $0.099 and bringing the key $0.098 support zone into focus. Technical indicators show DOGE trading below major moving averages, with analysts warning that a break under $0.098 could open the way toward the $0.090–$0.088 area and even a potential retest of the yearly low near $0.08.