Since late December, monthly whale-sized stablecoin transfers to Binance climbed from about $27 billion to roughly $43 billion as Bitcoin revisited the $60,000 area. Between 12 and 15 February, realized losses totaled about $2.3 billion, and on 20 February large holders moved 6,317 BTC and 5,000 BTC to Binance, reinforcing bids around that band.

Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to control about 1.1 million BTC, a stake that outweighs the holdings of major exchanges, corporations and governments. Coinbase, Binance, BlackRock, Strategy, Tether, and several public firms collectively manage large on-chain balances, while the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Germany have accumulated or seized substantial amounts of Bitcoin in recent years.

On February 22, 2026, Michael Saylor shared "The Orange Century" on X alongside a chart of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin accumulations. Markets viewed the post as signaling potential new crypto purchases by the company. The message arrived amid heightened BTC volatility.

On 21 February, President Donald Trump announced a global tariff increase to 15%, effective immediately. Bitcoin briefly approached $68K around the announcement before turning lower, while ETH and TOTAL3 weakened; Crypto Fear & Greed stood at 14. A long‑term analysis indicates BTC has traded higher 10 months later about 88% of the time.

On 22 February 2026, Laurore Ltd., a little-known firm registered in Hong Kong, reported holding 8,786,279 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) worth about $436.2 million as of the quarter ending 31 December 2025. The filing shows IBIT as its sole reported asset, while other major institutional investors either increased, rotated, or trimmed their Bitcoin ETF exposure during a quarter in which BTC fell roughly 23%.

Bitcoin stayed range-bound below $68,009 and hovered near $68,085, with a dense liquidation cluster around $69,000 acting as resistance. Sell-side dominance in the Buy/Sell Pressure Delta points to lingering downside risk, while futures volume fell 48% to $31.97 billion and options volume dropped 59% to approximately $992 million.

Bitcoin is trading in a narrow band around $68,000 as markets react to the U.S. Supreme Court's Feb. 20 decision limiting the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for broad tariffs. Within a day, Trump cited Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which can support tariffs of up to 15% for as long as 150 days, leaving traders focused on the policy's built-in timer and its macro impact. The debate over inflation, growth, yields, and dollar strength is keeping Bitcoin range-bound while the legal and economic implications of more than $133 billion in collected tariffs remain unresolved.

Bitcoin fell to a multi-year low of $60,000 on February 6 after a downtrend that began in early October, and remains negative year to date. Wallets with 10–10,000 BTC trimmed holdings by 0.8% while micro accounts with 0.1 BTC or less added 2.5%, a split that does not signal a reversal. ETF participation swung from over $6 billion inflows to multi-week net outflows, with notable billion-dollar withdrawals.