Stablecoin

Global Google search interest for the term "crypto" is hovering near its 12‑month low while the digital asset market cap has dropped from over $4.2 trillion to about $2.4 trillion. At the same time, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index recently hit an all‑time low of 5, indicating extreme fear comparable to the sentiment seen after the 2022 Terra ecosystem collapse.

On February 6 and 7, 2026, Coinbase and Sui announced an infrastructure-level integration that embeds the Sui Token Standard across wallets, custody, and backend services. The link to Bitwise's proposed SUI ETF names Coinbase Custody as asset custodian, and SUI rose roughly 3%–14%, trading near $1.00 despite a $65 million unlock on February 1, 2026.

On 8 February 2026, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission updated its no-action framework to confirm that stablecoins issued by federally chartered national trust banks can be used as collateral in regulated derivatives markets. The move aligns collateral rules with the GENIUS Act’s federal stablecoin framework and is already supporting greater institutional use of compliant, bank-issued digital assets.

According to the CFTC, it reissued a staff letter on Friday to broaden payment stablecoin issuer criteria to cover national trust banks, amending Staff Letter 25-40 issued on Dec 8, 2025. The move aligns with the GENIUS Act signed in July 2025 and follows the FDIC's December 2025 proposal outlining how banks could issue stablecoins via subsidiaries.

China's central bank and seven other agencies have issued a joint notice prohibiting any domestic or foreign entity from issuing yuan-pegged stablecoins overseas without explicit approval. The measures, which also classify unauthorized offshore yuan token issuance as illegal financial activity, tighten control over capital flows and reinforce the primacy of the state-backed digital yuan over private stablecoins.

In the last 24 hours, 2,500,000 RLUSD were burned at the RLUSD treasury on Ethereum, cutting the circulating supply of Ripple's USD stablecoin. Earlier this week, a separate burn event removed 25,014,695 RLUSD across Ethereum and XRP Ledger, while recent minting activity has pushed RLUSD's market cap to $1.49 billion on XRPL and Ethereum.

Binance has converted about $250 million worth of stablecoins into 3,600 BTC for its SAFU user protection fund, bringing the wallet's holdings to 6,230 BTC as of Saturday, Feb. 7. Changpeng Zhao says the ongoing plan to shift all SAFU stablecoin reserves into Bitcoin within 30 days has so far come at a "perfect" time amid the asset's recent price downturn.

In early 2026, stablecoin dominance has climbed about 25% to roughly 14% of the crypto market, even as the TOTAL market cap has fallen around 23% and Bitcoin trades about 50% below its $126k peak. Over the same period, weekly stablecoin inflows have doubled to nearly $102 billion and Tether has added $4.75 billion in new USDT supply, suggesting investors are moving into stablecoins as a defensive position rather than exiting crypto entirely.

Ripple's XRP fell from the $3.00 area in late September to the $2.00 demand zone as the OI‑weighted funding rate turned negative. Whale activity rose with 1,389 transactions above $100,000 and 78,727 active addresses in eight hours, while November's XRP ETFs reached $1 billion AUM. These shifts support a recovery toward $2.80–$3.00.

On Wednesday, analyst Wendy O said XRP spot ETFs attracted roughly $19.5M in net inflows, surpassing Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana funds, while XRP’s price remained subdued. She linked the disconnect to broader weakness with many majors below the 200‑week EMA, and highlighted DeFi ties via Ripple Prime’s Hyperliquid integration and Flare’s new yield path for XRP holders.