Quantoz Payments has joined Visa as a principal member, adding BIN-sponsor capabilities to issue cards for third-party fintechs. The partnership enables virtual Visa cards that can be funded with digital assets and stablecoins, with a focus on serving the European market.

On February 17, 2026, blockchain security firm Cyvers reported a $600,000 loss tied to an address poisoning scheme that leveraged zero‑value transfers and a copy‑paste mistake. Similar incidents since December 2025 include $514,000 and $12.25 million losses, while researchers estimate more than one million poisoning attempts occur each day on Ethereum.

Germany's Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel voiced support for euro-denominated private stablecoins and a wholesale CBDC under the EU's MiCA framework, speaking in Frankfurt. He argued these tools are needed to reduce reliance on USD-dominated payment rails and improve cross‑border efficiency. The stance marks a policy pivot toward building competitive euro options.

On February 17 2026, UAE- and Saudi-based digital real estate investment platform Stake closed a $31 million Series B funding round led by Emirates NBD, bringing its total raised capital to $58 million. The company plans to channel the new funds into AI, tokenization initiatives and new products, while expanding in Saudi Arabia and participating in the country's property tokenization sandbox.

On February 5, 2026, Animoca Brands received a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, enabling it to offer broker-dealer and asset management services to institutional and qualified investors across the emirate, excluding the DIFC. The company is also collaborating with Rootstock Labs on Bitcoin-native treasury tools for Japanese corporations, while Dubai continues to strengthen its role as an international crypto hub through transparent regulations and support for firms such as Amber Premium.

On Feb. 13, cybersecurity expert Dmitry Smilyanets reported receiving a fake Trezor-branded letter demanding an "Authentication Check" by Feb. 15 or risk device restrictions, with a QR code leading to a phishing site. The scam, which mislabels Trezor CEO Matěj Žák as "Ledger CEO," targets hardware wallet users whose postal data was exposed in past breaches and attempts to trick them into entering seed recovery phrases. Similar physical letters and QR-based attacks have been reported against Ledger users since at least October last year, following multiple data leaks impacting both Ledger and Trezor customers.

R3E Network founder Jimmy Liao launched a Neo N3 Red Envelope app to mark Chinese New Year, letting eligible wallets open packets for GAS rewards. The featured pool holds 100 GAS across 100 claim slots, gated to wallets that have held at least one NEO for more than one day, with GAS donated by Neo News Today.

Germany's Bundesbank said it supports broad adoption of a digital euro and euro-denominated stablecoins to strengthen Europe's financial system, while ECB officials warned that reliance on dollar-pegged tokens can hinder monetary policy transmission. Analysts expect the stablecoin market to approach around $500 billion by 2028, with longer-term scenarios pointing to euro figures in the hundreds of billions.