Bitcoin climbed to a one-month peak of $74,000 on Thursday, supported by renewed US buying interest reflected in a sharply higher Coinbase Bitcoin Premium. The move, which coincided with ETF inflows, quickly reversed as the price slipped back below $71,000 by Friday and CryptoQuant's Bull Score Index stayed at 10/100, signaling a continued bear market. Analysts also cited macro uncertainty and upcoming economic data as reasons any optimism remains constrained.

In February 2026, Solana recorded $650 billion in stablecoin transactions, setting a new monthly high for any blockchain and surpassing its prior peak from October 2025. The activity was largely tied to SOL–stablecoin trading pairs and payment-focused transfers rather than short-lived speculative tokens, while the network's low fees continued to attract small-value transactions. Solana now holds the fourth-largest overall stablecoin supply and ranks second in USDC circulation, even as Ethereum retains a clear lead in tokenized real-world assets.

Retired US Army combat medic Patrick L. Riley has forecast that XRP’s market value will eventually overtake Bitcoin’s, implying a rise in XRP’s price from $1.41 to about $23.70. He shared the view on X without detailed supporting data or a clear timeline, while also predicting that Bitcoin could drop to $1,000 if it fails to reclaim its long-term trend line. Riley linked his crypto outlook to wider geopolitical tensions, including the Israel-Iran conflict that began on February 28.

According to DefiLlama data, monthly inflows into digital asset treasury firms fell to about $555 million in February 2026, matching lows last seen in October 2024 and underscoring a sharp cooldown after the post‑election surge. As the traditional buy‑and‑hold approach loses appeal amid a prolonged market slump, industry figures such as Grant Cardone and Patrick Ngan are highlighting models that pair Bitcoin with cash‑flowing operations like real estate or staking to put corporate treasuries’ crypto reserves to work.

According to on-chain data, long-term Bitcoin holders holding coins for at least 150 days accumulated 212,000 BTC over the past 30 days, valued at more than $14 billion at current prices. During the same period, seventeen of the 25 largest Bitcoin ETF holders increased their positions, while retail traders were selling as Bitcoin traded around the mid-$60,000 range after an earlier peak of $126,200. Bitcoin ETFs also recorded $1.5 billion in inflows across five trading sessions, ending with a single-day intake of $458 million.

Hours after explosions were reported in Tehran, blockchain data showed crypto outflows from wallets tied to Nobitex, Iran's largest exchange, jumping about 700% and reaching millions of dollars within less than an hour. The spike, which followed reports of US and Israeli airstrikes, was short-lived as a roughly 99% drop in national internet connectivity sharply curtailed further transfers. Analytics firms indicated the move likely reflected short-term panic from users facing sanctions and banking limits rather than a coordinated large-scale capital shift.

As conflict spreads across the Middle East and oil prices rise, Bitcoin is still trading above $66,000 while Asian equities come under pressure. On February 28, 2026, the price briefly fell to around $63,000 before recovering, and on-chain data shows limited selling from short-term holders even as the macro backdrop worsens.

In February 2026, crypto-related hacks and scams caused $26.5 million in losses, the lowest monthly total in 11 months, according to PeckShield. The firm reported 15 incidents, with attacks on YieldBlox and IoTeX accounting for more than 70% of the damage, while overall losses fell 69% from January and 98.2% year-on-year. Analysts point to the absence of a billion‑dollar exploit, shifting market conditions as Bitcoin slipped below $70,000, and tighter security practices and AI‑driven monitoring as key factors, though phishing remains a persistent threat.

On February 27, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released a technical roadmap describing how the network could scale to roughly 1,000 times its current transaction throughput while preserving accessibility for smaller node operators. The Strawmap proposal centers on three areas—execution, data, and state—with near-term upgrades like Glamsterdam and longer-term use of ZK-EVMs and revised state-growth pricing to raise capacity without requiring more powerful hardware.