On February 9, 2026, Vitalik Buterin criticized USDC yield strategies on X, arguing they fail to decentralize risk and reflect DeFi drifting from its purpose. He favored ETH-backed or overcollateralized stablecoins that push counterparty risk to markets. According to the protocol's dashboard, Aave's main Ethereum market holds over $4.1B in USDC, underscoring reliance on centralized issuers.

On February 9, 2026, NOWPayments announced a limited-time offer waiving network fees on USDT (TRC20) payments for newly registered partners for their first two months. To unlock zero fees, users must register and enable Custody, which also provides Mass Payouts and off-chain conversions; the company says it supports 350 cryptocurrencies and imposes no limits on transaction size or volume.

Updated on February 9, 2026, the report underscores surging cross‑border volumes and persistent latency across traditional payment networks. OpenPayd's single‑API platform added access to over 70 assets and local accounts in more than 35 currencies, routing payments for speed and cost. A crypto exchange, Archax, uses it for instant USD, EUR and GBP transfers, with annual throughput on the order of €130 billion.

The abduction occurred around February 4–5, 2026; the two victims were found Friday morning in the Dr\u00f4me region. Prosecutors said on Sunday that six suspects, including a minor, have been detained in a cryptocurrency ransom case, with three held overnight and two on Sunday morning, and two of the suspects intercepted while attempting to take a bus to Spain.

Dubai Land Department will launch a secondary market for tokenized real estate on February 20, 2026, enabling resale of about 7.8 million tokens under a controlled pilot. The program aims to test market efficiency, operational readiness, and investor safeguards within a regulated model. DLD signaled continued coordination with VARA and future platform integrations.

French authorities arrested six suspects over the February 4–5 kidnapping and extortion of a magistrate and his mother in the Drome region, an event that has raised fresh concerns about institutional security. Against this backdrop, LiquidChain is positioning its Layer 3 protocol as a unified liquidity layer for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, with its presale already collecting $532,000 at a token price of $0.0135. The project promotes a "deploy-once" execution model via a cross-chain virtual machine aimed at reducing bridge-related risks and improving capital efficiency.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has dropped its planned Namechain layer-2 and will launch the ENSv2 upgrade directly on Ethereum L1, according to a Friday blog post by lead developer nick.eth. The shift follows a reported 99% fall in ENS registration gas costs over the past year and the Fusaka upgrade lifting the gas limit to 60 million, with core developers targeting 200 million in 2026.

Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek acquired the AI.com domain for about $70 million, paid fully in cryptocurrency, after it had been listed for $100 million in March 2025. He said on Feb. 6 that he closed the purchase in April 2025 and will introduce a consumer AI agent platform under the AI.com brand with a Super Bowl LX commercial, while continuing to run both Crypto.com and AI.com.