Optimism's OP token dropped more than 22% in 24 hours after Base decided to move away from the OP Stack to develop its own unified stack while maintaining mission-critical collaboration during the transition, Cointelegraph reported on Feb. 18, 2026. The shift means a notable share of transaction activity and one of the largest OP Stack revenue contributors will leave Optimism, with sell volume jumping over 157% to about $187 million in trades, futures flows showing more than $7.5 million in capital exiting exchanges within 12 hours, and spot flows reflecting $14.73 million in deposits versus $13.29 million in withdrawals for a net $1.45 million in OP. Long liquidations of around $1.28 million, compared with $80,000 in short liquidations, added to downside pressure, while technical factors such as the invalidation of an inverted head-and-shoulders pattern and a roughly 60% year-to-date price drop have reinforced the bearish structure. Analysts cited in the report warn that if selling persists and OP fails to hold support near $0.20, the price could slide toward or below $0.10.

Vitalik Buterin rejected a proposal to let Ethereum "slowly die," saying the chain could migrate via smart contracts within five years, Odaily Planet Daily reports. He backed a coupled extension and outlined four major upgrades to improve censorship resistance, ZK-friendliness, and simplicity.

Vitalik Buterin said he is building a "cypherpunk principled" Ethereum layer as an addition to the current system, targeting stronger censorship resistance and deeper zero-knowledge integration. The Ethereum co-founder also aims for leaner consensus at the base layer, which he said could happen within five years or sooner with AI assistance.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on Feb. 21 rejected a community proposal to sideline the current Ethereum protocol through fragmentation and rebuild a RISCV-based chain, BlockBeats reports. He said he aims to develop a "cypherpunk-pure, non-ugly Ethereum" as a tightly integrated extension of the existing network, with seamless interoperability and migration via smart contracts within five years. Buterin outlined four major upgrades to be implemented incrementally, similar to the previous Merge, focusing on state tree optimization, Lean consensus, ZKEVM verification, and VM changes to improve censorship resistance, ZK-friendliness, and simplicity.

XRP whales holding between 10 million and 100 million tokens accumulated 3.17 billion XRP worth $4.5 billion since Oct. 1, 2025, raising their share to 17.04% of circulating supply, the highest on record, Santiment data show. Their balances rose from 7.89 billion to 11.06 billion XRP, with 2.49 billion added between Nov. 8 and 28, 2025 alone. Addresses holding 100,000 to 10 million XRP reduced their combined balance by 3.03 billion over the same period, from 13.12 billion to 10.09 billion. The accumulation coincided with XRP falling 61.2% from its July 2025 all-time high of $3.66 to $1.42, with the token posting four consecutive monthly declines since October and a 13.33% drop in February.

Ethereum spot ETFs posted a combined net inflow of $17.2 million on Feb. 20 (Eastern Time), SoSoValue data show. BlackRock's ETHA led with a single-day net inflow of $1.7826 million, raising its cumulative net inflow to $11.875 billion, while 21Shares' TETH recorded $687,700 in daily net inflow and $17.0904 million in total net inflows. Fidelity's FETH saw the largest single-day net outflow of $2.4531 million but maintains a cumulative net inflow of $2.465 billion. As of the latest data, Ethereum spot ETFs manage $11.141 billion in total assets, with an ETF net asset ratio of 4.68% and aggregate historical net inflows of $11.525 billion.

Addresses linked to Pump.fun sold 3.376 billion PUMP tokens and received 7.23 million USDC over a two-day period ending February 21, Onchain Lens data show. These addresses collectively hold 373.49 million PUMP tokens, valued at approximately $7.88 million.

Ethereum spot ETFs recorded a total net inflow of $17,200, with BlackRock's ETHA leading single-day inflows at $1.7826 million, SoSoValue data show. Fidelity's FETH saw the largest single-day net outflow at $2.4531 million, while 21Shares' TETH posted a $687,700 daily net inflow. Cumulative net inflows to date stand at $11.525 billion, with ETHA at $11.875 billion, FETH at $2.465 billion, and TETH at $17.0904 million. As of this report, total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $11.141 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio of 4.68%.

Fabric launched the registration portal for its ROBO airdrop on Feb. 21, with sign-ups open from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24 at 03:00 UTC, BlockBeats reports. The portal currently displays eligibility status only, while claiming procedures and allocation amounts will be disclosed later. Fabric, OpenMind's universal robotics open network, unveiled its native token ROBO with a public sale that began Jan. 26 on Kaito Capital Launchpad at a $400 million valuation, targeting $2 million in fundraising with 0.5% of total supply for sale and 100% unlocked at TGE. Coinbase added ROBO to its listing roadmap on Feb. 20.