On February 23, 2026, Vanda Pharmaceuticals shares surged to $8.17 in premarket trading, up 41.84% from the prior close after the FDA cleared its new drug BYSANTI for adult Bipolar I manic episodes and schizophrenia. The approval, Vanda's second since December 2025, extends patent protection to 2044 and supports plans for a commercial launch in Q3 2026, boosting sentiment around the company's growth prospects.

In 2025, global funding rounds of $50 million or more reportedly totaled about $300 billion, down from over $500 billion at the height of the 2021 boom, with the number of qualifying companies falling to 1,440. According to Crunchbase data, private equity and crossover funds such as Tiger Global and SoftBank Vision Fund sharply cut their mega-round participation, while traditional venture capital firms reclaimed the lead by deal count. AI-focused financings dominated the largest raises, including a $40 billion round for OpenAI, a $14.3 billion deal for Scale AI, and a $13 billion round for Anthropic.

On 16 February 2026, Arizona’s Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to establish a state-managed Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund using seized cryptocurrencies instead of taxpayer money. The proposal, filed on 3 February 2026 by Mark Finchem, names Bitcoin, XRP and DigiByte as eligible assets, and could make Arizona the first U.S. state to formally include XRP in a government reserve structure. Under the plan, the State Treasurer would oversee custody, investment and potential lending of these digital assets within strict risk and storage rules.

According to Lookonchain data reviewed on February 23, Vitalik Buterin sold 1,869 ETH worth about $3.67 million over the past 48 hours. During that span, ETH slipped from $1,988 to $1,875 before trading near $1,916. Earlier in the month he offloaded 6,958 ETH, taking February sales to more than 8,800.

Corporate Bitcoin treasury firms have recorded three straight weeks of net selling, while BTC trades near $66,191 and US spot Bitcoin ETFs see persistent outflows. Analysts warn that continued selling and weak fund inflows could drag Bitcoin toward prior bear market levels, though some view the drawdown as a healthy reset of leveraged positions.

On February 23, 2026, Solana-based AI agent Lobstar drew attention after sending $441K worth of its meme token in response to a social media request for a 4 SOL donation. The recipient sold the entire amount into a pool with $300K liquidity, realizing about $40K due to slippage and briefly crashing the token price. Lobstar later recovered, with its liquidity climbing to $455K, while observers debated whether the event was a genuine mistake or a publicity tactic.

On February 21, Santiment reported XRP registered its steepest on-chain realized-loss spike since November 2022, with the last comparable episode 39 months ago when losses were around $1.93 billion. That capitulation was followed by a 114% eight-month rally; if history rhymes, a comparable rebound could target $2.70–$2.80, though XRP recently traded near $1.39 amid near-term weakness.

Bitcoin briefly traded under $65,000 on Monday after a proposal by US President Donald Trump to lift global tariffs to 15%, while an analyst now places the market in a late-cycle stress phase. Based on this six-stage roadmap, the current sideways period could eventually give way to a capitulation leg, with revised potential downside targets between $35,000 and $45,000 amid deteriorating liquidity conditions.