Stablecoin platform Bridge, acquired by Stripe last year, has obtained conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to pursue a national trust bank charter. The move would allow Bridge to hold digital assets, issue its own stablecoins and operate under federal oversight, while aligning its compliance framework with the GENIUS Act’s rules for U.S. stablecoin issuers.

Crypto-funded super PAC Fairshake has begun intervening in Illinois Democratic House primaries, booking ads tied to the 7th District. Inquiry forms dated mid-February confirm the purchases, and filings reviewed this week show activity before the general election. Targets include candidates linked to SB 1797, passed in August 2025.

The Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) launched an institutional‑grade Decentralized Verifier Network on LayerZero, adding a new option for cross‑chain message validation. FCAT said the DVN is live on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche and Solana, with Ondo Finance named as the first production integrator.

Fhenix, a blockchain R&D firm, is rolling out a full-stack infrastructure for confidential DeFi that brings Fully Homomorphic Encryption-based computation to public blockchains. The company detailed its FHE-centric strategy in a press release on February 17 and an X livestream on February 16, highlighting tools like the CoFHE coprocessor on Base and the fhEVM environment for Solidity developers. Management says these advances aim to enable private smart contracts, encrypted verification and end-to-end protected payments for use cases ranging from governance and identity to institutional asset tokenization.

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.