On 15 Feb 2026, according to LookOnChain/X, Garrett Jin transferred 261,024 ETH (about $543 million) to Binance in staggered batches after previously selling 5,000 BTC for roughly $349 million following a $250 million January liquidation. With ETH near $2,080–$2,100, CryptoQuant data show the 30‑day taker buy‑sell ratio fell to 0.97 as exchange reserves neared 16.2 million ETH.

Bitcoin climbed back toward $70,000 as a new $736 million wave of short liquidations hit the market, clearing out crowded bearish positions. The move followed a deeper drop below the $73,000 realized price level, where many active holders were sitting on unrealized losses. With funding rates normalizing and open interest sharply reduced, derivatives data point to a leverage reset that could support further upside if spot demand strengthens.

Pepe (PEPE) saw 24-hour trading volume jump 283% to $1.07 billion, while its price rose 29.3% to $0.00000493 at the time of writing. The move positioned PEPE as a memecoin bellwether as capital rotated into high-beta assets, with whales accumulating trillions of tokens and derivatives positioning rebuilding over $400 million.

HBAR is trading above the $0.10 level after a structural breakout, with buyers defending prior resistance as support. Price has pushed toward $0.134 while FedEx’s addition to the Hedera council coincided with a sharp jump in spot volume and rising derivatives interest, leaving the token at a key inflection zone.

RLUSD launched in December 2024, followed by a January 2026 Binance listing and 12 February XRPL deposits that shifted activity from custody to on-chain use. Circulating supply reached about $1.52 billion by mid‑February 2026, with treasury mints and measured burns balancing liquidity as Ethereum held nearly $1.2 billion and XRPL about $348 million.

Solana leads execution, processing roughly three times more daily transactions than Ethereum L1 and all L2s combined, according to TokenTerminal. Despite about 285 million daily transactions and 3,300 TPS, DeFiLlama shows chain fees near $622,000, while whale flows exceeded 100,000 SOL with a realized loss of roughly $7.38 million.

Chris Dixon of a16z Crypto and Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly set out opposing views on whether crypto can scale beyond finance. In 2025, venture funding surpassed $20 billion, with Q4 contributing $8.5 billion across 425 deals, while DeFi metrics showed a TVL near $99.07 billion and stablecoin supply above $307 billion. Their exchange frames finance as the most validated use so far.

From May 2021 through early February 2026, Aave handled more than $4.65 billion in liquidations triggered by broad crypto sell-offs and Bitcoin price shocks. As liquidations spread from Ethereum to Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Base, Aave's SVR framework monetized roughly $559.8 million in SVR liquidations, recapturing $13.17 million in value for the protocol and its partners. This structure allowed Aave to convert volatility and forced unwinds into sustainable, treasury-linked revenue rather than pure market losses.

Bitcoin's price has fallen from a peak near $126,000 to the $70,000 region, with the Fear & Greed Index dropping into the 5–20 range as retail traders and Short-Term Holders sell at a loss. On-chain data shows STH supply shrinking from around 8 million BTC and STH-MVRV sliding to roughly 0.75–0.78, while whales cut longs and add shorts near $69,000, suggesting one more downside liquidity sweep is possible before a recovery base forms.