In January 2026, the XRP Ledger executed an amendment intended to strengthen on‑chain lending. On Feb. 18, 2026, Ripple developer Mayukha Vadari said the newly launched XRPL Sandbox lacks tools to test protocol amendments and does not surface full transaction responses. He was responding to Anodos Finance CTO Kostas' announcement that positioned the environment as plug‑and‑play for "upcoming amendments."

In a Wednesday report drawing on roughly 2,500 internal investigations, AMLBot found that 65% of the 2025 crypto incidents it handled involved social engineering and user access or response lapses rather than protocol flaws. By case count, investment scams led at 25%, followed by phishing at 18% and device compromises at 13%.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is reportedly considering stepping down before her term ends in October 2027, just as the EU prepares key decisions on the digital euro and stablecoin oversight. Potential successors share a cautious view on crypto, while the ECB is planning a 12‑month digital euro pilot from the second half of 2027 and aims to be ready for a possible first issuance in 2029, subject to EU lawmakers' approval.

On 18 February 2026, Peter Thiel and Founders Fund exited ETHZilla, moving their stake from 7.5% to 0% according to U.S. SEC filings. The shares fell more than 5% in overnight trading and are down roughly 97% from 2025 highs as the firm shifts from an Ethereum treasury strategy to tokenizing jet engines with projected yields near 11%.

In episode 516, Head of BD Xenia Soborova shares how Solana's builder-heavy culture and capital-preserving reward models aim to reengage idle wallets. She outlines Tramplin's randomized redistribution of staking yields and its non-custodial setup on Solana nodes, positioning on-chain businesses as more sustainable than high-risk speculation.

On 12 February 2026, Bridge, Stripe’s digital dollar platform, received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Bridge National Trust Bank. The proposed national trust bank charter would let Bridge issue and manage stablecoins, custody digital assets, and oversee token reserves, while prohibiting insured deposits and traditional lending until full approval is granted.

On February 17th, 2026, Zircuit announced Zircuit Finance, an onchain platform for institutional-grade yield strategies featuring a USDC and USDT vault targeting 8–11% APR, according to the company. The service adds cross-chain deposits and withdrawals, allocates to Monarq Asset Management, integrates Fidelity's tokenized money market fund, Aave and Morpho, and partners with Forteus and FalconX for portfolio design and prime brokerage.

On February 18, 2026 in Denver, Ymax opened early access to a yield orchestration platform for stablecoin holders. According to the announcement, users can connect existing wallets and, with one signature, deploy capital across vaults on Morpho, Aave and Compound, with automated execution on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism and Avalanche.