Bitcoin slipped below the key $70,000 mark on Friday after a weaker-than-expected U.S. employment report sent shockwaves through crypto markets. The price dropped around 2.8-3% toward $69,430 as traders weighed rising recession risks against the prospect of Federal Reserve rate cuts. With the February CPI data due March 11 and the FOMC meeting scheduled for March 17-18, market participants are watching whether signals of future easing in 2026 can help BTC reclaim the $70,000–$71,000 zone.

According to Binance's February 2026 proof-of-reserves report, the exchange's Shiba Inu holdings decreased from 53.27 trillion to 52.54 trillion SHIB, a 1.38% decline equal to more than 733 billion tokens. User balances and Binance's own reserves fell by nearly the same proportion, while 33.79 billion SHIB stayed in third-party custody and the coverage ratio remained at 100.17%.

In his 2026 outlook, Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone projects Bitcoin could retreat to the $50,000 area and silver to $50 per troy ounce. He bases this view on mean reversion, geopolitical tensions, a potentially fragile U.S. stock market and a weakening BTC-to-silver ratio around 880, arguing that these factors may signal ongoing vulnerability in both assets.

Midweek trading sees XRP climb 3.83% and pierce the daily Bollinger Band midpoint, setting technical targets at $1.50 and $1.92 while Bitcoin trades back above $71,000 after more than $250 million in short positions are liquidated. Over the same period, Cardano whales move 230 million ADA between Feb. 26 and March 3, easing selling pressure as the token recovers about 4%. Market focus now turns to key price levels for XRP, BTC and ADA ahead of the Fed Beige Book release.

RippleX Head of Engineering J. Ayo Akinyele has detailed how the team plans to reinforce XRP Ledger security after the recent Batch amendment bug exposed a critical destabilization risk. He explained that RippleX is rolling out an AI-assisted development cycle with automated code review, invariant detection and agent-based fuzzing to spot edge cases and attack scenarios before deployment. The upgraded process aims to minimize blind spots and ensure high-risk amendments undergo multiple audits while preserving the ledger's core security and reliability properties.

According to a new Ripple press release, the company will significantly upgrade its Ripple Payments platform to create a unified service that links traditional finance with digital assets. The overhaul adds managed custody, virtual accounts for fiat and stablecoins, and automated fund flows using RLUSD and XRP for cross-border settlement. XRP will serve as both a bridge asset and on‑demand liquidity tool, while all new services run atop the XRP Ledger.

According to Arkham, F2Pool founder Chun Wang is allegedly tied to an address that withdrew $67.5 million in ETH from Binance over the past two weeks and holds $150 million in Ether on Aave, while also depositing about $240 million in stablecoins on Binance in the last month and a half. With ETH trading at $1,948, more than 60% below its $4,955 peak, observers are questioning whether he is building a large position in anticipation of renewed demand from tokenization and stablecoin use cases.

On March 1, Binance data showed its top 20 margin traders were evenly divided on Shiba Inu: 51.08% long versus 48.92% short, with an account long‑short ratio of 1.04 and positions split 50.05% shorts to 49.95% longs. SHIB ended March 2024 up 145%, yet since August 2025 it has posted monthly declines and fallen over 60%.

XRP ended February with a drop of more than 16% against the U.S. dollar and posted a monthly XRP/BTC close below the 20‑month average, the midline of the Bollinger Bands. The lower band sits at 0.00009775 BTC per XRP, 52.91% beneath the current ratio; in January 2025, the pair peaked at 0.00003419 BTC after a three‑month 380% surge.