Bitcoin's mining difficulty was reduced by 11.16% to 125.86 trillion at block height 935,424, marking the biggest negative adjustment since China's 2021 mining ban and reportedly the tenth largest in the network's history. Over the past month the hashrate has fallen about 20% amid a sharp bitcoin price decline and Winter Storm Fern‑related shutdowns, pushing hashprice to fresh all-time lows and leaving many older mining rigs close to or below breakeven.

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo disclosed on Friday that he acquired a sub-1% equity stake in CFTC-regulated prediction market Kalshi through his company Ante Inc., after signing the agreement on Thursday, the NBA trade deadline. A 1% stake would be worth $110 million at Kalshi's latest $11 billion valuation, but the firm has not revealed the exact size of his holding, which has drawn criticism over potential conflicts of interest. The partnership coincided with Kalshi's high-volume markets on Antetokounmpo's trade destination and came as the platform faced fresh legal setbacks, including a Massachusetts court order targeting its sports contracts.

On Friday, the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC blacklisted UK-registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion for facilitating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps transactions. The move also put Iranian financier Babak Morteza Zanjani back under sanctions after his 2024 death sentence commutation. Treasury said Americans are prohibited from dealing with the newly sanctioned entities.

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Abu Dhabi vehicle Aryam Investment 1, backed by UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, signed a $500 million deal to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial four days before Donald Trump's January 2025 inauguration. Half the consideration was paid upfront, sending $187 million to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to entities linked to co-founder Steve Witkoff's family, while the arrangement later intersected with U.S. decisions on advanced AI chip sales to the UAE.

The trader known as the "Hyperunit whale" has closed their entire leveraged ether position on Hyperliquid, booking about $250 million in losses and leaving only $53 in the account. The reversal follows an October 2025 haul of roughly $200 million from shorting bitcoin and ether ahead of a tariff announcement, with identity links previously disputed.

On a Friday filing in the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission submitted a joint stipulation to dismiss with prejudice its civil case against Gemini Trust Company over the Gemini Earn lending product. The decision follows a full in-kind return of crypto assets to Gemini Earn customers through the Genesis Global Capital bankruptcy between May and June 2024, as well as related regulatory settlements reached by Genesis and Gemini.

Nifty Gateway, Gemini's NFT marketplace, has moved into withdrawal-only mode and will close on February 23, 2026. Users are being asked to remove their artworks and balances ahead of the cutoff. Gemini said the move lets it focus on building a one-stop "super app" while continuing NFT support via Gemini Wallet.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used UK-registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion to move about $1 billion between 2023 and 2025. Most transfers involved Tether's USDT on the Tron network, with IRGC-linked activity making up 56% of their volume. The flows accelerated from $24 million in 2023 to $619 million in 2024, then $410 million in 2025.

Yearn Finance's yETH product was exploited, resulting in approximately $3 million worth of ETH transferred to Tornado Cash. The attacker minted an excessive amount of yETH tokens through a vulnerability, draining liquid staking tokens from the pool in a single transaction. Yearn confirmed the incident affected only the yETH LST stableswap pool, with Yearn Vaults remaining secure.