On February 26, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said on X that Jane Street is not responsible for Bitcoin’s recent slide, describing the pullback as a "classic crypto winter." His remarks followed renewed speculation fueled by lawsuits and viral threads, as Bitcoin traded over 46% below its all‑time high. He pointed instead to de‑risking, leverage reductions, and capital rotation.

After a brief pop above $66,000 following U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, Coinbase Institutional says Bitcoin's setup still skews lower, with a negative gamma band between $60,000 and $70,000 and dense support near $60,000. The firm identifies $82,000 as the first key resistance, with positive gamma pockets near $85,000–$90,000.

On February 24, Glassnode said its 90‑day SMA of Bitcoin's Realized Profit/Loss Ratio slipped below 1, marking loss‑dominant selling. The firm noted that such breakdowns have often persisted for six months or longer before liquidity returns. Bitcoin traded near $63,200, down 3.6% on the day and almost 29% over a month.

Binance reported that its sanctions-linked trading exposure as a share of overall volume fell from 0.284% in January 2024 to 0.009% by July 2025, while connections to major Iranian exchanges also declined sharply. The exchange's update follows reports alleging over $1 billion in transactions tied to Iranian counterparties and claims that staff were removed after raising compliance concerns, accusations Binance rejects.

On February 23, analyst Arthur reported that visible XRP Ledger activity has dropped between 50% and 80% in recent weeks, with active tagged users, payment volume, and sending accounts all sharply lower. He linked the decline to the February 18 activation of XLS-81, which enables permissioned institutional trading that does not show on public dashboards, and argued that this may mask underlying demand. XRP is trading around $1.39 with double-digit percentage losses over the past month and year, while on-chain loss metrics and valuation ratios from Santiment present mixed longer-term signals.

Nearly 3 million Bitcoin, valued at about $200 billion and representing 15% of circulating supply, are still held on centralized exchanges, with a significant share concentrated on a few major platforms. Data indicates Binance controls around 30% of exchange-held BTC, while Coinbase Pro holds roughly 792,000 BTC, highlighting how liquidity and trading activity remain centered on large venues despite the FTX collapse and ongoing self-custody messaging.

According to Santiment on February 19, daily new addresses on Solana have been increasing even as market sentiment weakens. SOL trades around $84 after a multi‑month retreat that left it 67% under its September 2025 high, with derivatives funding deeply negative and exchange outflows topping inflows in recent weeks.

According to Arkham, Vitalik Buterin holds more than 240,000 ETH worth about $467 million and ranks as the largest accessible individual holder. In late January 2026 he withdrew 16,384 ETH, followed by sales totaling around 2,961 ETH over three days in early February routed via CoW Protocol.

The White House is moving forward with draft rules that would bar yield on payment stablecoins and penalize evasion. Proposed enforcement would empower the SEC and CFTC to levy civil fines of $500,000 per violation per day. The measures emerged during the administration's third meeting with crypto firms and banking trade groups.