Bitcoin briefly moved back above $74,000 on Wednesday as a broad crypto market rebound pushed BTC up about 8% in 24 hours and lifted ether more than 9%. Dogecoin and Zcash led gains among large-cap tokens, while shares of Coinbase climbed roughly 15% and Gemini jumped about 34% alongside the move.

U.S. banking trade associations have criticized the Federal Reserve's decision to grant Kraken Financial a limited-purpose master account, arguing it could expose the payment system to risk without traditional bank-level safeguards. The approval has intensified calls for the Fed to finalize and clarify its framework for so-called "skinny" accounts for nontraditional financial institutions. Some crypto industry participants view the move as a significant step toward enabling payment-focused firms that do not rely on conventional deposit-lending models.

Circle Internet Group's stock climbed nearly 8% to $103.71 on Tuesday, its highest level in about four months, as Mizuho analysts lifted their price target from $90 to $100 while keeping a neutral rating. The bank argued that a recent jump in oil prices and reduced expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts could modestly boost Circle's revenue outlook for 2026–2027 and more meaningfully support its valuation, even as long-term competitive pressure in stablecoins remains a concern.

A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has dismissed with prejudice the remaining state-law claims in a class action targeting Uniswap Labs and founder Hayden Adams over scam tokens traded on the protocol. The court held that merely providing a decentralized trading platform and open-source smart contract code does not create liability for alleged fraud by unidentified third-party token issuers, and Uniswap’s UNI token rose 6% to $3.92 following the ruling.

On Monday, Nasdaq was reported to have asked the SEC to approve new yes-or-no binary options contracts tied to the Nasdaq 100 Index and its micro version. The proposed "Outcome Related Options" would trade between $0.01 and $1 in a structure similar to prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi, and could bring event-style products directly into the listed equity index options market if approved.

Mark Karpelès proposed a Bitcoin hard fork to enable recovery of about 79,956 BTC from a dormant address tied to the June 2011 Mt. Gox hack. The draft notes a coordinated upgrade would be required and warns of potential chain split risks. Those coins are outside the trustee’s estate; creditor repayments began in mid‑2024 with the deadline extended to October 2026.

Barclays is reportedly assessing blockchain-based settlement infrastructure and tokenized deposit systems as the stablecoin market expands toward $300 billion in circulation. The bank has taken an infrastructure-focused approach, including an investment in Ubyx, while forecasts from major institutions see stablecoin issuance potentially reaching into the trillions by the end of the decade.

MARA Holdings reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.7 billion, driven by a $1.5 billion fair-value hit as bitcoin fell around 30%, while revenue declined 6% to $202.3 million. The company also announced a joint venture with Starwood Capital Group to build AI-focused data centers, and its shares rose more than 15% on Thursday.

On Wednesday at Strategy World 2026 in Las Vegas, Michael Saylor outlined a shift from promoting corporate bitcoin treasury adoption to making STRC the firm's core financing tool for future purchases. On Thursday morning, Benchmark reiterated a buy rating on MSTR with a $705 price target as shares traded around $130, saying the focus could speed bitcoin-per-share growth.