Author: NBTC

Crypto markets barely flinched as a trio of macro headlines crossed the tape, with major tokens drifting sideways to lower despite fresh signals from U.S. labor data, looming Supreme Court action on Trump-era tariffs, and renewed geopolitical tension in the Middle East. Summary The crypto market rallied after the latest US NFP data. The economy added 50k job as the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4%. Focus now shifts to the upcoming SCOTUS ruling on tariffs. Bitcoin (BTC) price is currently hovering at around $90,955, up from the intraday low of $89,200 but still in the red for the day. This…

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Banking trade groups, rather than individual banks, are chiefly responsible for stalled negotiations on crypto market structure legislation, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said. Banks themselves are looking at crypto as an opportunity, he said Wednesday at the World Liberty Forum hosted at Mar-a-Lago. “For whatever reason, sometimes incumbent industries have trade groups, and they view the world with a zero-sum mindset [where they believe] for the banks to win, crypto has to lose,” he said. “They’re not viewing this as a positive [step].” Banking trade groups have represented the industry in meetings with the crypto industry…

The cryptocurrency exchange OKX has released its 40th Proof of Reserves (PoR) report. According to the official statement, the reserve ratio for all 22 major crypto assets listed on the exchange exceeded 100%. According to the data, the reserve ratios for BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC were reported as 106%, 103%, 109%, and 101%, respectively. Based on the prices at the time of verification, the total reserve value of these four assets reached $26.8 billion. OKX stated that it is the first cryptocurrency exchange in the industry to publish Proof-of-Return (PoR) reports continuously for over three years. During this period,…

London digital asset platform Archax has collaborated with the institutional Layer-1 blockchain Aptos to increase its tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). Through the collaboration, Archax will be able to bring Aptos into its tokenization engine, enabling regulated RWAs to be issued and managed on the Aptos blockchain. Aptos 🤝 @ArchaxExArchax, the UK/EU-regulated digital asset platform, has announced that it has expanded its range of RWAs onchain, enabling support on its tokenization engine for Aptos. pic.twitter.com/Dp56sIb6j5 — Aptos (@Aptos) February 19, 2026 MembersCap Tokenized Global Reinsurance Income Fund – MCM Fund I1 will be the first asset to be launched under…

Crypto markets thrive on bold moves, and few actions speak louder than a nine figure buy. Today, Tom Lee Bitmine shocked traders after executing a massive Ethereum purchase worth $69.37 million. The firm acquired 35,000 $ETH in a single day, spreading transactions across FalconX and BitGo. That scale signals more than routine allocation, it shows conviction. Markets often react strongly to sudden institutional crypto buying, especially when respected figures lead the charge. Tom Lee has built a reputation for strategic timing and long term vision. This latest Ethereum purchase instantly sparked speculation across trading desks. Investors now debate whether this…

For years, major banks treated cryptocurrency primarily as a risk to be contained. That posture is now giving way to a more deliberate form of engagement. Rather than debating crypto’s legitimacy, banks are increasingly deciding how and where to integrate it, from regulated investment products to blockchain-based payment rails. This shift is on full display in this week’s Crypto Biz. JPMorgan is extending its US dollar deposit token onto new blockchain infrastructure, signaling that tokenized cash is moving closer to production use within global banking. Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, is positioning itself to offer exposure to Bitcoin ($BTC) and Solana (SOL)…

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren has reportedly sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell urging them not to bail out “cryptocurrency billionaires” with taxpayer dollars. Warren warned that any potential bailout “would be deeply unpopular to transfer wealth from American taxpayers to cryptocurrency billionaires,” adding that it could also “directly enrich President Trump and his family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, according to CNBC. The letter comes as Bitcoin (BTC) prices have fallen more than 50% from their all-time high in October, hitting a local low of $60,000 on Feb. 6.…

Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss says crypto sentiment is so bad he’s “optimistic,” even though the exchange he runs with his brother Cameron is forced into a sharp reset and Winklevoss Capital appears to have been steadily selling Bitcoin for the last 12 months. Despite his public bullish sentiment, onchain trackers including Arkham reveal that the Winklevoss Capital wallet has been reducing its Bitcoin ($BTC) exposure over the past year, from about 23,000 $BTC in February 2025 to fewer than 11,000 $BTC in February 2026. Gemini’s latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday showed that it…

Pundi AI, a popular decentralized AI data infrastructure platform, has partnered with LF Wallet, a multi-chain, non-custodial Web3 wallet. The partnership is set to make crypto wallets intuitive access points to benefit AI agents, decentralized applications, and tokenized datasets. As Pundi AI pointed out in its official X announcement, the collaboration merges protected multichain storage and verifiable data systems on-chain. Hence, both entities attempt to revolutionize the way platforms attempt to revolutionize user interaction with decentralized intelligence. We are excited to announce our latest collaboration with @LFWallet.This marks another step in our ongoing expansion, with more integrations across the ecosystem…

Lido V3, a major Lido liquid staking protocol on Ethereum ($ETH), has announced its strategic landmark collaboration with Kiln, a leading enterprise-grade staking platform that allows institutional clients to stake assets, manage rewards, and secure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks. The primary purpose of this partnership is to expand the institutional Ethereum staking along with stVaults. https://t.co/EiBClQEguw — Lido (@LidoFinance) February 17, 2026 Lido V3 brings stVaults, a non-custodial smart contract for users and institutions to select specific node operators. While Kiln Finance is the institutional layer for on-chain assets, it provides staking and yield infrastructure to custodians, exchanges, wallets, and other…