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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has alleged on X that his conviction should be vacated due to claims of witness intimidation by the Biden administration's Department of Justice. He stated there are claims that the DOJ intimidated multiple witnesses into silence or to change their testimony. If true, Bankman-Fried argued, his conviction must be overturned. He also called for the judge in his case, Lewis Kaplan, to recuse himself, emphasizing that Kaplan has shown bias and presided unfairly over cases involving defendants such as himself, FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame, and U.S. President Donald Trump. SBF was sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11.02 billion.

South Korean exchange Upbit has announced that it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Cosmos (ATOM) at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Feb. 18 to support the network's upcoming upgrade.

A White House meeting with representatives from the cryptocurrency and banking industries was productive overall but did not result in any agreement, according to Eleanor Terrett, host of Crypto in America. The meeting was part of the Trump administration's effort to advance the Crypto-Asset Market Structure Act (CLARITY).

Addresses associated with FTX and Alameda unstaked 196,611 SOL, worth $15.97 million, about four hours ago, according to Onchain Lens.

The current cryptocurrency market may not be in a simple correction phase within a bull market but rather at the beginning of a structural bear market, according to a CryptoQuant post by crypto analyst XWIN Research Japan. The analyst explained that while there is downward pressure on BTC, market participants are not accepting this reality. This reluctance is influenced by the experience of the 2022 bear market and a belief that the market's more robust structure—including the introduction of spot ETFs, increased institutional participation, and improved infrastructure—makes a sharp downturn unlikely. However, XWIN Research argued that a bear market is defined by supply and demand, capital flows, and shifts in investor sentiment, not just price. The Fear & Greed Index has entered the "Extreme Fear" zone, indicating a significant contraction in market sentiment. The analyst noted that past cycles have repeatedly shown sentiment weakening before a major price correction. BTC has likely already entered a "crypto winter," but the current price levels and the strengthened market structure have only delayed participants' recognition of this fact, the post added. The outlook could change if ETF inflows stabilize and on-chain selling pressure subsides.

Arkham Exchange, the trading platform from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence (ARKM), is shutting down, CoinDesk reported. The exchange was founded in 2020 and later added support for derivatives in October 2024, U.S. spot trading in early 2025, and a mobile app in December 2025. Despite these updates, the platform reportedly failed to attract sufficient trading volume.

The current downturn in the cryptocurrency market should be seen as a buying opportunity, according to Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine (BMNR). CoinDesk reports that during his keynote address at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, Lee stated that now is not the time to sell crypto but to look for opportunities. He attributed the recent weakness in crypto to volatility in the price of gold. Lee explained that late last month, gold's market capitalization fluctuated by trillions of dollars in a single day, triggering margin calls that put pressure on risk assets across the board. He added that gold has likely already peaked. Regarding Ethereum (ETH), Lee noted that since 2018, corrections of more than 50% have often been followed by strong rebounds. He predicted that ETH will bottom out after a temporary dip below $1,800 before beginning a full-fledged rally.

The holdings of Bitcoin long-term holders (LTHs) are beginning to rise again after several months of decline, suggesting the recent market peak and subsequent drop may have been a mid-cycle correction, Bitfinex said on its official X account. The exchange noted that total LTH holdings have slightly increased to 14.3 million BTC. Historically, LTH accumulation has preceded BTC price rallies by about three to four months during past bull markets. Bitfinex added that if this accumulation trend continues, it would support the view that the current market is undergoing a correction within a broader cycle, rather than declining from a definitive top.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has announced the temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals for ATOM, effective from 9:00 a.m. UTC on Feb. 18.

Lee Jun-haeng, the founder and former CEO of South Korean crypto exchange Gopax, has called on Binance to release a concrete repayment plan for its GoFi service and immediately compensate users. In a post on X, Lee stated that matters such as adjusting the majority shareholder's stake or increasing capital should only be discussed after Binance fulfills its legal obligation to repay GoFi users. Lee's resignation was part of Binance's acquisition of Gopax in February 2023. He accused Binance of making a series of false claims, refuting its May 2023 assertion that it had no legal responsibility for GoFi repayments. Lee also dismissed the company's September 2024 claim that rising crypto prices made full repayment difficult, as well as its October statement that the matter depended on the judgment of South Korean authorities. According to Lee, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has confirmed that no additional procedures or approvals are necessary to pay the victims. He also noted that a lawsuit filed against him by a Binance subsidiary was dismissed and that Binance's claim about the first repayment being costly due to foreign exchange was false, as the transactions are recorded on the blockchain. Lee emphasized that it is out of order for Binance to discuss business expansion in South Korea without fulfilling its contractual obligations, urging the exchange to stop making excuses and provide immediate repayment. Late last month, Binance stated its intention to complete the repayment to GoFi users this year and aim to become the top exchange by market share in South Korea.

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party plans to finalize its proposal for the second phase of the Digital Asset Basic Act, which covers stablecoins, on Feb. 24, Edaily reported. Key points of contention in the bill are whether to include a rule requiring banks to hold a 50%+1 share and a 15-20% ownership cap for major shareholders of virtual asset exchanges. Some advisors to the party's digital asset task force have reportedly raised concerns about the ownership regulations. However, Han Jeong-ae, the party's Policy Committee Chairwoman, effectively confirmed yesterday that the party intends to push for decentralizing exchange governance.

Bitcoin could see a correction to $50,000 before turning bullish in the second half of the year and potentially surpassing $200,000, according to Steven McClurg, CEO of crypto asset manager Canary Capital. In an interview with The Korea Economic Daily TV, McClurg explained that BTC peaked last October and is currently in a downward phase of its cycle. He suggested the crypto market will begin to rebound once market leverage decreases and those funds are redeployed, leading to stabilization. McClurg believes this turnaround is likely to occur around September or October.

Status Network (SNT) has announced its own stablecoin protocol, FIRM, to support its Layer 2 ecosystem. Based on the Ethereum (ETH)-based lending protocol Liquity V2, FIRM will issue USF, a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin that uses ETH and SNT as collateral. The protocol will also offer benefits such as gas-free transactions depending on usage.

Binance has announced a partnership with global asset manager Franklin Templeton to launch a collateral program for institutional investors. The program operates on the infrastructure of Binance's institutional custody platform, Ceffu, and allows tokenized money market fund shares issued via Franklin Templeton's technology platform to be used as trading collateral on Binance. The company explained that because the actual underlying assets are held on an external custody platform, this arrangement significantly reduces counterparty risk.

Binance appears to have begun setting aside funds to repay victims of GOPAX's GoFi service as early as mid-December last year, Digital Asset reported. The South Korean crypto news outlet said it discovered three wallets containing cryptocurrencies in amounts identical, down to the decimal point, to the GoFi deposit status that GOPAX announced in late January. These wallets hold 10 different cryptocurrencies—BTC, BCH, USDC, ETH, POL, LINK, UNI, AAVE, and COMP—all of which were transferred from Binance-labeled wallets on Dec. 17.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) plans to permit virtual asset exchanges to offer perpetual futures, CoinDesk reported. SFC Chair Julia Leung announced at the Consensus Hong Kong conference that the regulator will release related guidelines. The guidelines will include provisions allowing for perpetual futures trading for institutional clients, BTC and ETH collateralized loans, and market making.

An emergency response team composed of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), and the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) has launched a task force for advancing internal controls, Etoday reported. The move follows a recent incident involving the erroneous payment of virtual assets. The task force is set to begin developing concrete measures to enhance self-regulation and strengthen implementation across virtual asset exchanges.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has been dropped from the list of the world's 500 richest people, Bloomberg reported. The move comes as his net worth fell from $17.7 billion to $7.5 billion amid a sharp drop in cryptocurrency prices. Gemini co-founders the Winklevoss twins, Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz, and MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor were also dropped from the list.

DeFi lending protocol Spark has launched a service to connect off-chain borrowers with on-chain capital, CoinDesk reported. The new offering consists of two products. The first, Spark Prime, is a margin lending model that allows borrowers to post collateral across centralized exchanges, DeFi platforms, and qualified custodians. The second, Spark Institutional Lending, is designed for institutions that prefer a fully custodial approach. Spark plans to offer over-the-counter (OTC) crypto loans through qualified custodians to hedge funds, trading firms, and fintech companies that adhere to traditional custody and compliance standards.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $67,000. BTC is trading at $66,983 on the Binance USDT market.

The following are the 24-hour long/short ratios for BTC perpetual futures on the world’s three largest crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 49.06% long, 50.94% short - Binance: 48.86% long, 51.14% short - OKX: 48.17% long, 51.83% short - Bybit: 48.88% long, 51.12% short

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the country's central bank, has initiated three pilot projects this year focused on a ringgit-backed stablecoin and tokenized deposits through its Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH), according to local media outlet The Edge Malaysia. The projects include B2B payments using a ringgit stablecoin by Standard Chartered Malaysia and Capital A, as well as separate tokenized deposit payment trials by Maybank and CIMB. The central bank will primarily examine their use in domestic and international wholesale payments and the settlement of tokenized assets. BNM aims to use the findings to assess the potential impact on financial stability and plans to finalize usage standards for both the stablecoin and tokenized deposits by the end of the year. The bank also suggested a potential link between these initiatives and a future wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) project.

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) on Feb. 10 unveiled a draft plan to strengthen cybersecurity measures for cryptocurrency exchanges, CoinPost reported. The move is a response to a series of hacks and asset thefts at exchanges worldwide. The agency aims to mandate cybersecurity self-assessments (CSSA) for all trading operators starting from the 2026 business year. The FSA noted that indirect attacks, such as social engineering and the infiltration of external contractors, are on the rise, adding that cold wallets alone can no longer guarantee security. The agency is accepting public comments on the proposal until March 11.

Whale Alert reported that 200,000,000 USDT has been transferred from an unknown wallet to Binance. The transaction is valued at about $200 million.

The market value of tokenized commodities has reached $6.1 billion, a 53% surge since the beginning of the year, Cointelegraph reported. This growth was led by Tether Gold (XAUT), whose market cap increased by 51.6% over the past month. During the same period, Pax Gold (PAXG) saw its market cap rise by 33.2%. The tokenized commodities market is currently smaller than the market for tokenized funds ($17.2 billion) but larger than that of tokenized stocks ($540 million).