The European Securities and Markets Authority said in a public statement that leveraged crypto derivatives, including perpetual contracts, fall under existing EU Contract for Difference rules. The watchdog reaffirmed the bloc's "same risk, same rules" approach, meaning leverage limits, risk warnings, margin close-out and negative balance protection apply to retail offerings.

During Tuesday’s session, Bitcoin slid toward $62,000 after briefly trading just above $62,500, then steadied near $64,000. On Polymarket, odds for a February close above $80,000 or $90,000 are 2% or less, while the probability of $60,000 or below is around 23%. Sentiment has cooled after failed rebounds earlier in the month.

Bitcoin and Ethereum led a sharp market pullback as leveraged longs were forced out across major venues. Over the past 24 hours, around $600 million in positions were liquidated, with longs dominating, while BTC slid from the mid-$67,000s toward $64,000 and ETH fell from near $1,950 below $1,850. Broad declines hit large caps as stablecoins held steady.

World Liberty Financial reported that its USD1 stablecoin briefly traded in the $0.995–$0.998 range on 23 February before returning to its $1 target. The firm alleges a coordinated attack involving compromised cofounder-linked accounts, social media fear amplification, and short positions, while market data indicates a rapid recovery consistent with liquidity-driven volatility.

Bitcoin’s recent pullback has seen wallets holding 0.1–1 BTC steadily accumulate, boosting their balances by about 1.05% since the October price peak. In contrast, holders with 1–10 BTC have trimmed exposure to a 38‑month low, while SOPR data shows both long‑ and short‑term participants increasingly transacting near breakeven or at losses.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the US CLARITY Act could pass by April and pegged the odds at 80%. Prediction market pricing shows an 85% chance of enactment in 2026, up from about 60% earlier this year. He described April as a realistic window if negotiations keep moving.

On-chain data from Arkham indicates UAE-linked Bitcoin miners have produced about $453.6 million worth of BTC and kept most of it on-chain. Arkham also reports no significant wallet outflows over the past four months. The MIREV revenue gauge on TradingView remains above capitulation levels, suggesting miners are not facing acute stress.

On 19 February, Bubblemaps said onchain traces connected wallets linked to Hayden Davis with an early $PUMP allocation of 12.5 billion tokens after roughly $50 million USDC was deployed via Pump.fun. The firm found about 80% of those tokens moved to centralized exchanges within days of launch and estimated realized profits near $15 million.

Aptos proposed a comprehensive tokenomics revamp that reduces annual staking rewards from 5.19% to 2.6%, adds a protocol hard cap of 2.1 billion APT, and permanently locks 210 million APT by the foundation. Circulating supply stands at 1.196 billion APT, with major unlock changes slated for October 2026. APT trades near $0.88, down about 4.5%.