In February 2026, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Praetorian Group International founder Ramil Ventura Palafox to 20 years for wire fraud and concealment money laundering linked to a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said the operation raised more than $201 million, took in at least 8,198 BTC, and drew over 90,000 investors, with confirmed losses of at least $62.7 million.

An X post by analyst Chiefy argues Bitcoin is echoing the post‑top structures from 2017 and 2021, implying a potential slide toward the $30,000–$35,000 range and possibly as low as $35,000. Glassnode reports 30‑day net flows for Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs have been negative for most of the last 90 days, while CryptoQuant flags larger whale BTC transfers to Binance, including roughly 12,000 BTC on February 6.

Bitcoin climbed above $69,000 after the latest US CPI data, with traders watching resistance between $68,000 and $70,000 as a trigger for a potential V-shaped recovery toward $72,000. Analysts warn that holding support around $65,000–$66,000 is critical, while a break of $72,000 could lead to a liquidation squeeze targeting liquidity near $80,000.

On Feb. 11, Bitcoin contributors merged BIP-0360, introducing the Pay-to-Merkle-Root output to the BIPs repository. The draft neither upgrades nodes nor sets activation, but proposes removing Taproot's key-path to limit long-exposure risk from on-chain public keys. P2MR would raise spend size (minimum 103 bytes vs 66) and reduce privacy, making any future shift strictly opt-in.

On February 11, Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360, which introduces the quantum-resistant Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR) output type, was merged into the official Bitcoin BIP repository. The proposal aims to mitigate key-path vulnerabilities in Taproot and other exposed address formats by relying on Merkle-root commitments instead of on-chain public keys, amid forecasts that advancing quantum computers could break Bitcoin's ECDSA within a few years.

Bitcoin climbed to around $69,000 after softer-than-expected January US CPI data coincided with a roughly 4% daily price gain. Despite the inflation surprise and renewed optimism for a "higher low," futures markets still price less than a 10% chance of a 0.25% Federal Reserve rate cut in March.

On 13 February 2026, market analysts framed Bitcoin’s pullback as a controlled reset, noting it sits about 50% below its October 2025 high. $50,000 is viewed as a critical accumulation zone, while a position beneath the 21‑week moving average signals a bear phase; macro conditions are likely to determine whether the correction stabilizes or deepens.

The January CPI print showed 2.4% year over year against a 2.5% expectation, with Core CPI at 2.5% and headline up 0.2% month over month. Heather Long said declines in gas, used cars, and medical care helped offset higher utilities and transportation. Bitcoin briefly reached $67,600 before easing to $67,200 as traders assessed the update.