In a February blockchain technology update, Gloria Zhao resigned from her position as a Bitcoin Core maintainer, while new roadmap details emerged for Solana and an Ethereum protocol priorities update was released, according to the summary. The same update also noted that HyperCore will support Outcome, highlighting ongoing technical developments across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

Crypto market analyst Crypto Con said Bitcoin has not reached its cycle bottom and projects further downside to $28,500 by November 2026 to January 2027, citing Bear Bands charting and Halving Cycles Theory in a recent X post. His analysis of price history since 2011 shows each major cycle follows a three-stage bear sequence"a first low, a second low, and a final bottom"with the current first low at $64,000 already hit in February. The chart projects a second low near $44,500 between August and October 2026, and a deeper cycle bottom around $28,500, implying a decline of more than 60% from current levels above $72,000.

Kraken Financial has obtained a Federal Reserve master account, becoming the first digital asset bank with direct access to the U.S. central bank's core payment infrastructure, including Fedwire, after more than five years of regulatory engagement involving Payward and U.S. supervisors. Operating as a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution, Kraken Financial is required under Wyoming's framework to maintain a full-reserve model in which liquid assets equal or exceed one hundred percent of client fiat deposits, integrating regulated fiat liquidity into digital asset operations managed by Payward. The bank plans a phased rollout of its new payment capabilities, initially targeting institutional clients on the Kraken platform and expanding services over time in coordination with federal authorities and Wyoming regulators.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index rose to 30, its first return to this level since January 2026, CoinMarketCap data show. Bitcoin traded near $72,000 at the time. The sentiment gauge stood at 16 on March 1.

Two directors at American Bitcoin (ABTC), a Bitcoin mining firm backed by the Trump family, purchased about 1.63 million shares after the earnings disclosure window reopened on March 5, ChainThink reports. Justin Mateen acquired roughly 1.3 million shares at an average price of around $1, while Richard Busch bought about 330,000 shares over two days, following the company's reported net loss of approximately $59 million for Q4 2025. Cofounder Eric Trump said ABTC now holds more than 6,500 Bitcoin—about 500 more than previously disclosed—ranking it 17th globally among publicly listed companies by Bitcoin holdings, and noted the firm uses a dual approach of mining and direct purchases, with around one-third mined and the rest acquired via market and strategic transactions. The company also announced the acquisition of 11,298 ASIC miners expected to lift its hash rate by about 12%, while Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. together hold a 20% stake in ABTC.

Tether Treasury transferred 850,000,000 USDT, valued at 850,170,000 USD, to the cryptocurrency exchange HTX. The large USDT transaction involved a direct movement from the Tether Treasury wallet to an address associated with HTX.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said in its latest report that peer-to-peer transfers of stablecoins, especially via unhosted wallets without regulated intermediaries, have become a key money laundering risk in the crypto sector, BlockBeats reports on March 5. The watchdog noted that stablecoins are now the most commonly used virtual assets in illicit crypto activity and, citing Chainalysis data, reported that about 84% of the $154 billion in illegal crypto transactions in 2025 involved stablecoins. The FATF recommended that jurisdictions require stablecoin issuers to be able to freeze, destroy, or blacklist assets tied to suspicious addresses and to build allowlists and denylists into smart contracts, highlighting that Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are increasingly used by criminal networks compared with more volatile assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The report also said North Korea-linked hacker groups and Iran-associated entities are using stablecoins to launder cybercrime proceeds through over-the-counter dealers or peer-to-peer platforms, and called for tighter oversight of issuers along with wider deployment of blockchain analytics and anti-money laundering tools including the Travel Rule.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted combined net inflows of approximately $1.1 billion across three trading sessions from March 2 to March 4, with around $462 million recorded on March 4 alone, ChainThink data show. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) contributed roughly $307 million in net inflows during this period, while Bitcoin briefly touched $74,000 and now trades above $73,000, marking a weekly gain of about 6%. Analysts cited by ChainThink note institutional investors may be treating Bitcoin as a hedge amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and growing macroeconomic uncertainty.

Ripple expanded its institutional payments platform to support broader stablecoin workflows for banks and fintech firms, including collection, custody, conversion and payout functions within a single infrastructure layer, the company said. Ripple said its Ripple Payments network now operates across more than 60 global markets, has processed over $100 billion in transactions, and connects institutions directly to blockchain settlement rails rather than traditional correspondent banking chains. CoinMarketCap data showed Ripple's RLUSD dollar-pegged stablecoin reached roughly 1.5 billion tokens in circulating supply, and the company has been integrating the asset more deeply into its payment environment as a digital dollar bridge for settlements. The expansion comes as U.S. regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, advance conditional national trust bank charters for crypto firms such as the planned Ripple National Trust Bank, and as policymakers continue to debate stablecoin oversight, reserve rules and operational standards.