Flipster Crypto Weekly (February 13)

Consolidation Replaces Panic as as Institutions Step Deeper On-Chain

February 13, 2026

Crypto markets spent the week digesting prior volatility rather than extending it. Price action narrowed into a choppy range, with neither bulls nor bears establishing control. While headlines accumulated, directional conviction did not.

BTC opened the week near $70,300 and gradually drifted lower through U.S. sessions, trading around $66,450 by Friday. ETH followed a similar path, easing from roughly $2,090 to $1,943. Bitcoin dominance remained firm throughout, fluctuating between 59% and 58.8%, signaling continued capital preference toward BTC amid subdued risk appetite.

Earnings and Revenue Mix Tell a Transition Story

Corporate results reinforced how exchanges are adapting to cooler spot volumes.

Coinbase reported a $667 million net loss for Q4 2025, with revenue declining 5% quarter-on-quarter to $1.8 billion. Retail trading activity softened meaningfully, but institutional derivatives flows and stablecoin-related income provided partial insulation.

The takeaway was less about the loss itself and more about revenue composition. Expansion into equities, derivatives, and payments infrastructure suggests a deliberate attempt to decouple earnings from pure spot-cycle dependency.

Elsewhere, Robinhood shares declined following earnings as crypto revenue fell 38% in Q4, another reminder that retail-driven volume remains cyclical and sensitive to price stagnation.

Meanwhile, Backpack, founded by former FTX employees, is reportedly raising $50 million at a $1 billion pre-money valuation. Its tokenization framework emphasizes long-term alignment, allocating substantial supply to pre- and post-IPO tranches with milestone-based unlocks. The structure appears designed to limit early retail dilution and tie token economics to business execution.

Institutional Capital Edges Further On-Chain

Traditional finance continued stepping closer to decentralized rails.

BlackRock listed its tokenized U.S. Treasury fund, BUIDL, on Uniswap, marking its first direct integration into DeFi liquidity venues. The move, paired with reported purchases of UNI, drove UNI up approximately 25% as markets interpreted the listing as institutional validation of decentralized exchange infrastructure.

The development signals that asset managers are increasingly willing to distribute products natively on-chain rather than treating blockchain purely as a back-office settlement layer.

LayerZero added to the structural narrative by announcing its own Layer 1 blockchain, Zero. Backed by strategic ZRO purchases from Citadel Securities and Ark Invest and partnerships with Google Cloud and DTCC, the project positions itself as high-performance infrastructure for global on-chain finance, citing substantial throughput improvements.

Stablecoins, Policy Friction, and Regulatory Signaling

Regulatory dialogue remained active but inconclusive.

A White House session involving banks and crypto representatives ended without resolution, as traditional financial institutions pushed for tighter limits on stablecoin reward programs. The debate centers on potential deposit displacement versus innovation in digital payments infrastructure.

At the same time, CFTC Chair Selig appointed crypto-focused industry participants to a 35-member innovation advisory panel, suggesting regulators are seeking structured engagement rather than adversarial positioning.

Stripe integrated x402 for agent-native payments on Base, reinforcing the idea that stablecoins and programmable payments remain one of crypto’s most durable use cases regardless of market direction.

Prediction Markets and Social Liquidity Expand

Event-driven markets continued gaining traction.

Polymarket attracted strategic liquidity support from Jump Trading, while also expanding into attention markets, enabling speculation on trends and public sentiment rather than purely binary outcomes. 

Separately, Giannis Antetokounmpo disclosed an equity stake in sports prediction platform Kalshi, underscoring the crossover between mainstream visibility and event-based financial products.

Cango, a Bitcoin miner, sold 4,451 BTC to strengthen its balance sheet, a reminder that supply flows from corporate actors remain relevant even during rangebound conditions.

Farcaster founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan joined stablecoin startup Tempo, reinforcing that talent migration continues toward programmable money and payment infrastructure rather than pure trading venues.

Arkham Intelligence is reportedly winding down its trading platform, signaling that not all vertical integrations in crypto brokerage are proving durable.

Across these moves, capital allocation appeared selective, flowing toward infrastructure, liquidity provision, and payment rails rather than speculative leverage.

Outlook

This was a week of recalibration rather than rupture.

Prices compressed. Dominance held steady. Corporate earnings exposed revenue mix shifts. Institutional actors continued bridging into DeFi. Policymakers signaled engagement without resolution.

The absence of a dominant catalyst left crypto trading macro shadows rather than generating its own.

Liquidity is stable but not abundant. Volatility has cooled but remains reactive. Capital flows are deliberate.

Mid-February begins with structure building quietly beneath sideways price action.

For now, the tape favors patience over aggression.

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