Flipster Crypto Weekly (February 20)

Sideways Price Action, Structural Realignment Underway

February 20, 2026

Markets spent the week rotating without resolution. Volatility spiked intraday but failed to extend. Momentum attempts faded quickly, leaving price largely where it began.

BTC oscillated between $69,100 and $65,700 before settling near $67,200 by Friday. ETH traded in tandem, slipping from around $2,000 to the $1,900s, last at around $1,951. Bitcoin dominance remained stable near 59%, reflecting continued concentration in the largest asset amid selective capital deployment.

Treasury Strategies Face Mark-to-Market Reality

Corporate crypto balance sheets were back in focus.

Metaplanet reported a $619 million net loss for the fiscal year ended December 31, driven primarily by a $665.8 million mark-to-market loss on its Bitcoin holdings. Despite the drawdown, the Tokyo-listed firm expanded its treasury aggressively to 35,102 BTC, a 1,892% increase year-on-year, now ranking as the fourth-largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin.

ETH-focused vehicles saw similar scrutiny. Peter Thiel and Founders Fund fully exited their 7.5% stake in Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla, with shares trading near $3, far below their post-pivot highs above $107. The unwind highlights the volatility embedded in public-market treasury plays tied directly to crypto beta.

Brevan Howard’s BH Digital Asset fund posted a 29.5% loss in 2025, marking its worst year since inception, reinforcing that even institutional allocators have not been insulated from recent market cycles.

At the same time, BitMine expanded its Ethereum treasury to 4.37 million ETH (approximately $8.7 billion), projecting annual staking income between $176 million and $252 million. The model emphasizes yield generation as a buffer against token price compression.

ETF Pipeline Expands Across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Beyond

Capital markets integration accelerated.

BlackRock began acquiring ETH to seed a proposed Ethereum staking ETF, with filings suggesting an estimated ~3% annual staking yield. An affiliate purchased $100,000 of initial shares, signaling formal progression toward product launch.

Abu Dhabi sovereign-backed funds Mubadala and Al Warda disclosed more than $1 billion in combined exposure to IBIT at year-end, underscoring ongoing institutional interest in spot Bitcoin ETF structures.

Canary Capital and Grayscale debuted the first spot SUI ETFs with staking exposure on Nasdaq and NYSE Arca, broadening ETF access beyond BTC and ETH and introducing yield-linked structures into altcoin products.

Meanwhile, Grayscale filed to convert its AAVE token trust into an ETF, extending the token-to-ETF migration trend deeper into DeFi assets.

Event-linked products also evolved. Bitwise filed for 2028 U.S. election “PredictionShares” ETFs tied to event contracts, blending regulated fund structures with political prediction exposure.

Policy Signals Shift Toward Controlled Integration

Regulatory tone edged toward conditional accommodation.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and Chair Paul Atkins outlined an “incremental” innovation exemption framework that could allow limited trading of tokenized securities on novel platforms. The proposal suggests a phased pathway for on-chain equities to coexist within U.S. capital markets under defined guardrails.

While details remain preliminary, the signal matters: regulators appear to be considering structured experimentation rather than blanket restriction.

Elsewhere, Harvard Management Company reduced its iShares Bitcoin Trust position by 21% in Q4 while initiating an $86.8 million allocation to the iShares Ethereum Trust. Bitcoin remains its largest disclosed crypto holding at $265.8 million, but the rotation hints at portfolio rebalancing rather than outright retreat.

Protocol Revenue, AI Execution, and Exchange Mechanics

On-chain mechanics continued evolving independent of price.

Uniswap governance voted to activate protocol fees across the remaining v3 pools on eight additional chains. Revenue will route into a UNI burn mechanism, embedding a supply-reduction dynamic directly into trading activity.

Robinhood’s Layer 2 testnet surpassed 4 million transactions within its first week, indicating early developer and user experimentation with vertically integrated exchange infrastructure.

DeBridge launched its Model Context Protocol, enabling AI agents to execute non-custodial cross-chain swaps and multi-step transactions across EVM chains and Solana. The release builds on its prior intent-based “Bundles” execution framework and suggests automation layers are increasingly embedded into DeFi workflows.

Solana Company shares rose 17% after introducing borrowing against staked SOL, reflecting growing reliance on staking yield and on-chain financing as treasury vehicles seek cash-flow offsets amid softer token prices.

Separately, a hacker returned $21 million in stolen BTC to South Korean prosecutors, closing one of the week’s notable security events.

Outlook

Late February opens with compression in price, but expansion in infrastructure. When ranges tighten while structural participation broadens, breakouts tend to resolve with force.

For now, the market coils. Underneath, it rebuilds.

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