Vitalik says mass surveillance shifts power to states, making crypto privacy tools more important than ever. Reports of possible US-Iran war are driving market tension and renewed interest in decentralized digital assets. Privacy-focused crypto may gain demand as conflict fears raise concerns over control, data tracking, and censorship. Vitalik Buterin...
Bitcoin ETFs See $105M Outflows as Mystery IBIT Buyer Emerges
US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $104.9M in outflows as a Hong Kong firm disclosed a $436.2M IBIT purchase in Q4 filings. US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $104.9 million in net outflows on Tuesday, even as new regulatory filings revealed a large and previously unknown buyer of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin...
Veteran Trader Peter Brandt Predicts BTC Bounce, Gold at $4K
Peter Brandt says Bitcoin may rebound short term while forecasting gold could fall to $4,430 and potentially $4,000. Veteran trader Peter Brandt has projected a possible Bitcoin rebound while warning of a sharp decline in gold prices toward $4,000. His latest comments follow earlier calls in which he anticipated a...
$150B Tax Refund Wave Could Reignite ‘YOLO’ Trades, Analysts Say
About $150B in tax refunds could return liquidity to markets, supporting Bitcoin and renewed retail trading activity. U.S. markets may soon see a liquidity boost as tax refund season gathers momentum. Roughly $150 billion in refunds is expected to reach households in the coming weeks. Market participants are monitoring whether...
Sai Launches Perps Platform Combining CEX Speed with Onchain Settlement
Panama City, Republic of Panama, February 18th, 2026, Chainwire Sai today launched Sai Perps, a perpetuals trading platform built to be as fast and intuitive as a centralized exchange with the transparency and self-custody of onchain settlement. The platform features gasless transactions, removing friction for traders while maintaining full onchain...
Elemental Royalty to Pay Dividends in Tether’s XAUT Gold Token
Elemental Royalty offers dividends in Tether’s XAUT token, backed 1:1 by physical gold, following Tether’s one-third stake acquisition. Elemental Royalty has announced that shareholders will have the option to receive dividends in Tether’s tokenized gold, XAUT. The company stated that this makes it the first public gold royalty firm to...
SWIFT Goes Blockchain – Is XRP Already Inside?
SWIFT announced a blockchain-based shared ledger at Sibos 2025, while HSBC quietly runs XRP-linked infrastructure. The TradFi-crypto line just blurred. SWIFT announced it will add a blockchain-based shared ledger to its payment infrastructure. The announcement came at Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt. And the financial world has not stopped talking since....
Kraken Joins ICE Chat – Wall Street Just Got Crypto
Kraken becomes the first crypto platform on ICE Chat, giving 120,000 Wall Street traders direct OTC access to digital asset liquidity. Kraken just did something no crypto exchange has done before. The platform connected its OTC desk directly to ICE Chat, the instant messaging system run by Intercontinental Exchange and...
Tether Gold Just Rewrote How Companies Pay Dividends
Tether Gold (XAU₮) powers the world’s first tokenized gold dividend by a public company. Here’s what Elemental Royalty’s move means for crypto and gold markets. Tether Gold just made history. On February 17, 2026, Tether announced that Elemental Royalty Corporation would offer shareholders dividends payable in XAU₮. No gold company...
CryptoQuant Founder Warns: Satoshi’s BTC Faces Quantum Threat
About 6.89M Bitcoin, including Satoshi’s BTC, face potential theft from quantum attacks. Roughly 3.4M dormant BTC are vulnerable, making them prime targets for quantum attackers. Social consensus delays may prevent urgent protocol upgrades to protect old BTC addresses. Bitcoin may be facing its biggest threat yet. CryptoQuant founder Ki Young...