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**Peter Steinberger** leaves the open-source AI agent project Openclaw to join OpenAI and develop personal AI agents. The Openclaw project, which he built and has garnered over 180,000 stars on GitHub since its launch in November 2025, will transition to an independent foundation model that maintains the MIT license while being community-driven with the support of OpenAI.

What happened: Openclaw's new structure

This measure was announced on February 15, 2026, and the initial disclosure was made by OpenAI CEO **Sam Altman** through X. No mergers or acquisitions took place.

Bitcoin (BTC) failed to maintain the $70,000 level and has fallen below $69,000, breaking down through the upward trend line on the hourly chart, while the downward momentum has strengthened across major technical indicators, increasing the possibility of further declines around $66,500.

What happened: BTC fell below the key support level.

The decline began after BTC failed to continue the rally after hitting a peak of $70,935. It subsequently broke down below the $69,200 support zone, and the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of the upward wave that started from the swing low of $65,072 was also breached. The support of the upward trend line that was located around $69,500 on the hourly BTC/USD chart was also broken.

**Binance** has completely denied allegations that compliance investigators captured over $1 billion in Iran-related transactions involving Tether (USDT) that were conducted through the Tron (TRX) blockchain, and were subsequently fired for raising concerns about it. Co-CEO **Richard Teng** dismissed recent reports as "irresponsible and misleading."

Incident Overview: Binance's Counterattack

This controversy was triggered by an investigative report from **Fortune** on February 13. According to the report, Binance's compliance investigators captured USDT transactions exceeding $1 billion related to Iranian entities between March 2024 and August 2025. After internally warning about the activity, at least five members of the exchange's compliance investigation team were reported to have been fired.

Ethereum (ETH) slipped back below the $2,000 mark after failing to maintain the gains above $2,050, breaking down the uptrend line on the hourly chart. Consequently, concerns are growing that additional declines may follow towards the $1,930 support area.

What happened: ETH, support line collapse

ETH/USD has broken down the uptrend line that was providing support around $2,035 on the hourly chart, and subsequently, the selling pressure has pushed the price continuously below the $2,020 and $1,980 levels. This decline has retraced more than half of the upward range from the low of $1,895 to the high of $2,106.

XRP (XRP) failed to break above $1.680, sharply declining and breaking down through the key support zone, reinforcing bearish momentum amid a widespread cryptocurrency market correction that also saw Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) decline.

What happened: Deepening adjustment of XRP

The token lost momentum around $1.620 and fell below $1.60 and $1.550. This decline broke the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of the rising range from the low of $1.3475 to the high of $1.6713.

Whales holding between 10 million and 100 million Cardano (ADA) have recently purchased over 220 million ADA in the past few days. This amounts to over 61 million dollars and occurred as the altcoin attempted to stabilize around 0.278 dollars.

What happened: Acceleration of whale accumulation

Large holders moved aggressively during the price decline phase. Addresses holding between 10 million and 100 million ADA added to their purchases while the price hovered around recent lows, which is a pattern often seen when strategic positioning occurs in a bearish phase.

The cryptocurrency industry is preparing for an aggressive offensive against American politics once again, based on campaign funds amounting to about 200 million dollars as the midterm elections approach.

At the center of this movement is Fairshake, a major pro-crypto super PAC network, which The Hill reported holds over 193 million dollars in available funds as of early 2026.

After pouring substantial funds into the 2024 election cycle, organizations supported by the industry are now targeting new federal congressional elections, suggesting that digital asset companies intend to continue exerting significant influence in Washington.

According to the Russian Ministry of Finance, the daily trading volume of the Russian cryptocurrency market is approximately 50 billion rubles (about $648 million).

Deputy Finance Minister **Ivan Chebeskov** announced at an Alfa-Bank meeting that Russia's annual cryptocurrency trading volume exceeds $130 billion.

Almost all transactions are taking place outside the regulatory framework.

According to the state news agency TASS, Chebeskov stated, 'We have always said that millions of citizens are involved in this activity, and its scale reaches trillions of rubles. All of this is currently taking place in the unregulated area.'

**Changpeng Zhao (CZ)** and **Chamath Palihapitiya** pointed out in a 2-hour All-In podcast episode that privacy is the most important unresolved issue in cryptocurrency.

There is one fact that neither the podcast nor the Phemex article that reported this statement mentioned. It is that the fund co-founded by CZ executed an 8-digit investment in a trading platform focused on privacy just a few weeks ago.

The 24-hour trading volume of PEPE (PEPE) surged by 283%, surpassing $1 billion.

This meme coin recorded a price increase of about 20-30%, rising to approximately $0.0000047 to $0.0000049.

This movement has outperformed the broader market sector as speculative funds rotate into high-risk assets.

According to major data tracking sites like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, the trading volume of PEPE has sharply increased as individual investor participation has risen again.

Boerse Stuttgart Group is the second-largest operator of stock exchanges in Germany and announced on Friday that it will merge its cryptocurrency division with the trading company Tradias based in Frankfurt.

This transaction will integrate approximately 300 employees under joint management, with completion expected in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

The financial terms were not disclosed according to Bloomberg.

Each party brings

Boerse Stuttgart Digital operates a regulated cryptocurrency broker, the BSDEX exchange, and a custody company licensed under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to around $61,000 earlier this month before recovering to $70,000 on Saturday, but this rebound has not significantly alleviated the overall bearish sentiment in the market.

This cryptocurrency has dropped about 45% from its all-time high of $126,210 recorded on October 6, and the Fear & Greed Index on CoinMarketCap remains at 11, still in the deep 'Extreme Fear' zone.

This decline is the steepest adjustment since 2022, when Bitcoin fell from $69,000 to below $16,000.

Venture capitalist Nic Carter warned that large Bitcoin (BTC) holding institutions might eventually lose patience due to inadequate responses to quantum computing, and could attempt what he calls a 'corporate takeover of protocol governance.'

A representative example he cited is BlackRock, which holds about 761,801 BTC, approximately worth 50 billion dollars.

Carter made these remarks on the podcast 'Bits and Bips' released on Thursday. Related details can be found here.

India is preparing one of its most ambitious expansions of technology infrastructure as the southern Andhra Pradesh state pushes forward with plans to build a large-scale artificial intelligence 'data city' in Visakhapatnam.

State government officials reported in local media that this initiative aims to enhance India's global AI competitiveness amid intensifying competition with the United States and China.

This project has attracted a large-scale international investment commitment and is being evaluated as the cornerstone of India's long-term digital strategy.

Just hours after dozens of cryptocurrency media outlets published articles titled 'X is launching cryptocurrency trading in the feed,' the platform's product manager retracted the claim.

Nikita Bier clarified on Saturday evening that X is 'not handling trade execution or acting as a broker,' but is 'only building financial data tools and links.'

This correction came after the initial post by Bier stating that the smart cash tag allows users to 'trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from the timeline' was widely reported through CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, The Block, BeInCrypto, and others.

X plans to allow users to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from their timeline in the coming weeks, Product Lead Nikita Beer stated on Saturday.

This announcement was included in a broader warning. It states that X is updating its API to block third-party apps from creating fee pools without user consent.

Beer first teased the smart cash tags in January. The Saturday post reaffirmed that the feature is on track for a February release schedule.

A director of XRPL Commons confirmed the interest of financial giants in the XRP Ledger.

**Odelia Torteman** mentioned in a recent interview that the XRP Ledger is designed to be suitable for asset-to-asset payments. This statement comes amid specific partnerships being developed to integrate the ledger into institutional operations.

This statement aligns with the trends observed in the adoption of blockchain. Institutions are looking for protocols that incorporate features that consider both regulatory compliance and efficiency.

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin raised questions about the direction of prediction markets, warning that they have veered towards short-term speculative betting, distancing themselves from providing value to society as a whole. He proposed a radical redesign of prediction markets, arguing that this could threaten the role stablecoins play in cryptocurrency.

In a post on X on Sunday, Buterin assessed that prediction platforms have already reached a significant scale, achieving enough trading volume to support full-time traders.

**Cathie Wood** led ARK Invest bought approximately $15.2 million worth of Coinbase shares on Friday. This came just a few days after disposing of over $39 million from the same ETF bundle.

This purchase occurred on a day when Coinbase's stock price surged 16.4% in just one day, reaching $164.32. Nevertheless, ARK's net holdings in Coinbase are still smaller than two weeks ago.

According to the company's daily trading disclosure, ARK acquired a total of 92,854 shares of Coinbase through three funds. Specifically, 66,545 shares were bought through ARKK, 16,832 shares through ARKW, and 9,477 shares through ARKF.

Two U.S. senators have asked Treasury Secretary **Scott Bessent** to determine whether a formal national security review is needed for the UAE's $500 million investment in the Trump family's cryptocurrency business.

With this request, a new front has been added to the congressional investigation into World Liberty Financial (WLFI), linked to a senior UAE royal with interests in American AI technology.