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📅 February 17 - United States | Politics may be the final obstacle to historic crypto reform. According to TD Cowen, the dispute over conflict of interest rules—which would include prohibiting certain digital asset transactions for high-ranking officials and their families—is stalling negotiations.

📖The debate centers on whether digital assets should be regulated as securities by the SEC or as commodities by the CFTC, but TD Cowen argues that the real core of the impasse is partisan fear of leaving the financial positions of the president and his family untouched.
The latest vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee demonstrated the magnitude of the impasse: no Democrat supported the measure due to concerns about Trump's connections to the sector.
At the same time, pressure from industry groups and the need for clear rules are pushing towards a compromise that guarantees market stability and regulates hot topics such as the performance of stablecoins.
TD Cowen suggests that a tactical concession—filling Democratic seats now in exchange for implementing contentious restrictions after the next inauguration—could be appealing to both sides because it would allow a future Democratic president to reshape the regulatory agenda without immediate new appointments, giving industry and Congress time to solidify technical frameworks.
Political mathematics is also practical: by law, commissions such as the SEC and the CFTC must include at least two commissioners from the minority party, but today both bodies lack Democratic representatives; The CFTC has four vacancies and the SEC has two.
TD Cowen adds that without the president's "personal" intervention to push through appointments or difficult concessions, the project could stall even further, although the firm estimates a 60% chance that the project will become law in 2026 if a negotiated path is found.
Beyond the raw politics, thorny technical questions remain: how to treat stablecoin performance, whether ETFs that incorporate staking are admissible, and what role traditional players already trading in crypto markets will play.
The clock is ticking, and negotiations will continue between lobbyists, regulators, and Capitol Hill offices, where every political concession could be the key to defining the regulatory architecture of the next decade.

Topic Opinion:
The willingness to negotiate implementation timelines and names demonstrates that the political solution is viable—but fragile: if regulatory stability is prioritized over short-term political gain, the United States could finally offer coherent rules that attract institutional capital.
💬 Do you think agreeing to postpone conflict-of-interest rules is a reasonable price to pay to advance the law?

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Why Bitcoin Treasuries are trading at a discount (7:02)
Harvard has a new crypto preference and it's not Bitcoin (BTC).
New filings show the Ivy League endowment manager is no longer treating Bitcoin as the only preferable cryptocurrency, even after building one of the more closely watched exchange-traded fund (ETF) positions in U.S. academia.
Related: Analyst predicts next big crash for Bitcoin as markets rally
Institutional investors deepen crypto exposure
Big money has been leaning further into crypto ever since ETFs lowered the barrier for traditional players to enter the space. Custody and compliance have also evolved in the last couple of years. 
According to recent fund flow data by Farside Investors, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw sharp outflows at the end of January, including a single-day net withdrawal of $817.8 million on Jan. 29 and another $509.7 million on Jan. 30.
Bitcoin ETF Flow tracker by Farside Investors
Between Feb. 11 and Feb. 12 alone, total net outflows reached $686.5 million before stabilizing. Since launch, however, the products have still accumulated a cumulative net inflow of $54.31 billion.
Even with that volatility, large asset managers have continued building exposure through regulated crypto investment products.
Goldman Sachs has disclosed holdings across multiple crypto-linked ETFs, including Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) funds, and has also participated in products tied to XRP and Solana exposure. 
Meanwhile, on Jan. 6, Morgan Stanley applied with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust.
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Harvard’s evolving crypto portfolio
Harvard Management Company first disclosed a roughly $116 million stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in 2025, gaining exposure to Bitcoin through a regulated spot ETF rather than direct custody. 
In the following quarter, Harvard tripled the exposure to about $443 million, making the Bitcoin ETF its largest publicly disclosed U.S. equity holding at the time. 
Related: Harvard University reveals shocking Bitcoin investment
Harvard trims Bitcoin exposure amid market sell-off
In its Form 13F filing for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, Harvard Management Company reported holding 5,351,234 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, down 21% from 6,809,091 shares as of Sept. 30, 2025.
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During the same fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, Harvard initiated a new position in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust, purchasing 3,873,562 shares valued at $86.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2025. The filing marked the endowment’s first publicly disclosed exposure to an Ethereum-based ETF. 
The cryptocurrency markets in 2026 are in a bearish cycle.
Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have endured a prolonged drawdown after peaking in late 2025. After hitting multi-year highs, Bitcoin has fallen sharply into the mid $60,000s this year, leaving prices roughly 22% below the start of 2026 and marking one of the weakest opening quarters since 2018.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $68,473.77, down 1.6% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum was changing hands at $1,968.96, after slipping 2.0% on the day, as per data from CoinGecko.
Related: Another crypto company halts withdrawals as markets slide
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