cryptexa

CryptoQuant: The Sharpe ratio for short-term BTC positions is signaling a potential buying zone. ▪️ The metric measures risk-adjusted returns. ▪️ It is currently in an extremely negative zone. ▪️ In previous cycles, such readings occurred during periods of maximum market pressure. ▪️ Each prior dip into this zone was followed by a sharp recovery and new all-time highs.

🇰🇷 A hacker has returned 320.8 BTC (about $21 million) to the government of South Korea, funds that were previously stolen from the country’s prosecution service. The return occurred after authorities blocked transactions linked to the associated wallet. The hacker’s identity remains unknown.

📊 crypto prices: BTC ≈$66,945 ETH ≈$1,975 SOL ≈$81,85 BNB ≈$608 XRP ≈$1,42 Market cap ≈$2,31T Fear & Greed Index: 11 ("Extreme fear") Altseason Index: 31

Selling pressure on altcoins has reached a five-year high. Retail investors have exited. Smart money has rotated elsewhere. Institutional accumulation of alts is nowhere in sight. This isn’t just a pullback — it’s 13 months of continuous net spot selling.

SharpLink Gaming earned around $1 million (502 ETH) in staking rewards last week. In total, the company has accumulated 13,615 ETH solely from staking rewards.

Bitcoin could fall to $55,000 before a reversal. Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, believes the market is in a full-fledged bear phase, and a sustainable recovery may take months. Key points: • Despite inflows of hundreds of billions of dollars, market capitalization is stagnating — selling pressure outweighs demand. • ETF inflows have slowed, and OTC demand has weakened. • Institutional investors are reducing positions and pulling capital. • Aggressive large-volume selling is being observed. Possible scenarios: BTC declines to around $55K, followed by a reversal. Months of sideways movement in the $60K–70K range before a new uptrend. Altcoins are in an even worse position — fresh capital has flowed only into select tokens with ETF potential, while the broad “market-wide narrative” that lifts all assets is no longer present.

Arthur Hayes sold 1,000 ETH ($1.99M) via Bybit at an average price of about $1,999. For reference, he bought Ethereum at around $4,200 in August last year.

Elemental Royalty, which specializes in gold mining royalties, has announced the first dividend policy in its history with an option to pay dividends in Tether Gold (XAUT). Shareholders will be able to choose between receiving dividends in fiat currency or in XAUT. The annual dividend is expected to be $0.12 per share, with the first payment scheduled for the end of Q1 2026. The move follows Tether acquiring a stake in Elemental Royalty last year.

CEO of CryptoQuant, raised the question: is it time to freeze Satoshi Nakamoto’s BTC? • Around 6.89 million BTC are already potentially vulnerable to quantum attacks. • About 1.91 million BTC are held on old P2PK addresses where the public key is visible from the start. • Up to 4.98 million BTC may have exposed their public keys after previous transactions. • 3.4 million BTC have not moved for more than 10 years, including roughly 1 million BTC belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto. If sufficiently powerful quantum computers emerge, they could theoretically derive private keys from public ones. In that case, “sleeping” millions of BTC would become prime targets. To protect the network, a protocol upgrade may be required — which leads to a difficult choice: Freeze old vulnerable coins, or Risk their mass theft.

📊 crypto prices: BTC ≈$67,801 ETH ≈$1,998 SOL ≈$85,05 BNB ≈$617 XRP ≈$1,47 Market cap ≈$2,33T Fear & Greed Index: 12 ("Extreme fear") Altseason Index: 36

Stablecoins have evolved from a crypto trading tool into an everyday financial instrument. They are increasingly used for payments, salaries, and savings, according to a joint study by BVNK, Coinbase, and Artemis, based on a survey of 4,658 adults across 15 countries. Key takeaways: More than half of respondents held stablecoins over the past 12 months, and about 56% plan to increase their holdings this year. 27% use stablecoins for direct purchases of goods and services, while 45% convert them into local currency. Merchant demand exceeds supply: 52% made purchases specifically because a merchant accepted stablecoins. For freelancers, gig-economy workers, and marketplace sellers, stablecoins account for an average of 35% of annual income. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said stablecoins improved their ability to work with international clients, while marketplace sellers reported higher sales and an expanded customer base. Fee savings were a key factor: respondents reported average savings of 40% compared to traditional payment services. There are still obstacles: too many steps to complete transactions, confusion over choosing blockchains and managing wallets, and the risk of losing funds. The main user demand is to make stablecoin payments as similar as possible to familiar financial services.

Tom Lee continues buying ETH. ▪️ BitMine has now purchased 4,371,497 ETH ($8.7B) — about 3.62% of the total supply. ▪️ Average purchase price: $1,998. ▪️ Available cash to increase reserves: $670M. ▪️ Purchased last week: 45,759 ETH ($91M). ▪️ Staked: 3,040,483 ETH ($6.1B).

$47.5 billion in stablecoins is currently held on Binance, which controls about 65% of all liquidity on crypto exchanges. CryptoQuant notes that capital is not leaving the crypto market — it is becoming more concentrated within it.

TON Foundation announced a partnership with Banxa to launch stablecoin payment infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. What this means: ▪️ Businesses will be able to settle B2B transactions and accept customer payments in stablecoins directly via the TON blockchain. ▪️ A faster and simpler mechanism for cross-border transfers in the APAC region, without typical banking delays. ▪️ Banxa’s infrastructure enables compliant conversion between fiat currencies and crypto assets.

Strategy purchased 2,486 BTC for $168.4 million at an average price of $67,710 per coin.

Standard Chartered cut its XRP price forecast by 65% following the market crash. The British bank lowered its end-2026 price target for Ripple’s XRP token from $8 to $2.8. Analysts also expect further declines across the crypto market in the near term. “The recent performance of digital assets has been, to put it mildly, challenging. We expect further downside in the short term and are revising forecasts across the entire asset class,” wrote Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital asset research, in a note to investors. Over the past month, XRP fell to a 15-month low and remains nearly 30% below levels seen a month ago. The bank also revised targets for other assets: its end-2026 forecast for Bitcoin was cut from $150,000 to $100,000, for Ethereum from $7,000 to $4,000, and for Solana from $250 to $135. According to Standard Chartered, XRP and ETH may show dynamics similar to the development of stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization going forward.

📊 crypto prices: BTC ≈$68,273 ETH ≈$1,981 SOL ≈$86,20 BNB ≈$626 XRP ≈$1,48 Market cap ≈$2,35T Fear & Greed Index: 13 ("Extreme fear") Altseason Index: 31

A mail-based scam attack has begun targeting users of Trezor. Owners of Trezor hardware wallets are receiving physical letters demanding that they urgently complete an “account verification.” ⊹ The letters are designed to look like official security notices. ⊹ Inside is a QR code that leads to a phishing website. ⊹ Entering the seed phrase results in a complete loss of funds. ⊹ The attackers likely used customer databases from past data breaches.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said that retail investors have been “buying the dip” in cryptocurrencies. According to him, retail traders on Coinbase increased their positions in leading cryptocurrencies during the market downturn. Over the winter, users accumulated more Bitcoin and Ether. “Based on our data, Coinbase retail users have shown strong resilience in the current market environment — they bought during the dip, as we’re seeing growth in the amount of BTC and ETH held by retail users. Additionally, the vast majority of customers in February had BTC and ETH balances equal to or higher than their balances in December,” Armstrong wrote on X. Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, reported a net loss of $667 million in Q4 2025, compared to a $1.3 billion profit a year earlier, citing falling crypto prices and reduced trading activity.

Strategy plans to convert its convertible debt into equity within the next 3–6 years, according to Michael Saylor. Some “shareholders” in the comments expressed concerns about potential dilution of their stakes. The company also reiterated its plan to remain solvent even if Bitcoin falls to $8,000.