By Jacob Joseph (all times ET unless otherwise noted)
Even with the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) little changed since midnight UTC, crypto markets remain under pressure. All but one member has fallen, and the outlier, bitcoin It is less than 0.1% in green.
The index has lost 2% in 24 hours, and spot bitcoin ETF flows were negative for the second straight session, with $133 million in net outflows on Wednesday. Spot ether (ETH) ETFs also saw net outflows. The second largest cryptocurrency has lost another 0.2% since midnight.
The key overnight development was Coinbase’s (COIN) announcement that its Layer 2 network, Base, will move away from OP Stack, the modular open source framework developed by Optimism that currently powers it. OP Stack enables chains like Base and Unichain to operate as low-cost, Ethereum-secured Layer 2, fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and aligned with Optimism’s broader Superchain vision.
Instead of relying on multiple external contributors for major updates and protocol changes, Base aims to consolidate development into a self-managed codebase, giving the team greater control over infrastructure, roadmap, and technical evolution.
The move has significant implications for optimism. Historically, Base has accounted for the vast majority of revenue generated by Superchain (often over 90%) accruing to the Optimism Collective. The announcement represents a major potential hurdle for Optimism’s revenue prospects, as the OP token has fallen 24% since Wednesday following the news.
In a more positive development, ether.fi said it will migrate its Cash product to Optimism’s OP Mainnet. The measure will bring about 70,000 active cards, 300,000 accounts and millions of dollars in total value blocked. The non-custodial payment card allows users to spend ETH, BTC, and stablecoins at over 100 million Visa merchants, offers 3% cryptocurrency cashback, and processes around $2 million in daily transaction volume.
In another notable Layer 2 development, Robinhood’s testnet recorded 4 million transactions in its first week, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. Robinhood Chain, based on Arbitrum, is designed to support real-world tokenized assets and a broader set of on-chain financial services, signaling the company’s continued push toward blockchain-based infrastructure.
While these ecosystem developments remain constructive, overall markets continue to operate within a broader bearish trend. The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting, released yesterday, highlight a growing divergence among policymakers on the path of interest rates.
Several officials indicated that further rate cuts should be on hold for now, with the possibility of resuming them later in the year only if inflation continues to fall. Stay alert!
Read more: For an analysis of current activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- February 19, 8 am: Zama will host a live presentation of its 2026 roadmap.
- Macro
- February 19: Raphael Bostic, Michelle Bowman and Neel Kashkari of the US Federal Reserve deliver speeches throughout the day.
- February 19, 8:30 am: US Initial Jobless Claims for February 14 estimated at 225,000 (was 227,000)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- February 19: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, -$0.32
symbolic events
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- ENS DAO is voting to register the on.eth name and establish it as an on-chain registry for blockchain metadata. Voting ends on February 19.
- Unlock
- Token releases
- February 19: Resolv to complete implementation of updated USR/RLP performance distribution parameters
- February 19: Injective to start INJ Community Buyback Round #226
Conferences
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is up 0.87% since 4 pm ET on Wednesday to $66,896.68 (24 hours: -1.31%)
- ETH is up 1.29% to $1,966.13 (24 hours: -1.49%)
- CoinDesk 20 rose 0.39% to 1,932.97 (24 hours: -2.57%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate remains unchanged at 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is 0.0056% (6.1747% annualized) on Binance
- DXY remains unchanged at 97.67
- Gold futures unchanged at $5,009.90
- Silver futures rise 1.13% to $78.47
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.57% at 57,467.83
- Hang Seng closed up 0.52% at 26,705.94
- The FTSE is down 0.63% at 10,618.95
- The Euro Stoxx 50 falls 0.81% to 6,054.02
- The DJIA closed Wednesday up 0.26% at 49,662.66
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.56% at 6,881.31
- Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.78% at 22,753.63
- S&P/TSX Composite closed up 1.5% at 33,389.73
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.37% at 3,707.85
- The 10-year US Treasury rate rises 1.3 basis points to 4.094%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures down 0.3% at 6,873.25
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures down 0.39% to 24,857.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures down 0.35% to 49,549.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 58.74% (0.26%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.0294 (-0.09%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,057 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $33.63
- Total fees: 2.31 BTC / $155,155
- CME Futures Open Interest: 118,610 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 13.4 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 4.47%
Technical analysis
- The ratio of altcoins (excluding top 10) to bitcoin price continues to rise from key weekly support and is now testing the 50-week exponential moving average.
- A break above that level would imply continued resistance from altcoins relative to bitcoin, which is likely because they are extremely oversold.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Monday at $164.05 (-1.19%), +0.24% at $164.45 in premarket
- Circle Internet (CRCL): Closed at $63.15 (+2.48%), +0.19% at $63.27
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.73 (+2.02%), +0.74% at $21.89
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $31.85 (-0.47%), unchanged in the pre-market
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $7.50 (-0.13%), +0.40% at $7.53
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.49 (+5.73%), +0.19% at $15.52
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.27 (+0.23%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.27 (-0.11%), unchanged from the previous market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $40.04 (+0.10%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $9.88 (-2.08%)
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $125.20 (-2.70%), unchanged from the previous market
- Strive (ASST): closed at $8.05 (-1.59%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.60 (-0.90%)
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.69 (-4.17%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.10 (+0.00%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$133.3 million
- Accumulated net flows: $54.07 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.26 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$41.8 million
- Accumulated net flows: 11.68 billion dollars
- Total ETH holdings ~5.74 million
Source: Farside Investors
while you were sleeping
- Bitcoin Recovers Losses in US Session as Trump Says Trade Deficit Reduced by 78% (CoinDesk): Bitcoin trading remained volatile on Thursday, rising to around $67,000 after briefly falling near $65,900, as traders digested President Trump’s claims that the US trade deficit was reduced by 78%.
- Bitcoin, ether and xrp ETFs bleed while Solana (CoinDesk) Dollar Outflow Trend – US-listed spot crypto ETFs flash red across the board, with one exception. SOL ETFs recorded $2.4 million in net inflows, bringing cumulative inflows to nearly $880 million.
- Gold Regains $5,000 With Focus on Federal Reserve Rate Path (Bloomberg): Gold advanced back to around $5,000 an ounce after jumping 2% on Wednesday, and traders focused on the Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rates. Bullion rose as much as 0.9% on Thursday and silver rose 3%.
- European stock markets fall as Airbus and Rio Tinto plummet; Nestle Earnings (Reuters): European shares fell on Thursday, as investors examined a mixed bag of earnings from companies including Airbus, Rio Tinto and Nestle.
