Aave lending rates surge after massive ETH sell-off... a sign of liquidity crunch.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, following the recent sell-off of 636,000 ETH, the annualized lending rate (APR) for Ethereum (ETH) on the DeFi platform Aave surged 3.45 times to 7.35% yesterday. It currently remains at 5.33%. The total ETH deposits on Aave are 3.09 million, representing 81.34% of the maximum supply, of which 2.92 million (80.99% lending ratio) have been lent out. This data indicates that liquidity pressure in the ETH market is intensifying.
Coinbase massively suspends Altcoin perpetual futures trading
Coinbase announced that it will suspend trading of certain Altcoin perpetual futures (PERP) on Coinbase Advanced and Coinbase International Exchange starting at 1 PM UTC on February 20th. All open positions will be automatically settled at the time of suspension, with the settlement price calculated based on the average index price over the 60 minutes prior to the suspension. Funding fees will be set to zero for the final funding cycle. Assets affected by this suspension include EDGE, FLOW, 1000SATS, SCR, IO, AR, HMSTR, DEGEN, L3, GIGA, TNSR, BLAST, DYM, ZETA, CGLD, LAYER, MEW, CRO, MANTLE, RSR, HNT, SYRUP, PROVE, and GRASS.
A $100 million USDC transfer to an unknown wallet... raises concerns about market impact.
According to on-chain data analytics firm Whale Alert, on the 6th local time, approximately $100 million worth of USDC was transferred from the US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to an unknown external wallet. The total transfer amounted to $100,026,949 (approximately $100 million), suggesting it may be the movement of a large holder. Market concerns are that this transfer could trigger selling pressure.
ProCap Chief Investment Officer: "Bitcoin is entering a new market phase unrelated to interest rates."
In an interview with Anthony Pompliano, Jeff Park, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of ProCap Financial, stated that the traditional view that "interest rate cuts drive the Bitcoin bull market" should be reconsidered. He pointed out that Bitcoin is entering a new phase where it can rise even during a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike cycle. He defined this as "mature Bitcoin" or the "holy grail," and analyzed that liquidity supply, such as quantitative easing, may no longer be the core condition driving BTC price increases. He explained that if this scenario materializes, core structures of the traditional financial system, such as risk-free rates, dollar hegemony, and yield curves, may also change.
Looking ahead, bank-driven wallets will dominate rather than self-custodied systems… EY: “Wallets = the hub of on-chain finance”
Accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) analyzes that cryptocurrency wallets are transforming from mere tools into core infrastructure of the next-generation financial system. EY emphasizes that "whoever controls the wallet controls the customer," and wallets will become the core channel connecting tokenized assets with various on-chain financial activities such as payments and private lending. However, self-custodied wallets are not expected to become widespread, and trust-based wallet services led by banks, fintech companies, or custodian institutions will dominate the market.
BTC breaks through $71,000
According to cryptocurrency media outlet Odaily, BTC (Bitcoin) has broken through $71,000 on the OKX exchange. As of press time, BTC was trading at $71,030.4, a 24-hour increase of 10.78%.
AI.com was acquired by Crypto.com's CEO for $70 million... with plans to build an AI platform.
According to the Financial Times (FT), Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek acquired the "AI.com" domain for approximately $70 million. This is the largest publicly disclosed domain name transaction. Marszalek plans to launch a consumer-facing artificial intelligence (AI) platform based on the domain and plans a large-scale marketing campaign through Super Bowl ads.
Zcash security enhancement project receives second donation from Vitalik Buterin.
Shielded Labs, an independent development team led by Zcash (ZEC) founder Zooko, announced that it has received a second donation from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. The specific amount was not disclosed, but the funds will be used for the development of "Crosslink," a Zcash security enhancement project. Crosslink is a technology that adds a parallel finality layer to the traditional PoW-based consensus structure to prevent chain reorganization and rollback attacks.
Sberbank of Russia plans to launch cryptocurrency-backed loans for businesses.
Sberbank, Russia's largest state-owned bank, plans to officially launch a cryptocurrency-backed mortgage service for corporate clients. According to WuBlockchain, the service, which saw positive results during its pilot run at the end of 2025, will be rolled out based on strong demand. Sberbank stated it is prepared to cooperate with the Russian Central Bank's plan to complete cryptocurrency regulation by July 2026.
El Salvador officially declares itself a "Bitcoin Nation".
The government of El Salvador has officially declared itself a "Bitcoin Country." US cryptocurrency media outlet WatcherGuru reported this news via its X platform, stating that the local government is using Bitcoin as a national symbol. El Salvador became the world's first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and has since continued to invest in projects such as the construction of Bitcoin cities. This announcement reaffirms this policy stance.
