Gate Insights and Crypto Market Analysis

Midnight (NIGHT) increased by 2% during the Friday morning trading session, shortly after founder Charles Hoskinson announced plans to launch the mainnet at the end of March during the Consensus 2026 event. This information has further boosted market sentiment, helping NIGHT sustain its short-term recovery momentum.

Written by: JW, Techub News The start of 2026 is colder than expected. I thought we had weathered a long downturn, with spring just around the corner, but reality has been a sudden "late cold snap." It's like scrolling through Twitter and seeing those "Builder" types boast about their achievements, only to turn around and see them secretly change their status to "Open to work" on LinkedIn. Recent news has also shown that even Jack Dorsey, the Bitcoin fundamentalist with thick eyebrows who is the founder of Block and co-founder of Twitter, can't hold on anymore. According to Bloomberg, Block (formerly Square) has initiated a layoff plan, cutting 10% of its staff. Even if you're a payments giant, even if you hold cash in hand.

Several Taiwanese financial institutions, including private banks and pure online banks, have completed negotiations with partnered VASPs over the past year to submit applications to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) for a trial virtual asset custody business. However, they have been repeatedly rejected. The FSC's reason is that "the number of warning accounts is too high," and they require banks to significantly reduce the number of warning accounts before their applications can have a chance of success.

Binance has integrated Ripple USD (RLUSD) on the XRP Ledger, allowing immediate deposits while pausing withdrawals until liquidity is sufficient. This move aims to enhance on-chain liquidity, benefiting traders with low fees and quick settlements. The integration is part of a broader trend to increase RLUSD's availability across platforms.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), supported by Trump, plans to launch the World Swap foreign exchange trading platform, co-founder Zak Folkman announced at the Hong Kong Consensus Conference. The platform will use WLFI's USD1 stablecoin as the settlement currency, aiming to transfer foreign exchange trading onto the blockchain. The global forex market has a daily trading volume of over $7 trillion, with most transactions currently conducted off-chain.

Protect Progress plans to spend $1.5 million on efforts to oppose Rep. Al Green in Texas. The cryptocurrency industry remains a significant investor in political campaigns in the U.S. Christian Menefee supports blockchain innovation and could benefit from pro-crypto funding. The pro-crypto polit

David Schwartz, Ripple’s Emeritus Chief Technology Officer, ignited a fresh crypto civil war on February 12, 2026, by declaring Bitcoin a “technological dead end” that now relies entirely on adoption and network effects rather than innovation. His remarks came during a heated exchange over XRP Ledger decentralization, where Schwartz pointed to Bitcoin’s 2010 and 2013 coordinated rollbacks as proof that no blockchain is truly immune to governance intervention. Hours later, XRP community influ

Cryptocurrency finance company ETHZilla launches Eurus Aero Token I, supported by two leased commercial jet engines to a leading American airline. Each token is priced at $100, with a minimum purchase of 10 tokens, aiming to hold until 2028. ETHZilla purchased these two engines in January for $12.2 million, funded by the sale of part of its ETH reserves.

Coinbase outlined its strategic direction for 2026 in its shareholder letter, focusing on an all-in-one trading platform, stablecoin payments, and "bringing the world on-chain." However, the Base network recently experienced widespread transaction delays due to configuration changes, reflecting insufficient infrastructure stability. Despite Base's market advantages, user experience remains affected. The fix involved only rolling back rather than reconstructing, raising doubts among investors about the credibility of future commitments.

The Northern District of Ohio Prosecutor's Office warned on Thursday to be cautious of love scams during Valentine's Day, as crypto fraud and organized crime networks target the peak sales season. Authorities urge the public to stay vigilant, as scammers exploit online relationships to steal money, often building trust over weeks or months before luring victims into crypto payments and fake investment schemes. San Jose widow Margaret Loke lost nearly $1 million in the scam.

Stablecoins tightened their grip on crypto casinos and prediction markets in 2025, with dollar-pegged tokens like USDT and USDC emerging as the default chips for online wagering. This year is poised to play out in much the same fashion. Stablecoins Projected to Command Majority of Crypto

Hyperliquid Strategies confirms quarterly losses of $318 million, of which $262 million is attributed to unrealized losses on the HYPE token. The sharp decline in token valuation directly impacts the balance sheet, and market volatility has intensified losses. Although there have been no large-scale liquidations, the valuation impact reveals how token concentration can amplify downside risk.

In the turbulent segment of Web3, trends are replacing each other every month, a few times a year. This highlights the role of evergreen concepts, which remain relevant since the inception of Bitcoin and early altcoins. Hardware cryptocurrency wallets are textbook examples of such concepts.

World Liberty Financial will host its inaugural World Liberty Forum at Mar-a-Lago on February 18, 2026, assembling 300 global leaders including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig. The gathering comes as the Trump family’s crypto venture has generated \$1.4 billion in 16 months—more than Trump’s real estate empire produced in eight years—through WLFI token sales, a \$500 million UAE stake acquisition, and a rapidly growing USD

According to Forbes, Barron Trump has earned over $80 million from cryptocurrency investments, with an estimated net worth of around $150 million, and he is not even 20 years old. His wealth mainly comes from token sales and holdings in World Liberty Financial (WLFI). Forbes estimates these figures based on financial disclosures and market data, but the specific numbers are unconfirmed due to the difficulty in verifying cryptocurrency holdings.

Polygon (POL) has surged over 6%, now trading at $0.095, amidst a bearish crypto market. Its trading volume has increased by 21%. While bullish momentum appears, the market sentiment remains cautious, with technical indicators suggesting both potential upsides and risks of correction.