coindesk.com
By Jacob Joseph (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Even with the CoinDesk 20 index (CD20) little changed since midnight UTC, crypto markets remain under pressure. All but one member has dropped, and the outlier, bitcoin $BTC$66,683.65, is less than 0.1% in the green.
The index has lost 2% in 24 hours, and spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund flows were negative for a second consecutive session, with $133 million in net outflows on Wednesday. Spot ether ($ETH) ETFs also posted net outflows. The second-largest cryptocurrency has lost another 0.2% since midnight.
The key development overnight was Coinbase’s (COIN) announcement that its layer-2 network, Base, will move away from the OP Stack, the open-source, modular rollup framework developed by Optimism that currently powers it. The OP Stack enables chains such as Base and Unichain to operate as low-cost, Ethereum-secured layer 2s, fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and aligned with Optimism’s broader Superchain vision.
Rather than relying on multiple external contributors for core upgrades and protocol changes, Base intends to consolidate development into a self-managed codebase, giving the team greater control over infrastructure, roadmap, and technical evolution.
The move carries meaningful implications for Optimism. Base has historically accounted for the vast majority of Superchain-generated revenue — often exceeding 90% — which accrues to the Optimism Collective. The announcement represents a significant potential headwind to Optimism’s revenue outlook, with the OP token declining 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 move will bring some 70,000 active cards, 300,000 accounts and millions of dollars in total value locked. The non-custodial payment card allows users to spend $ETH, $BTC and stablecoins at over 100 million Visa merchants, offers 3% crypto cashback and processes about $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. The Arbitrum-based Robinhood Chain is designed to support tokenized real-world assets and a broader suite of onchain financial services, signaling the firm’s continued push into blockchain-based infrastructure.
While these ecosystem developments remain constructive, broader markets continue to trade within a wider downtrend. The latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes, released yesterday, highlight a growing divergence among policymakers on the path of interest rates.
Several officials indicated that further rate cuts should be paused for now, with the possibility of resuming easing later in the year only if inflation continues to fall. Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to Watch
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".
- Crypto
- Feb. 19, 8 a.m.: Zama to host a live presentation of its 2026 roadmap.
- Macro
- Feb. 19: U.S. Fed's Raphael Bostic, Michelle Bowman and Neel Kashkari make speeches throughout the day.
- Feb. 19, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. initial jobless claims for Feb. 14 est. 225K (Prev. 227K)
-
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- Feb. 19: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, -$0.32
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".
- Governance votes & calls
- ENS DAO is voting to register the on.eth name and establish it as an onchain registry for blockchain metadata. Voting ends Feb. 19.
- Unlocks
- No major unlocks.
- Token Launches
- Feb. 19: Resolv to complete rollout of updated USR/RLP yield distribution parameters
- Feb. 19: Injective to start INJ Community Buyback Round #226
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".
- Day 3 of 4: ETHDenver
Market Movements
- $BTC is up 0.87% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $66,896.68 (24hrs: -1.31%)
- $ETH is up 1.29% at $1,966.13 (24hrs: -1.49%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 0.39% at 1,932.97 (24hrs: -2.57%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.81%
- $BTC funding rate is at 0.0056% (6.1747% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is unchanged at 97.67
- Gold futures are unchanged at $5,009.90
- Silver futures are up 1.13% at $78.47
- Nikkei 225 closed up 0.57% at 57,467.83
- Hang Seng closed up 0.52% at 26,705.94
- FTSE is down 0.63% at 10,618.95
- Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.81% at 6,054.02
- DJIA closed on Wednesday up 0.26% at 49,662.66
- 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
- S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.37% at 3,707.85
- U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 1.3 bps at 4.094%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.3% at 6,873.25
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.39% at 24,857.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.35% at 49,549.00
Bitcoin Stats
- $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 vs gold market cap: 4.47%
Technical Analysis
- The ratio of altcoins (excluding the top 10) to the 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 resilience of altcoins relative to bitcoin, which is most likely a result of their being extremely oversold.
Crypto Equities
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Monday at $164.05 (-1.19%), +0.24% at $164.45 in pre-market
- 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 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 in pre-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 in pre-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
Spot $BTC ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$133.3 million
- Cumulative net flows: $54.07 billion
- Total $BTC holdings ~1.26 million
Spot $ETH ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$41.8 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.68 billion
- Total $ETH holdings ~5.74 million
Source: Farside Investors
While You Were Sleeping
- Bitcoin shakes off U.S. session losses as Trump says trade deficit cut by 78% (CoinDesk): Bitcoin trading remained volatile on Thursday, rising to around $67,000 after briefly dipping near $65,900, as traders digested President Trump’s claims the U.S. trade deficit was cut by 78%.
- Bitcoin, ether, xrp ETFs bleed while Solana bucks outflow trend (CoinDesk): U.S.-listed spot crypto ETFs are flashing red across the board, with one exception. SOL ETFs recorded $2.4 million in net inflows, pushing cumulative inflows to nearly $880 million.
- Gold recaptures $5,000 with focus on the Fed’s rate path (Bloomberg): Gold advanced back to around $5,000 an ounce after jumping 2% on Wednesday, with traders focused on the Fed’s next move on interest rates. Bullion climbed as much as 0.9% on Thursday, silver 3%.
- European shares dip as Airbus, Rio Tinto plunge; Nestle gains (Reuters): European shares slipped on Thursday, as investors sifted through a mixed bag of earnings from the likes of Airbus, Rio Tinto and Nestle.