Crypto Daily Market Report – February 26, 2026

• ETH: The Ethereum Foundation released a “strawmap” roadmap outlining seven hard forks through the end of 2029, targeting an upgrade cadence of every six months. The roadmap includes five key objectives:
  • Faster L1 finality
  • “Gigagas” L1 (10k TPS via zkEVM)
  • “Teragas” L2 via data availability sampling
  • Post-quantum cryptography
  • Native L1 privacy for ETH transfers
• DOT: Polkadot plans a halving event on March 14 and will cap total supply at 2.1 billion DOT. DOT rose 28.6%.
• UNI: Flowdotbid launchpad integrated Uniswap’s CCA protocol on Base. Previously, DX Terminal Pro also integrated Uniswap to enhance liquidity. UNI gained 14.7%.
• NEAR: NEAR launched “Confidential Intents,” introducing a privacy execution layer for cross-chain transactions. NEAR rose over 17%.
• HYPE: CoinShares launched a staked HYPE ETP product.

• U.S. initial jobless claims (week ending Feb 21)
• 2028 FOMC voter and St. Louis Fed President Musalem to speak on the Fed’s role
• MBG token unlock: 46 million tokens (~$15.70M)

• Trump: Tariffs will continue and will replace income tax
• Fed’s Bostic: Federal Reserve independence has been eroded
• Fed’s Schmid: Inflation remains the key issue
• U.S. Trade Representative: Tariffs on certain countries to increase to 15%

• Hong Kong to build a digital bond platform linked to a regional tokenization hub, incorporating bond settlement into core infrastructure
• SBF continues unsuccessful pardon efforts; White House confirms Trump has no intention to grant clemency
• Four companies enter the UK stablecoin regulatory sandbox
• U.S. senator launches investigation into Binance over alleged $1.7B transfers to Iranian entities
• New South Korean legislation proposes mandatory position disclosure for financial influencers recommending stocks or tokens

• Ethereum Foundation plans 7 hard forks by 2029, targeting 5 major milestones
• Circle surged 35% on better-than-expected earnings
• Nvidia Q4 revenue +73%; explosive Q1 guidance hits new highs; Jensen Huang raises $500B revenue outlook
• OpenClaw founder: Privacy fully implemented, but security challenges remain
• Kalshi enforces first insider trading case, fining MrBeast affiliates and former California gubernatorial candidate
• Stripe co-founder: Machine-to-machine payments to surge; strategic bet on USDC and Tempo; predicts AI agent-driven e-commerce boom; Bloomberg reports Stripe considering acquisition of part or all of PayPal assets
• Kraken launches crypto-backed staking loan product “Flexline”
• Tether invests in Whop; CEO teaser suggests possible crypto card launch
• U.S.-listed company GDC to liquidate 7,500 BTC reserves
• NEAR launches Confidential Intents privacy layer for cross-chain transactions

Ethereum Foundation Plans 7 Hard Forks by 2029, Targeting 5 Major Milestones

• The Ethereum Foundation’s long-term roadmap indicates a strategic shift from the "Merge" toward deep performance optimization. The seven planned hard forks leading up to 2029 will phasedly introduce zk-SNARKs for privacy, full adoption of Account Abstraction, and the final implementation of Sharding. These five milestones are designed to solve core challenges in scalability, security, usability, resilience, and decentralized governance, ensuring Ethereum maintains its absolute competitive edge as the global financial settlement layer.

Circle Shares Surge 35% on Better-than-Expected Earnings

• Driven by Q4 2025 revenue reaching $770 million (a 77% year-over-year increase) and a significant resurgence in USDC popularity, Circle’s stock (Ticker: CRCL) rallied sharply following its financial report. USDC circulation has surpassed $75 billion, capturing a 28% market share. Analysts point out that Circle’s reserve interest income in the Fed’s high-rate environment, combined with enterprise-level partnerships with Visa and Intuit, are the core drivers behind profitability that significantly outperformed market expectations.

Nvidia Q4 Revenue Up 73%; Jensen Huang Raises Long-term Outlook to $500B

• Nvidia released its latest earnings, widely considered a bellwether for the AI sector, reporting Q4 revenue of $68.1 billion—a 73% increase. As Blackwell chips enter full mass production, CEO Jensen Huang boldly estimated potential order demand of approximately $500 billion over the next six quarters. This "explosive" guidance not only pushed the stock to new highs but also signaled that the global compute race, from LLM training to AI inference, remains in its early stages of hyper-growth.

OpenClaw Founder: Privacy Fully Implemented, but Security Challenges Remain

• OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger recently stated that their AI Agent platform has achieved a privacy solution featuring local storage and full user sovereignty. However, he warned that "security does not equal privacy," noting that AI Agents still face severe supply-side risks, with malicious plugin contamination rates reaching 11.3% and "indirect prompt injection" attacks on the rise. OpenClaw is currently addressing these highly complex security threats through isolated execution environments and reinforced self-defense models.

Kalshi Enforces First Insider Trading Case, Fining MrBeast Affiliates and Political Figures

• The prediction market platform Kalshi demonstrated zero tolerance for market manipulation by announcing a $20,000 fine and a trading ban on a video editor for the MrBeast channel who engaged in arbitrage using non-public video information. Simultaneously, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate in California was banned for using social media to induce others to bet on their own victory. This move marks a milestone in the maturation of regulated prediction markets, which are beginning to establish oversight mechanisms similar to traditional finance.

Stripe Co-founder Bets on M2M Payments and AI E-commerce; Bloomberg Reports Potential PayPal Acquisition

• Stripe’s co-founder predicts that hundreds of millions of AI Agents will become mainstream consumers, driving a surge in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) payments. Stripe is paving the way for this trend by integrating the USDC stablecoin and the Tempo payment suite. Furthermore, Bloomberg reported that Stripe is evaluating the possibility of acquiring part or all of PayPal's assets. If realized, this would be one of the largest mergers in fintech history, potentially reshaping the global online payment landscape.

Kraken Launches Crypto-Backed Staking Loan Product “Flexline”

• To improve capital efficiency for its users, Kraken Pro has launched "Flexline." This product allows users to borrow various assets, including USDC and BTC, using their staked crypto holdings as collateral, with Annual Percentage Rates (APR) ranging from 10% to 25%. A key highlight of Flexline is that borrowed funds can be withdrawn off-platform or used for leveraged trading, providing a flexible off-chain liquidity solution in an environment of tightening regulations.

Tether Invests in Whop; CEO Teaser Suggests Possible Crypto Card Launch

• Stablecoin giant Tether announced a strategic investment in the high-growth digital marketplace Whop, enabling its 18 million users to use USDT seamlessly via the Wallet Development Kit (WDK). Around the same time, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posted a teaser video on social media featuring a metallic card icon. Markets speculate that Tether may be secretly developing a "Tether Card" to connect crypto with physical consumption, further blurring the lines between digital assets and real-world spending.

U.S.-Listed GDC to Liquidate 7,500 BTC Reserves for Share Buybacks

• Due to a significant discount in its market-to-NAV (mNAV) ratio of approximately 0.5, Nasdaq-listed GD Culture (GDC) announced that its board has approved the liquidation of its 7,500 BTC reserves. The proceeds, roughly $510 million, will primarily be used for a $100 million share buyback program. While the move aims to eliminate "valuation inversion," it has sparked debate regarding the sustainability of "Digital Asset Treasury Strategies" when faced with market volatility.

NEAR Launches Confidential Intents Privacy Layer for Cross-Chain Transactions

• The launch of Confidential Intents by NEAR Protocol aims to address the issue of excessive transparency in DeFi trading. Leveraging NEAR’s "Private Shards" technology, this feature allows institutions and professional traders to hide key path and amount details during cross-chain deposits, transfers, and swaps. The introduction of this "privacy mode" is considered a critical infrastructure piece for attracting institutional capital into the multi-chain ecosystem by effectively reducing front-running and MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) attacks.