SnapShot 245

Hello SnapShotters,

The regulatory tussle in the U.S. ended in a stalemate this week. A White House meeting on Tuesday aimed at resolving the stablecoin yield dispute ended without a deal, after banking representatives arrived with a “prohibition principles” document demanding a blanket ban on any form of yield or rewards for payment stablecoins — a stance crypto industry executives say is designed to protect bank deposits rather than foster competition.

The impasse has left the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) stuck in the Senate Banking Committee.

The timing compounds existing market pressures. BTC spent much of this week sliding below $70,000 and hovering in the mid-$60,000 region. ETH slumped below $2,000, extending its decline to nearly 60% from August's peak, while BTC sits roughly 45% below its early October all-time high. BTC’s dominance of the crypto market has held steady at around 60%, while ETH’s share has shrunk to approximately 10%, underscoring a flight from altcoins into relative safety.

The corporate treasury model pioneered by Michael Saylor faced its most critical test yet. Strategy (MSTR) reported a Q4 2025 loss of around $12.4 billion, driven almost entirely by markdowns in BTC’s value. The company now holds 714,644 BTC, leaving its treasury position underwater on a mark‑to‑market basis. CEO Phong Le reassured investors, arguing that BTC would have to crash to roughly $8,000 and stay there for five to six years before Strategy would face real difficulty servicing its convertible debt.

On a contrarian note, a Bernstein Research memo argued that the current sell-off is structurally different from prior downturns. There are no exchange collapses, balance sheet shocks, or contagion spreading from overleveraged platforms, in contrast to the late-2022 bear market. It reaffirmed its $150,000 bitcoin target by the end of 2026, calling it the "weakest bear case" in the asset's history.

Social media discourses indicated that the nihilistic "bitcoin is dead" declarations that marked previous bear markets are conspicuously absent. The prevailing question is mostly “how low, and for how long?”

Here are the week's top stories as crypto fishes for a bottom.

Market Spotlight

Note: Market prices captured in USD at the time of sending. Explore more on Crypto‌.com/Price. 

Want more? Get weekly Market and DeFi Updates from Crypto.‌com’s Research Team.

News Snaps

🤖 Crypto.com CEO Launches ai.com

Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek launched ai.com this past week, unveiling a new AI platform through its commercial broadcast premiere during Super Bowl LX on NBC. It allows users to generate a private, personal AI agent, and users can get started now by registering at ai.com.

🏛️ CFTC Names Crypto Leaders to Innovation Panel
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) appointed 35 industry figures — including executives from Uniswap, Ripple, Solana, and exchanges like Crypto.com — to a new Innovation Advisory Committee. Chair Michael S. Selig said the group will advise the agency on AI, blockchain, and prediction markets within U.S. derivatives markets.

🎁 Bithumb’s $43 Billion BTC Glitch Triggers Flash Crash
South Korean exchange Bithumb accidentally credited users with 2,000 BTC instead of a ₩2,000 ‘random box’ giveaway, briefly inflating internal balances by 620,000 BTC ($43 billion). Some of the phantom BTC was sold within minutes, sending Bitcoin’s price on Bithumb plunging to about $55,000 before the error was quickly reversed.

🇻🇳 Vietnam Moves to Tax Crypto Trades Like Stocks
Vietnam is proposing a 0.1% tax on crypto transactions, mirroring its stock trading levy, under a draft framework from the Ministry of Finance. The policy would exempt crypto from VAT, while corporate investors face a 20% tax on net profits from crypto transfers.

🥇 Tokenized Commodities Top $6 Billion
The tokenized commodities market has climbed 53% since January 1 to $6.1 billion, led by gold-backed tokens like Tether Gold and PAX Gold. The sector is now up 360% year-on-year, making it the fastest-growing corner of the real-world asset tokenization market amid gold’s record rally.

What’s Ahead

📅 February 18: FOMC Minutes in Focus
Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) January 27 to 28 meeting will take place on February 18, with markets scanning for internal debate around QT tapering, financial conditions easing, and how close officials see inflation to target.

Number of the Week

Source: EDO on CNBC

Chart of the Week

Ether Holdings by Wallet Size

Since Ethereum’s August 2025 peak, wallets holding over 10,000 ETH have continued to accumulate despite the price sliding back toward $2,000. Holdings among 10K to 100K ETH wallets rose 15% to 20.1 million ETH, while wallets with over 100K ETH expanded balances by 34% to 3.7 million ETH by February 7.

In contrast, mid-sized holders reduced exposure: balances fell 15% among 100 to 1K ETH wallets and 16% for the 1K to 10K ETH cohort. 

As of February 7, 2026

Source: CryptoQuant, Crypto.com Research

Research & Insights

Equity and Commodity Perpetuals: Crypto’s Derivatives Playbook Increasingly Showing Up in TradFi

Crypto’s 24/7 derivatives model is expanding beyond BTC and ETH.

A new Crypto.com Research report highlights the surge in equity and commodity perpetuals — synthetic contracts that track stocks, indices, and gold without conferring ownership. In January alone, on-chain RWA perp volume jumped 162% month-on-month to $31 billion, with commodities leading the charge.

Why the traction? Perps solve real friction in traditional markets:

• They allow off-hours hedging when exchanges are closed
• They provide clean directional leverage without options complexity
• They offer synthetic short exposure without stock-borrow constraints
• In pre-IPO markets, traders can express views on private valuations

However, unlike crypto, traditional markets close. That creates a “weekend problem,” where prices drift without a spot anchor. This is one issue among many others, such as arbitrage risks, dividend and stock splits, and regulations.

This week’s research report’s core thesis is clear: equity and commodity perps could become the next major leg of asset tokenization, but the caveat is that it has to tackle the aforementioned hurdles.

👉 Read the full report: Equity and Commodity Perpetuals

Crypto Trivia

Which Lunar New Year zodiac coincided with one of crypto’s earliest major bull runs?

A) 2012 — Year of the Dragon 🐲
B) 2013 — Year of the Snake 🐍
C) 2014 — Year of the Horse 🐴

Find the correct answer at the end of this newsletter.

NFT Spotlight

Crypto.com NFT has teamed up with artists Morysetta and Barbara Redekop this Valentine’s Day to release two distinct artworks celebrating love in all its forms.

Morysetta’s “Colliding Galaxies” envisions love as two inner universes drifting and colliding against a vast cosmic backdrop, while Redekop’s “The Saint Whalentine” delivers a warm, witty wish for partners who hold strong through life’s highs and lows.

Celebrate the season of love. Shop the drops today!

Product Updates

Experience the Upgraded Accounts Page in the Crypto.com App

With the Crypto.com App’s new Asset-Led Navigation and Smart Insights features, users can make more informed decisions about their holdings. Utilize tools like the crypto dust converter and yield maximizer to help manage assets efficiently amid changing market conditions.

Check out the upgraded Accounts page in the Crypto.com App now!

This is informational content only and should not be considered as an investment recommendation. Some Crypto.com products may not be available in some jurisdictions.

Byte Sized

What separates bitcoin from fiat? Find out the differences now.

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CryptoIRL

Here’s an idea for Valentines’ Day: Get a sweet treat like @cromayoole and let your Crypto.com Card pick up the tab.

Hashtag #CryptoIRL with your Crypto.‌com Card on your social profiles to get featured! Your 15 minutes of fame in the #CROFam awaits you!

Security Tips

Address Poisoning Scams Are Costly, But Avoidable

Address poisoning is emerging as one of crypto’s most expensive scams, driven not by complex hacks but by simple user mistakes.

In January, one victim lost $12.2 million after copying the wrong wallet address from their transaction history, according to Scam Sniffer. A similar incident in December saw another $50 million stolen the same way — showing how costly this scam can be.

The tactic works by sending tiny “dust” transactions from wallet addresses that closely resemble trusted ones. These look-alike addresses appear in a user’s transaction history, increasing the chance that a malicious address is copied by mistake.

Attackers design these addresses to match the first and last characters of the legitimate ones, changing only the middle. When scanning transaction lists quickly, the difference can be easy to miss.

How to Keep Funds Safe:

• Always check the full wallet address before sending funds
• Avoid copying addresses from transaction history for large transfers
• Slow down — one small mistake can lead to irreversible losses

Crypto Trivia Answer

B) 2013 — Year of the Snake ✅

BTC entered its first major bull run in 2013, the same year as the “Year of the Snake,” when it surged from double digits to over $1,000 by year-end.

That's it for this week's SnapShot. Want more? Find out what’s trending in the crypto world.