Welcome to the Crypto.com Monthly Research Roundup Newsletter!

1. Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, 202 public companies have collectively acquired more than 1.1 million BTC (approximately US$79 billion) as of 10 March, representing around 5.5% of Bitcoin's total supply.

In February, the price index dropped by -20.60%, while the volume and volatility indices increased by +12.46% and +57.82%, respectively.

2. Charts of the Month

Bitcoin monthly accumulator addresses increased their holdings to new highs of around 290,000 BTC on 27 February, growing by over 103% from 142,576 in the beginning of January 2026. Accumulator addresses are wallets that satisfy conditions including having no outflows, holding a minimum BTC amount, and excluding exchange or miner accounts. This potentially suggests that investors are taking advantage of recent price decline to accumulate BTC.

Escalating Middle East tensions, occurring while traditional financial markets were closed over the weekend, spotlighted the continuous operation of crypto derivatives exchanges. Hyperliquid’s oil and precious metal contracts drew significant attention, driving trading volume and market discussion around Hyperliquid’s HIP-3. This framework enables the permissionless deployment of perpetual futures markets linked to real-world assets (RWAs).

As conflict intensified, Hyperliquid’s USOIL-USDH perpetual contract (pegged to U.S. crude prices) increased approximately 18% from $81.9 on February 27 to a high of $97.3 per barrel on March 1. Over the last week of February, trading volume and open interest (OI) for the contract skyrocketed by over 37 times and 14 times, respectively.

3. Monthly Feature Articles

The Rise of the Autonomous Wallet

2026 marks the shift to a machine-native agentic economy, enabled by autonomous wallets capable of self-identification, building reputation, and executing trustless payments. At the epicenter of this evolution lies the synergistic integration of the ERC-8004 "Trustless Agents" standard and the x402 payment protocol.

This report outlines the 2026 transition from human-managed DeFi to an agentic economy, driven by machine-native financial infrastructure.

Key Takeaways:

• 2026 marks the shift to a machine-native agentic economy via autonomous wallets capable of self-identification, building reputation, and executing trustless payments.
• This transition is built on the synergistic integration of three core protocols:
• • ERC-8004 (Trustless Agents): Provides trust and identity for AI agents via three on-chain registries — Identity (NFT-based), Reputation (signed feedback), and Validation (proof of work).
  • x402 Protocol (Native Internet Payments): The internet’s native payment rail, enabling account-free, high-frequency stablecoin micropayments.
  • EIP-7702 (Enhanced User Interaction): Allows standard user accounts to temporarily act as smart contract wallets, enabling "one-click" batching and third-party gas sponsorship to remove transaction friction.
• The Cronos "Golden Age" roadmap focuses on three key infrastructure areas to create a production-ready environment for intelligent systems: High-Performance Rails, Agentic Primitives and Wallet Interoperability.
• The shift to an agentic economy has three major implications for the near future:
• • Value Migration: Intermediary “moats” are eroding as agents bypass traditional platforms to connect directly with service providers.
  • New Markets: Verifiable performance histories of portfolio management algorithms can become tradable assets, creating entirely new financial intelligence markets.
  • Structural Advantage of Crypto: Permissionless account generation and real-time settlement make crypto rails structurally superior to traditional finance (TradFi) for the high-frequency micropayments in agentic economies.
• Key headwinds include prompt injection attacks, identity hijacking, and memory poisoning (implanting false data into an agent's knowledge base). Mitigation strategies include multi-signature (multisig) governance, sandboxed execution environments, and cross-referencing against on-chain truth via the Validation registry.

Monthly Market Update (February 2026)

In February, global markets grappled with U.S. tariff shocks, geopolitical conflict, and a cooling AI hype cycle. A stark divergence emerged: traditional safe havens like Gold and Real Estate thrived, while growth assets like Crypto and Nasdaq crumbled. The month ultimately exposed a market in transition, shifting from indiscriminate growth investing to selective, risk-aware capital allocation.

This report provides an overview of February market updates, new developments, and latest market outlook.

Key Takeaways:

• Overall Market Performance: Global markets saw a deepening divergence driven by an "AI scare" and escalating geopolitical tensions. Digital assets suffered a sharp retreat: Bitcoin plunged -21.7% and Ethereum dropped -28.5%. Traditional safe-haven assets rallied: Gold surged +8.7%, continuing its "safe-haven supercycle." Emerging Markets (+5.4%) and Global Real Estate (+7.9%) showed resilience.
• G20 Macro Environment: Central bank policies diverged: the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised its cash rate while the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) held steady. Trade tensions escalated after a new U.S. 10% tariff on global imports prompted the European Union to pause its trade deal with the U.S. Global financial conditions are in a period of risk reassessment with new concerns appearing around AI investments.
• Crypto Market Dynamics: DeFi categories decreased in February, led by Lending and Oracles. U.S. spot BTC ETFs recorded a net outflow of $207 million, and spot ETH ETFs saw a net outflow of $370 million, marking the fourth consecutive month of outflows for both.
• Crypto Regulatory Developments: U.S. crypto regulation advanced with ongoing CLARITY Act talks and new stablecoin proposals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). The U.S. State of Indiana approved crypto ETF investments for public retirement plans. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) banned unauthorized RMB-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) prepares to issue stablecoin licenses in March. The ECB plans for a 2027 digital euro pilot.
• Equity Market Trends: U.S. markets fell on "risk-off" sentiment, geopolitics, and a tech re-evaluation, despite positive CPI and Nonfarm Payroll data. European markets hit record highs on a rotation into cyclicals/energy. Asian markets varied: Japan and South Korea surged, while China, Hong Kong, and India decreased or remained flat.
• New Developments in Crypto and TradFi: Trump Media & Technology Group announced a partnership with Crypto.com to distribute digital tokens to shareholders. Crypto.com received conditional approval for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) plans to launch a blockchain-based platform for 24/7 tokenized stock and ETF trading in late 2026.
• Outlook on Key Projects and Tokens: Bitcoin saw increased investor accumulation via accumulator addresses after a price dip. Ethereum announced 2026 priorities: scaling, UX, and Layer-1 (L1) security — alongside a 2029 "strawmap" targeting transaction finality in seconds.

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4. Economic Calendar

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