Crypto Winter Is Here

DAILY MARKET OVERVIEW

The Waiting Game

👋 Hey, Crypto Enthusiasts! The market is quiet, the narratives are thin, and crypto winter might already be here.

The crypto market continues to feel heavy. Bitcoin has no clean narrative right now. The "digital gold" story isn't doing it any favors. What it actually needs is either a broad liquidity-driven risk-on environment, or prices low enough that the market collectively decides it's cheap. Until one of those conditions is met, it's a waiting game.

• In the short term, we expect BTC to continue hovering around the $65K range, with occasional breakouts above $70K possible. But the broader trend remains bearish.

❄️ What we're likely entering is a multi-month crypto winter.

Think of it like the dot-com bust: everything got repriced indiscriminately. Even Amazon, one of the strongest businesses of the era, got caught in the drawdown. But it came back larger and stronger because the fundamentals were real.

That's the playbook for this cycle too. Assets without a genuine way to capture value will trend toward zero. Projects with real revenue, real users, and real utility will begin to decouple from the noise.

Names like Ethereum, AAVE, Pump, Hyperliquid, and Uniswap are worth putting on your watchlist now, while conditions are quiet. These are projects generating actual revenue with credible use cases, exactly the kind that tend to lead the next recovery.

❌ The best move right now isn't to chase trades. It's to preserve capital and build conviction so that when conditions flip, you're ready to act with confidence rather than scrambling to catch up.

Stay tuned to our newsletter. We'll be tracking how the strongest projects continue to develop fundamentally, so you're positioned before the crowd catches on.

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SOCIAL SENTIMENT

Ethereum Is Becoming Wall Street’s Backend

Ethereum's tokenized real-world asset market just crossed $14.7 billion, up roughly 315% year over year from $4 billion. Ethereum now hosts around 58.4% of all onchain RWAs, making it the clear center of gravity for tokenized finance.

Stablecoins on Ethereum already sit above $175 billion, which establishes the network as the dominant settlement layer for tokenized dollars.

What's changed is what's being tokenized: Treasuries, money market funds, commodities.

BlackRock is the most compelling proof point. Its tokenized Treasury fund, BUIDL, is now the largest product in the category and can be traded onchain via UniswapX. That's real institutional capital running on public blockchain rails.

JPMorgan followed with its own tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, seeded with $100 million and aimed at qualified investors. This is no longer a crypto experiment. It's a distribution and infrastructure decision.

Commodities are moving too. Tokenized gold is live, and the asset class already accounts for over $5 billion of Ethereum's RWA market. Some desks expect tokenized commodities alone to reach $15 billion by the end of 2026.

The core thesis is straightforward. Tokenization means faster settlement, lower costs, global access, and 24/7 markets. Once institutions adopt that stack, they rarely unwind it.

The projections reflect the conviction: Standard Chartered sees $2 trillion in tokenized assets by 2028. ARK puts the figure above $10 trillion by 2030.

The debate about ETH the asset continues. Meanwhile, the world's largest financial institutions continue to build on Ethereum.

NEWS OVERVIEW

The Latest Crypto Headlines 📰 

Stablecoins Shift From Trading Tool to Everyday Money
A new global study shows stablecoins are increasingly used for savings, payroll, and cross-border payments, with freelancers now earning 35% of income in stablecoins.

TON and Banxa Bring Stablecoin Payments to Asia-Pacific SMEs
TON partners with Banxa to enable stablecoin settlements for businesses across APAC, expanding cross-border payments and merchant adoption through Telegram-linked infrastructure.

Crypto Fear and Greed Index Hits Record Low
Market sentiment collapses to an all-time low reading of 5, even as institutional players continue expanding into DeFi and tokenized assets.

Wintermute Launches Institutional Tokenized Gold Trading
Wintermute adds OTC trading for tokenized gold products PAXG and XAUT, projecting the onchain gold market could reach $15 billion in 2026.

YOUTUBE INFLUENCER SUMMARY

Summary From The Top Influencers 📷️ 

Benjamin Cowen – Gold: Dubious Speculation (17.02.2026 Summary)

In this video, Benjamin Cowen shifts the focus from Bitcoin to gold. While many investors are celebrating gold’s strong run, he asks whether we are entering a speculative phase, and what history suggests could happen next. His approach stays macro-driven, comparing gold, silver, and equities through prior cycles.

Key Points

• Gold recently pulled back after trading near 5,000, showing large wicks both up and down, signaling indecision

• Benjamin expects a longer consolidation phase, similar to past periods where gold moved sideways while its support band caught up

• He believes silver may have already topped for the year, though gold could still push higher

• The S&P 500 vs gold ratio has broken down, which historically signals weakness in stocks

• Similar breakdowns in 1973 and 2008 preceded major equity downturns

• He notes the NASDAQ is showing signs of weakness, with lower highs forming

• In prior gold bull markets, recessions caused deep corrections in gold (35% to 50%), but gold recovered faster than stocks

• Even if gold corrects again, he argues it may still outperform equities in a risk-off environment

• Long-term, he remains macro bullish on gold due to rising uncertainty and likely policy responses such as money printing

Final Takeaway
Benjamin’s message is balanced but firm. Gold may correct or consolidate, but compared to equities, it still looks structurally stronger in a rising uncertainty environment. Even if volatility hits precious metals, history suggests gold often recovers faster than stocks during broader downturns.

Paul Barron – Next Big Crypto Rotation Into Value (17.02.2026 Summary)

Paul Barron believes crypto could be entering a rotation phase, similar to what we’re seeing in stocks. As mega-cap tech stalls and smaller value stocks break out, he argues crypto capital may shift away from hype and into projects with real revenue and utility.

Key Points

• Bitcoin is weak, sentiment is bearish, and speculation is fading

• In equities, money is rotating from growth into value, especially into smaller caps

• Paul sees a similar setup forming in crypto

He focuses on three signals:

1. Revenue matters now – Projects sharing fees or generating real cash flow are gaining attention

2. Token emissions are under scrutiny – High inflation models are losing favor

3. Ethereum could benefit – If rotation continues, capital may flow into core infrastructure and utility plays

He also suggests a future “MAG 20” in crypto, a smaller group of fundamentally strong projects that lead the next cycle.

Final Takeaway
Paul’s thesis is simple: the next rally may not be driven by memes. It may be led by tokens that act more like businesses. If this rotation is real, fundamentals will matter more than hype.

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