Coinbase has expanded its crypto-backed lending service to include XRP, 
Dogecoin, Cardano, and Litecoin, allowing eligible users to borrow against 
more assets without selling their holdings. The company announced the update 
on Feb. 18, saying U.S. customers, excluding those in…

Coinbase adds support for XRP, DOGE, ADA, LTC as loan collateral via Morpho

Bitcoin investors hoping for a familiar macro rescue may be reading the room 
wrong. In an interview with Coin Stories host Nathalie Brunell, macro analyst 
Lyn Alden argued that the next policy turn is more likely to resemble a slow 
balance-sheet creep than the kind of “nuclear print” that has historically 
juiced risk assets, leaving bitcoin to compete largely on its own fundamentals 
and narrative pull. Alden framed the current cycle as unusually underwhelming, 
not just in price terms but in participation. She noted that sentiment “is 
worse than 2022,” and attributed the malaise to a missing retail bid, a lack 
of “alt season,” and a broader crypto market that “kind of run out of 
narratives.” Bitcoin, she said, topped out at $126,000, below her own bar for 
a satisfying cycle. “Sometimes they give their time frames so we can just see 
if it hits that time frame or not,” Alden said, pushing back on the reflexive 
call that every drawdown forces the Fed’s hand. “Every kind of down tick in 
stocks or every kind of down tick they say well the […] we’re going to have to 
print soon. But really the Fed only cares mainly about the liquidity of the 
treasury market and the interbank lending market […] even stocks going down 
10, 20, 30% is not really going to be a catalyst.” Related Reading: Is Jane 
Street Manipulating Bitcoin? The Viral Theory Explained Brunell pointed to 
comments she said came from Fed Chair Jerome Powell about “slowly” expanding 
the balance sheet, with purchases starting around $40 billion in short-end 
Treasury bills, far from the trillions some bitcoin bulls anchor on. Alden’s 
response was blunt: the plumbing doesn’t demand a shock-and-awe response right 
now. “Mainly because the conditions are not such that they would need a big 
print in the near future,” she said. “There are scenarios that can absolutely 
result in a big print or a nuclear print […] but when you kind of run the 
numbers of how much debt is coming out, how levered or unlevered banks are, 
they just don’t really need a lot of printing. A little printing gets them a 
long way.” In Alden’s telling, QE1-scale interventions were tied to a very 
specific setup: an overlevered banking system with low cash ratios and acute 
private-sector balance sheet stress. Today, she argued, bank cash ratios are 
“still pretty high,” and absent a COVID-scale disruption or an escalation in 
war or “financial war”, the base case is incrementalism. Bitcoin Still Has To 
Win Attention That matters because, in Alden’s framework, gradual balance- 
sheet expansion is supportive but not decisive for bitcoin. The era where 
“micro doesn’t matter at all” is reserved for true emergency stimulus and she 
doesn’t see that as the near-term setup. “Not a ton, I think,” Alden said when 
asked what gradual QE means for bitcoin. “It’s supportive […] but Bitcoin 
still has to compete on its own merits for investor attention. So, you know, 
basically it has to compete with Nvidia […] with everything out there that 
people can own.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Capitulation Or Buy Zone? What On- 
Chain Data Shows Right Now She tied the muted cycle to “mediocre” topline 
demand and a capital-market landscape where AI-linked equities and even 
precious metals have offered competition for mindshare. Sovereigns “didn’t 
really show up,” she said, and retail largely stayed sidelined, leaving “the 
corporate institutional side” and higher-net-worth brokerage buyers, aided by 
ETFs, as the main marginal bid. Alden also downplayed the idea that 
derivatives and ETFs are the chief culprit behind a capped upside, even if 
they can “inflate” synthetic supply for a time. The bigger issue, she argued, 
is simply that the demand impulse hasn’t been strong enough to overwhelm a 
now-larger, more liquid market. Looking forward, Alden expects bottoms to form 
as “fast money gets out” and coins rotate to “strongly held hands,” with price 
more likely to grind than V-recover. On the upside, she pointed to a potential 
setup where AI trades eventually peak, bitcoin sits “cheap for a while” in 
tight hands, and only “a marginal amount of new demand” is needed to restart 
reflexivity, possibly alongside continued buying from bitcoin treasury 
companies. For now, her core warning is that this cycle may not be saved by 
policy theatrics. If bitcoin is going to reassert itself, Alden suggested, it 
will be less about waiting for a macro bailout and more about whether enough 
investors still want “self-custodial […] undebasable savings,” even when other 
assets are stealing the spotlight. At press time, Bitcoin traded at $67,556. 
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Doesn’t Get A Macro ‘Bailout’ This Time: Alden Warns Of Gradual QE

Odds of the US CLARITY Act passing in 2026 briefly spike to 90% on Polymarket 
on Wednesday amid optimistic comments from US Senator Bernie Moreno.

US CLARITY Act to pass ‘hopefully by April’: Senator Bernie Moreno

Researchers said Kalshi’s “rich intraday dynamics” enable it to measure 
expectations in real-time when major financial events and announcements are 
made.

Kalshi data could inform Federal Reserve policy: Fed researchers

New Yorkers face escalating “pig butchering” investment scams draining life 
savings through fake crypto platforms, prompting Attorney General Letitia 
James to issue a stark warning and prevention guide as fraudsters deploy 
increasingly sophisticated digital tactics. ‘Pig Butchering’ Scams Cost 
Victims Thousands to Millions, NY AG Says Consumer protection efforts continue 
to target evolving financial fraud […]

Cryptocurrency price in CNY