Dutch regulator orders Polymarket to halt operations, calling prediction 
markets unlicensed gambling and threatening 840,000 in penalties.
The post Dutch regulator orders Polymarket to halt operations or face €840,000 
penalty appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Dutch regulator orders Polymarket to halt operations or face €840,000 penalty

Bitwise Asset Management has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 
to approve six exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that would let investors wager on 
the outcomes of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election—straight 
from their brokerage accounts. Wall Street’s Election Bet: Bitwise Seeks 
Approval for Prediction Shares ETFs Filed on Feb. 17, the Bitwise […]

Bitwise Targets 2028 Presidential Race With Binary Outcome ETFs

The long-term vision for Ethereum is increasingly shifting beyond incremental 
upgrades toward a more fundamental transformation of its core architecture. As 
the network continues to scale and support a growing ecosystem of 
decentralized applications, developers and researchers are exploring whether 
achieving ETH’s ultimate goals of global scalability, security, and 
decentralization requires rebuilding elements of its base layer rather than 
simply refining existing systems. Rebuilding Core Infrastructure For Long-Term 
Growth Ethereum’s evolution has moved beyond incremental upgrades; it is 
entering a phase of structural reconstruction. The head of research at 
EigenCloud, Soubhik Deb, mentioned on X that the initiative often referred to 
as Lean Consensus, formerly known as née Beamchain, signals the beginning of 
ETH’s endgame. Related Reading: Ethereum Foundation Maps 2026 Protocol 
Priorities as Major Upgrades Near It is reducing accumulated technical debt, 
pushing toward fast finality, and designing the protocol with post-quantum 
future resilience in mind. At the heart of this transformation is Lean 
Consensus, being one of the most ambitious protocol workstreams for the 
network and the crypto infrastructure overall. In Soubhik Deb&#8217;s discussions 
with Drakefjustin, the focus was to understand what Lean ETH practically is in 
terms of real-time proving and increased Layer 1 throughput, and what it 
unlocks for the rollups. Other protocols are being introduced to bolster the 
network’s ecosystem, including scaling. Analyst Ladislaus offered insight into 
the relationship between FOCIL and Ethereum&#8217;s scaling roadmap, particularly in 
the medium-term via L1 zkEVMs. Presently, it seems clear that the ETH 
community is demanding higher L1 throughput to meet global demand. However, 
the truth about trade-offs today is that censorship resistance and fast 
inclusion rely heavily on validator altruism, more concretely, on the 
willingness of validators choosing to build blocks locally and thereby forego 
more valuable blocks from third-party builders. At the current scale, the tax 
on altruism is still acceptable and manageable, but reliance is brittle and 
suboptimal. What makes it even more problematic is that as throughput 
increases, it becomes progressively more expensive. The good news is that 
FOCIL will make inclusion a protocol-level guarantee. Instead of treating 
censorship resistance as a market probability, it becomes an enforced rule of 
the system. Related Reading: Ethereum Price Builds Tension Below Resistance, 
Breakout Risk Rising However, with the decision to schedule FOCIL for protocol 
inclusion, the project is well-positioned to reduce critical social-layer 
dependency. At the same time, paving the way for a massive increase in L1 
throughput. Ethereum Liquidation Clusters Build On Both Sides Of Price 
Ethereum’s current liquidation heatmap reflects a market stretched on both 
sides. According to Ted, ETH longs and shorts are aggressive, which means all 
this aggressiveness will be taken out. If geopolitical tensions such as a 
potential US–Iran escalation intensify, downside pressure could spark long 
liquidations, followed by a reversal that squeezes shorts. However, positive 
developments like peace talks could ignite an upside breakout, wiping out 
shorts before the price potentially retraces to target late longs. Featured 
image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com

Why Ethereum’s Endgame Requires Rebuilding The Base Layer

Base&#8217;s split from the OP Stack signals a pivotal shift in Ethereum&#8217;s layer two 
landscape
The post Bryan Pellegrino: Base&#8217;s shift signals independence from OP Stack, why fragmentation is the future of blockchain, and the rising importance of interoperability for institutions | Unchained appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bryan Pellegrino: Base’s shift signals independence from OP Stack, why fragmentation is the future of blockchain, and the rising importance of interoperability for institutions | Unchained

After four years contributing, BGD Labs said it would be leaving the DAO, 
citing changes to the organization and taking an “adversarial position“ to its 
liquidity protocol.

Cryptocurrency price in INR