Thrive Capital&#8217;s $10B fund amplifies its influence in tech innovation, 
potentially accelerating advancements in AI, robotics, and life sciences.
The post Thrive Capital raises $10B for its largest fund to date appeared 
first on Crypto Briefing.

Thrive Capital raises $10B for its largest fund to date

Bitcoin is back in compression mode on Feb. 17, 2026, trading at $68,021 after 
probing an intraday range between $67,381 and $69,999. With $36.58 billion in 
24-hour volume and a $1.37 trillion market cap, this is not a sleepy tape — it 
is a market pausing, recalibrating, and daring traders to overreact. Bitcoin 
Chart Outlook […]

Tension Builds: Bitcoin Trapped Between $60K Support and $75K Resistance

Bitcoin&#8217;s simplicity as a non-programmable asset strengthens its position as a 
store of value. The programmability of crypto does not equate to it being 
money; it represents value in diverse ways. Investors often misclassify crypto 
assets, failing to recognize their distinct nature compared to tr&#8230;
The post Mert Mumtaz: Bitcoin’s simplicity enhances its store of value, programmability doesn’t define money, and Solana’s engineering sets a new standard | Raoul Pal appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Mert Mumtaz: Bitcoin’s simplicity enhances its store of value, programmability doesn’t define money, and Solana’s engineering sets a new standard | Raoul Pal

Jake Claver is again laying out the conditions he says must line up for XRP to 
reach triple digits, framing the bet not as a chart call but as a sequencing 
problem tied to institutional tokenization, on-chain liquidity, and regulated 
market plumbing. In a “Memes and Markets” interview on Feb. 16 with Ben 
Leavitt and Keith D, Claver defended his so-called “Domino Theory”. Claver 
told the hosts he didn’t enter crypto until 2020, built a broader portfolio 
first, then consolidated into XRP after the 2022 drawdown because he viewed it 
as the “for sure thing.” The hosts pushed on his habit of speaking in 
absolutes, with Leavitt describing it as “the scariest thing” given how widely 
his clips circulate. Claver didn’t retreat from the posture. “I will put my 
nuts on the line and make statements,” he said, adding that his attorneys have 
advised him to refrain from doing so going forward. “I’m not going to back 
down. I have a very strong belief in this. And I’ve had enough validation from 
the right people that lead me to believe that this is the outcome that will 
take place.” Related Reading: Historic Trend That Led XRP To A Sharp 40% Trend 
Has Just Reappeared From there, the conversation moved into what Claver sees 
as the social base of the XRP trade. He argued that XRP attracts a “consistent 
type of person,” describing holders as disproportionately “faith-based,” 
generally older, and oriented toward family wealth and philanthropy rather 
than maximalist anti-bank narratives. Why XRP Could Reach $100 In his telling, 
that demographic preference is inseparable from the asset’s positioning. “They 
don’t think the banks are going to go away. They’re not going to be 
disintermediated,” Claver said. “They don’t think that this is going to be a 
free DeFi ecosystem, free for all where people can participate without 
compliance and oversight. And so XRP being the banker’s coin, right? Like 
that’s appealing to them.” Claver’s core mechanism is less about a single 
catalyst and more about preconditions. He pointed to timelines he says were 
aired by large financial institutions around tokenizing asset classes “in the 
next two years, by the end of 2028,” arguing that tokenization doesn’t matter 
without the ability to transact at scale. “It really doesn’t provide 
additional value today because there’s not enough liquidity in those 
ecosystems for people to transact like there is on the stock market or other 
markets,” he said. In his model, custody, identity, and liquidity are gating 
items; once those are in place, stablecoins could be issued on XRPL with XRP 
used as an intermediary asset, enabling marketplaces for tokenized stocks, 
private markets, and real estate to function “in a regulated environment.” 
Related Reading: XRP Outlook Slashed: Standard Chartered Lowers Forecast From 
$8 To $2 He also offered a cultural feedback loop: a long-running belief in 
“very high price” outcomes encourages holders to sit tight, reducing the 
tradable float. In Claver’s view, that scarcity (100 billion token supply) 
dynamic can amplify price pressure if demand arrives alongside institutional 
rails. “The more that gets taken off the market, the scarcer the supply is 
that’s openly traded and the higher the price will get pushed,” he said, 
arguing that many won’t sell “until they see the significantly higher prices 
that many people are hoping for.” The interview didn’t avoid the blowback from 
Claver’s missed New Year’s call. He said his conviction was partly tied to 
NDAs and partly to a public bet whose purpose, he claimed, was to ensure 
retail participants weren’t permanently stripped of XRP in side wagers. “Some 
people like to grind hard for the amount of XRP that they have,” he said. “And 
for them to just lose that to somebody else on a bet on Twitter, I didn’t feel 
good about. So all of those people have been returned their XRP.” Pressed on 
the risk that followers made “very poor financial decisions” around his 
timeline, Claver leaned on disclaimers and a wealth-management argument: big 
gains can be destabilizing without tax planning, estate structure, and 
stewardship. He noted that his advisory firm’s regulated advisors “would tell 
me I am being reckless and irresponsible with how I have made my allocation,” 
positioning his own posture as personal choice rather than template. At press 
time, XRP traded at $1.47. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from 
TradingView.com

XRP $100 Thesis: Jake Claver Details What Must Happen

Zerolend announces closure of its lending protocol and urges users to withdraw 
assets while recovery efforts continue. Deadshot Ryker, founder of Zerolend, 
posted on Discord that after three years the protocol will wind down 
operations due to declining liquidity on several chains, loss of oracle 
support, increased malicious activity, and prolonged unprofitable operation; 
most markets […]

Cryptocurrency price in LKR