U.S. regulators moved to legitimize stablecoins at the federal level, 
expanding approved uses and elevating national trust banks’ role as payment 
tokens gain momentum across mainstream financial infrastructure. CFTC Expands 
Eligible Stablecoins for Regulated Collateral Use The Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Feb. 6 that its Market Participants 
Division reissued CFTC Staff Letter […]

CFTC Expands Stablecoin Collateral Rules as National Trust Banks Gain Approval

Amid a recent Bitcoin price rebound, Coinbase Premium data shows that American 
investors are renewing their bullish interest. Notably, the latest price 
relief only closes a negatively volatile trading week in which Bitcoin 
experienced a free price fall, as 30% loss pushed prices to around $60,000. 
This market plunge by the premier cryptocurrency has been attributed to many 
factors, including collapsing leverages, high levels of ETF outflows, metals 
market volatility, and also investors’ expectations in line with the typical 
boom and bust market cycle. Related Reading: Bitcoin Sell-Off May Be Done, 
Analyst Flags Recovery Signs Coinbase Premium Turns Positive After Successful 
$60K Retest The Coinbase Premium, one of the most important Bitcoin market 
indicators, shows the price difference between Bitcoin on Coinbase and its 
price on other major exchanges. It is largely used to measure how much more or 
less US investors are paying to acquire Bitcoin compared to international 
traders. According to Julio Moreno, Head of Research at CryptoQuant, the 
Coinbase premium has maintained a negative value since mid-January, suggesting 
that US traders valued the asset lower compared to their global counterparts, 
leading to a weak market demand. However, since Bitcoin bounced off the 
$60,000 support following the recent bloodbath, the American market 
participants have rediscovered their market confidence as indicated by a 
rising demand and corresponding movement of the Coinbase Premium into a 
positive zone. During this time, the flagship cryptocurrency has shown 
moderate resilience, climbing by over 16% to presently trade around $70,000. 
However, it is worth noting that the positive Coinbase Premium reading does 
not singularly confirm an impending full-scale recovery. Other factors need to 
be considered, including macroeconomic developments such as Federal Reserve 
interest rate decisions and liquidity tightening policies, overall global 
market sentiment, and geopolitical stability. Related Reading: Dogecoin Drops 
Below $0.09 as Market Weakness Outweighs Musk Hype Bitcoin Market Overview At 
the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $68,892, representing a 6.44% gain 
in the past day. However, significant losses of 17.34% and 23.38% on the 
weekly and monthly charts, respectively, show the asset is still deep in 
bearish territory. According to a recent post from CryptoQuant, Bitcoin has 
been about 50% away from its all-time high (ATH). Notably, recent bear markets 
recorded price slumps as low as 70%-80% indicating, indicating that there is a 
high possibility of a deeper price correction. However, CryptoQuant analysts 
warn that the bigger concern is time capitulation, i.e., how long this market 
winter will stay compared to how low prices may fall. With a market cap of 
$1.4 trillion, Bitcoin continues to account for over 55% of the total crypto 
market cap and is the largest digital asset in the world. Featured image from 
Pexels, chart from Tradingview

Coinbase Premium Turns Positive Since Mid-January As Bitcoin Sees Price Relief

The week of February 1-7, 2026, recorded $251.9 million in crypto VC funding 
across 12 projects, with Anchorage Digital&#8217;s $100 million strategic round 
leading. Here’s a deep dive into this week’s crypto funding activity as per 
Cryptofundraising data. Anchorage Digital…

Crypto VC Funding: Anchorage Digital secures $100m, TRM Labs raises $70m

While some consider the altcoins season may never come, others believe the 
altcoin market has changed, suggesting that a different version of the highly 
anticipated rally is in its early stages. Related Reading: Ethereum Targets 
April 2025 Lows As Price Drops Below $2,000 – What’s Next For ETH? ‘Inverted 
Altcoin Season’ Just Begun On Friday, the market recovered 15% from its multi- 
year lows, with most cryptocurrencies bouncing in the short-term timeframe. 
Amid the recent crash, investors’ sentiment has sunk to its lowest levels 
since 2022, with many expressing concerns about the future performance of 
altcoins. Market observer Ali Martinez discussed how the long-awaited altcoin 
season might have started, but not in the way most investors expected. In an X 
post, the analyst highlighted that after Bitcoin bottomed in November 2022, a 
nearly three-year bull run began, which carried the flagship crypto to its 
October all-time high (ATH). “During that entire period, many traders kept 
waiting for a traditional altcoin season: the familiar phase where Bitcoin 
rises and capital rotates broadly into altcoins, lifting nearly everything 
together,” he noted. However, unlike a traditional alt season, the market 
didn’t see altcoins rally all at once this cycle. Instead, many altcoins have 
been simultaneously breaking down structurally, with “channels that held for 
years (…) failing, support levels (…) giving way, and downside expansions (…) 
accelerating.” To him, “we are witnessing what I would call an inverted 
altcoin season.” Martinez noted the performance of cryptocurrencies like 
Filecoin (FIL), Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Cardano (ADA), which 
have either completed or started the breakdown from their macro channel 
supports. He considers this to be where new opportunities emerge: For traders 
willing to shift their bias, this environment has created meaningful 
opportunities — especially on the short side. (…) What’s important is that 
this pattern isn’t finished playing out. As a result, the analyst affirmed 
that the new inverted altcoin season is in its early stages, concluding that 
this cycle, it “didn’t arrive as a broad rally. It arrived as a selective 
unwind.” No More Broader Altcoins Rally? During a Thursday panel at the Ondo 
Summit 2026, Bitget’s CEO Gracy Chen discussed what crypto will look like in 
2030. The executive predicted that the Real-World Asset (RWA) sector will grow 
significantly in the next four years, with “everything tokenized.” However, 
she also shared the “controversial opinion” that the highly anticipated alt 
season “may never come” and that altcoins could never rally all at once again, 
which would be “a little bit tricky” for crypto businesses, she added. Others 
have previously discussed market changes and whether the “old cycles” for 
Bitcoin and altcoins still hold. Last year, analyst Altcoin Sherpa asserted 
that the crypto market is in a “hyper-accelerated regime.” He explained that 
the earlier cycles consisted of euphoric, corrective, and accumulation phases 
before the start of a recovery phase. Meanwhile, the market now experiences 
short-term uptrends followed by mid-term downtrends under the new regime. “We 
have 1-3 months of pump followed by 2-6 months of downtrend and rinse repeat,” 
he wrote. “There is no more euphoria where things go berserk for an entire 
year. Just 1-3 months and then down.” Related Reading: Solana Eyes Deeper 
Correction As Bearish Pattern Confirmation Targets $40 Based on the new 
system, he advised traders not to expect 2021-like market conditions for most 
altcoins or a traditional Alt season. Instead, Altcoin Sherpa suggested that 
investors should capitalize on shorter rallies while being aware of their 
limited duration. Nonetheless, he noted that, unlike previous cycles, altcoins 
will also recover faster and won’t take over a year to bottom and accumulate 
before a fresh leg up begins. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from 
TradingView.com

An ‘Inverted Alt Season’? Analyst Explains How The Altcoins Market Has Changed

The unwinding of Trend Research&#8217;s ETH position highlights the volatility and 
risks associated with leveraged crypto investments.
The post Ethereum whale Trend Research unwinds ETH position as losses reach 
$747M appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Cryptocurrency price in NZD