By Jacob Joseph (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Even with the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) little changed since midnight UTC, crypto markets remain under pressure. All but one member has fallen, and the outlier, bitcoin is less than 0.1% in green.
The index has lost 2% in 24 hours, and spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund flows were negative for the second consecutive session, with $133 million in net outflows on Wednesday. Spot ether (ETH) ETFs also had net outflows. The second largest cryptocurrency has lost another 0.2% since midnight.
The key overnight development was Coinbase’s ( COIN ) announcement that its layer-2 network, Base, will move away from OP Stack, the open-source, modular rollout framework developed by Optimism that currently powers it. OP Stack enables chains like Base and Unichain to act as low-cost, Ethereum-secured layer 2s, fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and aligned with Optimism’s broader Superchain vision.
Instead of relying on multiple external contributors for core upgrades and protocol changes, Base intends to consolidate development into a self-managed codebase, giving the team greater control over infrastructure, roadmap, and technical development.
The move has significant implications for optimism. Base has historically accounted for the vast majority of Superchain generated revenue – often over 90% – that accrues to the Optimism Collective. The announcement represents a significant potential headwind to Optimism’s revenue outlook, with the OP token down 24% since Wednesday following the news.
In a more positive development, ether.fi said it will migrate its Cash product to Optimism’s OP Mainnet. The move will bring about 70,000 active cards, 300,000 accounts and millions of dollars in total value locked up. The non-custodial payment card allows users to spend ETH, BTC and stablecoins at over 100 million Visa merchants, offers 3% crypto cashback and processes around $2 million in daily transaction volume.
In another notable layer-2 development, Robinhood’s testnet recorded 4 million transactions in its first week, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. The Arbitrum-based Robinhood chain is designed to support real-world tokenized assets and a broader suite of onchain financial services, signaling the company’s continued push into blockchain-based infrastructure.
While these ecosystem developments remain constructive, broader markets continue to trade within a broader downtrend. The latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes, released yesterday, highlight a growing divergence among policymakers over the path of interest rates.
Several officials indicated that further rate cuts should be halted for now, with the possibility of resuming easing later this year if inflation continues to fall. Pay attention!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- 19 February at 8: Zama hosts a live presentation of its 2026 roadmap.
- Macro
- February 19: Fed Chairs Raphael Bostic, Michelle Bowman and Neel Kashkari give speeches throughout the day.
- 19 February at 8.30am: US initial jobless claims for February 14 estimated at 225,000 (previously 227,000)
- Earnings (Estimated based on FactSet data)
- February 19: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, -$0.32
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- ENS DAO votes to register the on.eth name and establish it as an onchain registry for blockchain metadata. Voting ends February 19.
- Unlocks
- The token is launched
- February 19: Decision to complete rollout of updated USR/RLP dividend distribution parameters
- February 19: Injective to start INJ Community Buyback Round #226
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is up 0.87% as of 16 ET Wednesday at $66,896.68 (24 hours: -1.31%)
- ETH is up 1.29% to $1,966.13 (24h: -1.49%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 0.39% to 1,932.97 (24h: -2.57%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0056% (6.1747% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is unchanged at 97.67
- Gold futures are unchanged at $5,009.90
- Silver futures are up 1.13% at $78.47
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.57% at 57,467.83
- The Hang Seng closed up 0.52% at 26,705.94
- The FTSE is down 0.63% at 10,618.95
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.81% to 6,054.02
- The DJIA closed Wednesday up 0.26% at 49,662.66
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.56% at 6,881.31
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.78% at 22,753.63
- The S&P/TSX Composite closed up 1.5% at 33,389.73
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.37% at 3,707.85
- The US 10-year Treasury note rose 1.3 bps to 4.094%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.3% at 6,873.25
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.39% at 24,857.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.35% at 49,549.00
Bitcoin statistics
- BTC Dominance: 58.74% (0.26%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.0294 (-0.09%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,057 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $33.63
- Total fees: 2.31 BTC / $155,155
- CME Futures open interest: 118,610 BTC
- BTC Priced in Gold: 13.4 oz.
- BTC vs Gold Market Cap: 4.47%
Technical Analysis
- The ratio of altcoins (excluding top 10) to bitcoin price continues to rise from key weekly support and is now testing the 50-week exponential moving average.
- A break above this level would imply continued resistance of altcoins against bitcoin, which is most likely a result of them being extremely oversold.
Crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Monday at $164.05 (-1.19%), +0.24% at $164.45 in premarket
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $63.15 (+2.48%), +0.19% at $63.27
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.73 (+2.02%), +0.74% at $21.89
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $31.85 (-0.47%), unchanged in pre-market
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $7.50 (-0.13%), +0.40% at $7.53
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.49 (+5.73%), +0.19% at $15.52
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.27 (+0.23%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.27 (-0.11%), unchanged in pre-market
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $40.04 (+0.10%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $9.88 (-2.08%)
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $125.20 (-2.70%), unchanged pre-market
- Strive (ASST): closed at $8.05 (-1.59%)
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.60 (-0.90%)
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.69 (-4.17%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.10 (+0.00%)
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$133.3 million
- Cumulative net flows: $54.07 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.26M
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$41.8 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.68 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~5.74 million
Source: Farside Investors
While you were sleeping
- Bitcoin shakes off US session losses as Trump says trade deficit cut by 78% (CoinDesk): Bitcoin trading remained choppy on Thursday, rising to around $67,000 after briefly dipping near $65,900 as traders digested President Trump’s claims that the US trade deficit was cut by 78%.
- Bitcoin, ether, xrp ETFs bleed as Solana bucks outflow trend (CoinDesk): US-listed spot crypto ETFs are flashing red across the board, with one exception. SOL ETFs recorded $2.4 million in net inflows, pushing cumulative inflows to nearly $880 million.
- Gold regains $5,000 on focus on Fed rate path (Bloomberg): Gold rebounded to around $5,000 per ounce after jumping 2% on Wednesday as traders focused on the Fed’s next move on interest rates. Bullion rose as much as 0.9% Thursday, silver 3%.
- European shares fall as Airbus, Rio Tinto dive; Nestle gains (Reuters): European shares fell on Thursday as investors reviewed a mixed bag of earnings from Airbus, Rio Tinto and Nestle.
