Crypto news

Multinational bank Barclays (BARC) is apparently spicing up its portfolio by exploring a blockchain platform for payments, Bloomberg exclaimed on a thrilling Friday.

According to whispers in the marble halls of finance, Barclays has issued a request for information, a document as dry as a summer in the steppe, to potential suppliers. The aim? To cater to its “diverse customer base,” a phrase as vague as a foggy morning in St. Petersburg. By April, they hope to select a supplier-a deadline as ambitious as a peasant’s dream of owning a manor.

Bitcoin started the week like a toddler having a meltdown, chopping to the downside. Monday was a disaster, dropping from $67K to $64K. Then, because why not, it did a dead cat bounce and plummeted to $63K. Sentiment? Down bad. Crypto Twitter? A bunch of sad clowns. But then, miracle of miracles, Bitcoin started recovering-notably. It soared from $63K to $70K in less than two days. But of course, the bears had other plans, pushing it back down to $66K. Still in “extreme fear” according to the Fear and Greed index. Because nothing says “confidence” like a 100% chance of a bear market.

The crypto market’s latest drama? Volatility, baby! LUNC’s sprint to glory was more of a TikTok dance than a marathon. While the price briefly looked like it had a plan, the underlying metrics are throwing shade. Spoiler: It’s all about the momentum, not the substance.

United States authorities, with the gravity of a man who’s just seen his last corn crop drowned in mud, announced a grand crusade against global crypto fraud. The Department of Justice, in a press release that read like a Sunday school story for blockchain enthusiasts, declared the seizure of over $580 million in digital assets. These funds, they claimed, were siphoned by transnational scam gangs-though one suspects they’d rather be siphoning maple syrup in a quieter life.

The realized volatility, that most capricious of companions, reached 0.97, the highest since March 2025, signaling a tempest of repricing and wider daily ranges. This volatility spike, a fierce battle between buyers and sellers, saw positions reallocating amid consolidation in mid-range support-though one might call it a farce of indecision.

Launched with the grand aspirations of revolutionizing payments through the magic of ZK-rollups, ZKsync Lite certainly did its part to show the world what zero-knowledge technology could do. Alas, the world moves on, and ZKsync has decided that the future lies elsewhere-on newer chains and within the greater zkSync ecosystem. A brave new world, or so they say.

On the 26th of February, 2026, OKX announced the expansion of its partnership with Chainalysis, shifting from a somewhat passive, “let’s wait and see if we can trace them” approach to a more aggressive “let’s stop this madness before it starts” strategy. With Alterya now embedded into OKX’s infrastructure, the platform can detect scam networks all over the web and even social media, linking these fraud signals to actual financial identifiers. The result? The ability to block withdrawals to fraudulent accounts in real-time. Take that, scoundrels! It’s not just the wild west anymore-this is organized, AI-driven justice!

What’s odd? Traders are acting like this is a party where the host forgot to mention the fire alarm. Instead of hedging their bets, they’ve piled on $1 billion in leveraged long positions. It’s the financial equivalent of wearing a “I Survived the 2008 Crash” t-shirt while jumping into a bear market. This contradiction is like trying to eat a cake and have it too-except the cake is a ticking time bomb.

February 2026 will go down in the annals of history as the month the BNB Smart Chain was brutally mugged for over $438,000. The first strike took place on February 14, followed by an encore performance just eight days later. Hats off to CertiK for unearthing this drama.