Bitcoin Price News for February 2026: Crypto CEO Jailed 20 Years for $200M Ponzi, Seoul Police Lose Seized BTC, and DeepSnitch AI Has the 1000x Antidote Ahead of Launch

Trust is the scarcest commodity in crypto right now, as this week’s headlines speak to. To start with, a US federal judge just handed PGI founder Ramil Palafox a 20-year prison sentence for running a $200 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme that defrauded tens of thousands of investors with fabricated daily returns. Meanwhile, in South Korea, 22 Bitcoin worth about $1.5 million have vanished from a Seoul police cold wallet, and that’s the second major custody failure by Korean authorities in under a year.

Bitcoin price news is also rattling confidence at the worst possible time, with BTC already deep in capitulation territory and Bitcoin market sentiment at a low. But though the picture isn’t all pretty, there’s plenty of hope to be found in dips like this, which also happen to sharpen the case for projects that address exactly these issues. 

DeepSnitch AI is that platform with some of the sharpest utility out there at the moment, as a Web3 intelligence platform with five live AI agents designed to detect scams, rug pulls, and contract traps before you buy. It’s raised above $1.59M, and tokens are still priced low at $0.03985. But that won’t be for much longer, as launch is days away, along with an anticipated 1000x run.

Crypto fraud sentencing and vanishing police confirm the value of infrastructure

The PGI case is a textbook reminder of how devastating crypto fraud can be. Prosecutors said Palafox promised investors daily returns of up to 3% from Bitcoin trading, maintained a fake portal showing fabricated gains, and funneled investor money into luxury vehicles, mansions in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and penthouse suites. 

Over $201 million flowed in between 2019 and 2021, including above 8,198 BTC, with confirmed losses of at least $62.7 million. The scheme even used a multilevel marketing structure to recruit new victims, and Palafox falsely promoted an “AI-powered trading platform” that didn’t actually work.

The situation is equally troubling in Seoul, where the Gangnam Police Station discovered that 22 BTC submitted during a 2021 investigation had been transferred out of a cold wallet, despite the wallet itself not being stolen. The case surfaced during a nationwide audit triggered by a separate incident where 320 BTC, worth above $21 million, disappeared from the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, reportedly via a phishing attack.

Both private operators and government custodians have failed to safeguard Bitcoin, but if there’s a trust deficit, it’s precisely why utility that tackles this head-on is so precious and powerful. DeepSnitch AI was built for exactly this landscape, with room to run and priced for presale.

Fraud-proofing your portfolio

1. DeepSnitch AI: The trust layer crypto has been missing, arriving just in time

A $200 million Ponzi scheme that faked an AI trading platform and a cold wallet emptied under police custody aren’t anomalies. These are the usual symptoms of a market where verification is still mostly optional, and fraud is trivially easy to execute. But DeepSnitch AI has five AI-powered snitches to ensure there’s a step between traders and an unreliable decision, with utility that’s rare and enough to power a moonshot.

PGI ran for two years before regulators caught up, and Seoul police couldn’t even protect their own cold wallet. But DeepSnitch AI’s AuditSnitch can give you a plain verdict (CLEAN, CAUTION, or SKETCHY) on any contract address, checking ownership structures, liquidity locks, transfer restrictions, and exploit patterns rigorously. SnitchFeed also tracks live anomalies and whale behaviour across the market, while SnitchGPT lets you ask questions in plain language and receive actionable risk assessments without digging through dashboards or block explorers.

This is a set of tools that can’t really be matched, and it’s already live internally, with tools having shipped straight into the hands of early presale holders. And because staking is live and runs with uncapped, dynamic APR, the presale rewards participation more generously as the pool expands. 

Above $1.59M has already been raised, and the token is still priced low at $0.03985 for now. But launch is on the way in a matter of days, after which that anticipated 1000x run is set to arrive. In a market where a Ponzi scheme ran for years on fake AI claims, DeepSnitch AI is delivering real AI with utility that’s rare. It’s live, verifiable, and readying for the open market.

2. Bitcoin price news as trust crises pile up but on-chain fundamentals still point to recovery

Bitcoin price news shows the token hovering near $67,000 on February 13, roughly 47% below its October all-time high and still processing one of the most severe capitulation events on record. 

The RSI reads around 31, borderline oversold, and long-term holders haven’t yet reached the 30–40% loss levels that historically mark final bear market bottoms. From here, BTC dipping to $50,000 before recovering all the way to $100,000 by year-end, is a possibility. The fraud headlines don’t help, though, as cases like PGI erode retail confidence precisely when it’s needed most. 

Still, BTC chart analysis shows that every extreme capitulation in Bitcoin’s history has eventually been followed by a recovery, and if Bitcoin price news of the past is anything to go on, patience is almost certainly the way forward from here.

3. XRP: Channel support bends under continued selling pressure

XRP is priced around $1.37, pinned within a descending channel that keeps tightening. Buyers have held the support line but failed to produce a meaningful rebound, and that weak defence raises the odds of a break below, which could send XRP toward $1.11 and potentially $0.75. 

Bulls would need a push above $1.61 to signal that selling pressure is fading, with further resistance at the 50-day SMA near $1.85. XRP’s cross-border payment infrastructure has long-term relevance, but in a Bitcoin market sentiment environment this fearful, utility alone isn’t generating buying pressure. 

DeepSnitch AI, by comparison, has micro-cap pricing, an approaching launch, and a product that becomes more valuable precisely when trust is scarce, which makes it a sharper Bitcoin market update hedge than an established token grinding through a descending channel.

Closing thoughts

DeepSnitch AI was purpose-built for a market where trust is the bottleneck, and at $0.03985 in Stage 5 of 15 with launch imminent, it’s priced low enough not to align at all with where it’s headed, especially since a 100x, possibly even 1000x run, is anticipated alongside its launch.

Bonus codes, which can be applied to the presale, can increase your allocation by 30% to 300%, depending on buy-in size. Put that together with uncapped, dynamic staking APR, and those bonus tokens are set to grow, compounding your position at presale rates so that, come launch, the gap between entry and value could be extraordinary.

Lock in your position before launch in the coming days by visiting the official website, and stay connected on X and Telegram for any major updates.

FAQs

What are the most important Bitcoin price news updates this week? 

Among the big headlines relevant to Bitcoin price news, crypto CEO received a 20-year sentence for a $200M Ponzi scheme and 22 BTC vanished from Seoul police custody. And trust-verification tools like DeepSnitch AI, now live and approaching launch, are becoming indispensable in this Bitcoin market sentiment climate.

According to Bitcoin price news, is the token still a good investment at $67,000? 

Bitcoin price news suggests oversold conditions and a potential floor near $55,000, with analysts forecasting a year-end recovery toward $100,000. That represents meaningful upside, but DeepSnitch AI’s presale pricing at $0.03985, with live anti-fraud tooling and a launch that’s practically here, offers sky-high return potential.

How does DeepSnitch AI protect against crypto scams? 

DeepSnitch AI’s five snitches scan contracts for honeypots, liquidity traps, ownership red flags, and known exploit patterns, returning plain verdicts before you buy. It’s the sort of utility for verification that could have saved PGI investors $200 million, and it’s already live for presale holders at $0.03985.

This article is not intended as financial advice. Educational purposes only.