While some big investors cash out of crypto, others double down

Crypto Daybook Americas

Share

Share this article

Copy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmail

While some big investors cash out of crypto, others double down

Your day-ahead look for Feb. 18, 2026

By Jacob Joseph|Edited by Sheldon Reback

Feb 18, 2026, 12:32 p.m.

Make us preferred on Google

What to know:

You are viewing Crypto Daybook Americas, your morning briefing on what happened in the crypto markets overnight and what's expected during the coming day. Crypto Daybook Americas will kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights. If you're not already subscribed to the email, click here. You won't want to start your day without it.

By Jacob Joseph (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin BTC$67,548.07 remains within the tight $66,000-$70,000 range we've seen in the past few days. At the time of writing, the BTC price was about 1.04% higher over 24 hours. Ether was changing hands at $2,020, up 1.43% on the day.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Sign me up

By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.

Institutional positioning remains a central theme.

Digital asset treasury companies and public institutions were among the strongest sources of demand in mid-2025, helping propel prices to record highs. But with bitcoin down more than 50% from its October peak, the landscape has shifted. Many treasury-focused firms are now feeling the strain. Metaplanet reported a $619 million net loss earlier this week, while Harvard Management Company trimmed its exposure to bitcoin ETFs.

Ether treasury firms are also recalibrating. ETHZilla disclosed last evening that tech billionaire Peter Thiel and affiliated Founders Fund entities have exited their entire 7.5% stake in the company. The firm also reduced its ether holdings through multiple sales since October.
Still, not everyone is pulling back.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy continued to build its bitcoin position, adding 2,486 BTC earlier this week and bringing total holdings to 717,131 BTC. Meanwhile, two Abu Dhabi-based funds — Mubadala Investment Company and Al Warda Investments — disclosed yesterday that they collectively held more than $1 billion in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF at the end of last year.
BitMine Immersion Technologies announced yesterday that it continues to lean in, adding 45,759 ETH over the past week and bringing its total holdings to 4.4 million ETH. About 3 million of that is currently staked, generating additional yield on top of its core position.

Meanwhile, in a separate development disclosed yesterday, BlackRock advanced its plans for a U.S.-listed yield-generating ether product. An amended S-1 filing signaled further progress toward the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, with a BlackRock affiliate purchasing 4,000 seed shares at $25 each, providing $100,000 in initial capital for the trust.

While these developments provide constructive long-term signals, it may be premature to call an end to the recent drawdown even with bitcoin and ether trading roughly 50% and 60% below their all-time highs, respectively.

At the same time, TradFi indexes are beginning to show signs of fatigue, as rising AI-related capital expenditures outpace earlier estimates and place increasing pressure on corporate cash flows. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today

What to Watch

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

• Crypto
  • Feb. 18, 1 p.m.: Hedera to undergo a mainnet upgrade expected to take about 40 minutes to complete.
• Macro
  • Feb. 18, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. durable goods orders MoM for December (Prev. 5.3%)
  • Feb. 18, 9:15 a.m.: U.S. industrial production MoM for January est. 0.3% (Prev. 0.4%)
  • Feb. 18, 2:00 p.m.: U.S. FOMC Minutes
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • Feb. 18: Figma (FIG), post-market, $0.45

Token Events

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

• Governance votes & calls
  • Feb. 18: VeChain to host its monthly VeChain Builders Space.
• Unlocks
  • No major unlocks.
• Token Launches
  • No major launches.

Conferences

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

• Day 2 of 4: ETHDenver

Market Movements

• BTC is up 0.86% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday at $68,227.58 (24hrs: -0.09%)
• ETH is up 1.03% at $2,019.54 (+2.24%)
• CoinDesk 20 is up 0.55% at 1,994.39 (+0.54%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 3 bps at 2.81%
• BTC funding rate is at 0.0018% (1.9425% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is up 0.13% at 97.28
• Gold futures are up 0.58% at $4,934.20
• Silver futures are up 2.92% at $75.68
• Nikkei 225 closed up 1.02% at 57,143.84
• Hang Seng closed up 0.52% at 26,705.94
• FTSE is up 1.03% at 10,664.40
• Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.93% at 6,077.76
• DJIA closed on Tuesday unchanged at 49,533.19
• S&P 500 closed up 0.1% at 6,843.22
• Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.14% at 22,578.38
• S&P/TSX Composite closed down 0.54% at 32,896.55
• S&P 40 Latin America closed down 0.62% at 3,694.06
• U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 1.9 bps at 4.073%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.52% at 6,896.50
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.59% at 24,914.00
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.47% at 49,844.00

Bitcoin Stats

• BTC Dominance: 58.56% (-0.01%)
• Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02947 (-0.11%)
• Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,062 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $34.12
• Total fees: 2.29 BTC / $155,681
• CME Futures Open Interest: 116,675 BTC
• BTC priced in gold: 13.7 oz.
• BTC vs gold market cap: 4.5%
  

Technical Analysis

(TradingView)

• The chart shows bitcoin's price against the dollar in one-week candles.
• The latest reading shows the price remains below the 200-week exponential moving average (EMA).
• Historically, breaks below the EMA have established a "bottom" in a bear market. Whether that's the case now remains to be seen.
• The lack of divergences in the RSI suggests we are unlikely to see a sustained rebound in the short term.

Crypto Equities

• Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Tuesday at $166.02 (+1.03%), +1.37% at $168.29 in pre-market
• Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $61.62 (+2.63%), +2.21% at $62.98
• Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.30 (-1.66%), +0.80% at $21.47
• Bullish (BLSH): closed at $32.00 (+0.85%), unchanged in pre-market
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $7.51 (-5.18%), +1.33% at $7.61
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $14.65 (-3.75%), +1.43% at $14.86
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.23 (-3.42%)
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.28 (-5.79%), +0.86% at $9.36
• CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $40.00 (-3.24%)
• Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $10.09 (-10.47%)

Crypto Treasury Companies

• Strategy (MSTR): closed at $128.67 (-3.89%), +1.27% at $130.30
• Strive (ASST): closed at $8.18 (-1.80%), +0.86% at $8.25
• SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.66 (-2.77%), +0.30% at $6.68
• Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.72 (-6.37%)
• Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.10 (-1.79%)

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

• Daily net flows: -$104.9 million
• Cumulative net flows: $54.21 billion
• Total BTC holdings ~1.27 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Daily net flows: $48.6 million
• Cumulative net flows: $11.73 billion
• Total ETH holdings ~5.73 million

Source: Farside Investors

While You Were Sleeping

• Ukraine peace talks end in Geneva after Zelenskiy says Russia stalling (Reuters): Ukraine and Russia peace talks in Geneva ended after President Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately seeking to delay progress toward a deal to end the four-year-old war.
• Bitcoin ETFs hold billions despite price crash, but resilience masks harsh reality (CoinDesk): Bitcoin ETFs continue to hold billions in assets despite bitcoin's price crash, but that staying power isn't necessarily the bullish signal many have come to believe.
• Microsoft says it is on pace to invest $50 billion in 'Global South' AI push (Reuters): Microsoft said it is on pace to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to help expand AI to countries across the "Global South."
• UK inflation falls to 10-month low as BOE mulls further cuts (Bloomberg): Consumer prices rose 3% in January from a year earlier, down from 3.4% the previous month. Inflation is at the lowest since March 2025, bolstering the case for the Bank of England to cut interest rates next month.

Crypto Daybook Americas

More For You

Zoomex: Precise Systems of Fairness and Transparency by Design

By CoinDesk

Jan 31, 2026

Commissioned byZoomex

Read full story

More For You

Bitcoin improvement proposal to block spam draws heat from heavyweights

By Omkar Godbole, Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Oliver Knight

Feb 17, 2026

Your day-ahead look for Feb. 17, 2026

What to know:

You are viewing Crypto Daybook Americas, your morning briefing on what happened in the crypto markets overnight and what's expected during the coming day. Crypto Daybook Americas will kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights. If you're not already subscribed to the email, click here. You won't want to start your day without it.

Read full story

Latest Crypto News

Milo tops $100 million in crypto-backed mortgages, closes record $12 million deal

46 minutes ago

Bitcoin holds near $68,000 as volatility cools, WLFI jumps ahead of Mar-a-Lago forum

1 hour ago

Moonwell's $1.12 nightmare: A pricing glitch just let bots seize millions in ETH collateral

1 hour ago

Brevan Howard's crypto fund said to lose 30% in worst year since inception: FT

2 hours ago

Zora moves onto Solana with 'attention markets' for trading internet trends

4 hours ago

Bitcoin losing $70,000 is a warning sign for further downside

5 hours ago

Top Stories

Bitcoin ETFs hold billions despite price crash, but resilience masks harsh reality

6 hours ago

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund dumps every ETHZilla share

5 hours ago

CFTC's Selig opens legal dispute against states getting in way of prediction markets

20 hours ago

Crypto infrastructure firm BitGo a potential acquisition target for Wall Street firms, analysts say

20 hours ago

BitMine adds $90 million in ETH — Tom Lee says crypto sentiment reminiscent of 2018 and 2022 bottoms

22 hours ago

BofA survey flags dollar bearish bets at over a decade high. Here's what it means for bitcoin

Feb 17, 2026