PA Daily News | Trump raises global import tariffs to 15%; BitDeer has liquidated all its Bitcoin holdings.

Today's top news highlights:

Trump: Global tariffs to be raised from 10% to 15%

Bitdeer liquidated its Bitcoin holdings, selling off all mining output this week.

Macroeconomic Outlook for Next Week: Trump's tariff controversy reignites, US-Iran tensions rise, and Nvidia's earnings report faces a major test.

Searches for "Bitcoin going to zero" surge in the US, hitting an all-time high.

Product Manager X: Regarding the issue of Kalshi-type adware, an ad disclosure feature will be launched next week.

Data: For the first time, major Ethereum whales collectively turned to a state of unrealized loss.

Vitalik advocates using personal LLMs to improve decentralized governance efficiency.

Caixin: Document No. 42 sets the tone for "strict control over overseas RWA"; CICC Hong Kong has already discussed cooperation with public blockchains and exchanges.

A user was banned after mentioning "Bitcoin" on OpenClaw Discord. The founder stated: Mentioning cryptocurrencies is prohibited.

Regulation & Macro

Macroeconomic Outlook for Next Week: Trump's tariff controversy reignites, US-Iran tensions rise, and Nvidia's earnings report faces a major test.

With uncertainty surrounding Trump's tariff policies potentially triggering a new wave of turmoil, coupled with increasing signs that the US might take military action against Iran, Nvidia, the world's largest company by market capitalization, will release its earnings report next Wednesday. Investors may face another round of market volatility driven by news headlines.

Trump: Global tariffs to be raised from 10% to 15%

In a social media post, Trump stated that, based on a full, thorough, and complete review of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs on the 20th, he hereby declares that, as President of the United States, he will immediately raise the 10% global tariffs imposed on many countries to a fully legal and legally tested 15%. Many of these countries have been "exploiting" the United States for decades without any punishment (until I took office!). In the coming months, the Trump administration will identify and enact new legal tariffs that will continue the extraordinary process of making America great again.

Caixin: Document No. 42 sets the tone for "strict control over overseas RWA"; CICC Hong Kong has already discussed cooperation with public blockchains and exchanges.

According to Caixin, just over the weekend that Document No. 42, "Notice on Further Preventing and Handling Risks Related to Virtual Assets," was released, CICC Hong Kong's team had already been in contact with major public blockchains and exchanges to explore business cooperation opportunities. Some public blockchain leaders also expressed their hope to cooperate with relevant investment banks and other intermediaries to explore business opportunities. Ant Group and JD.com have both expressed high attention to the policy changes.

Related reports indicate that Hong Kong is one of the offshore issuance locations for RWAs. Sources familiar with the regulations stated that RWAs with Hong Kong assets as underlying assets are not within the scope of Regulation 42 and are not under the jurisdiction of domestic regulatory authorities. Currently, there are no RWAs with underlying assets in Hong Kong or other offshore locations based on domestic securities or funds. If such RWAs exist, they would be under the jurisdiction of the Institutional Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Furthermore, "Previously, it was completely prohibited. Now, it's not said 'completely prohibited,' but there is strict regulation of RWAs with domestic assets exported overseas. This does not imply 'encouragement,' and should not be interpreted as 'promoting development' or 'rapid expansion,' but rather as 'strict regulation.'"

Project Updates

Bitdeer liquidated its Bitcoin holdings, selling off all mining output this week.

According to official news, Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer (BTDR) released the latest BTC holdings data. As of February 20, its total Bitcoin holdings (purely its own holdings, excluding customer deposits) have dropped to 0. This week, its Bitcoin mining output was 189.8 BTC, and it sold 189.8 BTC during the same period, resulting in a net outflow of 943.1 BTC for the week.

A user was banned after mentioning "Bitcoin" on OpenClaw Discord. The founder stated: Mentioning cryptocurrencies is prohibited.

Peter Steinberger, founder of OpenClaw, responded on social media to an incident where a user was banned for mentioning "Bitcoin" on the OpenClaw Discord server and requested that the ban be lifted. He stated that the server has strict rules that users agree to upon joining, which explicitly prohibit mentioning any cryptocurrency-related content.

Memecoin Trump will deploy less than 5% of its tokens for growth initiatives and launch a $10 million incentive program, among other things.

The Memecoin ($TRUMP) team has announced a new phase of development, focusing on liquidity depth, additional utility, and long-term value creation. To this end, the team will implement three initiatives: a yield and liquidity program, an institutional market structure, and strategic inventory management and ecosystem investment. In addition, the first entertainment game project, "TRUMP Billionaires Club," a mobile/Web3 game, is coming soon, with more details to be released later.

Product Manager X: Regarding the issue of Kalshi-type adware, an ad disclosure feature will be launched next week.

Nikita Bier, product manager for X, questioned Infodex's list of the most valuable startups in 2025 in a tweet, specifically pointing to issues with Kalshi (valued at $1.1 billion), a fintech company mentioned on the list. He stated that the information on the list was "clearly false" and that the account belonged to or was associated with the brand. He questioned whether the purpose was to increase click-through rates by placing a photo of a woman next to the logo. Furthermore, he demanded that the publisher disclose whether this was paid promotional content for Kalshi, otherwise the account could be suspended.

In addition, regarding the issue of rampant undisclosed advertising, Nikita Bier responded that it will launch a disclosure function next week.

IoTeX: Approximately $2 million in assets stolen; expected to be restored within 48 hours.

The IoTeX team announced that it has contained the recent security incident and has strengthened the security of the IoTeX chain. Preliminary data indicates that the attack caused approximately $2 million in damages, including USDC, USDT, IOTX, and WBTC.

Investigations reveal that this incident was a sophisticated, long-planned attack by professional hackers targeting multiple blockchains. The team is collaborating with exchanges and law enforcement to freeze the stolen funds and conduct investigations and fund recovery efforts. On-chain operations and deposit functionality are expected to be restored within 24-48 hours, and the team will continue to provide transparent updates.

Opinions & Analysis

Vitalik advocates using personal LLMs to improve decentralized governance efficiency.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an article proposing several ideas for optimizing democratic and decentralized governance using AI and personal LLMs (Large Language Models). He believes that "AI directly acting as government" is dystopian, but the limitations of human attention and expertise in governance structures like DAOs can be mitigated through mechanisms such as personal governance agents, citizen-participatory dialogue agents, and AI-integrated suggestion/prediction markets. Vitalik also proposed introducing technologies such as multi-party secure computation, TEEs, or encrypted circuits in decentralized decision-making scenarios involving confidential information, allowing personal LLMs to participate in judgments within a "black box." He emphasized the need to strengthen participant anonymity and content privacy protection using zero-knowledge proofs and multi-party privacy computation tools.

Elliptic: Five crypto exchanges helped Russia circumvent sanctions; ABCeX trading volume exceeded $11 billion.

A recent report by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic identifies a Russian-linked "shadow network" of cryptocurrency exchanges that is circumventing international sanctions through large-scale crypto transactions. The report names five platforms, most of which are not yet sanctioned and continue to provide Russian entities with channels to bypass traditional banking regulations. ABCeX is identified as the largest of these, having processed at least $11 billion in cryptocurrency transactions. The report also notes that while Exmo claims to have withdrawn from the Russian market, on-chain data shows it still shares custodial wallet infrastructure. Rapira, registered in Georgia and with an office in Moscow, is alleged to have over $72 million in direct transactions with the sanctioned exchange Grinex. Bitpapa evades detection by frequently changing its wallet address. Aifory Pro provides cash-to-crypto services in Moscow, Dubai, and Turkey. The analysis suggests that the cryptocurrency-related sanctions-circumventing infrastructure previously targeting Russia has not disappeared but has instead spread to more platforms.

Important data

Data: For the first time, major Ethereum whales collectively turned to a state of unrealized loss.

According to data cited by Coin Bureau, all ETH whales are now underwater. For the first time in this cycle, all major Ethereum holder groups are experiencing paper losses, including wallets holding over 100,000 ETH. While strong players (firm holders) are suffering, weak players (loose retail investors) have already exited the market.

Searches for "Bitcoin going to zero" surge in the US, hitting an all-time high.

According to Google Trends data, searches for "Bitcoin zero" reached an all-time high in the United States in February, coinciding with a more than 50% drop in Bitcoin's price from its all-time high in October last year, nearing $60,000.

However, global search volume for this term has gradually declined since peaking at 100 last August, reaching only 38 this month, indicating that panic is primarily concentrated in the United States. Analysts suggest that the surge in US searches may reflect widespread panic among retail investors and could potentially serve as a buy signal.

CryptoQuant: The exchange's whale ratio has risen to 0.64, with large investors dominating selling activity.

According to a report by on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, the Bitcoin market is currently in the middle of a bear market, with large Bitcoin holders dominating deposit activity on exchanges. Data shows that the whale ratio (the percentage of deposits made by the top ten holders) on exchanges has risen to 0.64, the highest level since October 2015, indicating that large holders are leading selling activity. Meanwhile, the average deposit size per transaction on Bitcoin exchanges rose to 1.58 BTC in February, the highest value since June 2022, which was the middle of the previous bear market.

Nevertheless, CryptoQuant points out that overall Bitcoin exchange deposits, after peaking at 60,000 BTC on February 6, have fallen to a 7-day average of about 23,000 BTC, indicating that the sharp sell-off phase has eased, but current exchange inflows are still higher than in previous months.

Meanwhile, stablecoin inflows have declined significantly. USDT's average daily net inflow has plummeted from a high of $616 million in November 2025 to a recent $27 million, even experiencing a net outflow of $469 million on January 25, 2026. CryptoQuant points out that reduced or negative stablecoin inflows indicate a decline in marginal purchasing power in the market.

In addition, altcoins are also facing widespread selling pressure, with the average daily deposit volume in 2026 rising to approximately 49,000 transactions, a 22% increase from approximately 40,000 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2025. CryptoQuant believes that the increase in altcoin deposits usually indicates weakening market confidence and may trigger greater volatility.

In summary, CryptoQuant states that Bitcoin's selling pressure is primarily concentrated among large holders, altcoins are experiencing decentralized selling, and stablecoin outflows indicate limited market demand. In the current bear market, these factors could exacerbate market volatility.