Industry Reports

Vitalik Buterin sparked a fresh debate in crypto circles today when he warned that prediction markets have wandered into a commercially successful but socially hollow groove. He also sketched out a radical alternative that would push them toward long-term hedging use cases, even suggesting they

_UAE holds over $900M in Bitcoin via direct reserves and ETF stakes as market fear index drops to 9 and $3B exits crypto funds._ The United Arab Emirates now holds more than $900 million in Bitcoin exposure during a period of market fear. The total includes both direct Bitcoin ownership and

PANews Editor's Note: PANews has selected a week's worth of high-quality content to help everyone fill in the gaps over the weekend. Click on the titles to read. Macroe Perspective Darkness Before Dawn: Crypto in 2026 = Internet in 2002 We have reached the most dangerous yet most critical turning point in the industry. We are witnessing the "aristocratization" of cryptocurrencies. If we're not careful, we may let the true revolution die at the hands of the "FinTech wrapper." Key Figures of xAI Flee, Elon Musk’s AI Ambitions Suffer Major Blow Behind the continuous bleeding, it might be more than just a salary issue. Is it true? Why hasn't Crypto helped AI, but instead AI is saving Crypto? Salary cuts, higher barriers, restricted identities—Is Web3 still worth pursuing in 2026? The Web3 job market is undergoing "disenchantment," bidding farewell to reckless growth.

DWF Labs announced a successful summit on Real-World Assets (RWAs) and tokenization, emphasizing institutional adoption. With a focus on security, transparency, and liquidity, the event aims to streamline RWAs' market integration by 2026, marking a significant opportunity for growth.

Forward Industries' financial report shows that as of December 31, 2025, they hold 6,962,501 SOL and have staked 112,171 SOL in rewards, with approximately $25.4 million in cash and no debt. However, due to the decline in the crypto market, they incurred a loss of $560.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026.

DeFiance Capital CEO Arthur stated that the cryptocurrency market has shifted from a risk investment-centric model to one focused on short-term cash flow generation, which can better deliver returns to investors. He emphasized that future investment projects need to have strong cash flow and recover their investment within 6 to 12 months, believing that projects relying solely on growth will no longer be effective.

On February 13, news broke that after Bitdeer Technologies Group announced its Q4 2025 earnings, the stock price dropped more than 8% on the same day, falling below $11, despite the company's strong rebound from massive losses to profitability. Data shows that Bitdeer’s net profit for this quarter reached $70.5 million, compared to a loss of $531.9 million in the same period last year; revenue surged from $69 million to nearly $225 million, almost doubling. Bitcoin operations are the main driving force. During the quarter, the company mined a total of 1,673 bitcoins, far higher than 469 in the same period last year; mining revenue increased from $41.5 million to $168.6 million, accounting for the majority of revenue. Meanwhile, its total hashrate management scale has risen to 71EH/s, with self-mining hashrate at 55.2EH/s, and hosted hashrate growing in tandem, allowing it to surpass some peers in hashrate scale.

On February 13, news reports that the US leading cryptocurrency company announced its Q4 earnings that fell short of market expectations, quickly prompting Wall Street analysts to collectively revise their ratings and target prices. Institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Canaccord have downgraded their valuation expectations for COIN, reflecting the ongoing impact of the current crypto market weakness on the company's fundamentals. JPMorgan Chase pointed out that the decline in digital asset prices and trading activity directly compressed COIN's trading volume and fee income. Although the bank maintained an "Overweight" rating, it lowered its target price from $290 to $252. Analyst Kenneth Worthington's team mentioned that operating expenses increased by 22% year-over-year, and the shift towards low-fee advanced trading models and subscription services has put short-term pressure on profit margins.

February 13 News, as global macro uncertainties continue to rise, gold is quietly gaining influence in the crypto space through "tokenization." Once considered a niche sector, gold tokens have now become one of the most stable and frequently used categories within the real-world asset segment. Unlike those chasing high volatility returns, an increasing amount of capital is flowing into on-chain gold assets backed by long-term credit. The core appeal of tokenized gold lies in its combination of the hedging properties of physical gold and the programmable efficiency of blockchain technology. Investors can hold, transfer, and settle on the chain without the need for cross-border transfers or physical custody. This model offers a new balanced approach for funds seeking to hedge market volatility while not fully exiting the crypto ecosystem.

Hyperliquid Strategies confirms quarterly losses of $318 million, of which $262 million is attributed to unrealized losses on the HYPE token. The sharp decline in token valuation directly impacts the balance sheet, and market volatility has intensified losses. Although there have been no large-scale liquidations, the valuation impact reveals how token concentration can amplify downside risk.

The amount of cryptocurrency inflow suspected to be linked to human trafficking networks is projected to increase by 85% in 2025, but crypto analytics firm Chainalysis states that blockchain transparency could help disrupt these networks' operations. Chainalysis reported on Thursday that the total transaction volume flowing to suspected trafficking networks (primarily located in Southeast Asia) "reached hundreds of millions of dollars in identified services."

February 13 News, Chainalysis released a new report showing that the amount of cryptocurrency funds flowing into suspected human trafficking networks surged by 85% in 2025, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia. The involved services include scam operations, online casinos, and Chinese money laundering networks that have been active in recent years. The report points out that these cryptocurrency transactions primarily support international escort services, prostitution networks, kidnapping labor intermediaries, and suppliers of child sexual abuse materials, with stablecoins being the most commonly used in escort and prostitution services. Chainalysis emphasizes that although the inflow of funds has increased significantly, the transparency of blockchain provides law enforcement agencies with unprecedented investigative advantages. By analyzing identifiable transaction patterns and wallet clusters, regulators can trace the flow of funds and combat illegal networks.

Solana has recently faced a market winter, with its token SOL price dropping from a high of $295 to $80, a decline of 71%. Factors such as the cooling of the Meme craze, weakening of ecosystem narratives, and increased competition have led to a decrease in activity within the Solana ecosystem. Additionally, purchases of SOL by digital asset treasuries have failed to offset overall market pressure, shaking investor confidence.

The Ethereum Foundation account and the Chain Abstraction Team have launched the Ethereum Interoperability Layer (EIL), a multi-chain interoperability framework based on the ERC-4337 account abstraction standard. It addresses the three major pain points of cross-chain interactions: repeated authorization, Gas fee shortages, and long wait times. Using Merkle tree technology, it enables single-signature multi-chain execution. XLP cross-chain liquidity providers can stake 1 ETH and be subject to permissionless confiscation.

ChainCatcher message: According to Web3 asset data platform RootData's token unlock data, LayerZero (ZRO) will unlock approximately 25.71 million tokens, worth about $50.65 million, at 11:00 AM Beijing time on February 20.

The "Notice on Further Preventing and Managing Risks Related to Virtual Currencies and Other Assets" considers RWA tokenization as a new form of securities activity, and it is expected that licensed securities intermediaries in Mainland China and Hong Kong will benefit. Analysis points out three feasible cross-border RWA businesses, including debt-oriented, equity-oriented, and other types of tokenization.

As modular blockchain architecture becomes the mainstream narrative in the industry and Layer2 Rollup solutions emerge like mushrooms after rain, the core contradiction becomes increasingly apparent: the pursuit of high performance and low cost simultaneously has led the Rollup ecosystem into a dilemma of fragmentation and centralized ordering. Espresso aims to connect dispersed Rollups into a seamless, efficient, and censorship-resistant ecosystem through an innovative decentralized shared ordering network.

The Pi Network core team will extend the deadline for mandatory v19.6 node upgrades to February 15. The original deadline of February 12 was temporarily postponed due to network congestion and technical issues. All mainnet nodes must complete the upgrade to remain operational; nodes that are not updated will be disconnected from the network. Pi Network has approximately 60 million registered users, and nodes verify transactions based on the Stellar consensus protocol to maintain blockchain consensus.