PANews

Author: Jesse Walden, Founder of Variant
Translation: Yuliya, PANews
Editor's Note: Jesse Walden, founder of Variant Fund, presents a forward-looking view that "everything is a market," believing that cryptocurrencies extend financial boundaries into the cultural realm, becoming a horizontal infrastructure layer. Starting from three core drivers—public participation, permissionless innovation, and market programmability—the article explores how finance is evolving into a ubiquitous infrastructure and depicts a future where financial invisibility is achieved through the integration of cryptography and artificial intelligence.
The full text is as follows:
There has long been debate over whether cryptocurrencies are purely for financial purposes or if they hold a grander significance. My view is: yes, cryptocurrencies are for finance. But the key point is that the connotation of finance is becoming much broader than people generally understand.

Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer released a weekly report on February 21, 2026, showing that its Bitcoin holdings have dropped to 0, marking a "full liquidation" sale. Amid its hash rate surpassing Marathon Digital, this move has caused industry shockwaves and reflects a trend of mining companies shifting towards financial operations. Bitdeer is raising funds through convertible bonds and transitioning to AI cloud services to address challenges from rising network difficulty and falling hash rate prices.

The article discusses the egalitarian nature of AI technology, emphasizing its differences from traditional network models and pointing out that token consumption is not the sole standard of competition. The progress of AI should focus on clarity of objectives and the correct formulation of problems, rather than just the amount of consumption. At the same time, in the face of anxiety brought by AI, humans should pursue meaning and value rather than simply chasing efficiency and productivity.

Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 10 investment and financing events in the global blockchain industry last week (2.16-2.22), with a total funding amount exceeding $143 million. The overview is as follows:
In the DeFi sector, 1 investment and financing event was announced, with on-chain derivatives protocol MYX completing strategic financing led by Consensys;
In the Web3+AI track, 1 investment and financing event was announced, with Unicity Labs completing a $3 million seed round financing, led by Blockchange Ventures;
In the infrastructure & tools field, 3 investment and financing events were announced, including digital wallet infrastructure Kresus Labs completing $13 million in funding;

Author: Lawyer Shao Shiwei
Recently, Lawyer Shao was handling a case involving the purchase and sale of USDT (Tether) on U-Trade, where the defendant was accused by judicial authorities of engaging in illegal foreign exchange operations using virtual currency as a medium.
Although, in Lawyer Shao's view, the case has not yet established a complete chain of evidence sufficient for conviction, the case involves a transaction amount of hundreds of millions, and in recent years, the defendant has used dozens of bank cards belonging to friends and family to facilitate virtual currency transactions through collection and payment. From the perspective of the investigators, this operational mode does not resemble a "normal" business. Therefore, the prosecutor believes that even if it does not constitute illegal business operations, they are still considering charging the defendant with other crimes, such as credit card management violations, aiding and abetting crimes, and concealment crimes.
In "Case Notes | What are the risks of using someone else's bank card to receive payments when buying and selling USDT? — Analyzing illegal operations, aiding and abetting, concealment crimes, and others in a virtual currency case involving hundreds of millions"

News Preview:
Flying Tulip will conduct TGE on February 23;
Alchemy Pay plans to launch the L1 public chain Alchemy Chain testnet on February 23;
U.S. President Trump will deliver the State of the Union address on February 24; on the same day, the U.S. will impose a 10% temporary tariff on some imported goods;
NVIDIA will release its earnings report after the market closes on February 25;
Jupiter (JUP) will unlock approximately 253 million tokens, about 7.94% of its circulating supply, worth approximately $39.3 million, at 10:00 PM Beijing time on February 28.

The new guidelines issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allow brokers to calculate net capital with a 2% discount for payments made in stablecoins. This change could promote the adoption of stablecoins in mainstream finance. At the same time, this policy will be implemented alongside the enactment of the GENIUS Act, helping to clarify the status of stablecoins within the existing regulatory framework and making it easier for market participants to engage in digital asset trading.

Written by: imToken
Recently, the most discussed topic in the Ethereum community has undoubtedly been Vitalik Buterin's public reflection on the scalability roadmap.
It can be said that Vitalik's attitude is quite "sharp," openly stating that as Ethereum's mainnet (L1) scalability improves, the roadmap established five years ago, which regarded L2 as the primary scaling solution, has become invalid.
This statement was initially interpreted by the market as a pessimistic view or even a rejection of L2 solutions. However, a careful analysis of Vitalik's core points, combined with Ethereum's series of mainnet scaling progress, decentralization assessment frameworks, and recent technical discussions around Native/Based Rollups, reveals that Vitalik is not entirely dismissing the value of L2 solutions. Instead, it leans more towards a "correction of course":

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey discussed young entrepreneurship on a podcast, believing that starting a business at 18 or 19 is not high risk but low-cost experimentation. The cost of failure is only time, which can enhance personal skills and experience, far surpassing part-time work experience. As age increases, family and financial responsibilities make entrepreneurship more difficult.

Author: CoinFound
The debate over the CLARITY Act is not fundamentally a confrontation between the crypto industry and regulators, but rather a reallocation of the underlying interests within the financial system. Traditional banks rely on low-cost deposits to maintain net interest margins, while interest-bearing stablecoins directly reach users through government bond yields, reshaping capital flow patterns and the transmission pathway of the dollar system. Regulatory focus has shifted from “whether to allow innovation” to “how to quantify residual risks and systemic stability.” Under this framework, the true dividing line will no longer be CeFi or DeFi, but who can establish a new balance between transparency, compliance structures, and capital efficiency. The direction of CLARITY may determine the fundamental rules for digital dollars and institutional-grade RWAs over the next decade.
CLARITY: (May 2025 - December 2025)
As the GENIUS Act aims to address the infrastructure of stablecoins

Author: XinGPT
For the Spring Festival of 2026, I made a decision: to automate my entire business process with Agents.
One week later, this system has already been implemented in nearly one-third of my operations. Although it is still being refined, my regular daily tasks have decreased from 6 hours to 2 hours, yet business output has increased by 300%.
More importantly, I validated a hypothesis: transforming personal business into an Agent-based system is feasible, and I believe everyone should build such an operating system.
Having an Agent system means a complete shift in your thinking—from “How do I complete this task?” to “What kind of Agent should I build to complete this task?” The impact of this shift from passive to proactive thinking is enormous.
In this article, I will not share any AI-generated motivational clichés.

Pump.fun introduces a new mechanism in 2026 that allocates "creator fees" to GitHub accounts, potentially changing its incentive structure and enhancing user engagement. This move aims to drive the platform toward a more social direction, although it also faces supply-side risks and market controversy.

The 2026 Spring Festival Gala showcased China's advancements in the AI field, especially the diversified applications of robotics technology, indicating that China's AI has achieved embodied intelligence. However, the United States is facing an electricity supply crisis, affecting the training of AI models. China, with its leading electricity infrastructure and clean energy production, has built an unparalleled strategic advantage, demonstrating its important position in the global AI ecosystem.

Xu Mingxing recalls the early joyful atmosphere of Bitcoin and mentions that he once organized an event called "Give 1 BTC to Everyone." He points out that the industry has evolved from simple token issuance in the beginning to the rapid development of Ethereum-based financial-grade applications and high-performance chains.

Author: Zen, PANews
“I want to do something bigger.” On February 9, Beast Industries announced the acquisition of the teenage and Gen Z financial app Step—a product focused on “credit building, savings tools, and debit cards.”
If you only see it as “another side hustle for internet celebrities,” you underestimate the scale of this move. Because before this news, the market had already seen clearer signs of preparation.
In January 2026, publicly listed company Bitmine announced an investment of $200 million in Beast Industries. Its chairman, Tom Lee, directly linked MrBeast’s future with the narrative of a “digital financial platform” in public statements. As early as October 2025, Beast had already submitted a

In "Big Ideas 2026," Cathie Wood believes that Bitcoin is a long-term hedge and store of value asset. Its scarcity and low correlation with gold give it potential in wealth transfer. The issuance of Bitcoin is strictly limited, distinguishing it from gold, which can be increased in supply.