The Protocol: Ethereum’s Pectra Goes Live on Testnet Also: Avalanche Visa card launched; EF executive director leaving; hackers using fake GitHub to steal bitcoin.

Bybit and Safe Custody Are at Odds on Who’s to Blame for $1.5B Hack The apparent stand-off mirrors that of WazirX and Liminal Custody, which blamed each other following a $230 million exploit last July.

A Smarter Way to Crypto Diversification? Institutional investors are increasingly allocating to crypto, but the key question is whether to focus solely on bitcoin or diversify across multiple cryptocurrencies to optimize risk-adjusted returns and portfolio resilience.

In Defense of the ‘MSTR Premium’ The premium given to the company’s massive bitcoin holdings will exist as long as investors believe it will continue to increase the amount of its bitcoin held per share.

UK Introduces Crime Bill That Extends Powers for Courts When Retrieving Crypto The Crime and Policing Bill has measures on how to value crypto and retrieve it from criminals.

Strategy Is Down 50% From Its Highs. What Does It Mean for Its $43B Bitcoin Holdings? Bitcoin’s stumble begs the question asked during the last bear market: Is there a point at which Michael Saylor would be forced to liquidate part of the company’s near-500,000 BTC stack?

The U.S. War on Crypto Isn’t Over The fact that the Trump administration has installed many crypto-friendly people in positions of power doesn’t mean that the industry will now get a free pass.

Bank of America CEO Says Bank Will Likely Launch Its Own Stablecoin The United States Congress said that it would push to pass legislation on stablecoins in the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Hires Galaxy Digital Counsel to Advise on Crypto Tyler Williams previously served several roles in the U.S. government.

U.S. House Committee Advances Effort to Erase IRS’ DeFi Tax Rule A joint resolution in Congress seeks to reverse a December move by the IRS to impose a tax regime in DeFi, and the House has taken the first steps to do that.

Crypto Daybook Americas: Risk-Off Remains the Theme as Market Settles Your day-ahead look for Feb. 26, 2025

XRP in Focus as Ripple Releases Institutional Roadmap for XRP Ledger XRP in Focus as Ripple Releases Institutional Roadmap for XRP Ledger

Avalanche Visa Card Goes Live Aiming to Further the Mass Adoption of Crypto Users can spend their Avalanche tokens (AVAX), wrapped AVAX as well as the USDT and USDC stablecoins at any store in person or online that takes Visa.

Delta Blockchain Founder Kavita Gupta Unveils Cross Chain Interoperability Startup Inclusive Layer aims to abstract away technical friction and create liquidity aggregation between the Ethereum, Solana, Base, Polygon and Arbitrum blockchains.

Ondo Finance to Bring RWAs to Mastercard Network Mastercard’s MTN incorporates API-enabled blockchain tools to allow banks to streamline domestic and cross-border transactions

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Solana (SOL) Drops 5.6%, Leading Index Lower Uniswap (UNI) was also among the underperformers, falling 4.3% from Tuesday.

Gold-Back Cryptos Outperform as Precious Metal ETF Inflows Near Three-Year High The price of gold is up nearly 11% so far in 2025 and 43% over the past 12 months.

Bitcoin Miner GDA Expands West Texas Facilities With 50 MW Deployment Genesis Digital Assets is a private bitcoin miner that claims to have one of the largest hashrate capacities in the world.

Story Protocol’s IP Rockets 40% as Traders Bet on IP Tokenization Despite markets taking a brutal hit on Tuesday, two altcoins—Story’s IP and Hyperliquid’s HYPE—are stealing the spotlight.

Bitcoin’s Lofty Max Pain Suggests Higher Spot Prices as $5B Options Expiry Approaches Over $5 billion of notional value is set to expire this Friday on Deribit at 08:00 UTC.