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On February 19, 2026, the SEC Division of Trading and Markets issued a staff FAQ under Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1 that sets a uniform 2 percent net capital haircut for qualifying payment stablecoins held as proprietary long and short positions, replacing a prior de facto full deduction practice. The 2 percent level aligns with haircuts applied to money-market instruments backed by short-term Treasuries and cash. The treatment applies only to proprietary positions included in net capital, does not change customer protection or custody rules, and does not apply to customer assets. Eligibility requires compliance with GENIUS Act criteria, permitted issuer licensing, full fiat reserves, monthly AICPA reserve attestations, recognized auditors, and bankruptcy-remote custody and tested redemption mechanics. Firms must update trading and risk systems to identify eligible tokens and apply the 2 percent haircut, collect and retain issuer documentation and attestations, implement diverse price sources and automated depeg thresholds, and establish escalation and collateral-substitution playbooks; firms may apply higher internal haircuts and concentration checks or stress testing if liquidity or peg conditions deteriorate. The change reduces capital charges for eligible holdings (for example, $100 million of eligible tokens now triggers a $2 million charge rather than a full deduction) and permits broker-dealers, clearing brokers, and prime brokers to consider using eligible stablecoins for settlement, collateral, intraday funding, market making, and treasury operations. The SEC invited feedback on whether to amend Rule 15c3-1 to codify definitions and eligibility conditions, and cross-agency coordination and final rulemaking by other regulators will affect which issuers can rely on this treatment; the NCUA proposed GENIUS Act rules on February 12, 2026, including licensing, reserve and liquidity standards, and a proposed one percent investment limit for credit unions. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/policy/sec-stablecoin-capital-relief/

Russian authorities will treat cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as tradable assets, file a draft bill to the State Duma in March 2026, and target adoption during the spring session with the law set to take effect on July 1, 2026 and full liabilities and penalties phased in on July 1, 2027. The regime will require exchanges, brokers, banks, and custodians to obtain local licenses and meet requirements including qualified custody, order and trade reporting, KYC and suitability checks, segregation of client assets, and capital requirements, while limiting retail activity through eligibility and suitability rules and allowing supervised intermediaries as the only compliant onramps for Russian users. Authorities will require foreign platforms to operate through Russian subsidiaries, enforce data localization, and enable corporate and technical controls including targeted domain and app restrictions to reduce offshore fee outflows estimated at about $648 million per day and roughly $15 billion per year. Enforcement will proceed in stages, prioritize shutdowns of fraud and unauthorized intermediaries, provide transition windows for legitimate platforms to apply for licenses, and deploy Roskomnadzor AI-assisted blocking tools and escalation pathways from summer 2026 alongside prosecutorial and central bank actions that impose administrative penalties for users and criminal-style liability for firms operating outside the licensing regime. Exchanges and service providers will incur compliance and operational costs from custody standards, local servers, capital buffers, and reporting systems; foreign platforms will choose between establishing Russian subsidiaries and local infrastructure or risking loss of market access; domestic licensed intermediaries will capture onshore volume and will be subject to supervision under the licensing regime. Entrepreneurs and firms with Russian exposure should map user flows, audit custody and self-custody exposure, prepare KYC and onboarding systems, plan for data localization, evaluate custody partners that meet the custody and reporting requirements, budget for operational costs tied to capital and reporting obligations, and develop contingency plans for traffic and liquidity fragmentation; investors and builders should prepare for licensing gates, custody requirements, enhanced reporting, consider partnerships with licensed or rapidly compliant local intermediaries, define fallback plans for liquidity and market-making, and align operational timelines and capital allocation with the March–July 2026 window and the July 1, 2027 liability deadline. Key milestones to watch include the March 2026 bill filing, the spring State Duma vote, the July 1, 2026 effective date, potential first regulated domestic transactions in late 2026, and the July 1, 2027 enforcement date; signals to track include how many major foreign platforms apply for Russian subsidiaries, how quickly domestic players scale custody and compliance, and whether Roskomnadzor begins technical restrictions on offshore access in summer 2026; risks include VPN circumvention, fragmented liquidity across domestic and offshore order books, and licensing or onboarding backlogs that could sustain a grey market. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/russia-2026-crypto-framework/

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $3.8 billion in net redemptions across five consecutive weeks, the longest streak since February 2025, bringing year-to-date outflows to about $4.5 billion and printing roughly $316 million in net redemptions in the most recent week. BlackRock’s IBIT registered roughly $2.10–$2.13 billion of withdrawals over the five-week span, including about $303.5 million last week, and Fidelity’s FBTC accounted for about $954 million of outflows; Ether ETFs experienced weekly redemptions near $123 million, while cumulative spot Bitcoin ETF inflows since the 2024 launches remain in the $53–$54 billion range. Bitcoin traded near $64,300, down about 25 percent year-to-date in 2026 and about 47 percent from the $126,000 peak, with near-term supports around $65,000, a tighter band at $64,200–$64,400, and a broader liquidity pocket near $60,000 after a concentrated sell-off erased roughly $100 billion of crypto market value within 24 hours. Drivers included tariff uncertainty tied to Section 122 timelines, geopolitical tensions, and rotation into store-of-value assets; on-chain and institutional signals showed increased exchange deposits averaging about 1.58 BTC per depositing address and a roughly $760 million transfer to Binance, and hedge funds and large allocators trimmed positions with a reported 28 percent deallocation in late 2025. Sustained ETF outflows increased realized volatility, widened spreads, and pressured futures basis and borrow rates, which complicated hedging for corporate treasuries, raised financing costs for miners and other capital-intensive operators, increased mark-to-market sensitivity for companies with Bitcoin exposure, and prompted greater inventory churn for market makers as primary outflows fed secondary selling. Near-term scenarios hinge on flows and policy clarity: a decisive reclaim above $70,000 would invite marginal risk capital back into ETFs and ease primary market pressure, while a confirmed break below $65,000 would bring $60,000 into focus for a potential liquidity sweep that could flush stops and either produce a rebound or confirm a deeper drawdown; halving-related supply dynamics may provide tailwinds by mid-2026 while tariff headlines and legal uncertainty could keep risk premia elevated. Indicators to watch include weekly primary market flows for IBIT and FBTC, developments in the Section 122 tariff policy timeline and related court actions, cross-asset signals such as gold, the dollar and equity volatility, and derivatives metrics including options skew near $60,000 and futures basis across major venues. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/bitcoin-etf-outflows-five-weeks/

The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) published two advisories on February 12, 2026 identifying over-the-counter crypto desks and crypto payment processors as channels for laundering and tax evasion. The J5 membership includes the Australian Taxation Office, Canada Revenue Agency, Dutch FIOD, HM Revenue and Customs, and IRS Criminal Investigation. The advisories reported average daily OTC turnover at about $1.44 billion versus about $74.5 million on exchanges, nearly $236 billion in suspicious activity linked to OTC platforms reported to FinCEN, and a roughly 1,000% increase in suspicious activity reports tied to crypto payment processors between 2020 and 2024 reaching around $5 billion. The advisories described mechanisms used to obscure flows, including private settlement windows, custodial addresses, cross-venue flows, routing or conversion by processors that bypass exchange-level KYC and monitoring, and attribution gaps created by unlabeled house wallets, third-party fiat receivers, and nested merchant accounts. The advisories listed red flags for OTC desks such as large block trades settled outside exchange order books, repeated bespoke settlement terms, cross-chain hops or partial cash components, advertising guaranteed quotes or low documentation, failures to file suspicious activity reports, and poor wallet labeling; and red flags for processors such as merchant mismatches between declared business category and transaction patterns, nested accounts funneling flows across settlement rails, rapid splitting and reaggregation of payments, and weak onboarding or sanctions screening tied to IP and device gaps. The J5 cited prior operations including the September 2024 Cyber Challenge that combined chain analytics, SAR data, and investigative mapping to link wallets to fiat endpoints, dealers and shell entities. The advisories recommend adopting common SAR keyword libraries that include named OTC venues and processor typologies, tagging counterparties and house wallets consistently, training investigators to identify described signal patterns, mapping exposure to OTC counterparties and documenting verified identities and sources of funds for large or repeat trades, updating SAR programs with recommended typologies and keyword lists, increasing merchant-level monitoring by tracking velocity, clustering, and merchant-category inconsistencies, and strengthening Travel Rule compliance and analytics labeling by incorporating IP, device, and geolocation context. Agencies signaled oversight expectations that could include registration and licensing for OTC intermediaries, fit-and-proper checks, and enhanced record keeping; processors could face stronger KYC, merchant category monitoring, sanctions screening informed by IP and device data, and stricter Travel Rule enforcement; banks and acquirers may de-risk relationships with insufficient labeling and reporting, and service providers may face exam findings, account terminations, and cross-border referrals. The advisories indicate potential market effects including migration of liquidity from OTC venues toward regulated platforms, wider spreads and increased slippage on large block trades, loss of acquirers for processors that cannot demonstrate merchant controls, continued access to fiat rails for institutions that invest in provenance analytics and accurate labeling, and increased enforcement and termination risk for lagging service providers. The J5 advised that agencies will pursue joint operations, intelligence sharing, and referrals tying on-chain patterns to off-chain fiat endpoints, card programs, and dealers, and urged industry leaders to prioritize controls that make transactions auditable and documented. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/policy/j5-warns-otc-crypto-processors/

Mirae Asset Consulting agreed to acquire 92.06 percent of Korbit in an all-cash transaction valued at 133.5 billion KRW (about $92–93 million), covering approximately 26.91 million shares. The buyer’s board approved the transaction on February 5, the deal was disclosed on February 13, and closing is expected within seven business days after regulatory and contractual conditions are satisfied. Sellers include NXC and Simple Capital Futures (together about 60.5 percent), SK Square which exited its roughly 31.5 percent holding through SK Planet, and Bitstamp (now under Robinhood) which retains about eight percent. Mirae is using a non-financial affiliate for the acquisition to comply with Korean rules separating securities businesses and crypto exchanges. Korbit is the fourth-largest of five licensed exchanges in Korea, holds about one percent market share, reported 8.7 billion KRW in revenue and 9.8 billion KRW in net profit for the most recent year, and recorded a 30-day trading volume increase of 454 percent to roughly $2.8 billion. The acquisition gives Mirae an owned exchange license and an operational platform to pursue tokenized products and security token offerings, and Mirae Asset Group manages roughly $418 billion in assets. Korean regulators are advancing frameworks for security tokens and on-chain bonds through 2026 and are considering proposals to cap single-owner stakes in exchanges at roughly 15 to 20 percent. By acquiring control now, Mirae secures management authority that could be grandfathered if ownership caps become law. Immediate integration tasks include obtaining approvals, securing banking connectivity and custody arrangements, and integrating risk and compliance controls, and identified risks include regulatory clearance, sponsor bank and counterparty agreement, and migration of systems, data, and controls. The buyer and exchange indicated that day-to-day operations are expected to remain stable during the handover and that potential additions such as fiat connectivity, custody services, and compliant tokenized offerings would be subject to regulatory approvals. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/mirae-asset-buys-korbit-92-stake/

On February 16, 2026, X announced Smart Cashtags that make $TICKER tags interactive by surfacing real-time quotes, sparklines, and reference information in the timeline and by opening a compact trading panel that routes users to integrated partner brokerages and crypto exchanges for execution. X will provide market data, routing links, and the UX surface while partner brokerages and exchanges remain responsible for execution, KYC, custody, and settlement. X targets a phased rollout of Smart Cashtags in the coming weeks with initial coverage focused on Bitcoin and Ether, plans to expand to liquid equities and other crypto pairs as partner support and liquidity allow, and will initially support spot trading only. X is testing X Money in internal beta with peer-to-peer transfers, in-app wallets, and Visa-enabled instant settlement mechanics, and it targets an external beta in one to two months subject to partner readiness and compliance approvals. X holds money transmitter licenses in seven U.S. states from 2023 and intends broader regional availability to depend on additional licenses and local partnerships. Regulators, compliance, fraud, user protection, data latency, and outages are identified as risk areas that require controls such as disclosures, default limits, funding checks, fraud prevention, and routing audits. X advised exchange, brokerage, and payments partners to prepare APIs and onboarding flows for rapid account openings and identity checks, optimize mobile funding paths, harden anti-abuse controls for feed-driven flows, and design visible safeguards for new traders. Early operational metrics to monitor include weekly active cashtag traders, conversion rates from views to orders, time to first trade after a cashtag interaction, funding success rates, latency and routing reliability, and retention of wallet balances. X and partners will publish public milestones such as partner lists, regional availability, asset coverage, uptime, error rates, and compliance updates; teams are advised to validate exchange readiness, align on API contracts and error handling, and track Visa settlement behavior and interchange economics while expecting phased rollouts and a limited initial asset set. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/x-smart-cashtags-money-launch/

Harvard Management Company reduced its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) position by about 1.48–1.50 million shares, a roughly 21% decline, in Q4 2025 and initiated a position in the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). At quarter-end it held approximately 5.35–5.40 million IBIT shares valued at $265–266 million and approximately 3.87–4.00 million ETHA shares valued at $86.8–87 million, for combined ETF positions of about $352.6 million, near 1% of Harvard’s $56.9 billion endowment. IBIT was the largest disclosed public equity holding by reported market value, ahead of Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon. Bitcoin moved from a near-record of about $126,000 in October 2025 to a Dec. 31 close of $88,429, and Ethereum finished the year about 28% lower. Harvard used ETF wrappers to adjust exposure without on-chain custody, to access standard settlement through prime brokers, and to integrate crypto exposure into existing compliance and reporting workflows. Harvard’s Bitcoin ETF exposure had peaked near $442.8 million earlier in 2025, and its total crypto sleeve remained in a satellite allocation of roughly 1% of assets. The same 13F filing showed a new position in Union Pacific and rebalancing across technology and industrial sectors. The filing and commentary identified valuation debates, policy developments and tax rules as factors that could influence future committee decisions, and upcoming 13F filings will show whether Harvard increases its ETHA stake, holds steady, or further pares IBIT. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/harvard-crypto-rebalance-q4-2025/

On February 11, 2026, Canton, North Carolina voted unanimously to enact a 12-month townwide moratorium on new data centers, server farms, and cryptocurrency mining, explicitly covering the roughly 185-acre former Pactiv Evergreen paper mill site. The moratorium begins before any formal permit applications were submitted and suspends permit intake and processing while staff draft zoning and performance ordinance updates. Town staff were directed to begin drafting ordinance updates immediately and to schedule public workshops and planning board reviews over the coming year. A public hearing that preceded the vote drew roughly fifty attendees who raised concerns about water supply, noise, grid impacts, environmental cleanup, and job quality. During the moratorium, staff and the planning board will evaluate zoning options and operational requirements, including restricting high-density compute to specific industrial zones, requiring conditional permits with case-specific protections, and introducing performance-based standards for water use, noise at the property line, and real-time energy reporting. Officials directed staff to add reporting, monitoring, and enforcement tools to enable tracking of ongoing operations if projects are approved later. Guidance for project teams and applicants includes prioritizing low-water cooling strategies and heat reuse, coordinating early with the local utility on interconnection studies and grid-impact modeling, preparing acoustic modeling and construction logistics plans that specify truck routes and hours, planning on-site water reuse and stormwater controls sized for extreme events, implementing commissioning plans to validate promised metrics, and pairing technical commitments with workforce development measures such as local hiring targets and apprenticeships. Entitlement schedules should include scoping, public workshops, at least one full planning and board hearing cycle, and contingency for outside peer reviews on noise, water, and grid impacts; teams should monitor draft ordinance text, staff reports, public workshop calendars, planning board materials, and the final vote, and the town may extend the moratorium if additional time is needed. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/policy/canton-pauses-data-centers-crypto/

Federal prosecutors indicted 24-year-old Elmin Redzepagic of Wolcott, Connecticut, on 21 counts alleging a cryptocurrency investment scheme that operated from May 2021 through March 2025. The indictment alleges he solicited funds by representing himself as a skilled crypto trader and diverted large portions of investor deposits into an online gambling venue, with investigators and local reporting tracing about $950,000 lost at that gambling site. Charges include wire fraud and identity-related offenses, and the indictment identifies transactions that prosecutors state could support money laundering counts if concealment or layering is proven. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut and IRS Criminal Investigation announced the indictment and named U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan and IRS CI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Demeo in the announcement. Proceedings are pending in federal court in New Haven and the defendant is presumed innocent. Investigators report that funds moved through exchanges, wallets, and payment accounts before arriving at the gambling platform and in personal spending, and the indictment and accompanying announcements reference tracing affidavits, subpoenas to exchanges and payment firms, asset restraints, forfeiture motions, and potential restitution efforts. Separately, an indictment charged two Glastonbury residents with using stolen identities to claim signup bonuses and withdraw roughly $3 million, and prosecutors referenced other recent multi-million dollar wire fraud resolutions in Connecticut as part of related enforcement activity. Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/ct-crypto-fraud-indictment-gambling/