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Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Nearly $1T has been wiped from crypto markets, BTC dips below $82k, Trump tariff announcements spook investors, Paradigm recruits ZachXBT, web3 x AI applications are finding major use cases, Oklahoma Bitcoin bill is moving forward, and so much more.

It’s almost Friday. Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

As of 2/26/2025. Data per CoinMarketCap.

  • Crypto has seen a $800B sell-off so far in 2025, with $300B liquidated in just the last few weeks

  • Trump announced 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico in his first week in office, which led to a negative market reaction

    • Trump recently announced plans for tariffs against the European Union, which has created negative market sentiment for American investors

  • Institutions (that offer spot ETFs) have also been selling major amounts of Bitcoin in February

    • Ark, Grayscale, Fidelity, and Blackrock are institutions that have sold off large quantities of BTC this week

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • Trump announces 25% tariffs on the EU (WG) 

  • Over $800B has been wiped from crypto markets in recent weeks (FT) 

  • Bitcoin fell to a 2025 lows below $83K (CB) 

  • SEC closes its investigation into Gemini (CT) 

  • Bank of America plans to launch USD-pegged stablecoin if legislation passes (X) 

  • Bitcoin miner Mara Holdings beats Q4 earnings expectations as 2024 revenue grew 69% YoY (TB) 

  • DeFi platform Kava unveils the largest decentralized AI model to date (CD) 

  • Former crypto-friendly congressman Patrick McHenry joins a16z as a senior advisor (CN)

  • Polygon risks losing over $300M in TVL as Aave community votes to halt lending on PoS chain (TB) 

  • Crypto sleuth ZachXBT joins the Paradigm as an incident response advisor (TB)

  • SEC and Justin Sun ask a court to pause the SEC’s case against the crypto entrepreneur (CT) 

  • Ark Invest acquires $8.7M of Coinbase shares and sells $8.6M of its own spot Bitcoin ETF (TB)

  • Uniswap Labs spent ‘tens of millions’ fighting the SEC (BW) 

  • Tron’s ‘Gas Free’ feature to support USDT payments expected to go live next week (CT) 

  • A former chief attorney at the CFTC believes the agency should regulate memcoins (CT) 

M&A Announcements

  • Crypto wallet provider Phantom acquires token and NFT data platform SimpleHash (TB)

  • Self Labs acquires digital identity protocol OpenPassport to launch its zero-knowledge proof protocol Self Protocol (CC)

Launches

  • Moca Network partners with SK Planet for web3 expansion via OKI launch (CT)

  • Fetch.ai launches ASI-1 mini web3 native LLM for agentic AI workflows (AI)

Venture Capital

  • QuickNode launches its $65M accelerator program for L2 projects (TB)

  • Blockchain-powered payments and loyalty company Raise raises $63M in a funding round led by Haun Ventures (FN) 

  • ZKP technology startup Ligero raises $4M in a seed round led by Galaxy Ventures and 1kx (CC) 

  • Bitcoin-backed stablecoin developer Aegis raises $2M in a pre-seed round led by on-chain DAO Dewhales (BW)

  • Endless announces $1M strategic backing from Foresight Ventures (MS)

  • SatoshiPay raises $890K to support its blockchain-based payments solution Vortex (SP)

Regulation

  • US legislators push back their timeline for passing comprehensive crypto framework legislation (DC) 

  • The House of Representatives will consider a resolution to prevent the IRS from imposing tax reporting requirements on DeFi (DC) 

  • Oklahoma's strategic Bitcoin reserve bill passes its House Committee (WG)

Cybersecurity

  • India is cracking down on an eight-year-old $75.8M Bitcoin ponzi scheme (CT) 

  • A Washington man amassed $287K in crypto from selling drugs on the dark web (KN)

  • Pump.fun’s X account is hacked to promote a fake PUMP scam token (BC)

  • A recent GrassCall malware campaign has been installing malware using fake Web3 job interviews to drain crypto wallets (BC)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

Just a friendly reminder where Bitcoin adoption currently stands & its long-term potential

Meme Dump

‘Market Penetration’

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