Point of View: The Federal Reserve Has Over-Eased, with a 65% Chance of Stagflation in the United States

Feb. 12: Citing market sources, an internal Russian memo notes there are efforts to lobby former President Trump to rejoin the dollar system, and the U.S. and Russia may have a joint plan in energy, mining and fossil fuel sectors.

On February 12, the White House launched a last-minute push to avert a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, submitting legislative text to Democrats ahead of the funding deadline. Democrats are expected to reject the proposal, labeling the prior offer “neither complete nor adequate.” Senate Democrats note negotiations have reached a stalemate, insisting they will not back any new stopgap funding measure unless an agreement is struck on a 10-point plan to reform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Senator Jacky Rosen criticized the White House’s response for lacking specifics and accused Republicans of leaning on short-term extensions to dodge broader immigration reform. (Source: Golden Finance)

On February 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an article outlining his views on incentive mechanisms for cryptocurrency projects. He argues incentive frameworks should draw a clear line between two key scenarios: 1) Compensating for temporary costs in a project’s early, immature stages (beneficial); 2) Attracting users who won’t engage with the project once it matures (harmful). Vitalik notes many decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity rewards are reasonable, as they offset risks new projects face—including hacks or team fraud. However, paying users to tweet for attention is a flawed approach: such incentives may push users to prioritize maximum gains over content quality. He emphasizes ideal incentive mechanisms should precisely compensate for temporary protocol shortcomings that will fade as the protocol matures, while avoiding users with no long-term retention potential. Successful applications, he stresses, should focus first on building utility r

As of February 12, Cathie Wood—nicknamed the “Wood Mom”—and her firm Ark Invest had boosted holdings of bullish stocks for nine straight days, with a total additional investment of $11.6 million.

February 12 — OKX Ventures has announced a strategic investment in STBL, a next-generation stablecoin and yield infrastructure provider. STBL also revealed partnerships with two key players: private market investment firm Hamilton Lane (HLNE) and digital securities issuance/tokenization platform Securitize. The firm will launch its first ecosystem-specific stablecoin, ESS, on X Layer. Built on a dual-token architecture, ESS separates liquidity provisioning from yield generation and is fully backed by real-world assets.

**February 12** Strategy CEO Phong Le said during a Bloomberg live broadcast that the firm will begin gradually cutting back on equity financing and shift to preferred stock financing to fund its growing BTC holdings. **BlockBeats Note:** Equity financing directly dilutes existing shareholders’ ownership and earnings per share (EPS), amplifying losses amid stock price volatility—especially when Bitcoin prices drop. It does, however, have lower costs and no fixed dividend obligations. Preferred stock financing, by contrast, offers priority for fixed dividends, does not dilute common stockholders’ control or voting rights, and attracts conservative investors with more stable funding. That said, it carries the burden of perpetual dividends and relatively higher costs. Strategy’s shift to preferred stock financing is intended to keep buying Bitcoin amid market volatility while easing dilution pressure on its common shareholders.