Justin Sun: Li Lin Once Concealed Due Diligence Materials, I Lent the Company $30 Million to Fill the Gap

Feb 26, Bernstein said Circle has transitioned from a "crypto proxy investment target" to a fintech infrastructure provider. Circle’s Q4 earnings report revealed its 2025 revenue surged 77% to $7.7 billion. For Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, this marks just the start of AI and blockchain reshaping the global economy. “We’re at the very beginning of a profound, fundamental shift in how the global economic system operates,” he noted. “It will not only become more internet-native but also more automated.” Bernstein views Circle as a key player in this transformation, reiterating its “outperform” rating on the firm in a new report, setting a $190 price target (implying 129% upside), and noting Circle is evolving into core internet infrastructure. Analyst Gautam Chhugani and three colleagues described Circle’s Q4 performance as “clearly differentiated from the crypto market.”

February 26 — Crypto startup STS Digital has closed a $30 million funding round, led by CMT Digital with participation from Kraken, Arrington Capital and a Fidelity-affiliated investment firm, Fortune reported. STS Digital co-founder and CEO Maxime Seiler declined to disclose the company’s valuation for the financing round. The firm focuses on serving institutional investors, enabling deep-pocketed traders to buy and sell cryptocurrency options. It also operates as an options market maker.

February 26th (Bloomberg) — Trump-backed Bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin Corp. has faced headwinds amid 2022’s severe crypto bear market, with the company reporting a $59 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2022. As Trump’s digital asset trading activity has cooled overall, the firm’s stock has shed nearly 90% of its value since reaching a peak last September.

February 26 – On-chain data analytics firm ChainInfo reported Tuesday that after 23 days of monitoring, all ETH from Vitalik Buterin’s project budget address (starting with 0xfeb) has been sold off. A total of 19,268 ETH (roughly $38.77 million) was sold at an average price of $2,012, exceeding the 16,384 ETH he previously announced. The ETH was converted into multiple stablecoins within the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, including USDtb, GHO, EURC, PYUSD, and LUSD. Back in late January, Vitalik stated the Ethereum Foundation was entering a mild tightening phase. He noted his personal selloff plan would take on responsibility for what might otherwise fall to the foundation’s “special program” at a later date. He intended to sell 16,384 ETH, with funds earmarked for building an open-source, secure, verifiable full-stack software and hardware system to protect personal lives and the public environment.

**February 26: Onchain Lens Monitoring Shows Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Has Been Selling Small Amounts of ETH Ongoing** Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has continued offloading small amounts of ETH, per Onchain Lens monitoring as of February 26. He has cleared out his "0xfeb" wallet—once holding 19,318 ETH—selling ~$3.87 million worth of the token at an average price of $2,004. He now holds just 8.6 ETH. Originally, Vitalik planned to sell 16,384 ETH, but the actual amount sold may exceed that target. In late January, Vitalik noted the Ethereum Foundation was entering a mild tightening phase. His personal tightening plan involves taking on responsibilities that might otherwise fall to the Foundation’s "special initiatives" at a later date. He intends to sell 16,384 ETH, with proceeds earmarked for building an open-source, secure, verifiable full-stack software and hardware system to safeguard personal well-being and the public environment.

On February 26, Qiao Wang—co-founder of Alliance—posted on social media that investors have spent months hunting for scapegoats to blame for Bitcoin’s bear market, naming Jane Street, quantum computing, and the tech stock sell-off among the targets. But Bitcoin is an asset with no cash flow anchor, so the only primary driver of its price moves is... technical analysis. And the core of technical analysis boils down to crowd psychology: more people buy into a four-year cycle than a five-year one. Once the trend breaks, traders start taking profits or exiting via stop-losses. That’s it. Most other explanations are just correlation, not causation. Right now, all we need to do is wait patiently for market psychology to fully capitulate and for the trend to reverse—this doesn’t necessarily require an external catalyst.