Whataboutism: Cherry-picking and exaggeration make it impossible to guard against, while conspiracy theories are even more effective at swaying public opinion

February 16 — CoinShares’ latest weekly report shows global cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) posted net outflows for the fourth straight week: $173 million last week, bringing the four-week total to $3.74 billion. Notably, U.S.-listed ETPs had $403 million in outflows in one week, while Europe and Canada combined saw net inflows of $230 million — a sharp regional split. Germany ($115M), Canada ($46.3M), and Switzerland ($36.8M) led inflows. By asset class: Bitcoin-linked products had $133M in outflows, Ethereum products $85.1M, and Bitcoin short ETPs $15.4M over the past two weeks. Some altcoins bucked the trend, though: XRP ($33.4M), Solana ($31M), and Chainlink ($1.1M) saw inflows. CoinShares Research Director James Butterfill noted that while sell pressure persists, it’s slowed sharply from the $1.7B outflow earlier this month — and market sentiment hasn’t reversed yet. ETP trading volume also dropped to $27B from the prior week’s record $63B, signaling a big

On February 16, OpenEden—an RWA tokenization platform—officially announced that the DNS for its official website and portal may have been compromised. It’s warning users not to interact with the domain to avoid wallet asset losses. OpenEden noted that all reserve assets remain safe (SAFU), and related data can be verified via Chainlink’s Reserve Proof page. However, the team again stressed not to access or engage with the compromised domain. The OpenEden team is investigating the incident and will release further updates as soon as possible.

OnchainLens data reveals that as of February 16th, a newly created wallet address withdrew 71.84 million SIREN tokens (valued at roughly $6.54 million at the time) from exchanges KuCoin, Bitget, and Gate.io 10 days prior. Currently, those SIREN tokens are worth approximately $15.52 million, resulting in an unrealized gain of around $8.98 million. The relevant wallet address is: 0xfe5bcc32063ced8384507d41c334ead5c70fbb56

On February 16, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) granted a virtual asset trading platform license to VDX, a subsidiary of Victory Fintech Company Limited. The license authorizes VDX to conduct two regulated activities: Type 1 (securities trading) and Type 7 (providing automated trading services). Separately, VDX’s sister subsidiary—VDX Custody Limited—has also been licensed under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) Ordinance to offer digital asset custody services. As of now, the number of licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong stands at 12.

On February 16, per a Businesswire announcement, Canadian-listed Ethereum treasury firm Republic Technologies said it will conduct a private placement of up to 14,087,000 Special Warrants at $0.21 each, aiming to raise up to $3 million in gross proceeds. The company had previously disclosed holding roughly 1,570.6 ETH—purchased at an average price of $2,700—with its current ETH holdings valued at approximately $3.2 million.

February 16 — OKX has secured a Payment Institution (PI) license in Malta, aligning with upcoming EU regulatory requirements set to take effect in March. The license allows OKX to continue offering stablecoin-related payment services in the EU, fully compliant with the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos noted: “We recently launched live payment products including OKX Pay and OKX Card to integrate stablecoins into daily life. Securing the PI license ensures these products operate in full compliance.” Late last month, OKX partnered with Mastercard to launch a crypto payment card in Europe. Its venture capital arm, OKX Ventures, also recently invested in STBL, a stablecoin issuance platform.