Binance Alpha Launches Story (IP) Airdrop, 240 Points Threshold

**U.S. Stock Open & Crypto-Related Stocks (Feb 12, via Bitget Data)** U.S. equities opened higher Tuesday: - Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.1% - S&P 500 +0.3% - Nasdaq Composite +0.38% Most crypto-linked stocks gained: - **MicroStrategy (MSTR): +1.4%** → Announced today it will shift financing to preferred stock to keep accumulating amid the downturn. - **Coinbase (COIN): -0.3%** → Q4 2025 and full-year earnings due post-market close today. - **Circle (CRCL): -0.15%** - **Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA): +0.46%** - **Riot Platforms (RIOT): +0.47%** - **BitMine Immersion (BMNR): +1.2%** - **SharpLink Gaming (SBET): +1.1%** *Note: Adjusted "Strategy" to full name "MicroStrategy" (standard for U.S. market clarity; MSTR is its ticker). Streamlined wording to match American financial news brevity.*

On February 12, Distributed AI Lab Gradient launched its Echo-2 distributed reinforcement learning framework—aimed at breaking through barriers to AI research training efficiency by decoupling Learner and Actor components at the architectural level to cut post-training costs for large models. Official data shows the framework slashes post-training costs for a 30B-parameter model from $4,500 to just $425. Echo-2 leverages compute-storage separation for asynchronous reinforcement learning (Async RL), allowing sampling compute to be offloaded to non-guaranteed GPU instances and Parallax-powered heterogeneous GPUs. Additionally, Gradient plans to roll out Logits, a Reinforcement Learning as a Service (RLaaS) platform, which is now open for reservations to students and researchers.

February 12 (PR Newswire) — Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla (ETHZ) has launched Eurus Aero Token I, the first tokenized real-world asset backed by commercial aircraft engines, via its wholly owned subsidiary ETHZilla Aerospace LLC. Built on Ethereum Layer 2, the token is collateralized by two CFM56 commercial jet engines (valued at ~$12.2 million total) leased to a major U.S. airline. Each token is priced at $100, with a 10-token minimum purchase, and targets an ~11% return through the end of the lease term. ETHZilla noted the product gives accredited investors access to an asset class typically limited to private aviation leasing funds or large institutional deals. The firm also plans to roll out additional tokenized asset classes soon, including prefabricated home loans and auto loans.

On February 12th, Ondo Finance announced that tokenized stocks from Ondo Global Markets are now live on the DeFi lending market—with SPYon and QQQon leading the initial rollout, integrated with Morpho and Gauntlet. Ondo’s tokenized stocks and ETFs are now available as efficient, risk-managed collateral assets within the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.

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)