BREAKING: $435 million has been liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the past 12 hours.

**February 15th: Tom Lee’s Crypto Insights & Predictions** In an interview with Rug Radio founder Farokh Sarmad, Tom Lee said the current crypto market is in a “mini winter” — not a prolonged bear market — but will take time to digest. He advised investors against waiting for the “perfect bottom”; instead, start buying in batches at current lows now. The downturn could last 3–6 months, he noted, but a major turning point is on the horizon for 2026. Lee added he has no regrets about buying ETH early. ETH is currently near its bottom (with potential brief dips below $1800 or $1890), and there have been 8 historical V-shaped rebounds for the asset. Long-term, he views ETH as a “15-year story” — the backbone of stablecoins, AI, and the creator economy. Finally, Lee reaffirmed his predictions: Bitcoin will hit $200,000–$250,000 by 2026, while Ethereum is set to reach $12,000–$22,000 (aligning with historical ratios).

February 15th — Venture capitalist Nic Carter recently noted on a podcast that Bitcoin developers’ longstanding inaction toward the cryptocurrency’s vulnerability to potential quantum computing threats could stoke dissatisfaction among large institutions with sizeable Bitcoin holdings (e.g., BlackRock) — ultimately spurring an “institutional takeover.” Carter warned institutions won’t tolerate the long-term sidelining of Bitcoin’s core security concerns: “If developers keep doing nothing, institutions will lose patience, fire the current team, and bring in new talent.” (Cointelegraph)

**February 15th Crypto Update** Per Coinglass data, Bitcoin has surged past $70,000, while Ethereum briefly climbed above $2,100. Currently, funding rates across major centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX) exchanges show the market remains bearish overall—but bearish sentiment toward Ethereum has eased sharply. Almost all platforms now report neutral ETH funding rates. Specific rate details are in the attached image. --- **BlockBeats Note** Funding rates are fees set by crypto trading platforms to keep contract prices aligned with underlying asset values, typically for perpetual contracts. They act as a fund transfer between long and short traders (the platform does not charge this fee), adjusting traders’ holding costs or profits to narrow gaps between contract and spot prices. **Rate Breakdown** - 0.01% = baseline rate - Above 0.01% = bullish market bias - Below 0.005% = bearish market bias This rewrite uses concise, American English phrasing common in cryp

On February 15th, Ethereum rebounded and briefly topped $2100, according to HTX market data. It’s currently trading at $2091, up 0.26% over the past 24 hours.

As of February 15, Onchain Lens data shows that whale address 0x6C8 first opened an ETH long position on February 11—at one point sitting on a loss of over $3.5 million. The address is now up $24,800 and still holds a $93.79 million ETH long position with 20x leverage.

On February 15th, on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) reported that over the past 24 hours, a whale with an initial 105,000 ETH long position has closed out 28,000 ETH of that position, realizing a profit of $1.263 million. The average closing price was $2,094.02. Currently, the whale holds 32,000 ETH with an unrealized profit of $1.193 million. It also has a 3,000 ETH limit sell order pending in the $2,100-$2,110 range. Collectively, the two addresses linked to the whale now hold 77,000 ETH in long positions, worth a total of $160 million.