U.S. CPI: +2.9% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +2.9%); U.S. CORE CPI: +3.2% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +3.3%)

February 15 — Former President Barack Obama addressed a racially discriminatory video depicting him as a monkey for the first time in a podcast appearance, saying the “shame” and “civility” that once constrained U.S. public officials have “completely vanished.” Obama did not name former President Donald Trump directly, but he argued the White House’s handling of the incident will backfire on the Republican Party in the 2026 midterm elections. Earlier, the video was posted to Trump’s social media account. The White House claimed the post was a staffer error and has since been deleted.

February 15 — JPMorgan Chase is recruiting a Software Engineer for its Blockchain and Tokenization Team. Key responsibilities include: - Developing the engineering roadmap for blockchain infrastructure, tokenization platforms, and digital asset services - Evaluating and integrating blockchain protocols (Ethereum, Polygon, Hyperledger, Canton, and more) aligned with product requirements - Participating in the design, architecture, and implementation of blockchain-based solutions to ensure security, scalability, and compliance with applicable regulations

February 15th Despite ongoing bearish sentiment in the crypto market, the total market capitalization of stablecoins has risen steadily over the past two weeks, nearing its prior all-time high. Per DefiLlama data, stablecoin total market cap now stands at $3076.03 billion, up 1.85% week-over-week. Notably, USDC and USDS (issued by Sky Protocol) saw notable growth last week, climbing 1.18% and 3.23% respectively. USDT’s market dominance has fallen below 60%, currently at 59.74%.

February 15th: Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on social media that Roundhill Fund has filed with the U.S. SEC for an ETF designed to track political election prediction markets—including forecasts on Democratic and Republican nominees, control of the Senate and House, and more. Balchunas noted these ETFs will use event contracts, a move that could be groundbreaking. If approved, the application would unlock a host of possibilities.

On February 15, Onchain Lens data shows a newly created wallet swapped 9,156.45 ETH (valued at $18.87 million) for 3,734.19 PAXG over the past two days, with an average price of $5,053.

February 15th — Bitcoin News reports Lightning Labs has officially launched an open-source toolkit that enables AI agents to autonomously send and receive Bitcoin payments via the Bitcoin Lightning Network, with no human approval, user accounts, login credentials, or API keys required. The toolkit leverages the L402 protocol, built on the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" standard. Websites can issue Lightning Network invoices to AI agents; upon payment, the agents receive a digital payment credential that acts as an access key to unlock services or data. Included in the toolkit is the "lnget" tool, which automatically processes requests for paywalled content access in the background. Additional capabilities include support for AI agents running Lightning nodes, managing permissions, hosting paid services, facilitating inter-agent transactions, plus built-in spending limits and remote signature protection.