Ethereum Gas Fee Continues to Drop, Now at 0.352 Gwei

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.

**February 16 Update** Per Coinbob Popular Address Monitoring, Hyperliquid early contributor Loracle opened a long position in PAXG (chain-based gold) before February 4. After spot gold fell below $5,000 per ounce today, the position flipped from profitable to loss-making. **PAXG Position Details:** - Average entry price: $5,047 - Position size: ~$7.86 million - Unrealized loss: $60k (-3.8%) Beyond PAXG, the address holds a significant HYPE position. Loracle is eyeing a limit order to buy ~20,000 HYPE around $28 to modestly expand its long position. The address has also been steadily adding to its ZEC long position recently, with current holdings totaling $8.5 million. **Loracle’s Key Hyperliquid Stats:** - Top long holder for HYPE, PAXG, and ZEC on the platform - Total account holdings: $63.2 million - Overall unrealized gain: $6.7 million **Background:** Loracle (X: @loraclexyz) — formerly Laurent Zeimes — is an early Hyperliquid contributor and founder

Per Coinglass data as of February 16th, here’s a breakdown of top crypto spot fund flows over the past 24 hours: **Leading net outflows:** - BTC: $361M net outflow - ETH: $302M net outflow - XRP: $140M net outflow - SOL: $73.36M net outflow - DOGE: $36.17M net outflow **Top net inflows:** - TAO: $3.5M net inflow - ZEC: $2.37M net inflow - HOME: $0.98M net inflow - OG: $0.87M net inflow - STO: $0.75M net inflow

On February 16, Bithumb added the LIT/KRW spot trading pair.