Ethereum Gas Fee Continues to Drop, Now at 0.352 Gwei

On February 26, crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon lunched with a Republican senator today, with the discussion centered on advancing cryptocurrency market structure legislation to strengthen the U.S.'s global leadership in crypto and AI.

February 26 — Bitget market data shows U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday, with preliminary gains of 0.6% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 0.8% for the S&P 500 and 1.26% for the Nasdaq Composite. Tech stocks saw mixed but notable moves: Nvidia rose 1.4%, while Western Digital jumped 7.5%. Crypto-linked equities rallied sharply: Circle surged 35% after its earnings beat expectations, Strategy gained 8.86%, BitMine climbed 10.44% and Coinbase rose 13.58%.

February 26: Spot silver fell below $88 per ounce, down 1.68% intraday, per Bitget market data.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said Wednesday that rifts between the Federal Reserve and the White House have begun to erode public trust in the central bank’s apolitical standing — one of the most direct warnings to date from a top monetary policy official about the fallout from former President Trump’s hardline stance on the Fed. In a farewell essay ahead of his February-end retirement from the Atlanta Fed, Bostic noted his colleagues across the Fed system remain committed to separating their work from politics. “But visits over the past few months have made clear that legal and verbal sparring over the central bank has led people from all walks of life to question the Fed’s independence — a development that’s deeply concerning,” he wrote. Bostic isn’t the only Fed official this year to stress the importance of central bank independence, but no one has directly warned as he did Wednesday that the ongoing string of controversies could weaken public confidence in the instit

February 26: Federal Reserve official Schmiede said Wednesday that high inflation remains a key challenge the Fed must tackle, though he did not spell out how monetary policy should react. “I believe we still have work to do on inflation,” Schmiede stated, adding that “the employment situation is pretty good.” He did not detail how these factors could shape his monetary policy outlook. Notably, Schmiede had previously expressed skepticism about the Fed’s rate cuts last year, when officials lowered the target range to 3.5%-3.75%. Markets expect the Fed to cut rates further this year, but officials have offered little guidance. Schmiede also addressed the Fed’s balance sheet, noting internal discussions have focused on identifying the appropriate level of reserves the financial system needs. He pointed out that the Fed’s large holdings of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from past bond-buying programs continue to suppress housing borrowing costs. Due to the current size of these MB

On February 26, Mizuho analysts noted that a potential acquisition of PayPal by Stripe would help the payment firm expand beyond its traditional merchant payment business into the consumer market. Earlier reports have indicated Stripe is considering acquiring all or a portion of PayPal’s business. The transaction is feasible in terms of scale: Stripe’s latest valuation stands at roughly $159 billion, far exceeding PayPal’s market capitalization of approximately $43 billion. Analysts argue PayPal’s large user base and its peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app Venmo would provide Stripe with strong consumer-side brand recognition and a robust user network. Additionally, PayPal’s Braintree merchant payment infrastructure could boost Stripe’s competitiveness in the payment processing market. Per the analysis, Braintree could add around $700 billion in total payment volume (TPV) to Stripe, which currently processes roughly $1.4 trillion in annual TPV. (Reporting from The Block)