TRUMP unlocked 40 million tokens 5 hours ago, equivalent to around 300 million US dollars

On February 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an article outlining his views on incentive mechanisms for cryptocurrency projects. He argues incentive frameworks should draw a clear line between two key scenarios: 1) Compensating for temporary costs in a project’s early, immature stages (beneficial); 2) Attracting users who won’t engage with the project once it matures (harmful). Vitalik notes many decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity rewards are reasonable, as they offset risks new projects face—including hacks or team fraud. However, paying users to tweet for attention is a flawed approach: such incentives may push users to prioritize maximum gains over content quality. He emphasizes ideal incentive mechanisms should precisely compensate for temporary protocol shortcomings that will fade as the protocol matures, while avoiding users with no long-term retention potential. Successful applications, he stresses, should focus first on building utility r

As of February 12, Cathie Wood—nicknamed the “Wood Mom”—and her firm Ark Invest had boosted holdings of bullish stocks for nine straight days, with a total additional investment of $11.6 million.

February 12 — OKX Ventures has announced a strategic investment in STBL, a next-generation stablecoin and yield infrastructure provider. STBL also revealed partnerships with two key players: private market investment firm Hamilton Lane (HLNE) and digital securities issuance/tokenization platform Securitize. The firm will launch its first ecosystem-specific stablecoin, ESS, on X Layer. Built on a dual-token architecture, ESS separates liquidity provisioning from yield generation and is fully backed by real-world assets.

**February 12** Strategy CEO Phong Le said during a Bloomberg live broadcast that the firm will begin gradually cutting back on equity financing and shift to preferred stock financing to fund its growing BTC holdings. **BlockBeats Note:** Equity financing directly dilutes existing shareholders’ ownership and earnings per share (EPS), amplifying losses amid stock price volatility—especially when Bitcoin prices drop. It does, however, have lower costs and no fixed dividend obligations. Preferred stock financing, by contrast, offers priority for fixed dividends, does not dilute common stockholders’ control or voting rights, and attracts conservative investors with more stable funding. That said, it carries the burden of perpetual dividends and relatively higher costs. Strategy’s shift to preferred stock financing is intended to keep buying Bitcoin amid market volatility while easing dilution pressure on its common shareholders.

February 12: Standard Chartered Bank has cut its Ethereum price target for end-2026 from $7,500 to $4,000, projecting the crypto will drop to around $1,400 before rebounding later this year.

February 12 A Reuters survey finds long-dated U.S. Treasury yields will stay stable in the near term but rise later this year as inflation and Federal Reserve independence concerns mount. Short-dated yields, meanwhile, will edge lower on rate-cut bets. Nearly 60% of bond strategists (21 of 37) say large-scale U.S. Treasury issuance in the coming years to fund Trump’s tax cuts and spending plans will make it unfeasible for the Fed to shrink its $6.6 trillion balance sheet significantly. A separate Reuters survey shows the Fed is expected to cut interest rates twice later this year, with the first cut coming in June when Powell assumes the Fed chair role. The 2-year U.S. Treasury yield—sensitive to interest rate moves—is seen falling from its current 3.50% to 3.45% by end-April and 3.38% by end-July. The survey’s median forecast also sees the benchmark 10-year yield rising to 4.29% in 12 months, up from the prior month’s 4.20% prediction. (FX168)