Huobi HTX has launched AERGO perpetual contracts and kicked off a contract trading party.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell to 206,000 in the week ended Feb. 14, marking a fresh low since the week ended Jan. 10, per FX678. Market expectations were for 225,000 claims.

Feb 19: Glassnode noted in a post that since early February, Bitcoin has failed to reclaim $70k each time it’s tried—demand has dried up, triggering another pullback. Even a net realized profit outflow of just over $5M per hour has been enough to spark a price retreat. By contrast, in Q3 2025—when the market was in a frenzy—profit-taking surged to $200M-$350M per hour, but prices still trended higher because buying pressure was far stronger back then. Right now, the market is structurally illiquid. Bitcoin faces big hurdles to reclaiming the $70k-$80k range, and its rebound will be more turbulent.

On February 19, Joachim Nagel—President of Germany’s Bundesbank—said in a speech at the German American Chamber of Commerce that a Euro-denominated stablecoin could offer individuals and businesses low-cost cross-border payment services and help mitigate the dollarization risk posed by USD stablecoins. Nagel noted that replacing domestic currencies with USD stablecoins would amount to dollarization of the relevant economic area, which could severely weaken the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy and European sovereignty. The European Central Bank (ECB) is currently evaluating the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) for non-central bank money—including tokenized deposits and a Euro stablecoin—and aims to launch a digital Euro by 2029.

February 19th — Crypto reporter Eleanor Terrett has named participants in the third meeting on stablecoin yield issues, including Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, Ripple Labs Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, a16z Crypto Policy Lead Miles Jennings, and representatives from other banks. Earlier reports confirmed the meeting is scheduled for today at 9:00 a.m. ET (10:00 p.m. Beijing time tonight) at the White House, with a small group of crypto and banking industry representatives in attendance.

February 19 — A federal lawsuit filed by Polymarket in Massachusetts could decide whether U.S. prediction markets fall under federal or state regulatory jurisdiction. Polymarket claims Congress granted the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) exclusive power to regulate "event contracts" — prediction markets for sports, politics and more — meaning states lack authority to ban or regulate the platforms independently. The suit aims to block potential enforcement by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell; a state court previously issued a preliminary injunction against Polymarket rival Kalshi, ruling its sports-related contracts were unlicensed sports betting. U.S. federal-state regulatory tensions over prediction markets are escalating. Platforms argue they’re part of the CFTC-regulated derivatives market, allowing nationwide operation. But states including Massachusetts and Nevada view them as a "sports betting loophole" to skirt state gambling laws, sparking m

On February 19, data from Coinglass shows total 24-hour liquidations across the network hit $190 million, with long position liquidations totaling $145 million and short position liquidations $44.9 million.