BitMine increased its ETH holdings by 45,759 coins last week, bringing the total holdings to 4.3715 million coins.

Per Quiverquant data as of February 17th: - Financial firm Jane Street boosted its IBIT holdings by 7,105,206 shares in Q4 2023, valued at $276 million at the time. As of now, the firm holds 20,315,780 IBIT shares, worth approximately $790 million. - Community rumors had circulated previously that Jane Street was alleged to use high-frequency trading (HFT) to depress Bitcoin prices daily at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. - Also in Q4 2023, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley collectively increased their IBIT holdings by more than 2.37 million shares.

On February 17th, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Mike Selig told Fox News in an interview that the cryptocurrency market structure bill is “about to” be signed into law. “We aim to ensure the crypto legal framework can adapt to future growth,” he said. “We can’t let another Gary Gensler come in and mess everything up.”

On February 17, The Block reported that StarkWare is integrating Nightfall—an open-source zero-knowledge privacy layer built by Big Four accounting firm EY—into its StarkNet to enable confidential on-chain institutional transactions on public blockchain infrastructure. The integration allows institutions to execute private B2B payments, fund operations, and tokenized asset transfers on public blockchains while keeping sensitive transaction details private. StarkWare noted that Nightfall natively supports transaction privacy, plus selective disclosure and compliance mandates like Know Your Customer (KYC)—features tailored to institutional users’ needs.

On February 17, per a Wintermute report, with spot trading volumes continuing to contract, leverage has emerged as the primary driver of short-term volatility. Without "structural buying"—long-term capital that absorbs selling pressure—to cap volatility, markets are seeing sharp swings in both directions. Technically, Bitcoin (BTC) has found support near its 200-week moving average—a level that’s historically signaled bear market bottoms. Wintermute notes that until clear macro signals emerge, every rebound should be viewed as a risk-reduction opportunity, not a reason to chase rallies. For crypto, a return to an uptrend still hinges on macro clarity. The 200-week moving average continues to hold support, and there’s no structural damage to the market—meaning recovery could outpace current sentiment once macro uncertainty fades. In the short term, markets are range-bound and slightly bearish, driven by leverage; $70,000 remains a key near-term resistance level.

Bitcoin briefly dipped below $67,000 on February 17th, per HTX market data. It is currently trading at $67,042.54, with a 1.64% drop over the past hour.

February 17: Bitget Market Data Shows U.S. Stock Open Moves; Crypto-Related Stocks Slide Per Bitget market data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) rose 31 points at the U.S. stock market open, while the S&P 500 Index fell 0.24% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.59%. Crypto-related stocks traded lower across the board, with the following opening moves: - MSTR: Down 2.73% - BMNR: Down 2.56% - COIN: Down 0.75% - GEMI: Down 8.6%