Trump Says U.S. Trade Deficit Will Reverse for First Time in Decades This Year

On February 19, data from Barchart shows the Federal Reserve injected $18.5 billion into the U.S. banking system this week via overnight repurchase agreements (repo). This marks the fourth-largest liquidity injection since the COVID-19 pandemic—and even tops the peak seen during the dot-com bubble. Charts indicate the biggest liquidity injections since 2021 have largely occurred during the pandemic and periods of economic stress. The latest injection signals strain on bank reserves, likely driven by quarter-end funding needs or a broader credit crunch.

**February 19 —** The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today published Chairman Paul Atkins’ remarks from the ETHDenver conference, outlining key regulatory priorities for the coming weeks and months: 1. Developing a framework to clarify the SEC’s approach to crypto assets tied to investment contracts, including how such contracts are formed and terminated; 2. Offering a special innovation exemption to enable limited trading of certain tokenized securities on new platforms, as part of building a long-term regulatory framework; 3. Releasing a rulemaking proposal to create a clear, reasonable pathway for fundraising through crypto asset sales; 4. Clarifying which wallets are exempt from registration under the Securities Exchange Act (without relying on no-action letters or case-by-case exemptions) to provide greater clarity; 5. Proposing rules for broker-dealers regarding custody of non-security crypto assets (including payment stablecoins); 6. Developing rules

February 19: After incurring a $1.78 million bad debt from an oracle configuration error, DeFi lending protocol Moonwell issued an incident update on X (formerly Twitter). The update noted a recovery plan has been posted to its governance forum, which includes integrating the Moonwell Apollo (MFAM) community into the Moonwell ecosystem (WELL). Moonwell Apollo’s treasury will immediately begin partial compensation, with additional payouts coming from protocol revenue. Additionally, MFAM holders and stkWELL stakers are set to receive compensation at a 1:1.5 ratio (MFAM to stkWELL).

On February 19, Polymarket announced an exclusive partnership with Substack. Under the agreement, Substack writers will be able to seamlessly integrate Polymarket’s real-time prediction market data into their content, leveraging those insights to enhance news reporting. Both parties noted the collaboration aims to embed prediction market data into the writing process, providing content creators with data-driven support.

On February 19th, on-chain analyst Ai Yi’s monitoring shows that 8 hours ago, an address (0xF3C...2277) withdrew 10.38 million ASTER tokens from Binance, valued at $7.22 million. This marks the fourth time the address has accumulated ASTER, with its previous three transactions posting a combined loss of roughly $49,000.

On February 18 (U.S. local time), the first World Liberty Forum—hosted by the Trump crypto project World Liberty Finance—took place at Mar-a-Lago. The event drew American financial and crypto industry titans, top regulators, sports figures, and cultural icons. Attendees included: - Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon - Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong - CFTC Chair Michael Selig - Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman - Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson - NYSE President Lynn Martin - FIFA President Gianni Infantino - Rapper Nicki Minaj As organizers, Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. served as hosts. BlockBeats summarized key speaker takeaways from the event: ### David Solomon (Goldman Sachs CEO) He revealed his first public Bitcoin holding (a very small amount) and noted he remains an “observer” of the cryptocurrency, still seeking to grasp its price behavior and volatility. Solomon stressed crypto’s significance to traditional finance and backed progress on regulato