A Chinese national has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison in the U.S. for his involvement in cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering activities

On February 20th, Google launched Gemini 3.1 Pro. Building on the Gemini 3 series, 3.1 Pro delivers a leap in core inference capabilities. A smarter, more powerful benchmark model for tackling complex problems, it has shown significant advancements in rigorous benchmark tests. In the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark—which evaluates the model’s ability to solve novel logical patterns—3.1 Pro posted a validation score of 77.1%, more than doubling Gemini 3 Pro’s inference performance.

On February 20, Cosmos Yu, founder of SlowMist, shared a security alert. As of now, 1,184 malicious AI skills have been identified on OpenClaw’s ClawHub marketplace. These skills can steal SSH keys, encrypt wallets and browser passwords, and spawn a reverse shell. A single attacker uploaded 677 of these packages. The top-ranked skill contains 9 vulnerabilities and has been downloaded thousands of times. Yu warned users that text is no longer just text—it’s a command. He recommended running AI tools in an isolated environment, as many OpenClaw skills pose potential risks. Additionally, in Web3 security, smart contracts are only one piece of the puzzle; the root cause of breaches is no longer limited to smart contracts. Just days ago, Moonwell suffered a $1.78 million hack, with the vulnerable code co-authored by Claude Opus 4.6.

On February 20, on-chain analytics tool Parsec announced it has ceased operations after five years in business, with the firm processing refunds and canceling active subscriptions. Parsec offered an on-chain analytics terminal that let users build custom dashboards and data visualizations for DeFi and NFTs. The platform launched in early 2021, securing $1.25 million in seed funding and a $4 million seed extension from investors including Galaxy Digital, Polychain Capital, Robot Ventures, and Uniswap Ventures.

As of Feb 20, HTX market data shows the crypto market remains range-bound, with Bitcoin holding above $67k, Ethereum at $1,950, BNB at $607, and SOL at $83. Total crypto market cap edged up 0.2% over the past 24 hours to $2.383 trillion. ### Leading Gainers (24h) - ENSO: +46.5% → $1.7 - DOLO: +18.8% → $0.042 - SNX: +16.3% → $0.348 - OM: +15.1% → $0.067 ### Notable Decliners (24h) - AWE: -41.2% → $0.062 - ESP: -18.8% → $0.073 - OP: -15.3% → $0.139 - ARB: -9.4% → $0.098 **Catalyst for OP/ARB Drops**: Yesterday’s announcement that Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base is exiting Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem. Base will shift to an in-house unified tech stack, dropping external dependencies on the OP Stack, Flashbots, and Paradigm. ### Crypto-Linked Stocks (U.S. Close Thursday) Per Bitget data, major U.S. indices closed lower: Dow -0.54%, S&P 500 -0.28%, Nasdaq -0.31%. Most crypto-linked stocks bucked the trend: - MicroStrategy (MSTR): +3.39% - Coinbase (COIN):

February 20th — Per the latest disclosed 13F filing, as of February 15th, Sharplink — Ethereum’s second-largest decentralized autonomous treasury (DAT) firm — has grown its ETH holdings to 867,798 coins, valued at approximately $1.68 billion. Nearly 100% of Sharplink’s ETH is staked, generating 13,615 staked ETH rewards in under a year, with all rewards distributed to shareholders. The firm has updated its brand identity: rebranding from Sharplink Gaming to simply Sharplink, and adopting “Ethereum with an edge” as its new slogan to better align with its positioning in the treasury sector.

February 20: Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet—the Japanese firm behind the Bitcoin Treasury (DAT)—addressed anonymous "dishonest disclosure" accusations in a post. Gerovich noted that he and Metaplanet are prepared to take public accountability for all their words and actions, and their long-term, systematic Bitcoin accumulation strategy remains unchanged. Over the past six months, amid rising market volatility, Metaplanet has expanded its revenue-generating initiatives: selling put options, using spread strategies to earn premiums, and allocating some capital to long-term Bitcoin holdings. All Bitcoin purchases are disclosed immediately upon decision, all of the firm’s Bitcoin addresses are public, and shareholders can track positions via a real-time dashboard. On the claim of "buying at a peak in September without disclosure," Gerovich clarified that last September, the firm made four total Bitcoin purchases, all of which were announced promptly. The firm’s strategy focuses on