Circle minted 250 million USDC on the Solana network 6 hours ago

February 16th — The cryptocurrency industry is ramping up spending to prep for the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, following key 2024 wins and a massive cash haul, per The Hill. Fairshake, the crypto industry’s main super PAC network, had more than $193 million in cash on hand early in 2026. It’s already laid out key targets this cycle: backing Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) in his Alabama Senate bid and working to oust Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in his House race. The industry poured heavily into the last U.S. election, claiming wins in at least two high-profile races — moves that have delivered early wins in Congress and boosted crypto’s clout in Washington. Crypto’s 2024 impact was most notable: it dropped tens of millions of dollars to intervene in multiple primaries and hotly contested races. 2024 campaign finance filings show Fairshake’s super PAC network — which includes three affiliated groups — spent nearly $180 million in the last cycle.

On February 16, Strategy’s official post stated that even if the price of BTC falls to $8,000, the firm still holds sufficient assets to fully cover its debt. Subsequently, Strategy founder Michael Saylor noted that the company plans to securitize its convertible bonds into equity over the next three to six years.

This week (February 16–22), the global market is set for a "data barrage." ### Key Developments: - **Fed & US Economic Data**: The Federal Reserve will publish its January monetary policy meeting minutes at 3:00 AM ET on Thursday—markets are hunting for fresh clues on the 2026 rate-cut path. At 9:30 PM ET on Friday, the initial Q4 US GDP estimate and core PCE price index (the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge) will take center stage. A hotter-than-expected PCE reading could slow the pace of policy easing this year. - **Central Bank Actions**: Multiple Fed officials are scheduled to speak this week. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will release its meeting minutes, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will announce its interest rate decision. Markets widely expect the RBNZ to hold rates steady; the RBA may highlight upside inflation risks. - **Asset Performance**: Gold prices dipped slightly on Monday. In oil markets, reports suggest OPEC+ may resume prod

A whale withdrew 640,000 UNI (valued at approximately $2.29 million) from OKX on February 16, per Onchain Lens monitoring data.

**Crypto Market Trades in Range Post-Weekend Recovery (Feb 16)** CoinGecko figures show the total cryptocurrency market cap now sits at $2.424 trillion, down 2% in the past 24 hours, as the market holds a range-bound trend after this weekend’s bounce. Bitcoin dipped this morning to touch $68,000 but is rebounding, trading at $68,849—up more than 5.7% from its last Thursday low of $65,118. Ethereum is currently at $1,969, while SOL has rebounded to break above $86.

On February 16th, OpenAI founder Sam Altman announced via a post that Peter Steinberger—founder of OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot)—will join OpenAI to lead development of the next generation of personal intelligence systems. “He’s a genius with incredible ideas about how future intelligent systems can collaborate and deliver practical services to users,” Altman wrote. “We anticipate this will quickly become core to our product roadmap.” OpenClaw will remain an open-source project under the OpenAI umbrella, and OpenAI will continue supporting it. “The future will be a highly multi-agent era, and backing open source is a critical part of our path toward that vision,” the post added.