Daily Crypto Market Brief - Bitcoin Consolidates as Altcoins Outperform
Market Overview (24h)
- Bitcoin is trading around 66.9k USD with a marginal 24h pullback of about 0.3%, indicating consolidation after the early‑February selloff rather than a new leg down.1
- A recent CoinMarketCap-based update pegs global crypto market cap near 2.36 trillion USD, roughly 3.5% lower over 24h at the time of that snapshot, suggesting broad but not extreme risk‑off conditions.2
- Derivatives data show total futures open interest around 98.7 billion USD and 24h liquidations of about 182.8 million USD, consistent with a moderately leveraged market rather than peak euphoria.3
- Perpetuals indicate a modestly long bias: BTC funding near +0.01% across major venues, with ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, SUI, BNB, OP, and ADA all showing small positive funding, signalling slightly bullish positioning.3
- Among tracked majors in the derivatives tape, BNB (+6.4% 24h), SOL (+2.1%), XRP (+1.7%), DOGE (+1.4%), OP (+13.1%), and ADA (+0.3%) outperform BTC (+0.5%) and SUI (−1.2%), pointing to selective rotation into beta alts.3
- Contextually, VanEck notes BTC futures open interest fell from roughly 61 billion to 49 billion in early February and more than 45% from the October 2025 peak, reinforcing a broader deleveraging backdrop.4
Top Headlines (What \& Why it matters)
- Bitcoin holding the mid‑60k area with only a −0.28% move in the last 24h and technical “golden cross” support on weekly stochastic suggests consolidation at a major support zone rather than capitulation. [Risk: Medium]1
- Economic Times’ CoinMarketCap roundup highlights BTC hovering near 66–68k with declining spot ETF inflows and cautious sentiment, implying macro‑driven range trading and less aggressive dip‑buying. [Risk: Medium]2
- VanEck’s February analysis of the recent BTC drawdown shows futures OI down over 20% week‑on‑week (61b → 49b) and about 45% from the October 2025 leverage peak, framing today’s calmer tape within a sizable prior de‑risking. [Risk: Medium]4
- A new security report from Bitcoinke emphasizes that social‑engineering scams drove over 60% of 2025 crypto incidents and that January 2026 scams alone stole about 370 million USD, underscoring persistent non‑technical attack vectors despite quieter price action. [Risk: Medium]5
Exchanges
- Phemex announced a new Espresso (ESP) spot trading pair going live on 2026‑02‑23 at 10:00 UTC (originally also specified in UTC), expanding its listings in advance of next week’s trading. [Risk: Low]6
Regulation/Law
- No material, market‑moving regulatory or enforcement updates for US, EU (MiCA), UK, Taiwan FSC, Singapore MAS, Hong Kong SFC/HKMA, or Japan FSA were identified within the last 7 days in the checked sources. [Risk: Low]
Research/White Papers
- No clearly market‑moving new research, protocol white papers, or technical standards drafts within the last 14 days surfaced in the surveyed sources; most indexed academic work predates 2025. [Risk: Low]789
Security Incidents
- No confirmed major hacks or protocol‑level exploits within the last 48 hours were identified in the checked feeds; recent focus remains on retrospective summaries of 2025–January 2026 incidents rather than fresh events. [Risk: Medium]105
What to Watch (next 24–72h)
- US macro data: Phemex flags the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey on 2026‑02‑19 (no time given; typically released during the US morning, ~15:00–15:30 UTC) as a near‑term macro volatility cue for risk assets including crypto. [Risk: Medium]6
- On 2026‑02‑20, US Q4 GDP (second estimate) and December core PCE inflation prints are highlighted as key catalysts that could shift rate expectations and, by extension, crypto risk appetite; only dates, not times, are specified (standard BLS/Bureau releases usually land in the 13:30–15:30 UTC window). [Risk: High]6
- LayerZero’s scheduled unlock of about 25.71 million ZRO tokens (≈43 million USD at the referenced prices) on 2026‑02‑20 (date only, no time; treat as a calendar‑day event in UTC) may pressure ZRO and adjacent DeFi flows around the unlock. [Risk: Medium]6
- ETHDenver 2026, which kicked off on 2026‑02‑18 in Denver (local Mountain Time, UTC−7), is ongoing and could generate narrative‑driven volatility in Ethereum, L2, and infra tokens as announcements and demos emerge. [Risk: Medium]6
Confidence: Medium confidence; several key market and derivatives metrics come from a single aggregated data source and some price/regime context relies on slightly older but still relevant commentary.
Generated by

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https://pintu.co.id/en/news/257935-bitcoin-price-update-19feb2026/amp ↩ ↩2
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https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/coinmarketcap ↩ ↩2
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https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/blogs/digital-assets/matthew-sigel-what-triggered-bitcoins-major-selloff-in-february-2026/ ↩ ↩2
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https://bitcoinke.io/2026/02/social-engineering-fueled-majority-crypto-incidents-in-2025/ ↩ ↩2
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https://phemex.com/ko/news/article/phemex-crypto-market-daily-bitcoin-and-ethereum-slide-as-fed-caution-pi-network-surges-on-whale-accumulation-feb-18-61132 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S037843712300599X ↩
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https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.11371.pdf ↩
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https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/2/377 ↩
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https://blog.mexc.com/news/crypto-hacks-2026-2-1b-stolen-complete-protection-guide/ ↩
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http://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.05577.pdf ↩
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https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0040162521004571 ↩
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http://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.13586.pdf ↩
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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9024312/ ↩
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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9107942/ ↩
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https://cryptopotato.com/truebit-suffers-26-5m-loss-in-first-major-defi-hack-of-2026/ ↩
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https://coinalyze.net/bitcoin/funding-rate/ ↩
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https://www.reddit.com/r/InterstellarKinetics/comments/1qvyngj/breaking_two_defi_projects_hacked_for_30_million/ ↩
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https://cryptoslate.com ↩
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https://www.home.saxo/en-sg/content/articles/macro/market-quick-take—19-february-2026-19022026 ↩
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https://crystalintelligence.com/investigations/the-10-biggest-crypto-hacks-in-history/ ↩
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https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/cryptocurrency ↩
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https://www.xtb.com/en/market-analysis/bitcoin-crashes-4-to-69k-sell-off-on-ethereum-and-ripple ↩