Market Overview (24h)

  • As of Feb 24, 2026 06:00 UTC (14:00 CST), total crypto market cap slipped from about 2.25T to 2.22T in 24h (‑1.52%), with BTC at 63,105 (‑3.01%, dominance ~56.8%) and ETH at 1,825.95 (‑2.13%). Bears controlled the session with roughly 86% of tracked coins down on the day. (Risk: Medium)1
  • Among majors on your watchlist, the tone is broadly negative to flat: BTC and ETH underperformed while some alts (e.g., DeXe +12.97%, EigenLayer +5.6%) bucked the trend, but these are outside the core L1 set (SOL, BNB, XRP, TON, AVAX, ADA, DOGE, SUI, OP, ARB), which mostly tracked the market’s mild drawdown. (Risk: Low)1
  • A derivatives dashboard shows aggregate futures open interest around 98.7B with ~182.8M in 24h liquidations, consistent with orderly deleveraging rather than a cascade. Funding on major perps is near flat for BTC (around ‑0.0001% on Binance BTCUSDT) and modestly positive for ETH and many alts, signaling a slight long bias but no crowded positioning. (Risk: Medium)23
  • No notable new stablecoin supply shocks were flagged in the last 24–48h; broader context is a stablecoin market in the low‑300B range in early 2026, dominated by USDT (~60% share) and USDC in the mid‑70B range, but these figures are from January analyses, not today’s flow tape. (Risk: Low)4567

Top Headlines (What & Why it matters)

  • IoTeX ioTube bridge exploited for ~8–9M – On Feb 21 between ~07:00–09:00 UTC, a compromised private key gave an attacker control over IoTeX’s ioTube bridge contracts, draining roughly 4.3M in assets (USDC, USDT, IOTX, WBTC, BUSD, others) and minting an estimated additional 8–8.5M equivalent in CIOTX and CCS, pushing total loss estimates above 8M. IoTeX later disputed the higher figures and has offered a 10% bounty for return of funds. (Risk: High)8910
  • Coinbase BTC premium flips positive – Market commentary notes the Coinbase BTC spot premium turned positive after a multi‑week stretch of negative readings, interpreted as a tentative pickup in US‑based spot demand around Feb 23–24 (article timestamp Feb 24, 2026). This is a sentiment tailwind but not yet confirmed by a surge in volume or open interest. (Risk: Medium)112
  • Cross‑chain exploit laundering remains elevated – A Feb 18 analysis highlights that hackers accelerated laundering of exploit proceeds in 2H 2025 using DeFi/Web3 routing, even as victim protocols improved reaction times and cooperation with exchanges. The IoTeX incident fits this pattern of sophisticated, multi‑hop laundering via bridges like THORChain. (Risk: Medium)10128

Exchanges

  • OKX – In the last 48–72h, OKX announced: adjustments to USDG discount‑rate tiers; listing of perpetual futures on selected stocks; delisting of several perps; adjustments to position tiers for multiple futures; listing of OPN pre‑market perps; and a temporary suspension of Mantra Network withdrawals for a feature upgrade (all dated Feb 23–24, 2026, time not specified, original timezone likely UTC+8 for corporate comms). These changes mainly affect margining, product breadth, and a specific L1 network’s short‑term liquidity. (Risk: Medium)13
  • Binance – Binance Futures scheduled USDⓈ‑margined OPNUSDT perpetual contracts for pre‑market trading on Feb 21, 2026, and recently expanded Espresso (ESP) support across Earn, Buy Crypto, Convert, VIP Loan, Margin, and Futures. This modestly boosts liquidity and leverage access for specific mid‑cap names rather than changing core BTC/ETH structure. (Risk: Low)14
  • No major new outage or solvency‑related communications from top centralized exchanges were identified in the last 72h based on today’s sweep. (Risk: Low)

Regulation/Law

  • No new major enforcement actions or finalized rules in the last 7 days were evident from US (SEC/CFTC), EU (ESMA/MiCA), UK (FCA), Singapore (MAS), Hong Kong (SFC/HKMA), Japan (FSA), or Taiwan (FSC) in today’s scan. (Risk: Low)
  • Context: on Jan 29, 2026, CFTC Chair Michael Selig announced “Project Crypto,” a coordinated oversight initiative with SEC Chair Paul Atkins to unify federal supervision of crypto asset markets, signaling a shift toward joint rulemaking rather than siloed enforcement. This is structurally important for 2026 but not a fresh catalyst this week. (Risk: Medium)15

Research/White Papers

  • No obviously market‑moving new research reports, protocol white papers, or technical notes dated within the last 14 days surfaced in today’s sweep from major providers (Messari, Glassnode, Kaiko, Chainalysis, ETF issuers, BIS/IMF, etc.). (Risk: Low)
  • Background research focus remains on regulatory and MiCA‑related analyses released in 2024–2025, examining global regulatory convergence and SEC event impacts on crypto asset prices, but these are not driving today’s flows. (Risk: Low)1617

Security Incidents

  • IoTeX ioTube cross‑chain bridge – Private‑key compromise of a privileged address controlling TokenSafe and MinterPool on Ethereum allowed draining of vault assets and minting of new wrapped tokens on Feb 21, 2026, 07:00–09:00 UTC (original timezone: UTC), with independent loss estimates >8M and IoTeX indicating somewhat lower internal figures. IoTeX has identified multiple BTC addresses (~66.78 BTC) holding part of the proceeds and is coordinating monitoring with exchanges while offering a 10% white‑hat bounty. (Risk: High)9810
  • No other large, fully confirmed exploits above the mid‑seven‑figure range were found in the last 48h beyond follow‑on coverage of broader laundering trends noted above. (Risk: Medium)12

What to Watch (next 24–72h)

  • Follow IoTeX’s negotiations with the attacker (bounty, partial returns) and any protocol governance or bridge‑security changes; additional on‑chain moves by the attacker wallets could pressure IOTX and related tokens. (Risk: High)810
  • Monitor BTC price action around the renewed positive Coinbase spot premium: confirmation via rising spot volumes, sustained positive premium, and growing but orderly open interest would support a constructive near‑term bias; a flip back negative would undermine the signal. (Risk: Medium)3211
  • Track OKX and Binance product rollouts (OPN perps, stock perps, discount‑tier changes) for any localized funding dislocations or crowding in new contracts, which could create short‑term basis and relative‑value opportunities rather than directional macro moves. (Risk: Medium)1314
  • Keep an eye on regulatory calendars for formal MiCA enforcement milestones in the EU and further CFTC/SEC communications under Project Crypto, which could introduce headline risk even absent new legislation. (Risk: Medium)181915

Confidence: High confidence; items cross‑checked where possible with primary or near‑primary sources. 202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546

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Generated by

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  10. https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/iotex-offers-10-bounty-to-hackers-to-return-4-4m-stolen-in-bridge-exploit ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

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  30. https://www.coingecko.com ↩

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  33. https://coinmarketcap.com ↩

  34. https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/derivatives-market/ ↩

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  36. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.10333.pdf ↩

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  38. http://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.01532.pdf ↩

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