Bitcoin Reclaims $69,000 Mark Amid Major Short Squeeze

Global investors and institutional buyers triggered a sharp relief rally as Bitcoin reclaimed the $69,000 level on Wednesday. This sudden reversal effectively erased an early week selloff that had briefly pushed prices below the $63,000 mark.

The technical breakout intensified on 25 February 2026 across major United States exchanges during a period of extreme bearish sentiment. This bounce followed weeks of negative funding rates where short sellers dominated the prevailing crypto market positioning.

Market participants initiated this specific recovery because overcrowded short positions became vulnerable to a massive $400 million liquidation event. Consequently, the Coinbase Premium Index turned positive for the first time in over 40 days today.

Traders achieved this momentum by funneling $257 million into spot ETFs while stablecoin issuer Circle surged 30% on earnings. These substantial capital inflows suggest a tentative return of risk appetite among professional allocators and retail speculators.

The UK Selects Four Firms For Stablecoin Sandbox

The Financial Conduct Authority announced that four crypto firms were selected to participate in a new regulatory sandbox. This group includes neobank Revolut along with Monee Financial, ReStabilise, and VVTX to test stablecoin issuance in real-world environments. Regulators aim to use the data gathered from these experiments to finalize the country's official stablecoin rules later this year.

Participants currently have the freedom to trial various wholesale settlement and retail payment use cases without facing immediate regulatory penalties. Speculators on prediction markets estimate a 34% chance that Revolut will officially debut its own native token before July. This initiative helps the British capital markets keep pace with international standards established by the American GENIUS Act last summer.

White House Denies Pardon For Sam Bankman-Fried

White House officials reiterated that President Trump has no intention of pardoning the convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The former executive has been posting daily grievances on social media claiming that the bankrupt exchange was always fully solvent. Despite his sudden vocal support for Republican economic policies, the administration maintains that his multi-billion dollar fraud remains inexcusable.

SBF is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence following his 2023 conviction for misappropriating massive amounts of customer capital. His mother recently filed a legal motion for a new trial while his defense team continues to pursue a formal appeal. The president previously noted that high-profile figures like Nicolás Maduro and Robert Menendez are also excluded from any clemency consideration.

Polymarket Users Wager On New ZachXBT Investigation

Global users on Polymarket have wagered over $7 million on the outcome of a major investigation by crypto sleuth ZachXBT. The anonymous investigator plans to reveal this Thursday how a profitable crypto business allegedly participated in prolonged insider trading. Traders currently place a 29% probability on the decentralized platform Meteora being named as the primary target of these accusations.

This surge in betting activity occurs while federal regulators in the United States assert exclusive jurisdiction over the prediction market sector. CFTC Chair Michael Selig warned state authorities that his agency will defend its authority to oversee these digital derivative contracts. Polymarket continues to challenge individual state enforcement actions by arguing that its products function as transparent financial instruments.

Data of the Day

Financial services firm River reported that institutional Bitcoin adoption boomed in 2025 despite significant price volatility during the year. Large organizations accumulated roughly 829,000 BTC as sovereign wealth funds and corporate treasuries expanded their exposure to the digital asset.

Registered investment advisors have remained net buyers for eight consecutive quarters while investing approximately $1.5 billion into Bitcoin ETFs every three months. Merchant acceptance in the United States also tripled as global usage grew by 74% throughout the last calendar year.

The Lightning Network now processes over $1.1 billion in monthly transaction volume reflecting a 300% increase in total payment activity. This compounding growth suggests that the asset is maturing as its price volatility edges closer to that of gold and the S&P 500.

More Breaking News

• Stripe is reportedly exploring an acquisition of PayPal, a move that could consolidate the two payment giants’ extensive stablecoin and crypto infrastructure.
• Kalshi fined an editor for MrBeast and a former political candidate for insider trading, marking the platform's first public disciplinary enforcement actions.
• Senator Richard Blumenthal launched an inquiry into Binance following reports that $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency flowed through the exchange to Iranian entities.
• The European Securities and Markets Authority warned that crypto derivatives marketed as perpetual futures must comply with strict investor protection and leverage rules.
• Hong Kong’s finance chief announced the city will approve its first stablecoin issuer licenses in March while introducing new digital asset legislation.
• US federal agents seized $61 million in USDT tied to a pig butchering scam, highlighting increased cooperation between law enforcement and Tether.

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