Bitcoin Slips As Tariff Turbulence Hits Risk Assets

Plus: 🏛️ SEC eases capital treatment for stablecoins.

Author

Juan Aranovich
February 23, 2026

Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 📉 Bitcoin dips below $65,000 as tariff uncertainty drives $100 billion market wipeout

  • 🏛️ SEC allows broker dealers to apply 2% haircut to payment stablecoins

Something big in the AI agent world is about to be unveiled

At 8 am ET, Laura drops an exclusive interview with Jansen Teng, CEO and co-founder of Virtuals Protocol. 

We discuss a new initiative that pushes AI agents beyond their current boundaries and into a much larger economic arena.

If you’re reading this when it hits your inbox, you can catch it right as it goes live.

Catch us on X, YouTube or PumpFun.

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Adaptive Security!

In crypto, the biggest losses don’t start with malware — they start with trust: a “founder” on a deepfake call asking for an urgent transfer, a cloned vendor voice “confirming” new banking details, or a perfectly-written email/DM that looks internal and reroutes funds.

Adaptive Security helps teams catch these AI-powered attacks before money moves:

  • Deepfake + social engineering simulations across channels

  • AI Content Creator that turns new threats, policies, or compliance needs into interactive, multilingual training in minutes

Trusted by Fortune 500s, Adaptive is backed by NVIDIA and OpenAI. 

Bitcoin Dips Below $65,000 as Tariff Uncertainty Weighs on Risk

Bitcoin slipped below $65,000 again amid renewed uncertainty around U.S. trade policy, touching roughly $64,300 before stabilizing. As of 5:40 am ET, BTC was trading near $66,355, with ether at $1,915, both modestly off session lows.

The move comes during a week dominated by shifting headlines around tariffs and court rulings, keeping macro sentiment fragile rather than triggering a single headline driven selloff. The broader crypto market shed about $100 billion in market value over 24 hours. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have now recorded five consecutive weeks of net outflows, totaling roughly $3.8 billion, underscoring the steady bleed in institutional positioning.

QCP described the backdrop as a “perfect storm of geopolitical tension” and thinning risk appetite in a report. Around $230 million in long liquidations were triggered during the Asia session. At the same time, QCP noted that volatility spikes are becoming less extreme and options skew, while still tilted toward puts, is less stretched than during prior flushes. 

“BTC is on track to close its fifth red month for the second time in recent history, which suggests we may be moving into the later innings of this drawdown rather than the start of a fresh leg lower,” they wrote.

SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins

The SEC just made a small edit that could have large consequences.

In new guidance, the agency’s Division of Trading and Markets said it would not object if broker dealers apply a 2% haircut to proprietary holdings of payment stablecoins when calculating net capital. That is a sharp shift from prior practice, where some firms effectively applied a 100% haircut, meaning stablecoins did not count toward regulatory capital at all.

A haircut reflects risk. More volatile assets receive steeper discounts. By allowing a 2% haircut, the SEC is placing payment stablecoins closer to the treatment of money market funds, which hold similar assets such as Treasuries and cash equivalents.

Commissioner Hester Peirce welcomed the move, calling stablecoins “essential to transacting on blockchain rails” and saying their use could allow broker dealers to expand into tokenized securities and other crypto activities.

The guidance does not rewrite the rulebook, but it reduces friction. Stablecoins can now function as working capital on broker dealer balance sheets. For firms exploring tokenized markets, that changes the economics meaningfully.

Bits + Bips: Today at 4:30 pm ET

AI optimism is colliding with macro fragility. Nvidia earnings may confirm demand strength, but the deeper question is whether AI productivity gains weaken the very consumers that sustain the economy.

On this episode of Bits + Bips, the hosts connect AI capex, tariff chaos, stablecoin capital treatment, and CME’s 24/7 move into a single macro frame.

Join us on X, PumpFun or YouTube at 4:30 pm ET

Sponsored

We all know the mantra: Not your keys, not your coins. But self-custody plus leverage? Painful.

Figure solves this with Crypto Backed Loans secured by decentralized MPC custody. Your assets sit in a segregated wallet you own — no commingling risk.

They also address the biggest fear in crypto lending: flash crashes. Their Liquidation Protection for BTC and ETH helps shield you from getting wiped out during sharp drops.

Best of both worlds:

  • Safety: Institutional-grade MPC custody

  • Access: Borrow at 8.91%

  • Yield: Earn up to 9% APY on cash, backed by real-world assets (HELOCs) via Democratized Prime

  • 🛡️ Ethereum developers scheduled the FOCIL upgrade for 2026 to force validators to include valid transactions, a controversial change backed by Vitalik Buterin that aims to hardwire censorship resistance into the network so even sanctioned or privacy-related transactions cannot be selectively ignored.

  • 🕵️‍♂️ Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic identified five Russia-linked crypto exchanges moving billions in transactions that allegedly help bypass sanctions, including Moscow-based ABCeX and cash-to-crypto operator Aifory Pro, with some platforms sharing infrastructure with previously sanctioned exchange Garantex.

  • 🔐 Crypto-AI network IoTeX suffered a private key compromise that allowed attackers to drain and mint tokens across its bridge contracts, with losses initially estimated as high as $8.8 million but later revised closer to $2 million, prompting a temporary chain halt and cross-chain laundering of funds through Ethereum and Bitcoin networks.

  • 🤖😆 An AI trading bot created by an OpenAI developer accidentally transferred its entire memecoin treasury — about 5% of total supply — to a social media user requesting 4 SOL, triggering a rapid sell-off for roughly $40,000 before the token’s price surge pushed the forfeited holdings’ value above $400,000.

  • 🪙 BNP Paribas Asset Management issued tokenized shares of a French money market fund on Ethereum through its in-house AssetFoundry platform, running a controlled pilot that restricts transfers to approved participants while testing whether public blockchain rails can support regulated institutional funds.