Zora’s Surprise Solana Move Sparks Backlash on Base

Plus: 🏢 Gemini leadership exits rattle investors, 🕵️ Mysterious $436 million IBIT buyer draws scrutiny.

Author

Juan Aranovich
February 18, 2026

Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 🎨 Zora launches attention markets on Solana, drawing Base backlash

  • 🏢 Gemini executives exit as shares sink post IPO

  • 🕵️ Unknown Hong Kong firm reports $436 million IBIT stake

  • 🎙️ Bits + Bips asks if $700 billion in AI spending is the next debt bubble

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Zora Shocks Base Community With Solana Pivot

In a move few saw coming, Zora, long viewed as one of Base’s flagship social apps, has launched its new “attention markets” product on Solana instead of Coinbase’s layer 2 network.

The new feature lets users create tradable markets tied to internet trends, memes, and cultural moments for 1 SOL, effectively turning social media buzz into a speculative asset. Traders can bet on whether a topic gains traction, blurring the line between prediction markets and meme coins.

What makes the shift notable is Zora’s history. The platform was deeply associated with Base, where it rolled out creator coins and benefited from heavy promotion by Coinbase leadership. That is why the Solana launch triggered backlash from parts of the Base community, with some calling the move disappointing and accusing Zora of extracting value before leaving.

Speculation escalated quickly. One anonymous post suggested Coinbase may have warned portfolio projects to exit Base ahead of a potential shutdown. Base creator Jesse Pollak responded bluntly, calling the rumor “complete and total FUD” with no basis in reality, adding that Zora’s creator tools on Base remain fully operational.

Still, the optics are striking. One of Base’s most visible cultural experiments just chose Solana for its next act.

Gemini Shakes Up Leadership as Shares Slide Post-IPO

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is facing fresh turbulence just months after going public. 

The company disclosed that its chief operating officer, chief financial officer and chief legal officer have all departed effective immediately. Marshall Beard, Dan Chen and Tyler Meade are leaving amid a broader restructuring that includes layoffs and a retreat from several international markets.

The announcement rattled investors. Gemini shares fell more than 10% and touched a record intraday low, extending a steep decline from their post-IPO highs near $46 last September to around $6.50. 

The leadership shakeup follows Gemini’s decision earlier this month to cut roughly 25% of staff and wind down exchange operations in the UK, EU and Australia as it refocuses on the US and prediction markets.

Cameron Winklevoss will absorb many of the COO’s responsibilities, while interim finance and legal chiefs have been appointed internally. The company also expects to report a 2025 adjusted pre tax loss of roughly $260 million, underscoring the pressure facing newly public crypto firms in a prolonged downturn.

Mysterious $436 Million IBIT Buyer Raises Eyebrows, Says ProCap CIO

ProCap CIO Jeff Park flagged an unusual detail in recent 13F filings: a brand new Hong Kong based entity called Laurore Ltd disclosed a $436 million position in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, as its only holding.

According to Park, the firm has no website, no public presence, and lists a filer named Zhang Hui, a name he describes as the Chinese equivalent of “John Smith.” He also noted that the “Ltd” structure suggests a Cayman or BVI vehicle often used to access US markets.

Park speculates this could signal Chinese capital gaining regulated exposure to Bitcoin through US ETFs, potentially hinting at early stage capital flight.

Why $700 Billion in AI CapEx Could Be the Next Debt Bubble: Bits + Bips

The Mag 7 have committed over $700 billion to AI infrastructure, but the companies building the models may never capture the value.

The BLS quietly revised away 862,000 jobs, and real-time inflation trackers now peg price growth below 1%, less than half of what official figures report.

If the Fed is steering monetary policy with stale data, investors need to ask what else the models are getting wrong. 

At the same time, the Mag 7 have committed more than $700 billion to AI infrastructure, with Anthropic alone projecting $1 trillion in revenue within five years. Is that conviction or the early stages of a debt cycle nobody is pricing? 

And then there is the institutional side of crypto: BlackRock's BUIDL fund just landed on Uniswap with $2.4 billion in assets, Apollo acquired $90 million in Morpho tokens, and AI agents are already settling micropayments in stablecoins. 

Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Christopher Perkins sit down with Truflation’s CEO Stefan Rust to ask whether the numbers we trust are telling us the truth.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,Fountain, Podcast Addict,Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

  • ⚖️ The CFTC asserted exclusive federal authority over prediction markets in a new court filing, arguing that Congress granted it sole jurisdiction over event-based futures contracts and pushing back against state-level efforts, such as Nevada’s attempt to regulate Crypto.com’s sports-betting-style contracts.

  • 🐳 Peter Thiel and Founders Fund fully exited their 7.5% stake in ETHZilla, the rebranded former biotech firm turned Ethereum treasury company, triggering a near 7% premarket drop as the stock now trades about 97% below its $107 peak, after the firm raised $565 million to accumulate ETH but later sold tens of millions worth of ether to fund buybacks and debt redemptions.

  • ⚠️ A pricing oracle error on DeFi lender Moonwell misvalued cbETH at about $1 instead of roughly $2,200, allowing liquidators to seize over 1,096 cbETH for minimal repayments and leaving the protocol with nearly $1.8 million in bad debt after a governance upgrade misconfigured its price feed.

  • 📬 Crypto hardware wallet users were targeted in a sophisticated postal phishing campaign, with fake Ledger and Trezor letters featuring holograms and QR codes that directed victims to malicious sites designed to steal wallet backups and drain digital assets.

  • ⛏️ Hive Digital Technologies reported record quarterly revenue of $93.1 million, up 219% year-over-year, but posted a $91.3 million net loss after accelerating equipment depreciation tied to its Paraguay expansion and AI-focused infrastructure strategy.

  • 🪙 Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company acquired by payments giant Stripe, received conditional approval for a U.S. national trust bank charter, positioning it to custody digital assets and issue stablecoins under federal oversight as regulators formalize rules around dollar-backed crypto tokens.

  • 💰 Dragonfly Capital closed its fourth crypto venture fund at $650 million — exceeding its $500 million target despite a market downturn, doubling down on investments in payment networks and tokenization startups during what it described as a bear-market opportunity.

  • 📰₿ Bitcoin treasury firm Nakamoto agreed to acquire BTC Inc. — publisher of Bitcoin Magazine and organizer of The Bitcoin Conference — along with UTXO Management in a $107 million all-stock deal, consolidating media, asset management, and advisory businesses under founder David Bailey’s expanding Bitcoin-focused holding company.

  • 🏦 BlackRock seeded its upcoming iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ticker: ETHB) with $100,000 to begin acquiring ether, positioning the fund to stake 70%–95% of its holdings for an estimated ~3% annual yield, marking a shift from pure price-tracking ETFs to income-generating crypto exposure.