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Miner Offloads $305M Bitcoin as Network Difficulty Sees Sharp Decline

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Bitcoin Miner Activity Hits Highest Level Since 2024 with 90K BTC Sent to Binance


Bitcoin mining stress deepened as difficulty fell 14% and Puell dipped below 0.8, even as Cango sold $305M in BTC.

Bitcoin mining conditions tightened sharply in late January and early February after network difficulty fell 14% over three weeks and publicly traded miner Cango disclosed a $305 million BTC sale over the weekend.

The combination of falling profitability metrics and selective balance sheet sales shows pressure spreading across the mining sector, even as broader on-chain data shows no signs of disorderly selling.

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Difficulty Drops as Miners Cut Capacity

According to a February 10 brief published by on-chain analyst Axel Adler Jr., Bitcoin’s network difficulty dropped by a combined 14.1% between January 22 and February 6, following two consecutive downward adjustments of 3.3% and 11.2%. Such back-to-back cuts usually occur when less efficient mining equipment is taken offline, often during periods of weak price action.

During the same window, the price of BTC fell about 25%, briefly touching $60,000 before rebounding toward $70,000. At the time of writing, the flagship cryptocurrency was trading at around $69,000, down nearly 1% in the last 24 hours and more than 12% over the past week, based on CoinGecko data.

The asset has also lost 24% of its value over the past month and about 29% year over year, underperforming earlier-cycle expectations and keeping mining margins tight.

Against this backdrop, Cango confirmed it sold 4,451 BTC for approximately $305 million, citing balance sheet strengthening. The sale, approved by the company’s board, drew an immediate reaction from equity investors, with Cango shares closing 8% lower on the first trading day after the disclosure.

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Adler described the transaction as a point event rather than evidence of widespread forced liquidation, noting that aggregate miner flows to exchanges are still holding steady.

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Data from miner exchange inflows supports that view, with the 30-day moving average of daily miner transfers hovering near 82 BTC, only slightly lower than mid-January levels and well within recent norms, according to the market watcher. Furthermore, he reported that there have been no sustained spikes that would suggest broad reserve dumping.

Profitability Pressure and What Comes Next

Profitability metrics still point to strain. For instance, Adler pointed out in his brief that the Puell Multiple, which compares daily miner revenue to its annual average, slipped to a 30-day average of 0.77 in early February, down from 0.86 in mid-January. He added that spot readings briefly fell to around 0.61, levels historically associated with miner stress and capacity exits.

The analyst noted that miners earning below their annual average tend to prioritize liquidity, increasing the chance of selective reserve sales rather than aggressive expansion. According to him, completion of this stress phase typically requires a reversal in difficulty adjustments and a recovery in the Puell Multiple toward the 0.85 to 0.90 range.

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For now, the data suggests the adjustment is playing out mainly through hashrate reductions instead of heavy selling. The risk, in Adler’s opinion, is a renewed price drop below $60,000, which could push profitability metrics lower and prompt similar sales from other public miners.

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RWAs shift to institutional reality

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RWAs shift to institutional reality

Industry leaders discussed demand for tokenized real world assets (RWA) during a Consensus Hong Kong 2026 panel featuring Evan Auyang (group president at Animoca Brands), Christian Rau (senior vice president digital assets and blockchain at Mastercard), Nicola White (VP of crypto institutions, Robinhood), and moderator Marcin Kazmierczak (co-founder, RedStone).

The panel echoed BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein’s bold claim: Digital ledgers are the most exciting development in finance since double-entry bookkeeping 700 years ago.

Today, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) remain firmly institutional territory. Demand centers on tokenized money market funds, U.S. Treasuries, stablecoin integrations, and collateral optimization products like BlackRock’s BUIDL and offerings from Robinhood/Bitstamp highlight the trend.

Retail participation lags, with few attendees raising hands to confirm holding tokenized RWAs in their wallets. Panelists pointed to Europe’s clear regulations as a launchpad for tokenized listed equities, while private credit, real estate, art, and private equity show strong future potential especially as companies stay private longer and demand for fractional, 24/7 access grows.

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The consensus: RWAs have moved from hype to real utility for institutions. The next wave mainstream retail onboarding could unlock trillions in illiquid markets once barriers fall.

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Solana president Lily Liu’s bold vision for Solana

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Solana president Lily Liu's bold vision for Solana

In a fireside chat at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, Solana Foundation President Lily Liu unpacked her “Internet Capital Markets” vision with moderator Michael Lau, Chairman of Consensus.

Liu asserted that blockchains’ true strength lies in finance and markets, not utopian general-purpose tech. Liu envisioned tokenizing all world assets on-chain, enabling seamless access from everyday payments to high-frequency trading and creating a unified, global marketplace for capital formation.

Liu traced crypto’s capital-raising evolution from early ICOs to rapid modern raises, arguing this extensible primitive should empower non-crypto projects and companies worldwide. Liu stressed democratising talent and capital formation, which is rare in most markets, as crypto’s core societal impact.

Highlighting Asia’s pivotal role, Liu called it crypto’s “core market,” not frontier, given its Bitcoin origins and vast user/talent base. Liu championed revenue-focused metrics over governance tokens, insisting real network and app usage must drive sustainable value accrual to holders for long-term sovereignty and opportunity.

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LayerZero Labs Launching Blockchain Aimed at Institutions

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LayerZero Labs Launching Blockchain Aimed at Institutions

Blockchain company LayerZero Labs is planning to launch its own layer-1 blockchain named “Zero” with backing from ARK Invest and Citadel Securities, and targeting institutional financial markets.

Zero will launch in the fall of 2026, according to an announcement on Tuesday from LayerZero Labs, which also created and maintains the cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero.

The firm said it will be scalable to two million transactions per second by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and zero‑knowledge virtual machine Jolt to bypass “the fundamental replication requirement,” which constrains “blockchains to fewer than 10,000 transactions per second.”

LayerZero Labs said Zero will launch with three permissionless environments governed by the underlying network, known as “zones.” It will use the network’s native token and governance asset LayerZero (ZRO) to provide interoperability between zones and across more than 165 blockchains.

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Bryan Pellegrino, the CEO of LayerZero Labs, said in a statement that Zero’s “architecture moves the industry’s roadmap forward by at least a decade,” adding: “We believe we can actually bring the entire global economy on-chain with this technology.”

A growing number of financial institutions are moving into crypto as regulations and infrastructure improve, which some predict will bring a new wave of adoption to the space.

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Investments from large crypto players 

The project has received backing from asset manager ARK Invest, which is becoming a shareholder of LayerZero equity and ZRO, along with market maker Citadel Securities, which has also made a strategic investment in the token. 

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood will also join Zero’s newly formed advisory board, which includes Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and Caroline Butler, the former head of digital assets at financial services company BNY Mellon.