Key Takeaways

• The Signal: Block is reducing staff by 40% to strictly leverage AI automation and flatten management structures.
• The Data: Wall Street reacted instantly, pushing SQ stock from $54.53 to nearly $69 (+24%) on efficiency hopes.
• The Outlook: Jack Dorsey predicts this is the start of an industry-wide trend where AI tools permanently displace headcount.

While Crypto Capital Corp, the once shadow bank for the entire crypto industry, wound down after $850 million was seized sometime between late 2018 and early 2019, the ramifications of its demise continue to be felt.

In the fallout from the collapse, two individuals were prosecuted: Reginald Fowler, who’s now serving prison time after pleading guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting service, and Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, who remains in Poland after being arrested in Greece in 2019 and later extradited.

Two other associated individuals — brother and sister Oz and Ravid Yosef — remain fugitives of the law.

Protos tracked Ravid, aka Ravid Israel, to Israel where she’d begun an IVF business that failed. She subsequently started working for a UK-based fertility start-up.

However, the story doesn’t end there. In a twist the likes of which only the crypto industry can offer, criminal proceedings against Molina Lee and his associates continues in Poland, with new consequential details emerging this month.

The Israeli mob and cocaine in power generators

Earlier, Polish court proceedings revealed a supposed intricate criminal conspiracy involving the Israeli mafia, Crypto Capital Corp, and cocaine being hidden in and transported via power generators.

According to Onet.pl, the largest news website in Poland, nearly the entire $850 million seized from Crypto Capital Corp (which ended up causing withdrawal issues at numerous exchanges, including, but not limited to, Bitfinex and now defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX) was linked to an “Israeli drug lord” who was trafficking 100 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Europe every month.

Apparently, Molina Lee, who has ties to Canada, Panama, Colombia, and Poland, was helping to launder funds received for the cocaine through Crypto Capital Corp and making crypto purchases via multiple exchanges.

The links between cocaine trafficking and Crypto Capital Corp appear to be anything but fictional.

In 2019 online sleuths discovered an office located in Bogotá, Colombia that was listed as the Colombian headquarters for Crypto Capital Corp. The shadow bank also had offices in Panama, where Molina Lee and Oz Yosef managed their affairs.

Read more: Scoop: Crypto Capital Corp’s Ravid Yosef is flouting extradition in Israel

If accusations prove true, the trafficking scheme worked something like this: the Israeli mafia, represented by Shalom Lior Azoulay, would acquire hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in Colombia, paying producers with crypto.

The cocaine would then be transferred to Europe hidden in power generators, often arriving in The Netherlands and then moving throughout the rest of the continent, where the co-conspirators and their associates would then receive cash for the drugs.

Once they had cash in hand, they would move the funds through multiple banks, including a small Polish bank called the Cooperative Bank in Skierniewice, buy crypto, and then once again use it to purchase cocaine in Colombia.

In 2018, Bitfinex users reported that they were asked to utilize the same bank for wire transfers into and out of the exchange.

Azoulay implicates Reginald Fowler testimony

While Fowler never pled guilty to money laundering or crimes associated with drug trafficking, it appears that the Israeli charged in the drug trafficking conspiracy, Shalom Azoulay, implicates him as the reason he’s unable to leave Poland and facing significant jail time.

Azoulay told Onet.pl, “This is building a case based on the testimony of one officer from the United States. From the very beginning, I have been trying to explain that I’m in no way involved.

“At the last hearing in December 2025, I also confirmed that I had nothing to do with it. It’s creating a case that has no legal basis.”

Despite the implications of the case, Israelis Oz and Ravid Yosef remain at-large, with no signs they will be apprehended and extradited by Israeli law enforcement, and Fowler is facing no additional charges for his role in the possible drug trafficking conspiracy.

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The recent crypto crash resumed today, February 27, as investors booked profits and as geopolitical risks in the Middle East escalated.

Bitcoin (BTC) price retreated below $66,000, while the market of all tokens retreated by 2.85% in the last 24 hours to over $2.28 trillion. Pippin token dropped by 26% in the last 24 hours, while Kaspa, Zcash, and Lighter retreated by over 6%.

On the other hand, some top tokens like Decred, LayerZero, Arbitrum, and Internet Computer tokens jumped by over 4% in the same period.

Crypto crash resumes as odds of US attacking Iran jumps

The ongoing crypto crash is happening because of the rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran.

In a statement, Ambassador Mike Huckabee told staff at the US embassy in Jerusalem to leave their offices and country, raising the possibility that the US will attack Iran in the coming days. The evacuation order is only for non-essential staff and the embassy will remain open.

This announcement came a few days after the US ordered its non-essential staff in Lebanon to leave the country. 

Traders on Polymarket believe that an attack is coming soon. Odds of an attack happening in March rose to 72%, while before March rose to 80%.

A new war in the Middle East will have an impact on Bitcoin and other markets because Iran has warned that it will retaliate by attacking US bases in the Middle East and by closing the Strait of Hormuz. 

Such a move will lead to higher inflation, which will make it hard for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in the coming meetings. Also, Bitcoin is no longer a safe-haven asset as analysts were expecting.

Profit-taking and stock market crash 

The ongoing crypto crash is happening because of the profit-taking among investors. 

Bitcoin jumped from $63,000 earlier this week and then moved to $68,000, while other tokens like Pippin, Pepe, and Kaspa soared by double digits. As such, the retreat confirms that the rebound was a dead-cat bounce.

The crypto market crash also coincided with the ongoing stock market dive. For example, the Dow Jones Index retreated by over 500 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices fell by over 1%.

The stock market retreat was mostly because of the ongoing concerns about the booming private credit industry, where some companies like Blue Owl and Apollo.

Additionally, the crypto crash also happened after the US published a strong Producer Price Index, which rose by 0.5% in January, higher than market participants were expecting.

The X account of scrap-metal billionaire and NFT investor Adam Weitsman was hacked on Thursday and used to promote a fake forex trading course and phony “Clawed Ape Yacht Club” memecoin.

The account has since been recovered by one of Weitsman’s associates, X user “@Gabrielesm1,” after an email exchange with an undisclosed party. 

“I’ve secured it and everything is under control. I just hope his team doesn’t change the password again,” Gabriel said.

After other X users questioned what caused the hack, Gabriel explained that “Adam’s team changed the account passwords fours days ago so I wasn’t able to see the suspicious login notification.”

Users caught the account sharing two different scams. One was a forex coaching scam that promised it would be able to turn $800 into $50,000 within two hours.

Read more: ‘Biggest NFT trading platform on TRON,’ AINFT, has $6 in volume

The second was a screenshot of a phony Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) memecoin called Clawed Ape Yacht Club (CAYC). The name is a riff off Open Claw, an AI agent project that also got its name from Anthropic’s AI project, Claude. 

The post claimed to have put $100,000 worth of solana into the project and encouraged others to trade the CAYC token.

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It correlates with a Pump Fun-launched memecoin that started trading late on Thursday. CAYC’s market cap jumped over 200% to $157,000 before plummeting to $16,000 minutes later. 

Read more: Paul brothers business partner claims ‘0% rug pull risk’ with new memecoin

Weitsman’s NFT investment is down 71%

Weitsman made most of his riches founding and growing the scrap metal recycling firm Upstate Shredding — Weitsman Recycling back in 1997. 

In 2025, Weitsman began to heavily invest in NFTs. He reached a multi-million-dollar deal with Yuga Labs, the owners of BAYC, to acquire 5,000 Otherdeed NFTs and make other acquisitions.

These NFTs are essentially digital plots of land that correlate with the Otherside, a so-called “metaRPG” created by Yuga Labs.

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The Otherdeed NFTs have fallen 98.3% in price since the highs they saw at launch in 2022. Its market cap was worth over $1 billion in those first few days after launch, but it’s now worth just shy of $8 million. 

Read more: Here’s what’s behind the fall of the Bored Ape Yacht Club

On the day Weitsman announced the deal with Yuga Labs, the market cap of Otherdeeds was $28 million, representing a 71% decrease to today’s value.

Weitsman told Now Media that his contract stipulates that he can’t sell the NFTs. He said, “I felt that would help with liquidity for other people, because they know that the biggest question is, ‘Are these going to come on the market?’ I want to stabilize that.”

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Solana enters March under heavy pressure. SOL is down over 31% month on month, with February alone delivering a 17% loss. But the Solana price decline is only part of the problem. Underneath the chart, the economic engine that powered Solana through late 2025 — its memecoin ecosystem — has broken down. And the on-chain data tracking holders, exchange flows, and DEX activity all confirm the same thing: the selling is structural, not seasonal.

The question for March is no longer whether Solana can bounce. It is whether anything can stop the pattern already in motion from reaching its target.

Bearish Pattern Meets A Broken Engine

The 3-day chart reveals a confirmed head-and-shoulders pattern, with the neckline near $107 breaking around January 31. The measured move from that breakdown, roughly 44% from the neckline, places the technical target near $59.

SOL currently trades around $87, meaning the pattern is only partially fulfilled. From here, approximately 30% of additional downside remains if the move completes.

Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.

What makes this setup more convincing is that the neckline break coincided with the collapse of the very ecosystem driving Solana’s on-chain economy — its memecoin sector.

In the week ending February 2, Solana’s total DEX volume stood at $118.2 billion, with Pump.fun accounting for $61.4 billion and Meteora contributing $20.1 billion. By the week ending February 23, total volume had crashed to $44.5 billion — a 62% decline, per exclusive Dune data pulled by BeInCrypto analysts. Pump.fun dropped to $30.5 billion. Meteora collapsed 83% to just $3.4 billion.

The chart breakdown and the memecoin collapse are not separate events. The pattern started forming as confidence was already cracking. And without its primary revenue driver, Solana now faces the rest of the measured move with weakened fundamentals underneath it.

History And SOL Holders Offer No Relief

In past cycles, seasonal data would offer some hope here. March carries a median gain of 22.8% for Solana, and February’s historical average sits near positive 28.9%. But February 2026 returned -17%, and January delivered a 15% loss, as opposed to a +47% average.

Two consecutive red months already break the seasonal playbook. The “red month, green month” narrative no longer holds when the pattern has failed twice in a row — and the drivers behind those losses are structural, not cyclical.

The holder data reinforces this. In early February, when DEX volume was peaking at $118.2 billion, the Exchange Net Position change metric, showing netflows, was deeply negative — tokens were flowing off exchanges, a classic accumulation signal. That behavior matched the on-chain optimism at the time.

By February 26, the picture had fully inverted. Exchange net inflows surged to 1,561,859 SOL on a 30-day rolling basis — up roughly 40% from the 1,106,796 level seen just three days earlier on February 23. As the memecoin economy collapsed and DEX volumes cratered, holders possibly responded by moving tokens to exchanges for liquidation.

Long-term conviction holders tell the same story from the other side. The Hodler net position change metric — a measure of accumulation by longer-term wallets — peaked in late January (near the pattern breakdown) around 3.47 million SOL on a 30-day rolling basis. By February 26, it had collapsed to just 266,744 SOL — a 92% decline and the monthly low.

The buyers who would typically support a recovery are stepping back, not stepping in.

ETF Flows Remain The Lone Support

Against all of this, one data point stands in contrast. Solana spot ETFs maintained positive weekly inflows throughout February, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs collectively bled. In the week ending February 20, SOL ETFs absorbed $14.31 million. By the week ending February 26, that figure had tripled to $43.13 million — the highest weekly inflow of the month.

Cumulative SOL ETF inflows have now surpassed $900 million since launch, with 12+ consecutive days of net inflows recorded in February.

The ETF bid is real. It suggests a floor will form at some point, and intermittent bounces should be expected. But it has not been enough. SOL dropped 17% in February despite almost uninterrupted institutional buying. The scale of on-chain selling, even on the sentimental side, currently outweighs ETF demand.

Key Solana Price Levels For March

The $80 zone has absorbed the most price action during this sell-off — multiple tests have occurred, making it the most significant near-term support. However, repeated retests tend to weaken a level, not strengthen it. A decisive break below $80 opens continuation toward $64, and then the head and shoulders target near $59.

On the upside, strength does not return unless SOL reclaims $96, followed by $116 — the January fail-safe that now serves as the gateway to structural recovery. If $59 breaks, the next significant level on the 3-day chart sits near $41.

One catalyst could interrupt the bearish path. The Alpenglow upgrade — Solana’s most ambitious consensus overhaul targeting sub-second finality — is aiming for Q1 2026 mainnet deployment.

If details come in March, it could shift the narrative from memecoin chain to institutional-grade infrastructure.

March will likely be defined by whether $80 holds. Above it, expect choppy consolidation with ETF-driven bounces. Below it, the measured move toward $59–64 becomes the base case. Until holder behavior reverses, DEX activity stabilizes, and Alpenglow delivers, the path of least resistance stays down.

BestChange positions itself as a long-running exchange aggregator helping users compare rates, liquidity, and reliability across 670+ services in one interface.

The crypto space has now become a haven for unscrupulous businesses posing as innovative exchanges. Choosing a platform to trade on in the midst of all this chaos is not an easy task. That’s where aggregators come into the picture. They offer a single interface where investors can compare the rates and features of various exchanges and make better decisions. 

Today, let’s take a look at one such platform: BestChange.

Overview

Website: https://bestchange.com/

Sector: Crypto exchange aggregator

Supported coins: 95+ cryptocurrencies 

Listed exchangers: 670+ exchange services

Fees: No fees for the aggregator itself

KYCverification: Not required

User support: Email support

Language support: English/Russian

Product ecosystem: Web platform, mobile applications (iOS and Android), Telegram bot, Telegram mini app, browser extensions, and AML address analyzer

What is BestChange?

Launched in 2007, BestChange is a non-custodial exchange aggregator registered in Dubai under the brand Agretis Software Design LLC. The platform offers information from 670+ exchange services across more than 52,000 currency pairs. BestChange does not process transactions or store user funds. It instead operates as an independent information resource that connects users to third-party exchange providers.

Though it started off as desktop only, after its latest update in 2025, BestChange is now a full-fledged ecosystem designed to enable exchange rate comparisons on any device, at any time. 

With nearly two decades in the market, BestChange operates as an infrastructure solution within the crypto exchange ecosystem combining long-term reputation with up-to-date tools tailored to today’s typical crypto user behaviors.

Features

1. BestChange offers a real-time comparison of core exchange variables, including rates, fees, limits, reserves, etc., so users can instantly compare rates instead of spending hours going back and forth between various websites. This functionality helps maintain market transparency. 
2. Having tracked over 1,126,483 exchange rates across 52,070 currency pairs from 670 listed exchanges, BestChange has built a strong reputation as a reliable and transparent crypto exchange monitoring platform. 
3. BestChange has also collected over 2,692,722 user reviews and 1,338,312 referrals in its 18 years of continuous operation.This extensive and publicly visible feedback base strengthens transparency, allowing users to evaluate exchange services based on real community experiences rather than marketing claims. At the same time, it enables the platform to continuously monitor partner reliability and maintain high service standards. 
4. BestChange conducts ongoing monitoring of listed exchanges’ activity. The team actively identifies and addresses negative patterns such as review manipulation, misleading rate practices, or violations of platform rules, applying corrective measures when necessary. 
5. Beyond maintaining compliance with the rules for listed exchanges, BestChange places strong emphasis on the accuracy of exchange rates and the integrity of displayed data. Continuous independent monitoring across hundreds of currency pairs ensures that rates reflect real market conditions, helping users access genuine, market-based offers rather than artificially inflated or misleading quotes.
6. The platform also offers sorting, filtering, and alert systems designed to reduce information asymmetry. These advanced systems help users to make faster, better-informed decisions without the need for constant manual monitoring.
7. BestChange also has a multistage exchange tool that helps identify viable liquidity paths when direct exchange pairs are inefficient or unavailable, which means users can automatically route their transaction through two exchanges to secure a better rate or complete a swap that wouldn’t be possible in a single step.
8. In addition to the above-mentioned features, BestChange has an AML check tool, which aggregates data from multiple compliance providers to assess the risks related to crypto wallet addresses before a transaction. This allows users to spot high-risk funds in advance, avoid scams, account freezes, and compliance issues, and make informed decisions without exposing sensitive personal data.
9. On a greater scale, BestChange is an ecosystem that employs cross-platform access via web, mobile apps, browser extensions, and messaging interfaces. This way, market data remains available to all users regardless of device, location, or constraints.
10. The BestChange mobile app is available on App Store, Google Play, and Huawei AppGallery, with distribution across 175+ countries. This multi-format approach allows users to access exchange data, comparisons, and tools in a way they prefer without being confined to a single interface.

Pros and cons

BestChange has a whole list of advantages, from a multi-stage exchange to cross-platform access, but that does not mean the platform is without its limitations. 

Following the launch of its new products, BestChange received some user feedback regarding minor bugs and usability issues. This is a fairly common occurrence during major updates and rebranding phases. The team acknowledged the feedback promptly and addressed the concerns through continuous iterative improvements. 

BestChange has also faced several temporary restrictions by Roskomnadzor in Russia. But these restrictions were mostly driven by shifts in Russia’s crypto regulation, rather than it being about BestChange’s operations itself. Currently, the BestChange team is in full compliance with all of Russia’s formal demands, and there are no more access concerns. 

At one point, users also raised concerns about BestChange listing exchange services with questionable reputations or scam-related behavior. However, BestChange strengthened its screening shortly after, making sure these issues were completely eradicated.

Public review

With a 4.1 rating on TrustPilot, 4.6 on MyWot, and 4.5 on TenereTeam, BestChange appears to be leading in terms of public interest. One user on the platform commented, “BestChange.com is an excellent resource for finding the best cryptocurrency and e-currency exchange rates. The platform is easy to navigate, updated in real time, and helps me choose the most reliable exchangers quickly. Highly recommended for anyone looking to save time and money when exchanging digital assets.”

Still, the aggregator has received some criticism. One such reviewer highlighted that the cancellation charges were high, while another complained about the slow and often unresponsive customer service. However, most of the negative reviews seem to be about the individual exchange partners on the platform and not BestChange itself. 

Conclusion

Crypto exchange aggregators have made the exchange game easier than it ever was. Instead of choosing a single platform and accepting its rate, users can now compare offers and features from over hundreds of different platforms in a single interface. If traders were to do this comparison manually, that would take them hours, if not days. With aggregators like BestChange, traders can now complete this tedious task in minutes. The result is more time on their hands to make better decisions.

South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) accidentally exposed a crypto wallet seed phrase in an official press release on Thursday, leading to a loss of 4 million PRTG  (Pre‑Retogeum) tokens worth about $4.8 million from the address, according to local media reports.

According to multiple Korean media reports on local sites Naver, Chosun and others, the press release related to the National Tax Service’s enforcement campaign against tax delinquents and seizures that the authorities had carried out. The release reportedly included an image of a Ledger cold wallet and a sheet of paper showing the wallet’s full mnemonic phrase without any blur or masking.

Blockchain researchers later identified an Ether (ETH) address linked to the leaked phrase that briefly held the 4 million PRTG tokens before the entire balance was transferred out. 

Onchain data for that address shows three inbound transfers totaling 4 million PRTG, followed by a single outbound transfer sending exactly 4 million PRTG to another wallet, consistent with those reports. 

Related: 3 Solana platforms to shutter following devastating $40M hack

Associate professor Jaewoo Cho of Hansung University’s Blockchain Research Center, who analyzed the flows, noted on X on Friday, “We have confirmed that 4 million PRTG tokens, worth approximately $4.8 million, were stolen from the mnemonic that was leaked (disclosed) through a press release from the National Tax Service.”

He added that, “fortunately, the other exposed mnemonics do not seem likely to cause any major issues,” and argued that because the stolen tokens were difficult to cash out, “the actual damage is at a negligible level.”

He said he hoped the episode would be a “blessing in disguise” that pushed Korean public bodies to build proper virtual asset custody systems. 

Crypto custody failures test Korean authorities

The incident comes as South Korean authorities face another crypto custody scandal. In a separate case, police discovered in February 2026 that 22 Bitcoin (BTC) seized in a 2021 hacking investigation had vanished from a cold wallet stored in a Gangnam police vault.

Two suspects were arrested on Thursday after investigators found that the coins had been moved using a mnemonic phrase that the police had never controlled. 

Separately, regulators are under pressure over Bithumb’s recent 620,000 BTC fat finger promotion error, where the exchange briefly credited users with about $43 billion in non‑existent Bitcoin, and the Financial Services Commission extended its probe after criticism that it failed to spot serious systems flaws earlier.