BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) purchased 51,162 ether (ETH) last week, or roughly $98 million at current prices.

The latest purchase lifted the firm’s total holdings over 4.42 million tokens as of February 22, cornering 3.66% of the token’s total supply, the company said in its latest Monday update. It also holds 193 bitcoin, 691 million in cash, and equity stakes, including a $200 million investment in Beast Industries and a smaller investment in Eightco Holdings.

The company said it is generating $171 million in annualized revenue via staking over 3 million of its ETH holdings.

BMNR is down 2% in pre-market trading and lower by about 60% over the past six months.

With the price of ETH continuing to fall — down another 3% over the past 24 hours to $1,918 — the firm’s losses on its $16.4 billion in purchases now exceed $8 billion, according to DropsTab.

“In the midst of this ‘mini crypto winter,’ our focus continues to be on methodically executing our treasury strategy and steadily acquiring ETH and in turn, optimizing the yield on our ETH holdings,” BitMine chairman Thomas Lee said.

Key Takeaways

• $2 Trillion Trajectory: Analysts project the total stablecoin market capitalization will surge to $2 trillion by the end of 2028, up from roughly $300 billion today.
• Treasury Scarcity: Issuers are expected to absorb approximately $1 trillion in short-term T-bills, creating a potential supply shortfall without Treasury adjustments.
• Regulatory Drivers: The GENIUS Act framework mandates high-quality liquid assets for reserves, forcing issuers to concentrate holdings in the 0-3 month debt sector.

The global momentum behind RWA tokenization has shifted from theoretical pilots to institutional-grade execution. As capital markets seek greater efficiency, transparency, and global reach, Brazil has emerged as a primary laboratory for this transformation.

This shift is driven by a unique combination of progressive regulation, a tech-savvy financial sector, and the search for lower operational costs. At the heart of this movement is the XDC Network, providing the neutral, public infrastructure necessary to bridge the gap between local debt markets and global liquidity.

The Dawn of the RWA Era in Latin America

Tokenization is no longer a buzzword for the distant future; it is a live, operational reality in Brazil. While many jurisdictions are still debating the legal frameworks for digital assets, Brazil’s Central Bank and Securities Commission (CVM) have fostered an environment where innovation can thrive.

The tokenization of fixed income instruments, specifically debentures, represents a significant step forward. By digitizing these traditional assets, issuers can offer enhanced traceability and a higher degree of transparency, which are essential for attracting international institutional capital.

The XDC Network has positioned itself as the one of the leaders in this evolution. Unlike early blockchain experiments that focused on speculative assets, XDC was designed with international trade and finance in mind. Its ability to handle frequent transactions with minimal fees makes it the ideal candidate for scaling RWA projects that require high performance and reliability.

USD One Billion Roadmap in Sight

VERT Capital, a leader in the Brazilian structured finance space, has recently announced the successful tokenization of two major Brazilian debentures on the XDC Network. This announcement marks a significant milestone not just for the companies involved but for the entire blockchain ecosystem.

This move effectively bridges the gap between different sectors of the economy, starting with Mottu, a growth leader in Latin American urban mobility and last-mile logistics. As a fast-moving, data-driven representative of Brazil’s new economy, Mottu has already tokenized approximately USD 60 million, with a total target of USD 93 million. 

Complementing this innovation is the involvement of Banco Pine, a powerhouse in corporate and structured credit with a deep history of serving mid-market and large corporate clients. With their current tokenized volume reaching approximately USD 268 million, Banco Pine’s participation serves as a powerful signal that even the most established traditional financial institutions now recognize the tangible value and efficiency of moving complex debt instruments onto a public blockchain.

Together, these transactions bring the total volume tokenized on XDC via VERT to roughly USD 375 million. This volume is substantial even by global standards. More importantly, it demonstrates the network’s capacity to handle institutional-grade volume and complexity. 

The partnership is now firmly on track to hit a targeted USD 1 billion in assets on the XDC Network by the end of 2026, a goal that would solidify XDC’s position as a global leader in the RWA space.

Public Blockchain: The Neutral Alternative to Private DLT

A critical differentiator in these issuances is the choice of XDC Network as a public blockchain over domain-specific, private Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) networks. For years, the prevailing wisdom in banking was that private is safer. However, the industry is beginning to realize that private ledgers often recreate the very silos they were intended to break.

Private DLTs often attempt to emulate centralized systems. In doing so, they frequently fail to capture the true efficiencies of decentralization, such as global interoperability and 24/7 availability, while also forfeiting the mature, optimized performance of the centralized architectures they seek to replicate.

They create walled gardens that require complex, expensive integrations to talk to one another.

XDC Network, by contrast, serves as a neutral financial market infrastructure. It offers the best of both worlds:

• Public Accessibility: Anyone can verify the state of the ledger, enhancing trust and auditability.
• Institutional Governance: By utilizing smart-contract-level permissioning, XDC ensures full regulatory alignment. Access to specific functions or assets can be restricted to verified, KYC-compliant participants.
• Connectivity Layer: This approach positions tokenization not as a replacement for existing capital market systems, but as a layer of open infrastructure that connects local markets to a global pool of investors.

By embedding governance directly into the code, XDC allows for regulated decentralization, where the rules of the regulator are enforced automatically by the network protocol.

Surfing the Wave of Innovation

The leadership driving this initiative views the current landscape not as a temporary trend, but as a fundamental shift in the plumbing of global finance.

“These issuances demonstrate how public blockchain infrastructure can add real value to traditional fixed-income markets. By bringing debentures from companies like Mottu and Banco Pine onto the XDC Network, VERT is enhancing transparency, traceability, and global visibility for Brazilian assets, while maintaining full regulatory alignment.”

— Diego Consimo, Head of LATAM, XDC Network.

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“This is exactly how we see tokenization evolving: not as a replacement of existing systems, but as a layer of open, neutral infrastructure that connects local capital markets to global investors.”

This vision of connectivity over replacement is key to institutional adoption. It allows legacy systems to integrate with blockchain at their own pace, slowly migrating functions to the chain as confidence grows.

Gabriel Braga, Director of Digital Assets at VERT Capital, views the technological shift through a more visceral lens. He notes that many traditional institutions are reacting to blockchain with fear, attempting to build lifeboats to survive what they perceive as a disruptive storm.

“Everyone sees this huge swell of tokenization already arriving on capital-markets shores. A common reaction is to see it as a threat and build one-size-fits-all lifeboats, hoping the next wave won’t grow even bigger. It will grow bigger. We should see it as an opportunity and learn how to surf it.”

Braga’s analogy highlights the difference between defensive innovation (private DLTs) and offensive innovation (public blockchain). Those who learn to surf use the power of the wave, the liquidity and openness of public networks, to move faster and further than those huddled in lifeboats.

Brazil as a Global RWA Leader

As these issuances demonstrate, Brazil is no longer just a participant in the digital asset space, it is a global frontrunner. The combination of high interest rates, a sophisticated banking system, and a clear regulatory path has made it the perfect environment for RWA tokenization to scale.

By leveraging XDC infrastructure, Brazilian companies are achieving a level of global visibility that was previously reserved for the largest multinational corporations. This democratizes access to capital, allowing companies like Mottu to tap into international markets with the same ease as a blue-chip bank.

Looking forward, the success of the Mottu and Banco Pine issuances serves as a blueprint for the next phase of financial evolution. As the XDC Network continues to grow, it reinforces its position as the preferred infrastructure for institutions that demand the benefits of a public, neutral ledger while operating within the rigorous boundaries of global financial regulation.

The path to USD 1 billion is more than just a target, it is a testament to the fact that the future of finance is open, transparent, and built on XDC.

Base will transition to a unified, internally maintained stack, expected to be its biggest architectural shift since launch.

After debuting in 2023 as a rollup built on Optimism’s OP Stack, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 is now consolidating its software into an in-house distribution, which can unlock faster upgrades and greater autonomy over its technical roadmap.

It has been exactly three years since Base launched its testnet. The network has experienced SocialFi explosions and ridden its own memecoin wave. It even went through a phase that both fascinated and unnerved Crypto Twitter as AI agents began transacting on its chain.

Here’s how it got here.

Friend.tech headlines Base’s “Onchain Summer” fest

Base’s mainnet opened to builders in July 2023, and users followed in August. The period after Coinbase cut the ribbon was promoted as “Onchain Summer.” In the first week, Base attracted 700,000 new users, who brought with them about $242 million in inflows.

Friend.tech was the headline act of Coinbase’s summer festival. It was a social app that allowed users to buy and sell access to their connections. The loudest voices on Crypto Twitter tested the industry’s newest toy, which also attracted the rich and famous outside the community. In less than two weeks after launching, it generated over $1 million in daily fees, surpassing Bitcoin at the time.

It didn’t last long.

By the end of August, fees and transaction volume had tanked, and the platform was declared “dead.”

A little over a year later, the team relinquished control of the project by ditching the admin rights of its smart contracts.

Base rides its own memecoin wave

The memecoin frenzy became one of the defining crypto stories in recent years, drawing in political figures and public personalities. Eventually, it prompted the US Securities and Exchange Commission to state that such tokens fall outside the scope of securities laws.

Solana is the go-to blockchain for memecoins. Its data shows the memecoin boom gaining momentum in late 2023, when its daily active addresses began climbing toward Ethereum’s levels. In March 2024, Solana decisively surpassed Ethereum on that metric when Base users started showing some post-Friend.tech signs of life.

From March 19 to 25, Cointelegraph Magazine found more than 380,000 ERC-20 tokens deployed on Base. That activity brought in fresh liquidity into Base’s DeFi ecosystem, and by June 2024, the layer 2 had flipped Ethereum in active addresses. It held on to that lead until December 2025.

AI agents begin transacting on Base

In the latter half of 2024, AI agents claimed the driver’s seat in crypto. As with memecoins, early experiments took off on Solana, such as Goatseus Maximus, ai16z and Truth Terminal.

Developers launched agent-linked tokens, autonomous trading bots and social accounts that presented themselves as autonomous onchain actors.

Related: Can Solana shed its memecoin image in 2026?

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that crypto provides a natural financial rail for AI systems, as agents lack the legal identity required to open traditional bank accounts.

On Base, focus shifted to AI agents capable of holding balances, tipping users and interacting directly with smart contracts. In October 2024, Coinbase introduced “Based Agents,” a toolkit that allowed users to build AI agents equipped with crypto wallets.

The most visible Base-native experiment was Virtuals Protocol, which enabled users to create agents tied to tokens and onchain addresses.

One such Virtuals agent, Luna (not related to Terra), became the first on Base to autonomously execute onchain tips.

Virtuals later expanded to Solana in January 2025 to tap into its larger retail base. However, activity across AI-agent tokens soon slowed, and Virtuals cooled with it.

The second coming of SocialFi on Base

Base’s 2023 debut was followed by the breakout of Friend.tech. In 2025, SocialFi returned to Base in a different form, sparked by deeper integration with Coinbase’s consumer ecosystem.

That push was tied to Coinbase’s “super app” ambitions. Super apps are platforms that support a variety of 21st-century necessities, such as messaging, digital banking, ride sharing or even food delivery.

Related: Banks can’t seem to service crypto, even as it goes mainstream

Such platforms already exist in Asia. WeChat in China is used in the everyday lives of more than 1 billion users, combining messaging, payments and commerce. South Korea’s KakaoTalk and Japan’s Line serve similar functions in their respective markets. Social media giants like X and Meta have said they are exploring similar models.

In July 2025, Coinbase rebranded its wallet as the Base App, making its Ethereum layer 2 the default execution layer within its wallet ecosystem.

At the center of this phase was Farcaster, a decentralized social network where accounts are linked to crypto addresses. Posts, tips and token launches connected directly to onchain activity.

At the same time, Zora, which enables creators to mint and distribute tokenized content, saw bursts of activity in mid-2025 that contributed to measurable spikes in Base transactions and token launches. Tokens were often promoted on Farcaster.

The second coming of SocialFi on Base lasted longer than Friend.tech, but interest faded after the initial hype period. On Feb. 9, 2026, Coinbase announced it would sunset its Creator Rewards program and Farcaster-powered social feeds. The change does not directly affect Zora users, though activity there has also cooled from its peak.

Base becomes Ethereum’s most active layer 2

Throughout the first three years, Base showcased the distribution power of the largest US exchange, similar to how BNB Chain’s user activity is influenced by Binance.

Aside from their technical differences, Binance has attempted to distance itself from the blockchain it founded by attempting to give it its own brand, while Coinbase has kept Base close to its orbit.

Coinbase and its blockchain have ridden the tides of emerging trends such as memecoins and AI agents while becoming the center of creator economies and SocialFi applications.

Those trends came and went, but they did push Base to the top of the Ethereum layer-2 ladder. It now leads in users, transactions, fees and total value locked, according to data from Nansen and DefiLlama.

Trends onboarded users and distribution brought scale. Now, Base is consolidating its foundation. Whether the unified stack cements its lead or merely bookends its first growth era will define its next three years, as Ethereum’s focus shifts from L2s back to scaling the main chain.

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