Bitcoin traded mostly sideways in the past week, but every breakout attempt was halted in its tracks.

Although bitcoin and most altcoins have recovered from the massive losses charted at the end of the previous business week, the past seven days weren’t exactly positive for the asset class, as it remains miles from the Q4 2025 peaks.

Before we examine the developments that took place in the past week, let’s quickly recap the latest crash that culminated on February 6 when BTC plunged to $60,000 for the first time in well over a year. Many altcoins collapsed by 20-30% daily, reaching new local lows.

Nevertheless, BTC bounced off on that day by $12,000 and tapped $72,000 in what became one of its most impressive single-day recovery attempts. However, the predominant bearish trend resumed rapidly, and BTC was stopped and driven down to $68,000 during the weekend.

It spent the next several days trading sideways between that lower boundary and $72,000. After the latest rejection at the upper boundary, the bears initiated another leg down, pushing the cryptocurrency south to $66,000 on Wednesday and $65,000 on Thursday.

The past few hours were slightly more positive for bitcoin, especially since the US CPI numbers for January came out and showed that inflation has actually cooled off. BTC jumped to $67,600 but was stopped there and now trades inches above $66,000. This means that BTC now sits at approximately the same spot as last week, but many alts have produced more substantial volatility.

On the one hand, XRP, BNB, HYPE, and SOL are deep in the red, but on the other, BCH, XMR, and HBAR have surged by up to 9.5%.

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.37T | 24H Vol: $110B | BTC Dominance: 56.7%

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BTC: $67,200 (-0.06%) | ETH: $1,970 (+1%) | XRP: $1.38 (-3.7%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Binance Completes $1B SAFU Fund Shift to Bitcoin. The most significant news in terms of BTC acquisition this week came from Binance as the exchange completed the conversion of its entire $1 billion SAFU fund to bitcoin. The company bought a total of 15,000 BTC in the span of just a few weeks.

BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund Hits Uniswap as UNI Jumped 40%. The largest decentralized exchange partnered with Securitize to make BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund available for trading via UniswapX. The news sent shockwaves through the UNI community, with the token surging by up to 40% within minutes.

Banks Take Hard Line on Stablecoin Yields as White House Talks Stall. Although the March 1 deadline is approaching fast, the crypto industry and banks clashed again over stablecoin rewards without a clear agreement. No compromise was reached, said sources, but the session was described as “productive.”

Robinhood Enters Layer 2 Race With Public Testnet Launch of Robinhood Chain. The US-based trading platform noted earlier this week that it has launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum, designed to accelerate the development of tokenized real-world and digital assets.

Miner Offloads $305M Bitcoin as Network Difficulty Sees Sharp Decline. The past few weeks have been tough on miners as well, especially in some regions due to severe weather. One of the larger entities in the field, Cango, disclosed that it had sold over $300 million worth of BTC amid rising pressure and falling profitability metrics.

Robert Kiyosaki Says Bitcoin Is a Better Investment Than Gold – Here’s Why. The best-selling author, who recently came under fire by the crypto community because of some controversial statements, believes bitcoin is a better investment than gold. Although he would rather hold both, if having to choose, he would opt for BTC due to its proven limited supply.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Hyperliquid – click here for the complete price analysis.

The stock and crypto markets remained on edge today, February 13, as participants reacted to the latest US consumer inflation report, which continued moving downwards in January.

US stock indices retreated, with the futures tied to the Dow Jones. Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 falling by over 35 basis points, continuing a trend that has continued on Thursday.

Similarly, crypto prices like Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $66,000, while top altcoins like LayerZero (ZRO), Canton, Internet Computer, Uniswap, and Kaspa dropped by over 5% in the last 24 hours. The market capitalization of all tokens dropped to $2.29 trillion.

US consumer inflation retreated in January 

A report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the headline Consumer Price Index retreated from 2.7% in December to 2.4% in January, the lowest level in months. It retreated from 0.3% in December to 0.2% on a MoM basis.

The report showed that the core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, dropped to 2.5% from the previous 2.6%. These numbers mean that US inflation has not surged as during President Donald Trump’s tariffs as most economists were expecting.

The report came a few hours after the Financial Times reported that Trump’s administration was considering tweaking his massive steel and aluminum tariffs, a move that will lead to lower prices in the long term  

The data came two days after the BLS released strong non-farm payrolls data, which showed that the economy created 130k jobs in January, while the unemployment rate slipped to 4.3%. 

Still, it is unclear whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates more times this year, even as inflation retreats. A Polymarket poll has the odds of no cuts in March at 93%. Another poll estimates that there will be just two cuts this year.

Stocks and crypto markets do well in periods of low interest rate 

In theory, the stock and crypto markets do well when the Fed is cutting interest rates. A good example of this happened during the COVID-19 pandemic when these assets jumped as the Fed slashed rates to zero.

The assets then plunged in 2022, with Bitcoin moving below $16,000, as the Fed hiked interest rates to combat the elevated inflation.

However, the current Federal Reserve cycle has happened amid a divergence in the two assets. The stock market has soared to a record high, while Bitcoin and most altcoins are stuck in a bear market.

One reason for this is that the market has had some major moving parts in the past few months. The stock market has been driven be the ongoing AI boom, while the crypto market crash has happened because of the elevated risks, including on Iran. 

On a recent CNBC interview, Michael Saylor casually mentioned that if bitcoin (BTC) fell 90%, he would easily refinance his company’s debts. His company, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), owes creditors $8.2 billion.

Skeptics, however, were unconvinced that Saylor would be able to accomplish that feat so easily.

Although the company owns 714,644 BTC worth $47.4 billion at current prices, if it crashed 90%, Strategy holdings might only be worth $4.7 billion — far lower than its debt.

CNBC anchor Becky Quick, for example, was immediately unconvinced by Saylor’s flippant answer to her question about his plan for an extended bear market. 

Crypto values have halved in four months, losing over $2 trillion since October 6. Maybe the worst is yet to come.

As Saylor was visibly laughing about how obvious it should be that Strategy would be able to refinance its debt after a 90% decline in the price of BTC, Quick asked a simple question. 

“Refinance where, Michael?”

Saylor responded that he would “just roll it forward” to extend maturity dates on his principal repayments.

Unconvinced, Quick repeated her simple question. “You think banks would lend to you at that point?”

‘Just roll it forward’

Indeed, Saylor’s company isn’t particularly creditworthy by conventional metrics even today. S&P Global rates it at B-, which means that its bonds are speculative-grade, or colloquially, “junk bonds.”

If BTC were to decline 90%, the company would have far more debt than assets, and the company has a track record of losing money.

Indeed, its operating loss in its most recent quarter was $17.4 billion — a 16.4x increase year-over-year. Its “product support” and “other services” revenues also declined in Q4 2025 versus the prior year, as another sign of weakness.

Saylor’s confidence in his ability to roll-over his bonds is justifiable given the company’s current asset levels and his $2.2 billion in cash today, but if the price of BTC continues to collapse, those figures will deteriorate rapidly.

Why does sending money internationally still feel like mailing a letter in the age of instant messaging? A wire transfer takes three days, costs $45 in fees, and loses another chunk to unfavorable exchange rates. 

Freelancers struggle to access basic banking services because traditional institutions can’t process cryptocurrency income. Small businesses watch profits evaporate in currency conversion fees while waiting for payments to clear.

These are not minor obstacles; they’re symptoms of a financial system built around outdated infrastructure. Banking currently moves more slowly than the digital world requires, while cryptocurrency systems are far too unpredictable for living, day-to-day lives. This disconnect can be filled by a crypto Neo bank development company having deep expertise in blockchain technology. 

Now, let’s have a look at the statistics. 

Crypto-friendly Neobanks do not symbolize incremental improvement; they symbolize the rebuilding of finance from scratch. Blockchain technology and bank stability are no longer topics of the future; they are happening right now, and the year 2026 will be the year of essential digital banking trends and not experimentation.

How Decentralized Banking is Reshaping Finance

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