News
Coinbase (COIN) shares jumped 5% ahead of Friday market opening on news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is poised to drop charges against the crypto exchange.
Popular trading app Robinhood (HOOD) — whose recent growth in at least in part thanks to crypto trading — rose 4%.
The broader crypto market was also climbing higher with bitcoin (BTC) nearing $100,000 for the first time since early February. The Coindesk 20 Index, a broad-market benhmark, was up 1.7% over the past 24 hours. Tokens that the SEC characterized as securities in previous lawsuits initiated under former chair Gary Gensler's leadership also advanced as sentiment improved, CoinGecko data shows.
The agency's potential withdrawal marks a milestone of U.S. regulatory improvements for the digital asset industry that could boost crypto prices and stocks related to digital asset trading.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) potentially dropping its Coinbase lawsuit could help boost sentiment for not only crypto tokens that were alleged as securities under the last presidential administration but also popular exchange Robinhood's (HOOD) shares.
Read more: SEC Poised to Drop Coinbase Lawsuit, Marking Big Moment for U.S. Crypto
While the SEC hasn't officially voted on the Coinbase case, it will likely be welcomed by the industry that has faced enforcement by the agency under the Joe Biden administration. Robinhood was one of the exchanges that had to delist all of the tokens that were alleged to be securities in June 2023. However, after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election last year, the exchange added back some of those tokens, including Solana's SOL, which the SEC alleged were securities.
With the Coinbase case set to be dropped, exchanges such as Robinhood feel less risk in adding more tokens to their platform, potentially increasing trading revenue. Most recently, the popular crypto platform said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 115% from the previous year, topping Wall Street's estimates, mainly boosted by a rise in crypto trading revenue.
According to Cryptorank.io, the top five tokens, based on market cap, that were alleged securities include BNB, Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Tron (TRX) and Toncoin (TON).
The move might also encourage more companies to list their firms publicly in the U.S. markets. Several crypto companies are already rumored to be considering initial public offerings (IPOs) in the U.S., including Blockchain.com, BitGo, Gemini, EToro, Bullish Global (CoinDesk's parent company), Ripple and Circle.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will vote soon on a deal negotiated with Coinbase to entirely drop the agency's legal pursuit of the crypto exchange, according to the company's top lawyer.
While the SEC has been making moves almost daily to reverse past positions on digital assets, the pending vote would mark a watershed moment that could start a series of legal dominoes to free other crypto businesses from enforcement actions. Because the deal between Coinbase and SEC staff assumes a dismissal of the case "with prejudice," said Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, the regulator's accusations of securities violations would be shut down permanently.
"It's a great day for Coinbase, yes, but it's also a great day for crypto in America," Grewal said in an interview with CoinDesk. "We have every expectation, based on representations that have been made to us, that that approval will come, and with that, the dismissal will then be filed."
He restated it in simpler terms: "We win; they lose."
And Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a video posted on Friday that "this is an important signal about where things are going."
When the SEC first went after Coinbase — the most prominent of the U.S.-based crypto platforms — it represented a shot across the bow of the industry. The SEC alleged Coinbase violated federal law by not registering as a clearing house, broker or trading venue, based on the agency's view of the so-called Howey test that determines whether an asset is a security. The company chose to fight the accusations in federal court, and that legal clash had been fierce, most recently seeing a judge side with Coinbase's effort to elevate an appeal of the central question at dispute: Are these tokens being traded really securities under the SEC's jurisdiction?
The industry had long expected it might have to wait for the courts — eventually even the U.S. Supreme Court — to rule on former SEC Chair Gary Gensler's assertion that most tokens are actually crypto securities. But the surrender of the SEC in this dispute is likely to be echoed in other cases, which would put the final word on the legal definition into the hands of Congress.
So, the commission vote could throw the industry's major focus toward lobbying instead of legal wrangling.
The enforcement meetings for the SEC — currently made up of Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce and Democrat Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw — typically take place on Thursdays, so the final decision on the staff recommendation may be delayed as long as a week. Crenshaw has been a vocal skeptic of the digital assets industry and its compliance, so it remains unclear whether she'd be willing to sign off on the dismissal.
An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the agreement revealed by Coinbase.
SEC allies
Uyeda and Peirce, who was named the head of the agency's new Crypto Task Force, had long been sympathetic to the digital assets industry's contention it was being mishandled by the SEC. Once Donald Trump was sworn in as president, he gave the agency's gavel to Uyeda on an interim basis, and Uyeda began making swift moves to shift its course on crypto. This is the latest and — assuming a yes vote — arguably the most significant of the changes so far.
Eventually, former Commission Paul Atkins will take over after he secures a Senate confirmation. But Uyeda and Peirce both served Atkins as counsels during his tenure at the SEC, so Atkins is generally expected to follow the same path on crypto that Uyeda is already clearing.
Earlier this week, the agency shifted its enforcement unit — once laser-focused on crypto — to a wider responsibility over "emerging technologies," suggesting a withdrawal from the era of heavy attention on crypto cases. It also dropped its appeal in the fight to defend its effort to force a wide swath of crypto activity into its recent rule to expand the definition of what makes a "dealer" under SEC oversight.
In another marquee crypto case, the regulator recently asked to hit pause on the Binance enforcement dispute. Those accusations of securities-law violations overlapped to some degree with the complaint against Coinbase, though the Binance suit also included accusations of fraud and conflicts of interest.
The SEC had similarly signaled last week that something was brewing with Coinbase when it asked for a delay in court proceedings, suggesting negotiations were underway toward a resolution and signaling the agency's new crypto task force would help the enforcement team come up with a "potential resolution."
"The SEC’s unilateral surrender in its lawsuit against Coinbase is a historic mistake that endangers investors, markets, and financial stability," said Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets, a Washington-based advocacy group that regularly speaks out about crypto dangers. "The SEC used to enforce the law without fear or favor but is now favoring the crypto industry and fearing billionaire crypto kingpins who are publicly belittling the agency."
The vote
In the coming days, lawyers across the industry will watch the SEC's Coinbase vote, and then the judge's response in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. If the SEC formally backs off the accusations Coinbase improperly listed unregistered securities, it'll have to do the same in any similar cases.
"I'm hopeful that our getting this case dismissed will offer up a template for other cases to be resolved as well," Grewal said. "And if that were the case, we'd be delighted, because we felt that Gary Gensler's entire campaign against crypto was a distortion — frankly, an abuse — of legal process."
As the agency continues to resolve past actions, it's signaled that the future intention is to focus on fraud over compliance disagreements. And Uyeda said as recently as Thursday that the SEC's new task force will be guiding its enforcement.
"One focus of this task force will be to ensure that we deploy enforcement resources judiciously," he said at an event in Washington.
Grewal acknowledged the next priority quickly becomes U.S. legislation that can establish clear regulations at the federal level. To that end, Coinbase has been among the leading crypto companies delving into the political arena, deploying tens of millions of dollars in the 2024 elections (through the Fairshake PAC) to secure a friendlier Congress. One in 10 members of this Congress were boosted by Fairshake ads in their campaigns last year.
"We've seen Congress announce its commitment to legislation as early as the first 100 days," Grewal noted. "So we're very eager, with this cloud now lifted, to focus our full attention on getting legislation passed on market structure and stablecoins. That is, frankly, long overdue."
UPDATE (February 21, 2025, 13:11 UTC): Adds request to SEC for comment.
UPDATE (February 21, 2025, 15:06 UTC): Adds response from the SEC.
UPDATE (February 21, 2025, 15:51 UTC): Adds comment from Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets.
UPDATE (February 21, 2025, 15:55 UTC): Adds quote and link to CEO Brian Armstrong's video.
By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Cryptocurrency prices are rising after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former crypto enforcement unit transitioned into the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and amid dovish comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.
Renaming the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit is significant because it shows the agency is moving away from its crypto focus that often led to accusations of regulation by enforcement and legal battles with major industry participants.
“In the near to medium term, clearer regulations will likely boost institutional participation, leading to improvements in market infrastructure,” BackPack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk. Bitcoin is now above $98,000 after adding 1.2% in 24 hours, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index rose 1.35%.
Yet, volatility is still relatively low. "These environments may feel slow and frustrating, but they rarely persist for long — volatility tends to mean revert,” Wintermute OTC trader Jake O told CoinDesk.
With tensions between the U.S. and its European allies growing, investors are hoping Germany's election on Sunday will lead to a stable coalition government that will push out economic reforms to stimulate growth and boost defense spending. Germany is Europe’s largest economy and a positive result could lead to a more risk-on approach.
Open interest has already moved up ahead of the election. Still, the crypto market lacks positive catalysts in the near term, JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a report.
In fact, the market is nearing backwardation — where spot prices rise above futures prices — in a “negative development” that’s “indicative of demand weakness” by institutional investors using regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure to the market. Stay alert!
What to Watch
Crypto:
Feb. 21: TON (The Open Network) becomes the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for messaging platform Telegram’s Mini App ecosystem.
Feb. 24: At epoch 115968, testing of Ethereum’s Pecta upgrade on the Holesky testnet starts.
Feb. 25, 9:00 a.m.: Ethereum Foundation research team AMA on Reddit.
Feb. 27: Solana-based L2 Sonic SVM (SONIC) mainnet launch (“Mobius”).
Macro
Feb. 21, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global releases February’s (Flash) U.S. Purchasing Managers' Index (Flash) reports.
Composite PMI Prev. 52.7
Manufacturing PMI Est. 51.5 vs. Prev. 51.2
Services PMI Est. 53 vs. Prev. 52.9
Feb. 24, 5:00 a.m.: Eurostat releases eurozone's (final) consumer inflation data for January.
Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.7%
Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.4%
Earnings
Feb. 24: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, $-0.18
Feb. 25: Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR), pre-market, $-0.17
Feb. 25: Cipher Mining (CIFR), pre-market, $-0.09
Feb. 26: MARA Holdings (MARA), post-market, $-0.13
Token Events
Governance votes & calls
Sky DAO is discussing withdrawing a portion of the Smart Burn Engine’s LP tokens to stop malicious actors from acquiring them.
DYdX DAO is discussing increasing the limit on the maximum notional value of liquidations that can occur within a given block on the dYdX protocol to enhance the speed and efficiency of risk reduction during liquidations.
Unlocks
Feb. 21: Fast Token (FTN) to unlock 4.66% of circulating supply worth $78.6 million.
Feb. 28: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.92% of circulating supply worth $34.23 million.
Mar. 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 0.74% of circulating supply worth $81.07 million.
Conferences:
CoinDesk's Consensus to take place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.
Feb. 23-March 2: ETHDenver 2025 (Denver)
Feb. 24: RWA London Summit 2025
Feb. 25: HederaCon 2025 (Denver)
March 2-3: Crypto Expo Europe (Bucharest, Romania)
March 8: Bitcoin Alive (Sydney, Australia)
Token Talk
By Oliver Knight
With a botched launch from Argentine president Javier Milei and a token proposed by self-professed Nazi Kanye West, now known as Ye, this week in memecoin land has been one to forget.
Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said the craze is "unquestionably over," a view that might be cemented by a report revealing that West is planning to introduce YZY token — and will own 70% of the supply.
The rest of the crypto market remains relatively unperturbed by the potential demise of the sector: ETH and LTC are up by 3% this week whilst TRX has risen by 7.7% as liquidity appears to be rotating from speculative tokens back to more utilitarian projects.
NEAR leads the pack on Friday, surging by 11% after announcing the "first truly autonomous" AI agents. The agents will be able to autonomously own, trade and manage assets on-chain.
Derivatives Positioning
BTC open interest on centralized exchanges rose nearly 5% to $37.3 billion in the past 24 hours. This, coupled with the reversal in funding from positive to negative, suggests a potential short squeeze scenario. Short liquidations have dominated the futures markets over that period, nearing a total of $110 million compared with $6.11 million in longs.
Among the assets with over $100 million in open interest, Maker DAO, Virtuals Protcol and Artificial Super Intelligence saw the highest one-day increase, rising by 39.2%, 35.5% and 28.00%, respectively.
Among the options instruments, the call option on BTC with a strike price of $99,000 and expiring Feb. 22 has traded with the most volume on Deribit. The next most popular options instrument is the call on BTC with a strike price of $108,000, expiring on Feb. 28. The action hints at the optimistic short-term sentiment in the market over the past couple of days.
Market Movements:
BTC is up 0.28% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday to $98,632.42 (24hrs: +1.35%)
ETH is up 2.09% at $2,800.02 (24hrs: +2.15%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 0.92% to 3,298.29 (24hrs: +1.49%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.99%
BTC funding rate is at 0.0010% (1.0961% annualized) on Binance
DXY is up 0.29% at 106.68
Gold is down 0.31% at $2,929.76/oz
Silver is down 0.12% to $32.91/oz
Nikkei 225 closed +0.26% at 38,776.94
Hang Seng closed +3.99% at 23.477.92
FTSE is up 0.20% at 8,680.19
Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.18% at 5,471.08
DJIA closed Thursday down -1.01% at 44,176.65
S&P 500 closed -0.43% at 6,117.52
Nasdaq closed -0.47% at 19,962.36
S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -0.44% at 25,514.08
S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.76% at 2,480.21
U.S. 10-year Treasury rate was down 2 bps at 4.49%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,138.25
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.13% at 22,170.75
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.10% to 44,309
Bitcoin Stats:
BTC Dominance: 61.02 (-0.35%)
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02842 (2.01%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 807 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $54.92
Total Fees: 5.34 BTC / $526,892
CME Futures Open Interest: 178,500 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 33.4 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 9.49%
Technical Analysis
TAO has emerged as one of the strongest-performing assets over the past week, fueled by the launch of the dynamicTAO upgrade. This momentum has propelled the price above all key exponential moving averages on the daily time frame, signaling renewed strength.
Adding to the bullish sentiment, the price action has formed an inverse head and shoulders pattern.
TAO’s recent listing on Coinbase provided an extra catalyst, driving its price up nearly 20% to a high of $495 since the initial announcement.
Crypto Equities
MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $323.92 (+1.65%), up 0.37% at $324.85 in pre-market
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $256.59 (-0.80%), up 0.86% at $258.80
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$25.65 (+1.30%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $15.95 (+1.08%), up 0.38% at $16.01
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $11.60 (+0.35%), up 0.52% at $11.66
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $11.84 (-1.50%), up 0.51% at $11.90
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.06 (+1.72%), up 0.80% at $10.14
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $22.49 (-1.27%), down 0.31% at $22.42
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $52.24 (+0.04%), unchanged
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $47.80 (-1.26%), down 2.72% at $46.50
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
Daily net flow: -$364.8 million
Cumulative net flows: $39.63 billion
Total BTC holdings ~ 1.169 million.
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: -$13.1 million
Cumulative net flows: $3.16 billion
Total ETH holdings ~ 3.807 million.
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
Bitcoin's price action has triggered short liquidations totaling $97.9 million at the $98,890 level, according to CoinGlass. The next key resistance levels, based on the liquidation heat map, are $99,185 and $99,332, where liquidations worth $65.2 million and $67.9 million, respectively, are clustered.
On the downside, significant long liquidations are positioned at $97,415 and $97,194, amounting to $69.3 million and $70.7 million, respectively. These key levels highlight potential areas of volatility as bitcoin navigates its current price range.
While You Were Sleeping
Crypto Market Faces Weak Demand, Needs Trump Initiatives to Kick In, JPMorgan Says (CoinDesk): JPMorgan said CME futures data reveals weak institutional interest in crypto, with any pro-crypto initiatives from the Trump administration unlikely to emerge until the second half of the year.
South African Firm to Amass Bitcoin Hoard in First for Continent (Bloomberg): Altvest Capital adopted bitcoin to be a treasury reserve asset. It bought one BTC and is considering a $10 million share sale to expand its digital holdings.
Block Shares Fall on Profit, Revenue Miss (CNBC): At its Q4 2024 earnings call, Block (XYZ) executives commented on Proto, their bitcoin mining initiative. CFO Amrita Ahuja said the project should drive growth in the second half.
Japan Yields Fall as Ueda Warns BOJ Can Step In to Smooth Market (Bloomberg): Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda vowed to buy government bonds if long-term yields spike. Earlier, 10-year yields hit 1.455% — the most since 2009.
U.K. Retail Sales Rise for First Time in Five Months (The Wall Street Journal): In January, retail spending in the U.K. rose 1.7% from December, led by a 5.6% jump in food store sales as more people ate at home.
New Microsoft Chip Shortens Timeline to Make Bitcoin Quantum-Resistant: River (Cointelegraph): Bitcoin-focused financial services firm River said Microsoft’s Majorana — though not yet a threat — could reach a 1-million-qubit scale by 2027–2029, potentially enabling attacks on the blockchain.
In the Ether
