While some big investors cash out, others double down: Crypto Daybook Americas

By Jacob Joseph (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin BTC $ 67,557.05 remains within the tight $66,000-$70,000 range we've seen in the past few days. At the time of writing, the BTC price was about 1.04% higher over 24 hours. Ether was changing hands at $2,020, up 1.43% on the day.

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Institutional positioning remains a central theme.

Digital asset treasury companies and public institutions were among the strongest sources of demand in mid-2025, helping propel prices to record highs. But with bitcoin down more than 50% from its October peak, the landscape has shifted. Many treasury-focused firms are now feeling the strain. Metaplanet reported a $619 million net loss earlier this week, while Harvard Management Company trimmed its exposure to bitcoin ETFs.

Ether treasury firms are also recalibrating. ETHZilla disclosed last evening that tech billionaire Peter Thiel and affiliated Founders Fund entities have exited their entire 7.5% stake in the company. The firm also reduced its ether holdings through multiple sales since October.



Still, not everyone is pulling back.



Michael Saylor’s Strategy continued to build its bitcoin position, adding 2,486 BTC earlier this week and bringing total holdings to 717,131 BTC. Meanwhile, two Abu Dhabi-based funds — Mubadala Investment Company and Al Warda Investments — disclosed yesterday that they collectively held more than $1 billion in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF at the end of last year.



BitMine Immersion Technologies announced yesterday that it continues to lean in, adding 45,759 ETH over the past week and bringing its total holdings to 4.4 million ETH. About 3 million of that is currently staked, generating additional yield on top of its core position.

Meanwhile, in a separate development disclosed yesterday, BlackRock advanced its plans for a U.S.-listed yield-generating ether product. An amended S-1 filing signaled further progress toward the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, with a BlackRock affiliate purchasing 4,000 seed shares at $25 each, providing $100,000 in initial capital for the trust.

While these developments provide constructive long-term signals, it may be premature to call an end to the recent drawdown even with bitcoin and ether trading roughly 50% and 60% below their all-time highs, respectively.

At the same time, TradFi indexes are beginning to show signs of fatigue, as rising AI-related capital expenditures outpace earlier estimates and place increasing pressure on corporate cash flows. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today

What to Watch

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

Crypto Feb. 18, 1 p.m.: Hedera to undergo a mainnet upgrade expected to take about 40 minutes to complete.

Macro Feb. 18, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. durable goods orders MoM for December (Prev. 5.3%) Feb. 18, 9:15 a.m.: U.S. industrial production MoM for January est. 0.3% (Prev. 0.4%) Feb. 18, 2:00 p.m.: U.S. FOMC Minutes

Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data) Feb. 18: Figma (FIG), post-market, $0.45



Token Events

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

Governance votes & calls Feb. 18: VeChain to host its monthly VeChain Builders Space.

Unlocks No major unlocks.

Token Launches No major launches.



Conferences

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

Day 2 of 4: ETHDenver

Market Movements

BTC is up 0.86% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday at $68,227.58 (24hrs: -0.09%)

ETH is up 1.03% at $2,019.54 (+2.24%)

CoinDesk 20 is up 0.55% at 1,994.39 (+0.54%)

Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 3 bps at 2.81%

BTC funding rate is at 0.0018% (1.9425% annualized) on Binance

DXY is up 0.13% at 97.28

Gold futures are up 0.58% at $4,934.20

Silver futures are up 2.92% at $75.68

Nikkei 225 closed up 1.02% at 57,143.84

Hang Seng closed up 0.52% at 26,705.94

FTSE is up 1.03% at 10,664.40

Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.93% at 6,077.76

DJIA closed on Tuesday unchanged at 49,533.19

S&P 500 closed up 0.1% at 6,843.22

Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.14% at 22,578.38

S&P/TSX Composite closed down 0.54% at 32,896.55

S&P 40 Latin America closed down 0.62% at 3,694.06

U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 1.9 bps at 4.073%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.52% at 6,896.50

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.59% at 24,914.00

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.47% at 49,844.00

Bitcoin Stats

BTC Dominance: 58.56% (-0.01%)

Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02947 (-0.11%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,062 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $34.12

Total fees: 2.29 BTC / $155,681

CME Futures Open Interest: 116,675 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 13.7 oz.

BTC vs gold market cap: 4.5%



Technical Analysis

(TradingView)

The chart shows bitcoin's price against the dollar in one-week candles.

The latest reading shows the price remains below the 200-week exponential moving average (EMA).

Historically, breaks below the EMA have established a "bottom" in a bear market. Whether that's the case now remains to be seen.

The lack of divergences in the RSI suggests we are unlikely to see a sustained rebound in the short term.

Crypto Equities

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Tuesday at $166.02 (+1.03%), +1.37% at $168.29 in pre-market

Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $61.62 (+2.63%), +2.21% at $62.98

Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.30 (-1.66%), +0.80% at $21.47

Bullish (BLSH): closed at $32.00 (+0.85%), unchanged in pre-market

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $7.51 (-5.18%), +1.33% at $7.61

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $14.65 (-3.75%), +1.43% at $14.86

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.23 (-3.42%)

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.28 (-5.79%), +0.86% at $9.36

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $40.00 (-3.24%)

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $10.09 (-10.47%)

Crypto Treasury Companies

Strategy (MSTR): closed at $128.67 (-3.89%), +1.27% at $130.30

Strive (ASST): closed at $8.18 (-1.80%), +0.86% at $8.25

SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.66 (-2.77%), +0.30% at $6.68

Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.72 (-6.37%)

Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.10 (-1.79%)

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

Daily net flows: -$104.9 million

Cumulative net flows: $54.21 billion

Total BTC holdings ~1.27 million

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flows: $48.6 million

Cumulative net flows: $11.73 billion

Total ETH holdings ~5.73 million

Source: Farside Investors

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