<h2 id="market-overview">Market Overview 📉</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/ca89663cfb6446e1b50ed891f50fa3d8.png">*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on February 13, 2026.<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin (BTC)</a> chopped this week after a volatile past two weeks, moving up 1.46% this week, while <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Ethereum (ETH)</a> trailed behind, moving up 0.57% in the same period. Total crypto market cap recovered slightly, rising 0.89% to $2.26T, up from $2.24T from the prior week.With volatility slowly falling this week, <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">liquidations</a> also fell compared to the prior week, with liquidations barely exceeding $300M on most days. <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/FundingRateHeatMap" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Funding rates</a> begin to show signs of stabilising, with most majors reclaiming low positive funding from last week’s negative funding across the board.📌 Michael Saylor’s Strategy acquires 1,142 BTC for a total of $90M, bringing their total holdings to 714,644 BTC. - <a href="https://x.com/Strategy/status/2020846069374955535" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Binance completes their final tranche of BTC purchases using their SAFU stablecoin reserves, with a total of 15,000 BTC acquired, worth ~$1B. - <a href="https://x.com/binance/status/2021840377104527724" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Stripe integrates payments using the x402 protocol, enabling AI agents to make payments using USDC on Base programmatically. - <a href="https://x.com/jeff_weinstein/status/2021331763960873058" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?Crypto markets begin to stabilize this week as the market seems to be finding a floor. Nevertheless, the majority of market participants remain hesitant as the traditional equities market begins to show signs of weakness as well. The S&amp;P 500, however, still maintains an uptrend, climbing 0.24% this week while the Nasdaq climbed 0.13% in the same period.Notable altcoin outperformers this week included <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/pippin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Pippin (PIPPIN)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/berachain/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Berachain (BERA)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/humanity-protocol/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Humanity (H)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/aster/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Aster (ASTER)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/kite/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Kite (KITE)</a>, and <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/river/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">River (RIVER)</a>.View <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/gainers-losers/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CMC Gainers &amp; Losers board</a><h2 id="narrative-of-the-week">Narrative of the Week 📰</h2>Waves are being made in the DeFi space amidst huge partnerships with institutional finance players and DeFi protocols.📌 LayerZero announces their own institutional blockchain, Zero, with partnerships with DTCC, ICE/NYSE, Citadel Securities, ARK Invest and more. - <a href="https://x.com/LayerZero_Core/status/2021336132047294898" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Uniswap collaborates with Securitize to make BlackRock’s BUIDL tradable via UniswapX. As part of the deal, BlackRock has also acquired an undisclosed amount of UNI tokens. - <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/02/11/blackrock-uniswap/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Robinhood launches the testnet for their permissionless Ethereum-compatible L2 blockchain. Builders and users can now interact with the chain and its existing smart contracts. - <a href="https://docs.robinhood.com/chain/?lang=it" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?As crypto guns for institutional adoption, the partnerships with leading financial institutions pave the way for increased legitimacy and acceptance of DeFi technology in the broader finance space.<h2 id="major-project-updates">Major Project Updates 🗓️</h2>📌 Sonic announces plans to shift into a vertically integrated model, ensuring revenues and utility accrue back to the Sonic token (S), instead of losing value to external developers. - <a href="https://x.com/SonicLabs/status/2021617901011358181" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Sui Network launches suiUSDe, a synthetic dollar powered by Ethena. SuiUSDe has already been integrated with <a href="https://deepbook.tech/margin?ref=blog.sui.io" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">DeepBook Margin</a>, enabling margin trading, lending and other DeFi workflows on Sui. - <a href="https://x.com/SuiNetwork/status/2021585774739964018" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 MegaETH mainnet is now fully open the public. Users can bridge into the chain, swap assets, and interact with live apps. - <a href="https://x.com/megaeth/status/2020876108342927670" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Polymarket partners with Kaito AI to power Attention Markets, a prediction market on mindshare. - <a href="https://x.com/KaitoAI/status/2021209824923369950" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Ethereum Name Service (ENS) scrapes plans to deploy ENSv2 on their own chain, Namechain. Instead, ENSv2 will be deployed on Ethereum Mainnet. - <a href="https://x.com/ensdomains/status/2019789111557808146" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Circle partners with edgeX to bring native USDC and CCTP to EDGE Chain, which will enable institutional on/offramps, seamless transfers of USDC between EDGE Chain and other CCTP chains, and more. - <a href="https://www.circle.com/blog/native-usdc-and-cctp-are-coming-to-edge-chain-what-you-need-to-know" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?For most of crypto history, most L1 tokens did not see much utility, aside from being used as a gas token. Sonic’s new direction could represent a new paradigm shift for nascent L1s to own their entire stack for proper value accrual to their tokens.<h2 id="defi-brief">DeFi Brief 🏦</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/2c7b41fc232b4dd2869f558948519c11.png">Source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/</a>*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on February 13, 2026.📌 RWA protocol, Ondo Finance, introduces Ondo Perps, a capital-efficient trading platform for perps on equity and commodities. - <a href="https://x.com/OndoPerps/status/2020884953219715532" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Aave proposes the “Aave Will Win” framework, a framework that directs 100% of revenues to the Aave DAO, in a move to align protocol and token holder incentives. - <a href="https://x.com/aave/status/2022021942027727344https://x.com/aave/status/2022021942027727344" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 All-in-one crypto exchange and wallet, Backpack, unveils their tokenomics, with 25% to be unlocked on TGE as an airdrop to points and Mad Lads NFT holders. - <a href="https://x.com/Backpack/status/2020859026221744435" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Sushiswap expands to Solana, with token swaps and cross-chain trading now live. The expansion is supported by Jupiter Exchange and their Ultra API. - <a href="https://x.com/SushiSwap/status/2020956670189261078" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?As bearish sentiment continues to run high in the crypto space, DeFi applications continue to expand their product offerings to capture the rising interest in on-chain equities and commodities trading.<h2 id="fundraises">Fundraises 💰</h2>📌 Stablecoin payments infrastructure protocol, Levl, raises $7M in a seed round led by Galaxy, with participation from CMCC Global, FalconX, Variant, DeusX, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/LevlFi/status/2021583778292916554" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 On-chain credit infrastructure protocol, Birch Hill, raises $2.5M in a pre-seed round led by ParaFi Capital and Castle Island Ventures, with support from FalconX, Nascent, Flowdesk, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/BirchHill_io/status/2021587956851458153" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 USDT issuer, Tether, makes an undisclosed investment into interoperability protocol, LayerZero. - <a href="https://tether.io/news/tether-announces-strategic-investment-in-layerzero-labs-creator-of-the-interoperability-infrastructure-used-by-usdt0/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Token launchpad, Bullshot, raises $7.5M in private funding, with investors including Animoca Brands, B1 Ventures, RG Ventures, AWS Cloud, Becker Ventures, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/Bullshot911/status/2021187235446751560" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a><h2 id="airdrops-abound">Airdrops Abound 🎁</h2>📌 Espresso Foundation opens claims for the ESP token airdrop. Users can now claim and stake their tokens. - <a href="https://x.com/espressoFNDN/status/2022024337558319321" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Based Foundation introduces the BASED token, which allocates 36% to the community, with the TGE expected in March 2026. - <a href="https://x.com/BasedFnd/status/2020489920222282164" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a><h2 id="tweet-of-the-week">Tweet of the Week 📝</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/9e9e41f8cdc34595839b33290ec61358.png">Source: boldleonidasNothing like a good rugpull to start off your crypto journey!

CMC Market Pulse: Back to Chop Season

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