What has been happening this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in our weekly review.
Selected articles of the week:
Bitcoin fell to 60,033 dollars this Friday – a daily loss of nearly 14 percent and the worst drop since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022. Since the all-time high above 127,000 dollars in October 2025, the price has more than halved, wiping out all gains since Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2024. On Thursday alone, the entire crypto market lost around 350 billion dollars in value, while leveraged positions totaling 2.58 billion dollars were liquidated – 82 percent of which were long positions. Over 530,000 traders were affected by forced liquidations. Persistent outflows from US Bitcoin spot ETFs are compounding the situation: investors withdrew 2.8 billion dollars in just two weeks. In the background, monetary policy uncertainty weighs on markets. The Federal Reserve is holding interest rates at 3.50 to 3.75 percent, and the upcoming departure of Fed Chair Powell in May 2026 dims the prospect of near-term easing.
Bitcoin crashes to $60,000, wiping out the entire Trump rally. ETF outflows, billion-dollar liquidations, and crypto winter signals.
12.6 billion dollar quarterly loss driven by Bitcoin holdings
The largest publicly traded Bitcoin investor, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), reported a net loss of 12.6 billion dollars for the fourth quarter of 2025 – almost entirely caused by unrealized losses on its Bitcoin holdings. The stock fell an additional 17 percent on the day of the announcement. The context: Strategy bought more aggressively than ever in the fourth quarter, acquiring 218,887 Bitcoin for 20.5 billion dollars. In total, the company now holds 713,502 Bitcoin at an average purchase price of 76,052 dollars per coin. At the current price, the position is worth over 8 billion dollars. CEO Phong Le put the situation in perspective: Bitcoin would have to fall to 8,000 dollars and remain there for five to six years before servicing the convertible bonds would be at risk. Nevertheless, the downside exposure is considerable. The MSTR stock has lost roughly 75 percent since its peak of 540 dollars in November 2024 and, with a market capitalization of 32.1 billion dollars, is trading below its book value for the first time.
Strategy reports $12.6 billion loss in Q4 2025. The largest corporate Bitcoin holder is struggling with the recent price crash.
Epstein files reveal Bitcoin connections
Newly released files from the US Department of Justice show that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein began strategically investing in core Bitcoin infrastructure as early as 2014. Through the investment vehicle Kyara Investments III, which he operated jointly with Joi Ito, then director of the MIT Media Lab, 500,000 dollars flowed into the Bitcoin company Blockstream. An additional 525,000 dollars went to the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, which took over three of the most important Bitcoin Core developers after the collapse of the Bitcoin Foundation in 2015. In parallel, Epstein invested three million dollars in the crypto exchange Coinbase through the special purpose vehicle IGO Company. Strategic access was facilitated through Ito’s network, which included LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and other prominent tech figures. The disclosure is explosive for the Bitcoin community because Epstein’s money touched key positions in protocol development. However, the files provide no evidence that Epstein directly influenced the Bitcoin code or technical decisions – the open-source peer review process of Bitcoin Core apparently remained independent.
Epstein Files reveal a documented Epstein Bitcoin connection: Blockstream investment and $525,000 for MIT Digital Currency Initiative.
CLARITY Act negotiations fail
The mediation meeting at the White House announced last week took place – and failed. For over two hours, representatives of the crypto industry, including Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple, negotiated with banking lobbyists under the direction of Patrick Witt, executive director of the presidential advisory council on digital assets. Without result. The core conflict remains the same: Section 404 of the CLARITY Act prohibits crypto platforms from paying interest “exclusively in connection with holding payment stablecoins.” The banking lobby sees this as a loophole, since platforms like Coinbase offer up to 4.5 percent yields through rewards programs – a multiple of the average US savings rate. Over 3,200 bankers have signed a petition against this practice. The White House has now set a new deadline: both sides must present a joint legislative text by the end of February, otherwise the CLARITY Act will remain blocked in the Senate Banking Committee indefinitely. Implementation this year is becoming increasingly unlikely.
White House meeting on stablecoin yield ends without agreement: banks and crypto industry continue to clash over the CLARITY Act.
UBS focuses on tokenization
Switzerland’s largest bank is deliberately positioning itself not as a pioneer in the blockchain space but as a fast follower. CEO Sergio Ermotti stated this week during the quarterly earnings presentation that UBS intends to “strategically follow rather than lead” in tokenization and digital assets. With 6.6 trillion dollars in assets under management, this stance carries significant weight. Specifically, the bank has offered wealthy private clients access to Bitcoin and Ethereum since January, launched uMINT – a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum – and operates UBS Digital Cash, a blockchain-based payment solution for corporations. The cautious approach nonetheless marks a clear reversal: former Chairman Axel Weber had called Bitcoin a bubble with a “fundamental design flaw” and actively advised clients against digital assets. Yet competitive pressure leaves little room for ideology – three cantonal banks, PostFinance, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan, along with many others, have long been offering crypto services. The fast follower rhetoric thus masks a strategic necessity.
UBS adopts a fast-follower strategy for tokenization, says CEO Ermotti. The bank is slowly expanding crypto offerings for private clients.
