BizwavemediaPersonal Finance and Crypto Updates

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family, said today it fended off what it described as a multi-pronged assault on its digital asset ecosystem after its dollar-pegged stablecoin briefly lost parity with the greenback.

A coordinated attack was launched against USD1 this morning. Attackers hacked several WLFI cofounder accounts, paid influencers to spread FUD, and opened massive $WLFI shorts to profit from the manufactured chaos.

It didn’t work.

Thanks to USD1’s sound mint-and-redeem mechanism…

— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) February 23, 2026

USD1, the firm’s flagship stablecoin and currently the fifth largest by market value at $4.8 billion, according to CoinGecko data, slid to roughly $0.98 on Binance early Monday before returning to full dollar equivalence within half an hour.

The company’s governance token, WLFI, fell nearly 8% during the brief depeg, before trimming some losses. At press time, the token was trading around $0.112, still down roughly 4% on the day.

The firm attributed the disruption to hackers who compromised X accounts belonging to co-founders, influencers paid to spread misleading claims, and traders who opened sizable short positions against WLFI to capitalize on the turmoil.

World Liberty credited its collateral structure and redemption process for the rapid stabilization, noting that USD1 holders can convert tokens directly to dollars at a one-to-one ratio.

Price aggregator CoinGecko recorded a smaller dip, with USD1 falling only to $0.994, rather than the deeper trough shown on Binance.

Investor withdrawals from digital asset investment products totaled $288 million last week, extending the downturn to five consecutive weeks, as short-Bitcoin funds saw strong inflows, according to CoinShares.

In the last five weeks, digital asset products have seen $4 billion in cumulative outflows, with trading activity sliding to levels not seen since mid-2025. Weekly volumes fell to $17 billion, signaling subdued investor interest.

Regional patterns diverged sharply. Investors in the US withdrew $347 million, while their counterparts in Europe and Canada added $59 million, with Switzerland, Canada, and Germany contributing $19.5 million, $16.8 million, and $16.2 million, respectively.

Bitcoin accounted for most of the weakness with $215 million in outflows, whereas short-Bitcoin products drew the strongest inflows at $5.5 million with small allocations into select altcoins, including XRP, Solana, and Chainlink.

Ethereum-focused vehicles lost $36.5 million, while multi-asset funds and Tron-linked products recorded outflows of $32.5 million and $18.9 million, respectively.

Bitcoin hovered around $66,000 at press time after briefly falling below $65,000 yesterday following the announcement of Trump’s new tariff policy. The leading digital asset has declined 24% year-to-date, per CoinGecko.

BlackRock deposited around 2,563 Bitcoin worth $173 million and 49,852 Ethereum valued at $97 million into Coinbase Prime on Friday amid a surge in redemptions from its flagship crypto funds, per Arkham Intelligence.

According to Farside Investors, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) saw about $368 million in net outflows over the past three days, driving most of the $404 million withdrawn from all 11 US Bitcoin ETFs.

Its Ethereum fund (ETHA) shed $104 million during the same stretch.

BlackRock’s transfers typically support the creation and redemption of ETF shares, a routine process that adjusts fund supply based on investor demand. Moving large amounts of assets is not always a signal to sell, however.

These transfers follow a crypto market rebound after a White House meeting on stablecoin yields with banks and crypto firms, part of the market structure bill discussions. White House negotiators are pushing banks to accept a framework allowing limited stablecoin rewards, signaling the administration’s intent to accelerate crypto integration with traditional finance.

Bitcoin surged past $68,000 while Ethereum approached $2,000 following the meeting. Bitcoin is now trading at around $67,500, up 1.4% in the past 24 hours, per CoinGecko.

A crypto wallet tied to prominent trader Garrett Jin deposited 6,318 Bitcoin, worth roughly $425 million, to Binance in the past few minutes, continuing a series of large transfers that have drawn attention from blockchain analysts, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

Earlier today, the address sent about $336 million worth of Bitcoin to Binance. In total, 11,318 coins valued at $761 million have now been transferred to the crypto exchange.

Jin, a pseudonymous trader also known as Garrett Bullish, who previously served as chief executive of the now-defunct BitForex exchange, is best known for his trading activities, particularly a massive Bitcoin short position established minutes before a major market crash triggered by Trump’s tariff announcement in October.

He still has over 9,300 Bitcoin, worth $627 million, and over 548,000 Ether, worth over $1 billion, according to his wallet.

Shares of major online retailers rose Friday after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s blanket tariffs, ruling that the president lacks authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad import duties.

Amazon gained more than 2%, while Etsy jumped near 10% and Shopify climbed over 2%. eBay, Wayfair and Pinduoduo also advanced.

In a 6 to 3 ruling, the Court said IEEPA does not authorize tariffs and cited the major questions doctrine, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that actions with significant economic impact require clear congressional approval.

The decision voids a 10% levy imposed in April 2025 on imports from nearly all trading partners. Roughly $142 billion was collected under the framework that year and could face refund claims.

The ruling also affects Trump’s removal of the de minimis exemption, which had allowed low value goods to enter duty-free and was widely used by sellers on platforms such as Etsy and Temu.

Retail groups said the decision restores certainty to supply chains, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy previously noted tariff costs were beginning to filter into consumer prices.

Hours after the decision, Donald Trump said he would pursue alternative legal authority to impose a 10% global tariff.

Speaking at a press conference, Trump said the administration would rely on the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to set temporary import restrictions for up to 150 days, adding that “other alternatives will now be used” to replace the duties rejected by the Court.

Aztec (AZTEC), the native utility and governance token of Aztec Network, a hybrid public-private Ethereum layer 2 protocol, shot up over 80% today after Upbit and Bithumb, South Korea’s two dominant digital asset exchanges, listed the token.

The dual debut unleashed a wave of Korean won-denominated buying, pushing the token from $0.019 to $0.037 and lifting its market capitalization to approximately $100 million from $57 million before the announcement.

AZTEC is now trading at $0.033, up 73% in the last 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows.

Trading volume also ballooned as retail investors piled in, a pattern consistent with the so-called kimchi premium that frequently inflates prices on Korean platforms.

Aztec Network is a zero-knowledge smart contract platform that enables developers to build applications with built-in privacy. The project aims to solve default transparency, one of Ethereum’s biggest limitations, by letting users keep balances, transactions, and smart contract logic confidential without sacrificing security or decentralization.

The AZTEC token generation event took place on February 12 and has seen rapid expansion across major global exchanges, such as Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and KuCoin.

AZTEC powers the Aztec Network ecosystem, serving as the backbone for staking, governance, and future transaction fees.

CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, will begin offering round-the-clock trading for its crypto futures and options contracts starting May 29.

The expanded schedule will allow market participants to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ether, and other digital asset derivatives at any hour on the CME Globex platform, with only a brief maintenance window each weekend. The shift requires regulatory sign-off before taking effect.

“Providing always-on access to our regulated, transparent Cryptocurrency products ensures clients can manage their exposure and trade with confidence at any time,” said Tim McCourt, a senior executive at the exchange.

The move aligns CME’s offerings with the nonstop rhythm of spot crypto markets, where trading activity often surges outside traditional U.S. business hours.

Demand for the exchange’s digital asset products has climbed sharply. Notional volume reached $3.0 trillion in 2025, while average daily contracts traded rose 46% year-over-year to 407,200 in early 2026.

CME has steadily broadened its crypto lineup since debuting Bitcoin futures in 2017 and Ether futures four years later. In February, it added contracts tied to Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar.

Open interest in Bitcoin derivatives across the market has pulled back to roughly $44.0 billion, according to CoinGlass data, yet institutional appetite for regulated venues remains firm as US policy toward digital assets continues to evolve.