Day: February 19, 2026

CME Group Announces Upcoming 24/7 Crypto Futures and Options Trading

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CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, said Thursday that crypto options and futures contracts will begin trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week on May 29, pending regulatory approval.  “CME Group Cryptocurrency futures and options will trade continuously on CME Globex with at least a two-hour weekly maintenance period over the weekend,” according to the parent of The Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s announcement. All trading activity on market holidays and weekends will be cleared, settled and posted the following business day, with regulatory reporting also filed on the…

Google launches Gemini 3.1 Pro with major reasoning upgrade

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Google has released Gemini 3.1 Pro, an upgraded version of its flagship model designed to significantly improve core reasoning and complex problem solving across consumer, enterprise and developer products. The company said Gemini 3.1 Pro more than doubles the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark score of Gemini 3 Pro, achieving a verified 77.1% on the test that measures a model’s ability to solve entirely new logic patterns. The improvement positions the model for workflows that require multi-step reasoning rather than simple responses. Gemini 3.1 Pro is rolling out in preview for developers through…

Bitcoin Miners Plan 30GW AI Capacity Amid Margin Pressure

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Public Bitcoin miners are planning about 30 gigawatts of new power capacity aimed at artificial intelligence workloads, nearly three times the 11 GW they currently have online, as they race to offset shrinking mining margins and reposition for the next growth cycle. The buildout, compiled by TheEnergyMag across 14 publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) miners, underscores how aggressively the industry is pivoting away from traditional hashpower amid persistently weak hashprice conditions. On paper, the planned expansion amounts to what TheEnergyMag described as “a small country’s worth of power infrastructure.” In reality,…

Chris Dixon: AI and crypto will redefine creative economies

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The intersection of AI and crypto is poised to redefine economic models for creatives. Technology waves often come in pairs or triples, reinforcing each other and creating new opportunities. There is concern over the trend towards closed-source AI, driven by business interests rather than safety. Key Takeaways The intersection of AI and crypto is poised to redefine economic models for creatives. Technology waves often come in pairs or triples, reinforcing each other and creating new opportunities. There is concern over the trend towards closed-source AI, driven by business interests rather…

Uniswap seeks approval for fee rollout across eight chains and remaining v3 pools

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Uniswap, the dominant decentralized exchange protocol, is seeking community approval to extend its fee-collection system to eight additional blockchain networks and to all remaining version 3 liquidity pools on Ethereum. The governance proposal, now open for voting, would activate protocol fees on Arbitrum, Base, Celo, OP Mainnet, Soneium, X Layer, Worldchain, and Zora. A new tier-based adapter would automatically assign fee rates to pools based on their liquidity provider fee structure, eliminating the need for individual pool governance actions. Revenue collected on layer 2 networks would be bridged back to…

Crypto Liquidations Steal The Show With Bitcoin Stuck Below $70,000

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Bitcoin fed into “extreme bearish sentiment” as a tight BTC price range fueled daily crypto liquidations of over $200 million. Bitcoin (BTC) fielded fresh downside predictions Thursday as BTC price action kept long liquidations high. Key points: Bitcoin price analysis sees lower levels coming amid a lack of a “strong bounce.” High liquidations contrast with the tightly rangebound BTC price behavior. Crypto funds seal a fourth week of net outflows amid “extreme” bearish sentiment. Analyst expects Bitcoin to “test lower” Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD acting within an increasingly narrow…

Heidi Crebo-Rediker: US reliance on China for strategic minerals poses national security risks, China’s state support creates competitive advantages, and innovative technologies could reshape rare earth production

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The US faces significant vulnerabilities due to its reliance on China for strategic minerals. China’s dominance in the rare earths market is a result of strategic planning and state support. US efforts to compete with China in critical minerals are hampered by scale and cost challenges. Key Takeaways The US faces significant vulnerabilities due to its reliance on China for strategic minerals. China’s dominance in the rare earths market is a result of strategic planning and state support. US efforts to compete with China in critical minerals are hampered by…

Société Générale expands euro stablecoin deployment to XRP Ledger

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Société Générale, a major French multinational bank, has deployed its euro-denominated stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. The move marks the third network integration for the bank’s digital token after earlier launches on Ethereum and Solana. The stablecoin, known as EUR CoinVertible, operates through the bank’s digital assets arm, SG-FORGE. It is fully backed by euro cash deposits or high-quality securities and adheres to the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework. EUR CoinVertible had roughly €65.8M in circulation according to CoinGecko data, positioning it as the third-largest euro stablecoin by market…

Dash Integrates Zcash Privacy Pool As the Privacy Narrative Heats Up

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Dash, a layer-1 blockchain protocol with privacy-preserving features, announced on Thursday the integration of Zcash’s “Orchard” shielded pool into the Dash Evolution chain, a secondary layer on the L1 network that supports smart contract functionality. The integration will go live following the completion of cybersecurity audits and is expected to launch in March, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. Initially, the integration will support basic transfers of Zcash (ZEC) from one party to another on the Evolution chain, with subsequent upgrades adding Orchard’s privacy features for tokenized real-world assets…

CME Group to launch 24/7 trading for crypto futures and options on May 29

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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…