Cryptocurrency lending institution BlockFills has temporarily suspended user deposits and withdrawals

February 12 – Vontobel analyst Andrew Jackson noted U.S. job growth in January topped expectations, again underscoring the economy’s resilience. However, the data failed to provide policymakers with much clearer guidance. While the current economic landscape is more predictable than early last year, uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve remains higher than that of many other central banks. For fixed income investors, the key takeaway is: “Credit fundamentals remain sound, macroeconomic conditions are still favorable, and the U.S. economy has shown notable resilience.” Concerns over elevated corporate bond valuations are also less prominent now than a year ago. “I think credit spreads could hold steady at current levels or even narrow modestly further,” Jackson said (per FX Street).

On February 12, per 8Market data, Ethereum fell below $2,000, pushing its market capitalization to $231.97 billion—below PepsiCo’s $232.18 billion market cap—and landing it 86th among global mainstream assets.

On February 12, per Coinglass data, if Bitcoin drops below $65,000, cumulative long liquidation strength across major centralized exchanges (CEXs) will hit $675 million. Conversely, if Bitcoin rises above $69,000, cumulative short liquidation strength on major CEXs will reach $905 million. BlockBeats Note: Liquidation charts do not show the exact number of contracts to be liquidated or the exact value of liquidated contracts. The bars on these charts represent the relative importance of each liquidation cluster compared to adjacent clusters—i.e., "strength." As such, liquidation charts indicate how significantly the underlying asset’s price will react when it hits a certain level. A taller "liquidation bar" means the price will see a more intense reaction from a liquidity cascade once it reaches that threshold.

February 12: Greeks.live shared on social media that put options continue to dominate the market. Today, large-scale Bitcoin (BTC) put options traded over $1 billion, accounting for 37% of total options volume, with most contracts falling in the $60,000-$65,000 strike price range. For maturity, focus centers on medium-term options expiring next month (March) — a sign institutions hold a bearish view on the medium-to-long-term market trend. Bearish expectations are particularly strong for the 1-2 month horizon.

Citi expects the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates in May, revising its prior forecast of a March start, according to FX678.

**February 11th** Per HyperInsight monitoring (via its Telegram channel @HyperInsight), as the crypto market slid, the “Buddy” cut their 25x-leveraged ETH long position by 1,800 ETH in under an hour. The position was reduced to 500 ETH (valued at ~$869k), with a liquidation price of $1,886.59. Their account balance was just $43k, leading to a cumulative loss of $25.9 million.