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In February 2026, the on-chain ecosystem exhibited more pronounced structural divergence amid price pressure. On-chain activity did not contract in tandem, but instead became further concentrated on high-frequency and high-efficiency networks. Solana maintained its dominance in high-frequency activity, while Base and Polygon continued to expand. Arbitrum saw a recovery in activity, but its capital retention and value capture weakened. Ethereum shifted from net outflows to significant net inflows, reinforcing its role as the primary settlement layer and a key hub for macro asset deployment. On the BTC side, the price pullback pushed short-term holders broadly into unrealized losses, with profit-taking cooling and sell pressure still concentrated among short-term positions, while the long-term holder structure remained intact. At the sector level, AI Agent, supply-side shocks, and institutional DeFi narratives coexisted. Short-term returns were driven by structural catalysts, while mid-term allocation continued

Gate Research: Large language models and AI agent technologies are pushing trading systems into a new stage of development. Quantitative trading, which previously relied heavily on programming skills and complex engineering systems, is gradually evolving into product forms with much lower barriers to entry. Gate has introduced products such as AI Quant Workspace and Gate for AI, which aim to integrate strategy generation, backtesting, and automated execution within a single platform through natural language interaction, no-code quant tools, and unified trading interfaces, allowing more users to participate in strategy trading. As AI technology continues to mature, trading platforms are also evolving from traditional matching tools into AI-driven trading infrastructure.

In February, the overall crypto market showed a weak trend, with notable outflows from BTC ETFs. Major blockchains remained stable throughout the month, with Solana leading by a wide margin at over 100 million daily transactions. Ethereum recorded 13.34 million unique active addresses, maintaining its second-highest level in history. TradFi trading volume on Perp DEXs surged to $47.3 billion, largely driven by Hyperliquid’s HIP-3. The Web3 sector completed 46 funding rounds totaling $986 million, with the top 10 projects accounting for $793 million—three major deals were led by Tether. Meanwhile, Web3 security incidents declined significantly month-over-month, though smart contract vulnerabilities remained the primary risk source.

Gate Research Institute: Over the past 24 hours, BTC briefly climbed above $71,000, but following a sharp drop and quick rebound during the U.S. market session, it settled back near $69,300. ETH rapidly declined from $2,070 to $2,010 and remains in a recovery phase. Altcoins showed weakness, with most lagging behind BTC, while the Fear & Greed Index remains in the extreme fear range. HUMA, NAORIS, and ARIA saw gains of 50.13%, 39.38%, and 29.02%, respectively, fueled by AI-related narratives. Additionally, Oracle’s earnings beat expectations, driving its share price up nearly 8% after hours, and both Hyperliquid and Circle announced significant product updates.

Gate Research: Between 2025 and 2026, PayFi is evolving from a crypto payment tool into a next-generation payment and financial engine, with stablecoins achieving scale in high-frequency and cross-border payments and demonstrating clear efficiency and cost advantages over traditional systems. As Web2 and Web3 continue to converge, institutions such as Visa, PayPal, and emerging neobanks are becoming key gateways to mainstream adoption, while the combination of stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), and AI is shaping PayFi’s foundational architecture by enabling automated, always-on settlement, asset mobility, and risk management. Looking ahead to 2026, regulatory clarity, scalable asset tokenization, and the maturity of AI-driven financial systems will be the primary determinants of PayFi’s competitive landscape and long-term barriers.

Gate Research Daily Report: On December 17, the crypto market continued its recovery, with major assets showing signs of structural rebound. Bitcoin stabilized above the $85,000 level and rebounded to trade around $87,500, where short-term momentum has improved but remains constrained by medium-term resistance. Ethereum recovered to the $2,950 area after its recent decline, though the pace of the rebound has been relatively moderate. Overall market sentiment remains cautious, but rotation within major assets is becoming increasingly evident. On the thematic front, PTB surged sharply amid growing narratives around Bitcoin application-layer expansion and institutional adoption. LIGHT gained strength on expectations tied to Lightning Network and RGB-related technical progress, while ARC rallied on renewed interest in AI agent infrastructure and developer-centric narratives. On-chain data show that short-term Bitcoin supply continues to shift toward long-term holders, while the slowdown in stablecoin growth signa

In November 2025, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization trended downward overall, as weak buying momentum, rising macroeconomic uncertainty, and cooling risk appetite jointly constrained any meaningful rebound. Stablecoin market capitalization across public blockchains remained highly concentrated, with Ethereum accounting for more than half of the total; fund flows pointed to increasing sectoral divergence, as chains such as Arbitrum and Starknet recorded notable net inflows. Meanwhile, the prediction market continued to expand rapidly, with Opinion’s monthly trading volume surging and quickly emerging as a third major player competing with Polymarket and Kalshi. The Web3 industry completed 53 financing deals totaling $2.67 billion, a sharp decline from October, signaling a phase of contraction and structural tightening.

Over the past week, the crypto market has continued to trade in a range near key support levels. BTC and ETH both experienced several rapid rallies and pullbacks, but prices quickly returned to consolidation ranges, indicating that current price action is largely driven by existing capital repeatedly trading in a relatively thin-liquidity environment, with no clear entry of trend-driven incremental capital. At the same time, leveraged positioning has continued to unwind: options open interest (OI) declined overall and became highly concentrated around the December 26 expiry, with an estimated USD 26.5 billion in notional value set to expire. Spot trading volumes remain subdued, making prices more sensitive to marginal capital flows and further amplifying short-term volatility.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of momentum investing within the Bitcoin (BTC) market, examining how classical technical indicators perform under varying trend and volatility conditions. Beginning with the theoretical foundations of momentum and its behavioral finance interpretations, the report systematically reviews the structural logic, signal mechanisms, and analytical functions of MACD, Bollinger Bands, ADX/DMI, and RSI. Using actual BTC price movements, it illustrates how these indicators reflect trend formation, momentum decay, volatility expansion, and potential reversal signals. Backtesting results over a full year show that different indicators produce highly divergent outcomes when exposed to the same market environment: trend-following and oversold-reversal strategies tend to struggle during weak or choppy market phases, while volatility-breakout methods, particularly Bollinger Band strategies, demonstrate higher win rates and more stable drawdown behavior.

Gate Research Daily Report: On December 15, the crypto market continued to trade under pressure, with BTC and ETH consolidating at lower levels while GT showed relative resilience. Against a weak backdrop for major assets, tokens such as FHE, ICE, and BAS moved higher against the trend, driven by catalysts including privacy computing and a Chainlink partnership, token migration and mainnet transition, and the ERC-8004 protocol upgrade—highlighting concentrated positioning in structural opportunities. Structural selling pressure in the options market continues to weigh on BTC’s upside, as ETF-driven demand for call options diverges from volatility-selling by OG holders, making a period of range-bound consolidation more likely than a swift breakout in the near term. At the same time, Ant International is reshaping enterprise treasury management through blockchain, AI, and tokenized deposits, while Stable’s mainnet launch has seen weaker-than-expected on-chain activity, underscoring the ongoing challenge for sta

Gate Research: On December 15, the crypto market remained under pressure, with BTC and ETH consolidating at low levels while GT showed relative strength. FHE (+95.2%) surged on strong momentum from privacy computing narratives, Chainlink partnership, and ecosystem incentives; ICE (+46.8%) rallied amid speculative hype over token migration and mainnet transition; BAS (+48.2%) climbed sharply, driven by ERC-8004 protocol upgrades. Persistent structural selling in options continued to suppress BTC upside, with OG holders selling volatility diverging from ETF-driven call buying. Ant International is reshaping corporate treasury management using blockchain, AI, and tokenized deposits. Stable's on-chain activity has lagged expectations post-mainnet launch, highlighting ongoing challenges for differentiated stablecoin public chains.

Dual-currency investment has attracted attention due to its simple structure and transparent returns, yet the market lacks systematic, cycle-based quantitative research and analysis of optimal entry points. This study constructs a backtesting framework in four steps: first, segmenting Bitcoin market cycles using trend and standard deviation; second, verifying that implied volatility (IV) in Bitcoin responds to both upward and downward movements, making it an effective entry signal; third, establishing “buy low / sell high” rules based on market phase; and fourth, estimating dual-currency APR using a simplified Black-Scholes model. Results indicate that the dual-factor framework of “IV-based entry + cycle-driven direction” effectively captures volatility premiums, performs particularly well in sideways markets, delivers stable returns, and supports reinvestment, providing a practical path for systematizing dual-currency investment strategies.

Gate Research Daily Report: Despite a brief rebound attempt in the crypto market, prices have failed to decisively reclaim key resistance levels. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has continued to weaken and gradually retreated to its core supply–demand zone, while ETH fell below the important psychological level of USD 3,000. Technical breakouts drove ACE up 22% over the past 24 hours, while FHE surged 98% in the same period, with its recent rally primarily driven by Chainlink’s newly launched FHE privacy bridge. Visa announced the launch of a stablecoin advisory service. Ripple revealed plans to expand RLUSD to Ethereum Layer 2 networks. Circle announced the acquisition of Axelar’s initial development team, Interop Labs, along with its intellectual property.

This week, the crypto market remained in a volatile range amid macroeconomic disturbances, recent consecutive rate cuts by the FED have boosted short-term market sentiment, but investors’ concerns over structural issues such as long-term inflation, fiscal deficits, and the independence of monetary policy have not subsided. Additionally, the Bank of Japan’s rate hike this month is widely anticipated. Yesterday, Bitcoin spiked to a high before dropping over 2.2%, while Ethereum also surged then retraced, ending the day up 1.2%.

Gate Research Weekly Report: BTC remained in a weak consolidation over the past day, repeatedly encountering resistance near 92,000 USDT, while ETH pulled back to the MA10 after a sharp upswing, showing signs of short-term momentum cooling. Market sentiment improved marginally, with capital rotating into the Ethereum ecosystem. Sectors such as Prediction Markets, GambleFi, ZK, and LRT recorded weekly gains of 18%–35%. Stablecoin market capitalization continued to rise, and gas fees remained at ultra-low levels. NIGHT, BEAT, and LUNA posted strong rebounds of 40%–60%, driven respectively by new listings, partnership catalysts, and technical bottom-recoveries. Major banks have begun offering Bitcoin-backed lending, while institutional BTC holdings have surpassed 1.08 million. Tempo’s testnet launch strengthened the narrative around on-chain payments, and expectations surrounding a potential SpaceX IPO as well as Stripe’s acquisition of Valora further boosted market attention. In the coming seven days, CONX, APT