Five-Week Exodus From Bitcoin ETFs, Metaplanet Denies Wrongdoing: Hodlers Digest, Feb. 15 – 22
United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have experienced approximately $2.6 billion in outflows in 2026 so far; Bitcoin core developer Matt Corallo dismisses quantum computing concerns as catalyst for recent price decline; plus additional developments.
Metaplanet's chief executive dismisses allegations of concealing BTC transaction information
Simon Gerovich, the chief executive officer of Metaplanet, responded forcefully to allegations suggesting the firm deliberately misled shareholders regarding its Bitcoin investment approach and disclosure practices.
Detractors on the X platform have contended that Metaplanet postponed or concealed market-moving information regarding substantial Bitcoin acquisitions and options transactions financed through shareholder funds, masked losses stemming from its derivatives approach and neglected to comprehensively reveal critical conditions of its Bitcoin-collateralized debt arrangements.
Through an extensive post on X published Friday, Gerovich maintained that Metaplanet disclosed all Bitcoin acquisitions, options tactics and debt arrangements in a timely manner, and that those criticizing the company were incorrectly interpreting its accounting records rather than discovering any actual wrongdoing.
US-listed Bitcoin ETFs experience $166 million exodus amid difficult year opening
Downward momentum in United States-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds persisted on Thursday, with market observers highlighting that the digital asset is experiencing one of its most challenging annual beginnings on record.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $165.8 million in redemptions on Thursday, pushing seven-day withdrawals to $403.9 million, based on information from SoSoValue.
The withdrawals pushed the investment vehicles toward a potential five-consecutive-week redemption pattern, with losses since the beginning of the year now totaling $2.7 billion.
Market participation continued its downward trajectory, declining 21% throughout the week and hitting its most minimal point since the final days of December, demonstrating diminishing investor engagement.
Administration proposes restricted stablecoin yield distribution during third negotiation session
The United States White House has convened another discussion session bringing together delegates from the digital currency and traditional banking sectors regarding a comprehensive market structure legislation currently being evaluated in the US Senate, working to resolve disagreements on stablecoin interest-bearing provisions, alongside other contentious matters.
During a Thursday interview with Fox News, Brad Garlinghouse, who serves as Ripple's chief executive officer, revealed that Stuart Alderoty, the company's top legal counsel, participated in the discussion with administration representatives earlier that same day.
The White House has reportedly redirected negotiations between cryptocurrency and banking advocates toward constraining the methods by which stablecoin interest payments should be distributed.
This marked the third negotiation session within a 16-day period to address stablecoin-related provisions that have created obstacles for the broader cryptocurrency legislation.
While no consensus was achieved on Thursday, leadership from Coinbase and Ripple indicated that meaningful advancement occurred, as one of the administration's digital currency advisers proposed a compromise arrangement that would permit third-party entities, including trading platforms, to provide stablecoin rewards exclusively on transactional activities, excluding balance holdings.
After receiving approval from the US House of Representatives in July, the CLARITY Act has encountered multiple postponements while progressing through the Senate and its associated committees.
These obstacles included two periods of government closure (with the most extended one in American history lasting 43 days in 2025), objections from Democratic legislators concerning potential conflicts of interest, and advocacy organizations demanding provisions addressing decentralized financial services, tokenized securities and stablecoin interest generation.
Quantum computing concerns not responsible for Bitcoin's 46% price decline, developer states
Bitcoin's current downward price movement cannot be attributed to anxieties surrounding quantum computing capabilities, because if such fears were truly driving the market, Ether would be experiencing significant gains, according to Bitcoin core developer Matt Corallo.
"I strongly disagree with the characterization that Bitcoin's current price is materially because of some kind of quantum risk," Corallo told journalist Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast on Thursday.
"If that were true, then Ethereum would be up substantially on Bitcoin," he added. Ether is down 58% since a major crypto market crash in early October, trading at $1,957 at the time of publication.
Corallo's statements arrive as multiple Bitcoin supporters have suggested that concerns regarding quantum computing's potential impact on the blockchain network are contributing factors to Bitcoin's 46% decline from its October peak price of $126,100 to its current trading level of $67,162, according to CoinMarketCap.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) was at $68,004, Ether (ETH) at $1,972, and XRP at $1.42. The total market cap is at $2.33 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Stable (STABLE) at 19.62%, Morpho (MORPHO) at 13.05% and Injective (INJ) at 10.99%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Humanity Protocol (H) at 27.34%, Chiliz (CHZ) at 19.60% and Arbitrum (ARB) at 19.54%.
Most Memorable Quotations
"I strongly disagree with the characterization that Bitcoin's current price is materially because of some kind of quantum risk."
Matt Corallo, Bitcoin developer and open source engineer at Spiral
"Lack of Privacy may be the missing link for crypto payments adoption. Imagine a company pays employees in crypto onchain. With the current state of crypto, you can pretty much see how much everyone in the company is paid by clicking the 'from' address."
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of Binance
"To look at this as a movie trailer and what's ahead for Bitcoin and quantum. Just the preview here. It's a two-step process. We're going to upgrade and chill. That's it. That's the process."
Matthew Roszak, chairman of Bloq and co-founder of Hemi
"When the Treasury ramps up Treasury bill issuance, it is financing spending that flows into the real economy, and eventually into risk assets like Bitcoin. When Treasury bill issuance falls or turns negative, that fiscal tailwind fades."
Amir Hajian, researcher at Keyrock
"There's people in this room that were probably on the opposite side of us, that were canceling bank accounts for us, that were kicking us out of their big banks for no reason other than the fact that my father was wearing a hat that said, 'Make America Great Again.'"
Eric Trump, son of US President Donald Trump
"Post FTX DeFi spot lending leverage never really came back in the same way; it changed, morphed into something we understood less."
Will Sheehan, founder of Parsec Finance
Top Prediction of The Week
Artificial intelligence stock valuations reaching excessive levels could trigger Bitcoin rally: Lyn Alden
The next significant upward movement for Bitcoin might depend on artificial intelligence technology stocks reaching valuation levels that investors perceive as unreasonably inflated, based on analysis from macroeconomist Lyn Alden.
"It could be that the AI stocks eventually just peak, they get so silly big that they can't get realistically much higher," Alden told Natalie Brunell on the Coin Stories podcast published to YouTube on Thursday.
When the valuation of an asset climbs to heights where additional appreciation becomes increasingly difficult to rationalize, investment capital frequently shifts toward alternative opportunities offering greater potential for growth.
Top FUD of The Week
Uniswap's founder condemns fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements following victim's total loss
Hayden Adams, who serves as founder and chief executive officer of the decentralized trading platform Uniswap, has issued warnings to users regarding fraudulent advertisements masquerading as the legitimate platform, drawing attention to an incident where a victim purportedly suffered complete financial loss.
This development follows January's record as the month with the greatest amount of funds stolen through cryptocurrency scams in nearly a year.
"Scam ads keep returning despite years of reporting," Adams said in an X post on Friday. "There were scam Uniswap apps while we waited months for App Store approval."
Fraudsters are progressively purchasing advertising space on widely-used search platforms targeting search terms such as "Uniswap," ensuring that when digital currency users conduct searches, the highest-ranked result appears legitimate.
Unwary users may subsequently link their digital wallets and authorize a transaction, enabling scammers to completely deplete their available funds.
Federal court in Tennessee issues temporary order preventing state action against Kalshi
A federal magistrate in Tennessee has temporarily prevented the state from applying its gambling regulations to prediction markets platform Kalshi's sports-related event contracts.
The decision, delivered by Judge Aleta Trauger of the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on Thursday, permits Kalshi to maintain its offering of sports-related event contracts to state residents while its legal challenge against Tennessee regulatory authorities continues.
Trauger determined that Kalshi possesses a strong likelihood of prevailing on the substance of its argument that federal commodities legislation supersedes Tennessee's efforts to categorize its sports markets as prohibited gambling activities.
Regulatory officials in South Korea face criticism regarding Bithumb Bitcoin mistake
Legislators in South Korea are intensifying demands on financial oversight bodies following a cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb's erroneous crediting of customers with Bitcoin quantities it did not possess, a mistake that temporarily triggered a selling frenzy and reignited concerns about supervision of the nation's rapidly expanding digital asset marketplace.
Legislative representatives stated that the Financial Services Commission failed to identify fundamental deficiencies in Bithumb's operational systems despite conducting no fewer than three examinations since 2022, The Korea Times reported Thursday.
Representative Kang Min-guk of the main opposition People Power Party said the incident was more than a technical mishap, claiming structural weaknesses in the crypto market, including gaps in regulation and oversight.
Bithumb mistakenly credited 2,000 Bitcoin per user instead of 2,000 Korean won ($1.40) during a promotional event on Feb. 6, distributing a total of 620,000 BTC that the exchange did not actually hold.