It's not been pretty out there in the crypto market over the last few weeks. Ever since Donald Trump started threatening allied and enemy countries alike with tariffs, altcoins across the board have sold off and retail sentiment has reached levels not seen since the dark days of the FTX meltdown. Can't the devs do something?!
However, as Bitwise CIO Matt Houghan recently pointed out, institutions are incredibly bullish and not just because they're mostly in Bitcoin. They know that regulations are coming which will benefit the industry and open the door to something they've long craved: tokenisation.
It's no coincidence that several cryptos in the real world asset (RWA) tokenisation bracket have been outperforming everything else in recent weeks. We are getting closer to a world in which it will be possible to trade all sorts of assets on chain and trillions of dollars of capital will be unlocked as a result.
In today's video, we take a closer look at the RWA sector and what its growth means for the industry. And of course, we reveal which crypto projects could be set to benefit the most from this incoming bonanza. Could the age of altcoin fundamentals be almost upon us?
You can watch that video here.
📈 Crypto Market Forecast 📈
It looks like it’s going to be a sunny week for crypto, and that’s because of that one golden word: liquidity - AKA money in the markets. On the crypto front, there should be a sizable injection of liquidity as a result of the FTX repayments, which begin this Tuesday, February 18th, and will see roughly 1.2 billion dollars returned to creditors with claims of less than 50k USD - in other words, retail!
On the macro front meanwhile, the drawdown of the Treasury General Account (TGA) could begin as soon as this week, according to macro analyst Andreas Steno Larsen. For context, the TGA is the US government’s bank account at the Fed, and it contains over 800 billion dollars of cold hard cash which will need to be injected into the economy as a result of the debt ceiling being hit.
These bullish tailwinds will create the optimal conditions for the crypto market to recover. All that’s missing is a catalyst to trigger the rally. As it so happens, there are many upcoming catalysts for crypto projects on the horizon. Most of these will occur around the EthDenver conference which begins on February 23rd, and should involve a series of bullish announcements for Ethereum and other top layer ones.
In the interim we’re likely to see bullish announcements from other crypto conferences, such as Solana’s PayFi summit in Hong Kong, which will happen tomorrow. For reference, PayFi is a term that was coined by the president of the Solana Foundation, and it refers to an emerging crypto niche that focuses on stablecoin payments and savings, something that will be made possible thanks to changes in stablecoin regulations.
For those unaware, stablecoin regulations appear to be the primary priority for the current US administration as far as crypto policy goes. This makes sense given that stablecoins are backed by US government debt - the more demand there is for stablecoins, the more US government debt gets bought. This would explain why even Fed officials are advocating for lax stablecoin regulations for both banks and non-banks alike.
It’s not just words that are foreshadowing lax crypto regulations either - it’s actions too. As some of you may have heard, NFT marketplace OpenSea recently announced the official launch of its SEA token. What’s interesting is that the announcement specifies that US users are welcome. This is interesting because US users are currently restricted from receiving airdrops. This detail suggests this may not be the case for much longer.
As we mentioned in our recent video about what’s been going on in the crypto market (specifically why Bitcoin has been outperforming and altcoins have been underperforming), upcoming changes to regulations for altcoins will fundamentally change the crypto market structure for altcoins, just like the spot Bitcoin ETFs did for BTC. To refresh your memory, the result of the spot Bitcoin ETFs was an enormous upside surprise.
It’s going to take time for these same structural changes to be applied to altcoins, but the silver lining is that they’re not just restricted to spot altcoin ETFs. We will see TradFi institutions launching tokenized RWAs on chain, and we will see web2 companies integrating crypto protocols. The result will be truly innovative and valuable products and services powered by crypto, and the resulting narratives and price action will be epic.
🤖 BNB Hot Again? 🤖
Everyone and their dog (pun intended) has been watching Binance, BNB Chain and CZ this past week.
A look at the charts on CoinMarketCap shows that the prices of BNB and other ecosystem tokens, such as CAKE, BAKE and BNX saw double-digit percentage gains (and losses) over the past week. If you’re puzzled by the sudden surge in attention for BNB, let us break it down for you.
The majority of this week’s price movements have been fueled by the excitement surrounding memecoins on the BNB Chain. More specifically, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s (CZ) engagement with BNB’s memecoin ecosystem. Part of this excitement likely stems from the realization that CZ is taking a more hands-on approach in advocating for the BNB Chain.
That said, here’s the exact timeline of how this all unfolded.
On February 6th, CZ tweeted that the BNB Chain team had taken down an educational video it had made about the four.meme memecoin launchpad after the team supposedly found that the “test” memecoin ($TST) created by them for the video had been identified and shilled by a key opinion leader (KOL) in the Chinese community.
CZ added that he had recommended the team re-upload the video, reasoning that “the internet does not forget.” While the post was framed as a reflection on an ethical conundrum, CZ’s inclusion of a link to the token address and the phrase “happy trading” seems to have prompted markets to hyper-gamble on $TST.
A look at the chart on Dexscreener shows that the marketcap of the token went from less than half a million dollars at the time of the post to almost half a billion in the next two days. Although the price of $TST has since corrected by almost 80%, its short run was enough to prompt capital rotation into the BNB chain. Data from DefiLlama also shows that the decentralised exchange Pancakeswap has seen average daily spot volumes of $3 billion since the $TST memecoin trading frenzy.
This momentum was further sustained by CZ hinting at plans to stay engaged with the trend. In fact, he posted a tweet on Thursday revealing the name of his dog – a page straight out of the degen memecoin trading handbook.
Although CZ clarified he would not be creating a token himself, he did hint at possible support from the BNB Foundation for the top memes on the chain. Ironically, this move appears to have backfired by causing chaos in the markets. Traders accused CZ of encouraging harmful, zero-sum trading behaviours and enabling scammers to profit from token launches and rug pulls. This negative sentiment caused a sharp sell-off in BNB ecosystem projects, leading to a rapid drop in their prices toward the end of last week.
While it remains to be seen whether BNB can recover, there’s no denying that this ordeal has successfully brought fresh attention to the ecosystem. For what it’s worth, we believe CZ’s recent meme antics are likely a strategic marketing gimmick designed to generate buzz ahead of the network’s upcoming upgrade.
The real question here must be: is all attention truly good attention? Only time will tell.
🔥 Hot Deal of The Week 🔥
Let’s face it, altcoins have been completely crushed in the past month.
Many will hodl and hope for that altseason, others will rebalance their portfolio and savvy people will take the opportunity to reduce their dollar cost average price. To do all that, you’ll need a first-class exchange and ideally a great active bonus and fee discount - seriously these savings really add up in a bull market.
Two exchanges that are particularly popular amongst our team are:
🥇 Toobit - Up To 100,000 USDT bonus + up to 50% fee discount for life!
🥈 CoinCatch - $150 Sign Up Bonus + Deposit & Trade to Earn $50,000 + Get Up to 75% Deposit Cashback!
🔮 Video Pipeline 🔮
* Jupiter Review: Everything You Need to Know About JUP
* OKX Report: The future of DEXs and how AI is impacting DeFi?
* Etherealize: Ethereum’s Final Hope
* Sovereign Wealth Funds: Could The US Win?
🏆 What's New at CoinBureau.com This Week? 🏆
* Find the Top Crypto Trading Bots of 2025 on Telegram
* Explore The Top Crypto Scalping Bots In 2025
* Start Trading with the Best Crypto Exchanges for Beginners In 2025
* Binance Launchpad & Launchpool: Your Ultimate Guide to Crypto Fundraising
* Explore The Top US Crypto Exchanges In February 2025
* Blockchain and Blockdag Compared: Which Is The Best?
📖 Quote of the Week 📖
Everyone in crypto is looking for that elusive 100x opportunity. However, these are harder than ever to find. But, there are plenty of cryptos out there where you can secure solid 3-5x returns, which would delight anyone in TradFi.
"I don’t look to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over" - Warren Buffet
Team Coin Bureau
Disclosure: Authors may own cryptoassets named in this newsletter. These are unqualified opinions, and a Coin Bureau newsletter, is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult with your investment, tax, or legal advisor.
The Coin Bureau Editorial Team are your dedicated guides through the dynamic world of cryptocurrency. With a passion for educating the masses on blockchain technology and a commitment to unbiased, shill-free content, we unravel the complexities of the industry through in-depth research. We aim to empower the crypto community with the knowledge needed to navigate the crypto landscape successfully and safely, equipping our community with the knowledge and understanding they need to navigate this new digital frontier.
