Daily Summary, February 18

NachStart: Results of the Day, February 18th
AI-Generated Code Leads to Hack, Belarus Legalizes Crypto Salaries, and China Enters ETFs

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1. TECHNOLOGY AND SECURITY: THE PRICE OF CODE ERRORS 🤖💥

The Moonwell protocol was hacked for $1.78 million due to an error in code generated by the AI Claude Opus 4.6.
* Analysis: The first high-profile case where damage is caused not just by a bug, but by a mistake made by a neural network. The incident raises questions about responsibility and the need for additional code auditing, even if it’s written by “smart” AI. Trust, but verify — now applies to algorithms too.

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2. REGULATION: BELARUS OPENS DOORS, RUSSIA TIGHTENS CONTROL 🇧🇾🇷🇺

National Bank of Belarus: self-employed individuals will be able to receive salaries in cryptocurrency.
* Analysis: An important step towards integrating digital assets into the legal economy. Belarus continues to experiment with crypto-friendly legislation, creating preferences for freelancers and the IT sector. This could potentially attract crypto businesses and talent to the country.

The Russian Federation Council approved a law on the seizure of cryptocurrency in criminal cases.
* Analysis: Russian legislation is catching up with reality: if previously crypto could be hidden from bailiffs, now it officially becomes an object of recovery. For the market, this is a signal that asset anonymity is decreasing, and risks for illegal turnover are growing.

Nabiullina: The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is discussing systemic solutions for cryptocurrencies with the government.
* Analysis: The process is underway. The regulator is moving from point-specific bans to developing a comprehensive strategy. What exactly they will agree on is still a mystery, but the very fact of a systemic dialogue gives the market cautious optimism.

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3. MARKET TRENDS: ETH IN STAKING, CHINA BUYS 🇨🇳📈

For the first time in history, more than half of all Ethereum is in the Proof-of-Stake staking contract.
* Analysis: A historic moment for the network. Over 50% of the supply is locked in staking, sharply reducing liquid supply on exchanges. This is a fundamentally bullish factor in the long term, if demand for ETH holds.

An unknown company, Laurore Ltd, invested $436 million in the Bitcoin ETF from BlackRock.
* Analysis: A purchase of this volume through a regulated instrument is a classic “smart” entry of large capital. The fact that the company is registered in the Seychelles and its structure is not disclosed fuels speculation about the possible return of Chinese capital to the market through the back door of US ETFs.

The structure of BTC ownership has changed: institutions are increasing holdings, retail investors are reducing them.
* Analysis: The market is maturing. The share of companies, funds, and states in Bitcoin is growing, while retail is exiting. This reduces volatility in the short term but increases the risks of regulatory pressure on large players.

Binance is the leader again: trading volume rose to $409 billion, 5 times more than the nearest competitor.
* Analysis: After leaving a number of countries and regulatory storms, the exchange is regaining its position. Liquidity is again concentrating on the largest platform, which is convenient for traders but creates centralization risks.

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4. NEW IDEAS: DIVIDENDS IN GOLD AND TIKTOK FARMS 💎🎶

Gold mining company Elemental Royalties offered shareholders the option to receive dividends in tokenized gold XAUT from Tether.
* Analysis: The RWA trend is gaining momentum. Real companies are starting to use crypto assets for dividend payments, creating a bridge between traditional finance and DeFi. Shareholders gain access to liquid tokenized gold without extra steps.
A video surfaced online showing a Chinese farm with 150 TikTok accounts generating an estimated $37,000 per month in revenue.
* Analysis: Content scaling is reaching an industrial level. Account farms, managed by humans or AI, are becoming a business with calculable economics. This is the new reality of marketing, where the winner will be the one with the most “barrels.”

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5. INFRASTRUCTURE: BASE GOES IT ALONE 🏗

Coinbase: the Base network will abandon the Optimism Stack and begin developing its own tech stack.
* Analysis: Major players are striving for technological independence. Base, originally built on Optimism, eventually wants to control its own code. This could accelerate competition among L2 solutions but slow down the unification of standards.

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SYSTEMIC TRENDS OF THE DAY:

* 🤖 Tech Risk Trend: A hack due to an error in AI-generated code is the new reality. Security auditing becomes critically important, even for AI generations.
* 🇧🇾 Regulated Integration Trend: Belarus allows crypto salaries, Russia learns to seize crypto. The CIS space is moving towards legalization, but with different goals.
* 🐋 Institutionalization Trend: ETFs, companies, and states are displacing retail investors in the structure of BTC ownership. The market is becoming “wholesale.”
* 📈 ETH Supply Squeeze Trend: Over 50% of coins are in staking — supply is tightening, creating prerequisites for price growth if demand increases.
* 🏭 Content Industrialization Trend: TikTok farms and account scaling are turning content creation into a factory-like process with clear economics.

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ARCHITECTURAL CONCLUSION

February 18th was a day when the future caught up with us from several sides at once.

AI not only helps write code but also creates vulnerabilities that cost millions to fix (Moonwell). Belarus opens the gates for crypto salaries, while Russia learns to seize them. China may have found a loophole to enter Bitcoin through US ETFs, and half of all Ether is now permanently locked in staking.

The main conflict of the day: between the drive for technological independence (Base leaving Optimism) and the growing centralization of capital (Binance concentrating liquidity, institutions buying BTC).

The market has finally split into two worlds: the world of “white” regulated ETFs and the world of industrial TikTok farms where dollars are mined by hundreds of accounts. In both worlds, the winners are those who can scale processes faster than their competitors.

And the gold miners offering dividends in tokenized gold remind us: the old world is also learning and starting to speak the language of the new one.