📈 Crypto Market News – February 23, 2026
- Market Overview: Monday Momentum Returns
The crypto market has opened the new week with strong momentum following a historically bullish weekly close. The global crypto market cap is pushing higher, reaching $3.85 Trillion.
Sentiment: The Asian and European sessions have handed off a strong tape to the US. With traditional equity markets opening in the green, the "risk-on" appetite remains fully intact for digital assets.
- Bitcoin (BTC) Secures the Weekly Close
Bitcoin is currently trading around $105,800, having successfully closed its weekly candle above the critical $105,000 level last night.
Technical: This historic weekly close has invalidated several bearish models. Order books currently show minimal resistance up to the $107,000 mark, with institutional buyers aggressively accumulating during any minor dips in the morning session.
- Ethereum (ETH) Layer 2 Ecosystem Booms
Ethereum remains highly bid, trading securely above $4,250.
On-Chain Data: While mainnet gas fees are rising with weekday traffic, the Total Value Locked (TVL) across Ethereum Layer 2 networks—such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base—has hit a new all-time high today. This underscores the massive amount of capital rotating into the broader ETH ecosystem for DeFi yields.
- Institutional ETF Inflows Resume
The first trading day of the week is seeing massive volume across Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs on the American stock exchanges.
Flows: Early morning pre-market data suggests net inflows are on track to be exceptionally strong today, driven heavily by wealth managers finalizing their end-of-month portfolio allocations before February closes.
- Macro Focus: The PCE Print
Traders are actively positioning themselves for this week's key macroeconomic event.
Outlook: The US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index—the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge—will be released later this week. The market is pricing in a favorable report, which could serve as the ultimate catalyst to push the broader market deeper into parabolic price discovery.