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With correct links: Bitcoin swings, policy battles – Mon, 9 Feb 2026

Your daily window into global signals and Nordic moves reshaping markets

Author

Morten Myrstad
February 09, 2026

Welcome to Kaupr Today

Good morning – and welcome to Kaupr Today. Bitcoin, markets and power plays open this Monday on the defensive, with last week’s crash still fresh, volatility elevated and Washington dragging banks, issuers and lobbyists into the room to decide what dollar‑stablecoins should be allowed to be. At the same time, capital and conviction are being quietly re‑sorted: some players are leaning harder into regulated rails and leveraged bitcoin balance sheets, tokenized assets continue to build in the background, and Trump’s self‑styled “crypto president” era – including our latest Kaupr TV highlight – is turning US politics itself into a key variable in the next phase of this market.

Have a good read,
Morten

Bitcoin, markets and power plays

Crypto advocates call for calm after Bitcoin’s ‘volatile’ week ends in modest gains

After a brutal mid‑week selloff that briefly knocked Bitcoin below key support levels, the asset clawed back losses to finish the week with modest gains, easing immediate fears of a deeper cascade. Industry advocates and long‑term holders argued the swings were typical of Bitcoin’s historical volatility, pointing to macro jitters, ETF flows, and leverage as short‑term drivers rather than a breakdown in the long‑term thesis.

Why it matters: The messaging shift from panic to perspective is aimed at reassuring newer investors and policymakers that sharp drawdowns are part of Bitcoin’s cycle, not necessarily a sign that institutional adoption or the broader bull market is over.

Bitcoin crash brought on by these five reasons, says VanEck analyst

VanEck’s Matthew Sigel argues Bitcoin’s drop to around 60,000 dollars was not caused by a single shock but by five overlapping pressures: collapsing leverage in futures, miners forced to sell after pivoting into AI and high‑performance computing, the unwinding of AI hype, renewed concerns about quantum computers breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography, and traders leaning into Bitcoin’s four‑year boom‑bust cycle as a cue to de‑risk. Unlike past crashes tied to clear events such as FTX, China’s mining ban, or Terra, this selloff came from a broad “market under siege from multiple directions”.

Why it matters: Framing the crash as a confluence of structural and psychological factors rather than a single fatal flaw helps preserve the long‑term Bitcoin thesis while highlighting where leverage, miner balance sheets, and narrative risk can still blindside even a maturing market.

White House Convenes Banks and Crypto Industry Over Stalemate

The White House has called a high‑stakes, staff‑level meeting for February 10, 2026, bringing together U.S. bank lobbyists, major stablecoin issuers, and crypto industry groups in an effort to break a long‑running deadlock over stablecoin regulation. The discussion will focus on how to reconcile bank‑style reserve and supervision demands with the growth of non‑bank stablecoin issuers, amid mounting pressure from lawmakers and law enforcement over consumer protection and illicit finance risks.

Why it matters: The outcome could shape who is allowed to issue dollar‑pegged tokens in the U.S. and on what terms, determining whether stablecoins evolve as a bank‑dominated product, a tech‑driven open finance rail, or something in between.​

Winners and wounded players

Tether makes $100M strategic bet on Anchorage Digital

Tether has made a 100 million dollar strategic equity investment in Anchorage Digital, the US‑chartered crypto bank that already issues Tether’s US‑focused stablecoin USA₮. The deal values Anchorage Digital at about 4.2 billion dollars and includes the firm’s first employee tender offer, giving long‑tenured staff liquidity while leaving the capital structure and control intact.

Why it matters: The investment tightens the link between the world’s largest stablecoin issuer and one of the most regulated crypto banks, signalling that strategic capital is shifting from offshore trading venues toward compliant custody and settlement infrastructure. It also underscores that stablecoin providers expect the next phase of growth to be shaped inside regulatory frameworks, not outside them.

Gemini cuts 25% of staff while Kraken delivers ~$2B profit in 2025

Kraken, the largest onshore exchange yet to IPO, processed around 2.0–2.2 trillion dollars in trading volume in 2025 (about +33% year on year) and delivered roughly 2 billion dollars of profit, supporting a 20 billion dollar private valuation at about a 10x P/E, while Gemini, one of the few publicly traded US exchanges, does only about 60–70 billion dollars of annualized volume, implying 60–70 million dollars of revenue at a 10 bps take rate, and has seen its shares drop over 80% since its 2024 IPO as it cuts 25% of staff and exits the UK, EU, and Australia.

Why it matters: In a volume‑driven business where scale compounds, market‑leading venues like Kraken can convert large flows into durable profitability and IPO optionality, while sub‑scale exchanges like Gemini are pushed into painful restructuring and market retreats, underscoring that regulation or listing status alone is no substitute for deep, liquid markets and sustained volume.

Strategy CEO: bitcoin would need to crash to ~$8,000 before balance sheet is at risk

On Strategy’s Q4 2025 earnings call, executives reiterated that their bitcoin‑treasury model is built for extreme volatility, with CEO Andrew Kang saying bitcoin would have to plunge to around 8,000 dollars before the firm faced true balance‑sheet stress. Despite a 12.6 billion dollar quarterly net loss driven by mark‑to‑market accounting, Strategy ended 2025 holding 713,502 bitcoin (about 3.4% of eventual supply), raised over 25 billion dollars in capital since starting the strategy, and delivered a 22.8% “BTC yield” in 2025 by increasing bitcoin per share.

Why it matters: The call underscores how committed Strategy remains to its leveraged bitcoin‑treasury strategy even after one of the largest reported corporate losses in history. It also highlights how public markets are increasingly treating bitcoin‑heavy balance sheets as a specialised, high‑beta way to express long‑term conviction in BTC rather than a temporary experiment.

Tokenization and Real-World Assets

Tokenized equities approach $1B as institutional rails emerge

Tokenized equities have grown nearly 30x in a year to about 960 million dollars in value as of January 2026, with monthly transfer volumes of roughly 2.4 billion dollars and a volume‑to‑AUM ratio near 3x, signalling active trading rather than passive holding. The market is highly concentrated, with Ondo Global Markets controlling more than half of assets, xStocks (Backed/Kraken) and Securitize capturing most of the rest, and activity spread across Ethereum, Solana, Algorand, and a handful of other chains as December 2025 SEC and DTCC moves laid the groundwork for broker‑dealer custody and a Russell 1000 tokenization pilot.

Why it matters: The surge shows tokenized equities are moving from experiment to real market infrastructure, positioning them as a key next leg of real‑world‑asset adoption if institutional rails, custody, and regulation keep maturing.

Source: Tokenized equities approach $1B as institutional rails emerge, CryptoSlate / Sentora Research

Institutional tokenization is real — but it’s moving at “infrastructure speed,” not “crypto speed”

A CCN op‑ed argues that institutional tokenization is now clearly underway, driven by pilots and products from giants like BlackRock and JPMorgan, but that adoption is constrained by the pace and demands of financial infrastructure rather than the rapid iteration culture of crypto. Asset managers, banks and stablecoin issuers increasingly want tokenized money‑market funds, bonds and deposits, yet they require enterprise‑grade security, regulatory clarity, interoperability with legacy systems and full lifecycle tooling before they can scale beyond experiments.

Why it matters: For Web3 builders, the piece is a warning that success in institutional tokenization will be earned by boring things—compliance, integration, risk controls and standards—not yield gimmicks or flashy UX. It suggests the winners will be infrastructure providers that can bridge traditional finance and blockchain rails, delivering tokenization that feels like an upgrade of existing capital‑markets plumbing rather than a parallel universe.

New Nordics, Baltics and Kaupr TV

Estonia: from EU digital underdog to global startup hub

Euronews profiles how Estonia, with just 1.3 million people, has become one of the EU’s most business‑friendly countries and a heavyweight startup hub, with over 1,500 startups worth around 36.3 billion euros and nearly 19,700 employees as of 2025. The piece credits a long‑term digital‑state strategy (ID, e‑tax, X‑Road), a favourable corporate tax regime that only taxes distributed profits, and the e‑Residency programme, which lets non‑residents run EU companies online and now accounts for about one‑fifth of new firms and a meaningful chunk of tax revenue.

Why it matters: Estonia shows how coherent digital infrastructure, predictable rules and early startup successes (like the “Skype mafia”) can turn a small economy into an outsized innovation hub. It also highlights the EU’s unfinished business: while one member can make company formation and cross‑border services seamless, the bloc as a whole still struggles to function as a truly single market.

Donald Trump and crypto – a highlight from Kaupr TV Live

In a highlight from the premiere of Kaupr TV Live on 23 January, Leon Aleksander Solbakken and Morten Myrstad discuss what President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has meant for crypto, unpacking his ambitions to make the US a global leader in digital assets and AI. They connect Trump’s pro‑crypto rhetoric and recent executive initiatives to market reactions, regulatory expectations, and how investors should think about the new policy backdrop.

Why it matters: Trump’s explicitly pro‑crypto stance, combined with concrete policy moves, is turning US political support into a central driver of the industry’s regulatory outlook, institutional adoption, and long‑term investment case.

What to watch for

Whether this drawdown marks a real shift in how the market behaves – with ETF outflows, whale de‑risking and miner stress forcing a more cautious, balance‑sheet‑driven phase – rather than just another dip to buy. Watch how long risk stays off in ETFs and stablecoins, how aggressively lenders and treasuries cut leverage, and whether US policymakers can finally bang banks and crypto into a shared stablecoin rulebook instead of letting the current deadlock over yields, deposits and charters drift on indefinitely.

Why it matters: If stress persists and flows don’t rebuild quickly, the clean‑up phase could be brutal: weaker BTC treasuries, over‑levered miners and structurally unprofitable exchanges might not get a second chance this time. If, instead, the market digests a roughly 40% drawdown without structural breaks while regulation, tokenization and “boring” rails keep advancing in the background, this episode looks less like the start of a long winter and more like the moment the casino phase finally started giving way to real, but harsher, market discipline.

Share Kaupr Today

Thank you for reading Kaupr Today. If you find this briefing useful, please share it with a colleague or friend who should be following Nordic and European digital‑finance news more closely. Wishing you a great start of the week — and welcome back on Tuesday morning for the next edition of Kaupr Today.

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Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor