The Crypto Minute

⤵️ Today’s Agenda:

• Why retail panic is peaking again with “Bitcoin going to zero” searches, even as institutions keep accumulating $BTC.

• Bitcoin spot ETFs are still sitting near $53B in net inflows after the outflow streak, and what that says about conviction versus capitulation.

• Polygon briefly flipped $ETH on daily fees as Polymarket activity surged, showing how one killer app can move an entire chain.

• The $43B Bithumb miscredit chaos and why South Korean regulators are getting dragged over oversight and basic internal controls.

• Stablecoins are quietly becoming crypto’s main product, why that can be bullish for rails like $ETH and L2s, plus a quick “don’t get drained” note with Earnifi and fake claim links.

• And more…

📰 News Recap (Feb 14–Feb 21)

People are googling “Bitcoin going to zero” again. Lmao. 😳

Google Trends for “Bitcoin going to zero” just hit the highest level since the post-FTX panic in Nov 2022. 😳 Institutions keep accumulating $BTC, while retail is googling whether to jump the ship. 🫠 What a classic.

Price action explains the mood. $BTC fell from the Oct. 6, 2025 all-time high near $126K to about $66.5K, close to a 50% drawdown. 📉 Fear and Greed is also in extreme fear around 9, the same cold zone people remember from Terra and FTX. 🧊

What’s different tho is the driver. This time the fear is coming more from macro headlines, and from one very bearish take getting repeated across media over and over. 🔁 Perception says Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone has been the most amplified “Bitcoin to zero” quote source this cycle. 📣

Retail usually arrives late. The data suggests public fear lags pro narrative shifts by about 10–14 days, so peak googling can show up after sentiment starts stabilizing. ⏱️

Quantum doom is still a background meme. ⚛️ Searches for “Bitcoin quantum” peaked in Nov 2025 and have trended down since. 📉 There’s fear that quantum computers could nuke blockchains.

Bitcoin ETFs are still up big, even with the recent outflow tantrum. 🤡

Let’s continue what we touched on above. 👇

US spot $BTC ETFs hit a high of about $63B in total net inflows back in October, and even after the recent wave of withdrawals they’re still around $53B overall. 😳

💸 That’s the total since launch, so the bigger picture is still strongly positive, and it’s miles above the early expectations of roughly $5B–$15B over the same period. 🧾

On top of that! 👉 $BTC is also about 50% below the Oct. 6, 2025 ATH near $126K, yet ETF investors haven’t sold out the way retail often does during drawdowns. 📉 It suggests a lot of this money is positioned for the longer term, not just chasing short-term pumps. 🧊

These spot ETFs only launched in early 2024, then helped drive the move into new highs ahead of the April 2024 halving, with inflows building through 2025 and peaking in October. 🔥

🔎 BlackRock’s $IBIT has been the headline example, reportedly the fastest ETF to reach $70B in AUM in under a year. 🏁

Polygon beat Ethereum on daily fees. 🚀 Why? 🤔

For the past three days, Polygon has posted higher daily transaction fees than $ETH, and the spike is being tied to Polymarket activity. 😳 

Token Terminal data shows Polygon pulled about $407K in fees on Friday vs Ethereum at roughly $212K, which is reportedly the first time Polygon has ever flipped Ethereum on daily fees. 💸

The gap cooled fast, but it’s still tight. On Saturday Polygon was around $303K while Ethereum came in near $285K. 📉 That’s basically neck and neck, but the headline is the demand is clearly shifting toward where users are actually transacting. 👀

Analyst Matthias Seidl from growthepie says the recent Polygon growth is “fully driven by Polymarket.” 📈 He shared that Polymarket generated just over $1M in fees on Polygon over the past 7 days, while the next biggest app was only around $130K. 🧾

Polygon also pointed out that one Oscars market category alone saw over $15M in wagers, running on Polygon underneath. 🎭 Stablecoin activity is ripping too, with a new weekly high of 28M $USDC transactions, and Polymarket uses Polygon based $USDC for trading. 🪙

South Korea regulators are getting grilled after Bithumb’s $43B Bitcoin mix-up. 💥

Crazy story where Bithumb almost lost $43B in $BTC. 😀Lawmakers are pressuring the Financial Services Commission after Bithumb reportedly credited customers with Bitcoin the exchange didn’t have during a Feb. 6 promo. 😳 

🔎 The claim is it sent 2,000 $BTC per user instead of 2,000 Korean won (about $1.40), totaling 620,000 $BTC, which briefly sparked a rush to sell. A huge mistake, if you ask me. 🤣

Politicians say this is not just a one-off bug. 🧾 They argue the FSC missed serious control flaws despite multiple inspections since 2022, and now the official probe is moving slowly. ⏱️ 

Bithumb says it recovered most of the miscredited assets, with about 125 $BTC still unrecovered, roughly $8.6M at current prices. 🧊 

The incident also reopens an awkward topic. 👉 South Korean authorities have had past custody scandals too, with seized $BTC reportedly disappearing from government cold wallets in prior years. 🫠

Alpha Leak 👉 Stablecoin Infra

Crypto keeps selling “the future of money,” but the thing people actually use every day is onchain dollars like $USDC and $USDT. 🪙 

🎯 Adoption is creeping up through boring routes that scale: trading pairs, payouts, remittances, prediction markets, and everything that needs a unit that does not swing 10% in a day. 🏌️ 2026 will be the year of stablecoins!

How can we trade it, though? 😈 More stablecoins moving around usually means more swaps, more perps, more lending, more liquidations, and more fees paid to the rails. 🚀 

That is why stablecoin growth can end up being a bullish signal for infrastructure like $ETH and the big L2s, because blockspace demand shows up as transactions, not vibes. ⚙️

This also shifts what “speculation” looks like. Instead of betting only on new narratives, the market starts pricing usage, who captures fees, and which chains become the default settlement layer for stablecoins. 💸

Projects/Assets To Watch 👇

• $ETH: base settlement layer thesis if stablecoin traffic keeps growing.

• $ARB: big L2 footprint, benefits when USDC flows and DeFi activity move off mainnet.

• $OP: another major L2 bet on higher transaction throughput and app-driven stablecoin usage. 

• $MATIC: often tied to consumer apps and stablecoin-heavy activity spikes.

• $AAVE: lending demand is mostly stablecoin-driven, so usage can translate into fee narrative.

• $UNI: DEX routing and stablecoin swap volume is a clean “usage” signal.

Trading Tool ⚙️ Earnifi

Earnifi is a wallet scanner that checks your address and tells you what you might be able to claim, like unclaimed airdrops, token rewards, sometimes NFTs or POAP style drops. 🧾

📣 You just drop in your public wallet address and it highlights potential claimables, then you verify through official links before you do anything. 👀 No more doomscrolling social media or going through 20 tracker pages. 😮‍💨

Want more free crypto from airdrops? Check out our airdrop tracker guide. 🚀

Earnifi can help you spot potential claims, but you still need to verify everything yourself. 🕵️‍♂️ Most airdrop scams follow the same pattern: a legit-looking page, rushed language, and a big “connect wallet and claim” button. ⏳ Just keep that in mind, Earnifi won’t save you from stupid!

What Earnifi Helps With 👇

• Scan an address for potential claimable rewards across ecosystems. 🔎

• Save time by consolidating “you might have something” into one place. ⏱️

• Set alerts so you don’t miss claim windows. 🔔

Basic Safe Workflow 👇

• Find the claim on Earnifi, then verify it via the project’s official site and socials. 🌐

• Use a burner wallet for claims, keep approvals tight, revoke often. 🔐

• If you already signed something sketchy, move funds and revoke approvals ASAP. 🧯