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• Coinbase is expanding its dedicated lending to XRP, ADA and DOGE holders. They can borrow up to $100,000 so they don’t have to touch their investments. Man is thus responding to the increasing need for liquidity-neutral financing.
• The loans that were previously granted to purchase BTC and ETH are now also available for other crypto assets. SThey are paid out in USDC and settled onchain via the decentralized lending protocol Morpho.

The loan is granted against the deposit of the cryptocurrency owned by the borrower as security. In return, USDC will be paid out. Lending is processed via Morpho.

Die expansion on XRP, ADA, DOGE and LTC is intended to expand the circle of potential borrowers. The Service is available throughout the United States, excluding New York State.

New options for retail investors

While Ethereum and Cardano already offer earning opportunities via native staking mechanisms, XRP, Dogecoin and Litecoin do not have comparable built-in reward models.

For many investors, crypto-backed loans are one of the few ways to obtain liquid assets without having to liquidate their positions.

Coinbase points out that borrowing against assets has tax advantages because, unlike selling, it does not trigger a capital gain that would have to be taxed as income.

At the same time, the exchange points out the risks: during strong market movements, the value of the collateral may fall below the required threshold, which leads to liquidations.

Customers receive warnings as soon as critical values ​​are reached, but underneath there is an additional buffer zone that Coinbase has created to minimize risk.

Technical features and market positioning

A technical detail concerns the form of the collateral: the deposited assets are treated as “wrapped tokens” to make them usable on Ethereum-compatible networks.

This enables integration with Morpho and other DeFi infrastructures. Coinbase also reported that there were $17.2 billion worth of XRP holdings in customer accounts at the end of the year.

By expanding lending, Coinbase is strengthening its position in crypto-collateralized financial services and giving retail investors greater access to liquid assets without having to abandon their long-term positions.

• World Liberty Financial, DarGlobal and Securitize want to tokenize the Trump International Hotel & Resort Maldives, planned for 2030, as a digital investment product.
• It would be a prominent example of the tokenization of luxury properties in the hospitality segment.

Die Initiative combines real estate development, brand licensing and digital assets in a model that is becoming increasingly important. The idea: transfer real assets into digital securities and issue and trade them via a blockchain infrastructure.

World Liberty Financial will tokenize Trump Hotel

Securitize takes care of the planning and technical implementation, the issuance of digital securities, investor screening and monitoring compliance with applicable securities laws and other regulations.

Investors can purchase shares in a real estate project without a mandatory minimum deposit and without having to be there in person. Tokenization is also intended to increase tradability and create secondary markets for previously illiquid assets.

DarGlobal, an international luxury real estate developer, is using the cooperation to make its projects accessible to a global audience. The company sees tokenization as an additional strategy to reach new investor target groups and at the same time diversify its capital raising.

The planned Maldives resort is an element of an expansion strategy in which DarGlobal is increasingly relying on digital financing models. The collaboration with World Liberty Financial and Securitize is intended to ensure that both technological and regulatory requirements are met.

Importance for the digital asset market

The tokenization of Trump International Hotel & Resort Maldives follows an evolving trend to make shares of high-quality real estate accessible as digital investment products. For the digital asset market, this means that tokenized real-world assets are becoming more relevant and establishing themselves as an independent asset class.

The participation of companies from real estate development, brand licensing and digital infrastructure shows that the industry is on the way to trusting and using blockchain-based financing models, provided they are regulated in a legally secure manner.

• Eric Trump reiterates his $1 million Bitcoin prediction despite the pullback of around 50 percent from the all-time high.
• He cites the gradual shift by large financial institutions and increasing crypto quotas in asset management as drivers.

Eric Trump reiterated his long-term Bitcoin price forecast in a CNBC interview on February 18 at the World Liberty Forum: The son of US President Donald Trump still believes a price of $1 million per BTC is realistic, despite the current price setback of around 50 percent. Trump explained:

“I’m a big supporter of Bitcoin. I really believe it will reach a million dollars. I think Bitcoin is one of the best performing asset classes.”

ERIC TRUMP JUST SAID LIVE ON CNBC THAT BITCOIN IS STILL GOING TO $1,000,000

„I’VE NEVER BEEN MORE BULLISH ON BITCOIN IN MY LIFE” pic.twitter.com/BQ3BkogVnP

— Vivek Sen (@Vivek4real_) February 18, 2026

Bitcoin on the way to a million?

To put things into perspective, he referred to previous lows: Two years ago, BTC was trading at around $16,000, today BTC is at around $67,000. However, Trump does not see the volatility of Bitcoin as a disadvantage, but rather as a feature of Bitcoin:

“And sure, there’s a lot of volatility. If you don’t want volatility, invest in some municipal bond – have fun with it,” said he. “Or buy Treasuries. You’ll have volatility on something that has huge upside potential.”

His message: If you don’t accept the fluctuations, you should consistently invest in classic products. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a bet on higher returns, but with greater price fluctuations.

Trump sees the most important driver not in a single catalyst or hype, but in the gradual change of direction of major financial institutions. He listed Fidelity, Charles Schwab, JP Morgan and BlackRock, as well as Goldman Sachs, and derived a trend from them:

“Every single one of them is adopting cryptocurrencies. They are willing to hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheet. They are bringing their private wealth clients into cryptocurrencies – after previously telling them: invest exactly zero in cryptocurrencies.”

According to Eric Trump, the portfolio recommendations are a clear indication:

“First it was two percent. And now it’s suddenly five or six percent. And that number continues to rise.”

The implicit theory behind this is that even small but growing target quotas at the financial giants are enough to generate a constant demand impulse without the need for a single event.

The statements come during a period of increased attention surrounding World Liberty Financial. Two Democratic US senators are calling for a CFIUS audit following reports of a $500 million infusion from the United Arab Emirates shortly before the 2024 US election.

• The major French bank Société Générale is now making its Euro stablecoin “EUR CoinVertible”, which was introduced in 2023 and available on Ethereum and Solana, also available on the XRP Ledger.
• This expands its multi-chain strategy, supported by Ripple’s custody service. The EURCV is one of the few fully regulated Euro stablecoins issued by a well-known major European bank.

The “executing body” is the subsidiary SG‑FORGE, which is wholly owned by Société Générale. It is subject to French banking supervision and meets the requirements of the MiCA regulation, which will become mandatory in the European Union from July 2026.

The Bank explainedthat the EURCV is covered one-to-one and was primarily developed for institutional applications. The expansion to the XRP Ledger creates additional interoperability so that Euro liquidity can be used on several chains in parallel.

This is particularly relevant for tokenized securities, onchain settlement and automated treasury processes.

XRPL as infrastructure for institutions

The XRP ledger has been the specialized infrastructure for fast, cost-effective and final transactions for years. For banks and institutional issuers, the combination of efficiency, legally sound regulation and technical stability is crucial.

As part of the integration, Ripple provides its Ripple Custody service, which is required for the custody and issuance of bank-grade digital assets.

SG‑FORGE also points to the suitability of XRPL for tokenized financial instruments, an area in which Société Générale is already active, such as digital bonds and onchain repo transactions.

Importance for the EU digital asset market

The availability of a regulated Euro stablecoin on the XRP Ledger strengthens its position in the institutional segment and goes hand in hand with the growing importance of European stablecoins as a basis for tokenized capital markets.

For Ripple, the cooperation is a further step towards establishing itself as an infrastructure provider for banks.

For Société Générale, the multi-chain strategy serves the goal of being able to offer its digital financial products flexibly, interoperably and across multiple channels.

The integration of EURCV on XRPL was an important step towards this goal.
More will follow.

• Garlinghouse dodged the bank purchase question and positioned Ripple as a bank-friendly bridge builder.
• He sold RLUSD as “almost overregulated” and said more U.S. regulatory clarity is drawing banks into the market.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse appeared at the Economic Club of New York on February 18th. And there was a question that he still had to answer: Does Ripple want to buy a bank itself at some point or will it just stick with partnerships?

There was no clear answer. Garlinghouse dodged. He used the moment to discuss Ripple’s line towards banks, the RLUSD approach and the topic of regulation in the USA.

Will Ripple buy a bank?

The moderator built the Ask about Ripple’s institutional positioning: BNY Mellon as custodian, plus a “conditional” OCC charter. And then pretty directly: Buy, integrate or continue to partner?

Garlinghouse immediately made it clear that he would not allow himself to be pinned down on this. “I’m going to sidestep part of your question,” he said. And then even more clearly: “And I will skip the question of whether we will ever buy a bank.”

The dodging itself was almost expected. What was more interesting was where he went instead: Ripple wants to continue to act as a bridge builder so that banks and large institutions can get in without it looking like a “crypto adventure” for them.

He called his own strategy “contrarian” and recalled how unpopular it was for a long time:

“Ripple pursued a contrarian and controversial market entry strategy early on – and that’s exactly what made us unpopular in the crypto scene. At the very beginning, Ripple said: Banks are our customers. If we want these technologies to have the greatest impact for the greatest number of people, then banks are the touchpoint where people actually live out their relationships with financial services.”

Garlinghouse contrasted this with the “anti-bank” and “anti-government” ethos of the early scene. Ripple consciously tried to mediate between TradFi and DeFi, with the aim of ultimately making “cheaper, better, more robust and faster” services possible. Not against banks. With you.

Ripple USD: “overregulated” as a selling point

When it came to stablecoins, he became more specific. Ripple launched RLUSD “13 months ago” and is now “around fifth place” among the largest stablecoins. That was a success, he said.

But the key point for him is less ranking – more trust in supervision. Trust license with the New York Department of Financial Services, plus an OCC “conditional approval” charter. Garlinghouse called it “so to speak, over-regulated.” And he meant this explicitly in a positive way, as a selling point for institutions:

“We think that positions us uniquely – as ‘almost over-regulated’, so to speak. But that’s exactly what we want because we work with institutions. We want them to see us as someone who goes above and beyond what’s necessary and ensures that this level of oversight is in place so that there are no questions left unanswered – like: Is the stablecoin really backed on a one-to-one basis? Are there regular confirmations of what those covers look like?”

Regulation and adoption in the USA

Later it was about legislation and what it changes in practice. Garlinghouse said Ripple has already seen how stablecoin rules give banks more security. He cited the Genius Act as an example.

He argued similarly with the Clarity Act: If there is a clearer definition of what a crypto asset is from a regulatory perspective – currency, security, commodity – then the barrier to entry drops. And big banks are more likely to move. Not because of marketing. Because of legal clarity.

He was fundamentally optimistic about tokenization, but not euphoric. He warned of “technology in search of a problem” rather than “problem in search of a technology.” He cited Larry Fink and BlackRock as prominent examples, which relied on tokenization “on a large scale.” He shares the thesis that a large proportion of assets could be tokenized – but not as a one-size-fits-all. More industry by industry. With real industry expertise.

The bottom line is that the bank purchase question remains open: quite obviously intentional. Garlinghouse didn’t want to slam a door. And no burping. Instead, he repeated Ripple’s line: bank-friendly, compliance-first, bridging TradFi and DeFi. Typical Garlinghouse.

• Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki has once again vetoed the implementation of the EU crypto regulation “Markets in Crypto Assets”.
• The presidential office confirmed that Nawrocki had not signed the bill and described it as “virtually identical” to the draft rejected in December.

Nawrocki signed eight other laws on the same day, refused however, the approval of the MiCAR. His reasoning: A bad law remains bad even if it is passed a hundred times.

Overregulation without freedom of innovation?

Nawrocki considers the Polish implementation of MiCAR to be overly controlling, too complicated and anti-innovation. He argues that the law opens the door to censorship and leaves no room for technological development.

The government should develop a new, simpler law that promotes secure framework conditions, tax clarity and real support for innovation. The president’s office signaled its willingness to work on a new version immediately. The question of why 26 other EU members can implement the law without any problems was not heard from the presidential office.

Regulatory vacuum endangers crypto industry

With the renewed veto, Poland remains without national MiCA implementation – a situation that is becoming increasingly problematic. The financial supervisory authority KNF points out that no responsible authority has yet been named for MiCA supervision.

At the same time, the EU transition period is approaching: from July 1, 2026, all EU member states must be fully MiCA compliant. This creates a significant risk for Polish crypto exchanges.

While providers with a MiCA license from other EU countries – such as Coinbase with a Luxembourg license – can operate in Poland without any problems, Polish crypto companies lack the option of national licensing.

Some are already preparing alternative forms of legal organization in order to avoid being forced out of the market.

Conflict instead of cooperation

The veto exacerbates the paradoxical ongoing Polish conflict between the president and the government in Warsaw, because the MiCAR issue is not the only point of contention.

While the experts are pushing for MiCAR to be implemented on time, Nawrocki is acting as a defender of economic freedom and technological openness – against them and his own government.

Although industry representatives welcome the rejection of over-regulation, they warn of the consequences of a regulatory vacuum.

Without an early compromise, Poland is likely to torpedo the EU’s uniform MiCA regulation – with potentially devastating consequences for Poland as a location, competitiveness and the future of the domestic crypto industry.

• The ECB uses the know-how of the ONCE Foundation to design the official app for the Digital Euro to be barrier-free. The aim is to ensure inclusion.
• All people, whether seniors, disabled or with little digital skills, should have practical access to the digital euro.

The cooperation between the European Central Bank and the Spanish ONCE Foundation is free of charge and follows the EU guidelines on accessibility, fundamental rights and digital participation.

The ONCE Foundation brings its many years of experience in the development of barrier-free digital applications. She advises the ECB on the technical requirements, supports the design of the app and tests the accessibility of the first prototypes.

ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone emphasized that accessibility and inclusion are central design principles of the Digital Euro and not additional downstream functions.

The ONCE Foundation brings experts who are themselves disabled into the project team in order to benefit not only from their technical know-how but also from their practical experience as those affected.

Guiding principle „Accessibility by Design“

The ECB follows the “Accessibility by Design” approach, which goes beyond the minimum requirements of the European Accessibility Directive. Accessibility should not only be checked at the end, but should be integrated into the concept, design and user interface from the start.

The app should be clearly structured, easy to understand and intuitive to navigate. The results of this work may later influence the requirements for payment service providers that develop their own applications for the Digital Euro.

At the same time, findings from vulnerable consumer groups are incorporated into the development. These emphasize the importance of simple onboarding processes, familiar payment processes and personal support in local branches.

People with little digital experience in particular expressed a desire for security, clarity and control over their finances.

Potential for more inclusion

The first innovation project for the Digital Euro with around 70 participants already identified concrete functions that can strengthen inclusion. These include voice-controlled transactions, large fonts, high-contrast user interfaces and guided usage paths.

The ECB sees these results as confirmation of its view that the digital euro must not only become a new means of payment, but also an instrument of digital participation.