This content is provided by a sponsor. PRESS RELEASE. Victoria, Seychelles, February 6, 2026 — Bitget, the world’s largest Universal Exchange (UEX), today announced the launch of the Bitget Fan Club, a new community initiative designed to bring users closer into the platform’s growth journey through structured participation, product collaboration, and content-driven engagement. The Bitget […]
Sberbank moves toward crypto-backed lending as Russia readies regulation
Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, is moving toward offering loans secured by cryptocurrency and said Friday it is prepared to coordinate with the country’s central bank on shaping the necessary regulatory framework, according to Reuters.
The lender has already tested the model in January. The bank issued the country’s first bitcoin-backed loan to one of its largest bitcoin miners, IntelionData, calling the transaction a pilot and suggesting it was keen to issue more in the future.
The volume of digital financial asset issuances on the platform hit 408 billion rubles (about $5.3 billion) in 2025 — an increase of 5.6 times versus 2024 (73 billion rubles, or $948 million) and 204 times greater than 2023 (2 billion rubles or $26 million).
Sberbank’s regulated digital financial asset (DFA) business expanded rapidly in 2025, with total issuance reaching RUB 408 billion ($4.9 billion), more than 5.6 times the 2024 level, while the bank’s own DFA holdings grew sevenfold in six months to RUB 185 billion ($2.2 billion).
The growth comes alongside a still-dominant traditional balance sheet: in December, Sber’s corporate loan portfolio stood at RUB 30.4 trillion ($365 billion), its retail loan book at RUB 18.8 trillion ($226 billion), and client deposits at RUB 33.1 trillion ($398 billion), highlighting the relatively small but fast-scaling role of tokenized assets within Russia’s largest lender.
When announcing the trial loan, Anatoly Popov, Sberbank’s deputy chairman, said the bank already offers clients structured bonds and digital financial assets with investments in bitcoin and ether. Popov also said the bank was currently testing decentralized finance (DeFi) instruments and supports the gradual legalization of cryptocurrencies within the Russian legal framework.
Another major lender, Sovcombank, became the first Russian bank to roll out crypto-backed lending on Feb. 5 to individuals and businesses legally holding bitcoin.
In December 2025, it reopened the cryptocurrency market to the public with new rules laid out by the country’s central bank. Officials expect to complete legislation governing crypto assets by July 1, 2026.
Sberbank said the planned lending program would target not only mining companies but also businesses that hold cryptocurrency on their balance sheets.
XRP Rebounds as Whale Accumulation and Network Activity Signal Price Reversal
XRP is rebounding sharply as crypto risk appetite returns, according to a new analysis highlighting heavy whale accumulation and surging network activity that signal renewed momentum after a steep sell-off, positioning the token as a market standout. XRP Rebound Gains Strength as Whales and Network Activity Surge At 4:12 p.m. on Feb. 6, XRP is […]
PBOC Officially Bans ‘Unapproved’ Yuan-Pegged Stablecoins
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, and seven Chinese regulatory agencies published a joint statement on Friday banning the unapproved issuance of Renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
The ban applies to both domestic and foreign stablecoin and tokenized RWA issuers, according to the statement, which was also signed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China’s Securities Regulatory Commission. A translation of the announcement said:
“Stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies perform some of the functions of fiat currencies in disguise during circulation and use. No unit or individual at home or abroad may issue RMB-linked stablecoins without the consent of relevant departments.”
Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at New York University (NYU) Law School and former Managing Director of CIC, China’s sovereign wealth fund, told Cointelegraph that the ban extends to the onshore and offshore versions of China’s Renminbi, also called the yuan.
“The Beijing crypto ban rule applies across all RMB-related markets, whether CNH or CNY,” he said. CNH is the offshore version of the Renminbi, designed to give the currency flexibility in foreign exchange markets, without sacrificing currency controls, Ma said.
“This is the latest step in a multi‑year project: Keep speculative crypto outside the formal financial system, while actively promoting the usage of e-CNY, the sovereign CBDC issued by China’s central bank,” he said.
The announcement follows the Chinese government approving commercial banks to share interest with clients holding the country’s digital yuan, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) managed by state authorities.
Related: China’s interest-bearing digital yuan piles pressure on US stablecoin rules
Chinese government briefly considered yuan-pegged stables, but focused on CBDC instead
In August 2025, reports began circulating that China’s government was considering allowing private companies to issue yuan-pegged stablecoins, a major reversal of long-standing policy.
However, the Chinese government restricted stablecoin and digital asset issuance in September of that same year, instructing stablecoin issuers to pause or halt their stablecoin trials until further notice.
In January 2026, the PBOC approved commercial banks paying interest to digital yuan wallets in a push to make the CBDC more attractive to investors.
Magazine: China officially hates stablecoins, DBS trades Bitcoin options: Asia Express
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
Galaxy Digital shares jump 18% after company approves $200 million buyback
Shares of Galaxy Digital (GLXY) jumped 18% to $19.90 on Friday after the company approved a share repurchase program of up to $200 million, giving it authority to buy back its Class A common stock over the next 12 months.
The buybacks may be executed through the open market, privately negotiated transactions or other methods, including trading plans under Rule 10b5-1, the company said. Galaxy added that it retains the right to suspend or discontinue the program at any time, depending on market conditions and other factors.
The announcement signaled confidence from management that Galaxy’s shares are undervalued and that the firm has excess capital to deploy. Share repurchase programs often support stock prices by reducing the number of shares outstanding, which can boost earnings per share and signal balance-sheet strength. In volatile markets, buybacks can also reassure investors that management believes the company’s fundamentals remain intact.
“We are entering 2026 from a position of strength, with a strong balance sheet and continued investment in Galaxy’s growth,” said Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy. “That foundation gives us the flexibility to return capital to shareholders when we believe our stock doesn’t reflect the value of the business.”
The sharp move higher reflects investor approval of that message.
Galaxy reported fourth-quarter earnings earlier this week that initially weighed on the stock. The company posted a net loss of $482 million for the quarter, sending shares down initially. Despite the quarterly loss, Galaxy said it generated $426 million in adjusted gross profit for the full year and ended the year with $2.6 billion in cash and stablecoins, underscoring its liquidity position.
Other crypto stocks and major cryptocurrencies were also green no the day’s trading, with bitcoin climbing back to $70,000 and ethereum breaking $2,000 over the last 24 hours. Coinbase (COIN) had climbed over 10% to $163. In more traditional markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 50,000 for the first time.
Sui Network partners with Coinbase as exchange adopts Sui token standard
Sui Network, a high-performance layer-1 blockchain platform, and Coinbase, a leading crypto exchange, announced a partnership today to expand institutional and retail access via the Sui token standard.
Excited to announce we’re partnering with @Coinbase as they adopt the Sui token standard, making it easier than ever for institutions, builders, and everyday users to participate in the Sui ecosystem. pic.twitter.com/nzPW2Pu1V1
— Sui (@SuiNetwork) February 6, 2026
The collaboration aims to improve accessibility of Sui tokens across Coinbase’s platform, targeting broader adoption among both individual investors and institutions.
The partnership builds on Coinbase’s December move to enable SUI trading for New York residents, a key milestone under the state’s stringent BitLicense regime. Sui became more accessible to a regulated retail base, widening its reach in one of the toughest crypto jurisdictions.
Bitwise also filed in December for a SUI ETF that would use Coinbase Custody for asset storage, adding to the competition for Sui-focused investment products.
SUI traded near $1 at press time, up 14% on the day after recovering from yesterday’s lows of $0.78 during Bitcoin’s drop below $60K.
XRP Jumps Nearly 20% as Ripple Teases Major XRPL Upgrades
The token is outperforming the broader crypto market amid a string of Ripple announcements.
XRP outperformed the broader cryptocurrency market on Friday, Feb. 6, rising nearly 20% over the past 24 hours.
The token was trading around $1.50, after briefly touching a high near $1.53, per The Defiant’s price page. XRP’s market capitalization now stands at about $91.3 billion. XRP also strengthened against Bitcoin (BTC), gaining more than 13% on the BTC pair, according to CoinGecko. Meanwhile, 24-hour trading volume climbed to roughly $16.5 billion.
The rally came as investor sentiment improved following a series of Ripple announcements this week, with the latest being the company teasing major upgrades to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) on Feb. 5.
In a blog post, Ripple outlined how new and upcoming features on the XRP Ledger would expand XRP’s real-world utility beyond payments. The company also said that XRP is increasingly being used across stablecoin settlement, FX, tokenized assets, and lending.
“With each use case, XRP’s role becomes more intertwined in institutional finance, either as the asset being moved, the bridge facilitating exchange, or the reserve currency backing network security,” the post reads.
Earlier this week, the team also announced that Ripple Prime added support for Hyperliquid – the largest decentralized perpetual futures platform by trading volume and open interest (OI), according to DeFiLlama. The move aims to provide institutional clients with on-chain derivatives liquidity through Ripple’s prime brokerage platform.
“At Ripple Prime, we are excited to continue leading the way in merging decentralized finance with traditional prime brokerage services, offering direct support to trading, yield generation and a wider range of digital assets,” said Michael Higgins, International CEO, Ripple Prime. “This strategic extension of our prime brokerage platform into DeFi will enhance our clients’ access to liquidity, providing the greater efficiency and innovation that our institutional clients demand.”
XRP’s rebound comes amid a broader market downturn that has stretched for weeks. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading under $70,000 – a price point not seen since Nov. 2024. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) is currently changing hands at $2,000, down 25% on the week.
‘Mathematical Limit’ Reached? BTC Reclaims $71,000 as RSI Hits Oversold Levels
On Feb. 6, 2026, bitcoin rebounded 15% from the previous day of just below $60,000 to over $71,000, restoring its $1.4 trillion market cap after a sharp selloff. Liquidation Engine: The Mechanics of the Rebound On Feb. 6, 2026, bitcoin finally halted a harrowing freefall that had effectively neutralized the “Trump Bump,” erasing nearly all […]
Enterprises Don’t Care About Anthropic’s Super Bowl Ad
Super Bowl 60 is this weekend, and the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are not the only ones battling for a title.
Generative AI startups and bitter rivals OpenAI and Anthropic are using the premier U.S. sports event to release ads and promote products, as both model makers endeavor to win over consumers and enterprises. However, while Anthropic’s ads are entertaining, the winner of the AI race won’t be the vendor that puts out the most targeted ads, but the one that provides the best value. Although OpenAI is expected to release a 60-second ad on Feb 8. Super Bowl Sunday, Anthropic this week previewed four different Super Bowl commercials (OpenAI has not previewed its commercial).
All the Anthropic spots have the same premise. A human character is sharing or asking a question to a chatbot-like character. The chatbot starts answering the question, then pivots to promoting a product or an ad. Each commercial ends with the same tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
That Claude ad tagline is a direct shot at its adversary, a humorously barbed response to the ChatGPT maker’s declaration on Jan. 16 that it would start testing ads in the free version of its globally popular AI chatbot, after previously saying the move would be a “last resort” in 2024.
Anthropic’s commercial is the latest salvo in the high-pitched AI battle between the two frontier model makers, highlighting the increasingly tense push-and-pull in their fight to become the premium AI provider of choice for enterprises and consumers.
While OpenAI has been the leader in the consumer market, with 800 million to 900 million active ChatGPT users each week, Anthropic has carved out a reputation as the gold standard in the enterprise, and it has momentum. The vendor, founded by former OpenAI executives and researchers, has positioned itself as a responsible AI model maker with its Constitutional AI framework and Model Context Protocol generative AI standard, making it a preferred choice in enterprises over OpenAI. At least for now. Google, which competes with independent generative AI vendors, has also seen notable progress with its Gemini model family, for both businesses and consumers.
Two Different Customers
“We’re talking about consumer versus enterprise,” said David Nicholson, an analyst at Futurum Group.
But both vendors are also trying to gain ground in markets where the other vendor dominates. Anthropic is trying to make a play in the consumer arena, while OpenAI is trying to show it is enterprise-ready, with a full stable of models for business use.
“They are going after each other for the areas that they are trying to get into, and Anthropic is saying, ‘We’re all enterprise, we’re not going to sell your data for ads,'” said Ray “R” Wang, CEO and founder of Constellation Research.
In response to Anthropic’s commercials, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman posted on X that while the ads are “funny,” they are also “dishonest.”
“Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people,” Altman wrote. “We are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions.”
Altman added that more Texans use ChatGPT for free than use Claude in the U.S., an assertion that is likely all but unverifiable.
The battle has seen nearly daily skirmishes in the run-up to the Super Bowl, which has for decades served as a stage for the most spectacular and ingenious ads by major companies.
OpenAI also released its Frontier model on Feb. 5, which competes directly with Anthropic’s Claude Cowork AI agent. That product release sparked a panicky market sell-off of legal information providers’ stocks earlier this week, when Anthropic launched a series of plugins for vertical industries, including legal, triggering fear among traditional software suppliers in certain sectors. Meanwhile, the Frontier platform helps enterprises build, deploy, and manage AI agents to function as AI coworkers. A few hours later on Feb. 5, Anthropic introduced Opus 4.6, an upgrade of its popular advanced reasoning model. The model supports a massive million-token context window, enabling it to process codebases and large legal and financial documents.
The dueling releases, particularly Anthropic’s Cowork, kicked off an intense debate in the tech world about the rapid inroads of generative AI models, particularly Anthropic’s, into applications long dominated by software companies, with many heralding the “death of SaaS” at the hands of large language and other AI models.
Meanwhile, the staccato retaliatory strikes between Anthropic and OpenAI shows that the consumer and enterprise AI markets are, in some ways, intertwined.
“What’s happening in the enterprise is also what we call this consumerization of IT,” said Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner. “‘I am using this tool in my personal life. It is phenomenally helpful. And you know what? I want to use that in my workplace.’”
Because of that, even though Anthropic has found success in the enterprise market, it can’t ignore the consumer market, Chandrasekaran added.
A Push for Enterprise
On the other hand, while OpenAI is a leader in AI technology, the vendor appears unable to generate sufficient revenue, at least in the short term, without success in selling to enterprise customers. In the past few months, the vendor has partnered with SaaS providers such as ServiceNow and cloud data platform vendor Snowflake, indicating it is positioning itself in the enterprise market. Anthropic also rolled out a partnership with ServiceNow, the big IT self-service vendor.
OpenAI’’ release of platforms like Frontier is also an attempt to prove that it is enterprise-ready.
“It is a stake in the ground to say that, ‘Hey, we want to be hyper focused on the enterprise,'” Chandrasekaran said, adding that the vendor has shifted away from concentrating on future technologies such as superintelligence to more near-term projects. “They definitely want to focus more on the enterprise because they believe that both Google and Anthropic have had a really surprising surge in 2025 in terms of enterprise traction.”
However, proving to be enterprise-ready is not as easy as just releasing a product, Wang said. He said that while OpenAI is working to prove itself by hiring key executive talent such as Salesforce’s former Slack CEO, Denise Dresser, the model maker still has a long way to go.
“Culturally, they’re not ready,” Wang said. He added that for a vendor to be enterprise-ready, it must have clear, consistent roadmaps that enterprises can feel comfortable with. It must have customer service and on-site engineers who can help buyers succeed.
“You’ve got to make sure that these enterprise motions are consistent because a CIO’s and a CEO’s job is on the line, counting on your technology,” Wang said.
Compared with OpenAI, Anthropic and its chief commercial officer, Paul Smith, already have a plan in place to help enterprises succeed, Wang added.
“OpenAI, on the other hand, is just starting,” he said. “They’ll get there, but they don’t look like they’re enterprise-ready yet.”
Only an Ad
On the other hand, Anthropic won’t win this competition with a Super Bowl commercial.
“The really important moves that will happen from an OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s perspective will not be happening on television screens during the Super Bowl,” Nicholson said. “They’ll be happening in Zoom meetings and face-to-face meetings between the sales organizations of those two companies and the partners through which their capabilities will be delivered to enterprise customers.”
He added that it’s unlikely a CIO or CTO would be swayed by a Super Bowl commercial, even with more than 100 million pairs of eyeballs trained on it.
“What they will be swayed by is how effectively their existing SaaS providers are able to leverage these capabilities,” Nicholson added. “No one cares if it’s OpenAI or Anthropic, if what’s being delivered is an intelligent, authentic capability within my business and reasoning over my private data.”
Going Public and a Bigger Race
Nevertheless, Anthropic’s Super Bowl strategy will likely help shape public perception as the vendor races toward an IPO. The same holds for OpenAI, with its own ad and IPO aspirations.
“Whoever goes public first sets the tone in terms of the valuations, so they are all rushing to get out before Q4,” Wang said.
However, as both vendors fight it out in the enterprise and consumer arenas, a larger competition is playing out.
“Both Anthropic and OpenAI are now competing with Google Gemini for the enterprises,” Wang said.
And that high-stakes competition goes beyond Google, Chandrasekaran noted. The two feisty independents are also vying with hyperscalers such as AWS and Microsoft, as well as SaaS companies such as Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday, and platform vendors such as Databricks and Snowflake, for enterprise attention in agentic AI and as the top enterprise choice.
“This is in some sense an expanded battle,” Chandrasekaran said. “This is really wanting to be that layer for building continuous workflows … in the future. All these companies are trying to put a stake in the ground to say that they are the platform that customers should look at.”
Bitcoin Price Roars Above $71,000 After Days Of Sell-Offs
The bitcoin price rebounded sharply Friday after a steep sell-off over the previous 24 hours, climbing briefly climbing above $71,000, a jump of $11,000 from its $60,000 low earlier in the 24-hour session.
The move came after several turbulent market sessions that saw the flagship cryptocurrency break key psychological support levels in a matter of hours. On Thursday, February 5, the Bitcoin price plunged as global financial markets deteriorated, with major stock indices sliding sharply and pushing investors out of riskier assets.
The sudden downturn was linked to broader macroeconomic stress, including weak earnings reports and steep declines in technology stocks, which intensified a flight to safety among traders.
Data compiled Thursday showed Bitcoin’s value dipping to its lowest since late 2024, signaling growing bearish sentiment among market participants.
The digital asset had retreated more than 40% from its all-time high above $126,000 reached in October 2025, underscoring the severity of the downturn.
Also, as the bitcoin price collapsed yesterday, forced liquidations boomed with over $1 billion in positions wiped out over the past 24 hours, predominantly long bets facing automatic close-outs as BTC broke key levels.
Crypto stocks rebound as Bitcoin price recovers
Despite Thursday’s losses, Bitcoin price’s rebound Friday saw prices climb from the $60,000 region back above the $70,000 mark, reflecting a nearly 15% recovery from intraday lows.
Crypto-related stocks saw massive gains as well. Strategy ($MSTR) shares were up 21% on the day, while Coinbase ($COIN) and Circle ($CRCL) and Robinhood ($HOOD) shares all jumped 10-15%
Bitcoin-linked equities also posted sharp gains, led by MARA Holdings (MARA), which climbed 21.03% to $8.14, and TeraWulf (WULF), up 19.55% to $14.25. Riot Platforms (RIOT) rose 16.54% to $14.05, while Cipher Mining (CIFR) added 15.47% to $14.66.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) increased 15.43% to $20.08, and Core Scientific (CORZ) gained 10.43% to $16.36. Neptune Digital Assets (NDA) also advanced, rising 11.43% to $0.78
During the drop, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a spot Bitcoin ETF managed by BlackRock that lets investors gain exposure to Bitcoin without holding the crypto directly, crushed its daily volume record with about $10 billion worth of shares traded — even as its price plunged 13%, marking the second‑worst one‑day drop since the fund’s launch.
Currently, bitcoin is trading at $70,661.