1244 ET - Bitcoin is falling again, bringing year-to-date losses to 23%, according to FactSet data. While heightened market volatility rocked bitcoin last month, the drop-off comes amid higher spot trading activity on centralized exchanges like Binance, says CoinDesk Data in a note. The firm says that spot trading volumes increased by 5.8% to $1.55 trillion, while derivatives volumes inched up 1.3% to $4.4 trillion. CoinDesk also says that it's the first increase in spot trading activity seen in three months. Bitcoin is down 0.5% over the past 24 hours to $67,619.95, says CoinMarketCap -- with the fear and greed index at 13 out of 100, meaning "extreme fear." (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 17, 2026 12:45 ET (17:45 GMT)
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