Gate Daily (February 26): Circle's financial report boosts stock price up by 35%; Kalshi heavily fines MrBeast-related editor

Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a long-awaited rebound, currently around $68,480 as of February 26. Circle’s stock price surged over 35%, with the company releasing Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings: total annual revenue of $2.7 billion, up 64%, and USDC circulation growth of 72%. Kalshi disclosed two insider trading cases, with a gubernatorial candidate and an editor linked to MrBeast receiving heavy penalties.

Macro Events & Crypto Highlights

1. Prediction market platform Kalshi stated that over the past year, approximately 200 investigations have been opened, with multiple suspicious accounts frozen, and two insider trading violations closed: one involved a California gubernatorial candidate trading about $200 on their own campaign and posting on social media, banned for 5 years and fined ten times the initial trade amount; another involved an insider trading about $4,000, triggered by monitoring low-probability contracts with a “near-perfect win rate,” suspected to be an employee editing a program and possibly obtaining significant non-public information, resulting in a 2-year suspension and a fine five times the initial trade amount (recovered $5,397.58 + $15,000 fine). Both cases have been reported to the CFTC as required.

2. Circle (CRCL) stock rose about 30% after earnings release, nearing $80, closing at $83.33, up 35.47%. Previously, the company disclosed Q4 revenue and reserve income of $770 million, up 77% year-over-year, and projected USDC circulation to grow at a compound annual rate of 40% over the next few years. William Blair maintained a “market outperform” rating, calling it one of the few high-quality crypto infrastructure assets. The report showed Q4 profit margin (revenue minus distribution costs) exceeded 40%, benefiting from an average of about 18% USDC circulation directly held on the Circle platform; adjusted EBITDA was $167 million. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that, according to Visa standards, USDC now accounts for about 50% of stablecoin trading volume, with on-chain USDC transaction volume increasing over 250% YoY to approximately $120 trillion.

News Highlights

1. Vitalik has completed selling 94% of his ETH, with 905 remaining for sale.

2. Kalshi disclosed two insider trading cases: a gubernatorial candidate and an editor linked to MrBeast.

3. Hut 8 expects a net loss of $248 million in 2025, accelerating its transition from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure.

4. ETHZilla rebranded as Forum, shifting focus to RWA tokenized assets.

5. Circle’s stock surged over 35%, with USDC trading accounting for nearly half of stablecoin activity.

6. Ethereum Foundation released the Strawmap draft roadmap, targeting five major goals.

7. NVIDIA’s earnings: Q4 revenue of $68.1 billion, data center revenue of $62.3 billion, both surpassing market expectations.

8. Lighter’s ARC fee rate spiked abnormally to an annualized 2100%, with a large whale’s heavy position attracting short-sellers.

9. Hyperliquid’s largest ETH long whale has turned profitable, with a current profit of $2.75 million.

10. HyperLiquid joint project: 173,000 HYPE tokens will be unstaked and distributed to team members on March 6.

Market Trends

1. Latest Bitcoin news: BTC rebounded to around $68,480, with $236 million in liquidation over the past 24 hours, mainly short positions.

2. U.S. stock market on February 25 saw a broad rally, with the three major indices hitting two-week highs, driven by tech stocks. Before NVIDIA announced better-than-expected earnings after hours, market anxiety over AI disruption eased temporarily. Dow Jones rose 307.65 points (0.6%) to 49,482.15; S&P 500 up 56.06 points (0.8%) to 6,946.13; Nasdaq gained 288.40 points (1.3%) to 23,152.08; Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also up 1.6%.

(Source: Gate)

3. According to Gate’s BTC/USDT liquidation map, with current price at $68,328 USDT, if it drops to around $67,796, total long liquidation exceeds $214 million; if it rises to about $69,516, total short liquidation exceeds $117 million. Short liquidations are significantly lower than longs, suggesting traders should control leverage to avoid large-scale liquidations during market swings.

(Source: Coinglass)

4. In the past 24 hours, spot inflow was $4.78 billion, outflow $4.59 billion, net inflow $190 million.

(Source: Coinglass)

5. In the past 24 hours, net outflows were led by contracts for ETH, BTC, SOL, ADA, DOT, indicating trading opportunities.

Selected Insights from X KOL

Phyrex Ni (@Phyrex_Ni): “Although today’s rally looks good, it’s not easy to explain. Before the US stock market opened, BTC had a slight rebound, and after CRCL’s earnings report and US stocks opened, Bitcoin surged like it took medicine, rising over 8%, while CRCL nearly 35%. Many friends say today’s BTC rise is due to CRCL’s momentum, but that’s not quite accurate.”

“If it really was because of CRCL, then this BTC rally might just be a rebound. CRCL’s earnings are good, but they haven’t changed the overall market liquidity or the status of cryptocurrencies. It could be a sentiment-driven bottom-fishing rally, especially since today’s data shows the price is still attractive to investors.”

“Also, I didn’t expect that a single earnings report could push CRCL up 35% and drive Bitcoin up nearly 8%. I hope this emotional momentum can last a bit longer.”

“Looking at Bitcoin data, volume is up, turnover rate is down, which is a good sign. It indicates that short-term investors aren’t panicking and selling off, and some recent buyers are holding onto BTC. Early investors also show no signs of panic selling. These are positive signs. The chip structure is also very healthy; even when BTC was at $90,000 a month ago, the chip structure was similar to now, with increasing stability among profit and loss investors.”

Today’s Outlook

1. US initial jobless claims (seasonally adjusted, thousands) for the week ending 0221, previous value 206,000.