News

PANews, February 20th – According to The Block, Polymarket has acquired the prediction market API startup Dome, with the specific transaction amount undisclosed. Dome is a member of Y Combinator's Fall 2025 batch and provides a unified prediction market API, allowing developers to build applications, bots, dashboards, or trading tools across multiple platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi. Dome previously received $500,000 in funding from Y Combinator and completed a $4.7 million seed round. Its co-founders, Kunal Roy and Kurush Dubash, were both founding engineers at Alchemy. Polymarket was most recently valued at $9 billion. Previously, it acquired the US-regulated derivatives exchange QCEX. In addition, Polymarket has signed multiple distribution agreements with organizations such as Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Hockey League (NHL), and media companies like Substack.

BlockBeats News, February 20, according to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, the third meeting this morning on the "Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill" (i.e., the CLARITY Act) regarding stablecoin yield issues was smaller in scale than last week. Attendees included representatives from an exchange, Ripple, a16z, and crypto industry associations, with no bank representatives attending individually; the voice of the banking industry was conveyed through industry associations. There was a significant difference in this meeting: the White House led the discussion, rather than allowing crypto companies and banks to lead as in previous meetings.Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the White House Crypto Committee, brought a draft text that became the focus of the discussion. The text acknowledged the concerns raised by banks last week in the "Yield and Interest Prohibition Principle" document, and at the same time made it clear that in stablecoin-related legislation, a key goal of the crypto industry—earning yield on idle stablecoin balances—will be prohibited (Earning yield on idle balances is effectively off the table). The focus of the debate has now narrowed to whether crypto companies can offer stablecoin rewards tied to specific activities.The concerns of banks seem to stem more from competitive pressure rather than the initially assumed worry about deposit outflows. Sources from the banking sector said they are still striving to include a deposit outflow study in the draft—this study would examine the growth of payment stablecoins and their potential impact on bank deposits. In addition, the banking industry is encouraged by the proposed anti-avoidance clause, which would grant the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the authority to enforce the ban on paying yields on idle balances, and impose a civil penalty of $500,000 per violation per day.Sources said there is a possibility that discussions could be finalized by the end of the month, and negotiations will continue in the coming days.

PANews reported on February 20 that Matrixport released a research report on the X platform, pointing out that bitcoin has recently experienced a rapid decline, with option implied volatility once surging and then partially retreating. The price of bitcoin dropped from around $85,000 to a low near $60,000, before stabilizing at around $66,000. Meanwhile, the implied volatility for options expiring in March 2026 quickly rose from just above 40% to a panic high close to 65%, reflecting a strong demand for downside protection during the decline. Subsequently, implied volatility fell back to around 50%, indicating that some tail risk hedges are being unwound and short-term pressure has eased. The crypto market is approaching a critical inflection point: volatility remains high, sentiment hovers at extremely low levels, and market liquidity continues to flow out. Traders are gradually unwinding crash hedges, overall positions have become significantly lighter, and participation has also dropped markedly. Historically, this combination of characteristics often appears before major directional market moves. Although the macro environment has improved, crypto asset prices have yet to follow significantly, and such divergence is usually difficult to sustain for long.