It’s still early, but if you squint, you can start to see the kind of things that will lead us out of the bear market: * The rise of agentic finance (see: Coinbase) * The rise of institutional DeFi (see: BlackRock/Uniswap) * Progress on quantum risk * Tokenization accelerating It takes a lot of positive data points to find a bottom, and there’s every chance there is another leg lower. But we’re at least starting to put a few points on the board.

Feb 12, 2026 · 3:08 PM UTC

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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
You're making a lot of people happy with this post
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
All of those are about Ethereum
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Yep. Just gotta get rid of the tourists, and then the fun can resume.
Jelle
@CryptoJelleNL
Feb 12
Just in the past few days ⏩ Goldman Sachs disclosed $1.1B in crypto holdings ⏩ BlackRock in talks with SEC to tokenise iShares ETFs ⏩ BlackRock announces collaboration with Uniswap In typical bear market fashion, the market doesn't care. Yet. Once we get rid of the fearful sellers; the strong-willed investors will reap the rewards of these developments. Adoption isn't stopping. It's accelerating. Bring on the next bull cycle.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Comes down to $BTC.D rising or falling, just like the whole move from 15k to 125k. Or every other speculative burst the space has had in the past. "Crypto" is a metric of how distracted we are.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
the shift to autonomous capital has started. _gamma agents printing good even in these conditions!
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Could we go lower? Yes. But agent wallets and tokenisation picking up isn’t nothing.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Bottoms form when structure improves, not when vibes flip. Agentic flows, institutional rails, quantum mitigation, tokenization momentum, those are structural shifts. Price can lag, but compounding fundamentals tend to win over time.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
The convergence Matt describes is exactly right: agentic finance + institutional DeFi + tokenization. But the real catalyst isn't any single development. It's that these three threads are now reinforcing each other. BlackRock on Uniswap validates the entire stack.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
No stupid Matt…people see 1 thing….people who support PedoCoin and those that don’t!
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan

ALT Happy If You Say So GIF
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
🦉
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Those are constructive themes long term, but narratives don’t end bear markets, liquidity and demand do. Good signs, just not confirmation yet.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
degen money moving where smart money moving coinbase and blackrock making plays now
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Absolutely 💯
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
mate, the catalysts are out there, just gotta be patient and see it play out, coil's getting tight
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Hey Matt! You got a dm 🫡
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Narratives quietly rebuilding.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
another leg down possible but foundation is forming
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Interesting list, but there's a pattern here worth noting: every "bear market exit" narrative sounds plausible precisely because it's unfalsifiable. Agentic finance is 6 months old. Institutional DeFi is TVL-light. Tokenization has been "next year" since 2019. What leads us out of bear markets isn't new narratives. It's new money. Follow the capital, not the pitch decks.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
$QANX will lead the layer 1 rally It actually could eat the market The age of utility is here No more VC pump dumps A case can be made this is the best blockchain ever Quantum resistant ANY language smart contracts Dev royalties 👀 EVM (1 click from ETH) Hybrid MC $30M
QANplatform
@QANplatform
Feb 2
We are thrilled to announce that the supercharged QAN TestNet is live!⚡️ This upgraded network now features the fully integrated versions of both the 🔵 QVM: QAN Virtual Machine enabling developers to write smart contracts in any programming language, and the 🔵 QAN XLINK: our cross-signer protocol that makes QANplatform quantum-safe key components, recently audited by Hacken, marking a pivotal moment in our development roadmap. Ready to dive in? Find the full guide at: docs.qanplatform.com/testnet…
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
* Mortgage-backed stablecoins (first of its kind) x.com/stable_tweets/status/2…
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
So ETH will pull us out of the bear market is what you’re saying
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
You talk about Ethereum, without saying Ethereum Why is this so hard to do?
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Name the thing that is tightly connected with all these points, come on you can do it , here I can help you. ETHEREUM
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
forgot about spx6900
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Brian Armstrong dumped a ton of COIN stock. Not sure if Big Banks are going to let the Clarity Act include rewards or interest income on Stablecoin. My guess is that Clarity will get gutted and watered down eventually passing but wont benefit crypto. Not looking good for $BMNR
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Yes, Matt, great points. Would also add Clarity Act getting over the finish line & traditional banks adopting BTC and creating services around it as potential catalysts to take us out of this bear market. I think we're getting close to a bottom. See my mean reversion indicator below. As @_Checkmatey_ says, most of the pain is *probably* done. Now it's first and foremost a matter of carving out a bottom & time capitulation.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Sentiment flips fast. Structural progress compounds slowly. The latter is what really ends bear markets.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Agentic finance is automating wealth management. Institutional DeFi scales via BlackRock. Tokenization bridges global capital markets.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
At least there is a bull market in crypto retards. You got that going for you
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
* DePIN fundamentals still progressing
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
"The rise of institutional DeFi (see: BlackRock/Uniswap)" - ....and @Securitize! :)
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Matt, do you see crypto and more importantly Bitcoin still gaining in value without the Clarity act passing?
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Digitization (AI, AV, humanoid) leads to drastic adoption of stable and crypto rails, the deflationary pressure from efficiencies leads to printing in a debt based system.. the thesis is playing out on the bull case trajectory imo
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Agree. Still fragile, but the quality of builders and capital entering now is very different from prior cycles.
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Replying to @Matt_Hougan
Just say Ethereum, you mf
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