Odaily News, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan published a Secretary's Essay titled "'AI+' and 'Finance+' Mutually Promote Each Other," pointing out that we are currently at a critical juncture of technological innovation. Artificial intelligence is not only a core technology of the future but also a tremendous force capable of impacting thousands of industries. The innovation within financial services itself further aids the real economy in expanding incrementally and overcoming pain points. Technological innovations such as AI and blockchain are continuously empowering financial services, creating a more efficient and convenient transaction system, and opening new channels for various corporate activities including trade, financing, and risk management.
Odaily According to a report released by PeckShield on platform X, the crypto industry experienced 15 hacking incidents in February 2026, with cumulative losses amounting to $26.5 million. This represents a year-on-year decrease of 98.2% compared to February 2025 (losses of $1.5 billion, including $1.4 billion from Bybit), and a month-on-month decrease of 69.2% compared to January 2026 (losses of $86.01 million).
Odaily News: Trading on the Iranian stock market has been suspended until next week. A spokesperson for the Iranian Securities and Exchange Organization stated that currently only stock market trading is suspended. Details regarding the operational arrangements for spot trading or other financial markets within the capital market will be announced later. (CCTV News)
Odaily News Minnesota lawmakers have introduced a bill proposing a statewide ban on cryptocurrency automated teller machines (crypto ATMs), marking one of the most stringent regulatory measures against such devices in the United States.
House File 3642, introduced by DFL Representative Erin Koegel on February 23, 2026, aims to prohibit the "placement or operation of a virtual currency automated teller machine" anywhere in Minnesota and would repeal the existing regulatory framework established in 2024.
The proposal has garnered support from law enforcement and consumer advocacy groups, who point out that these devices have become a primary tool for scammers, particularly in "pig butchering" scams targeting the elderly. The Minnesota Department of Commerce strongly supports the bill, arguing that existing safeguards are ineffective against sophisticated fraud. The bill must pass the state House and Senate before being sent to the governor for signature. The Minnesota legislative session runs through May 2026. (Ibtimes)
Odaily News CITIC Securities research report states that on February 28 local time, the situation in Iran entered a phase of military conflict outbreak. The Iran situation is still rapidly evolving, and CITIC Securities expects it is difficult to predict and deduce based on the final scenario in one go; it is more likely to fluctuate continuously following important signals. CITIC Securities believes that whether potential changes occur in three key signals—U.S. military deployments, changes in Iran's political situation, and the scope of conflict spillover—will determine whether the impact on global markets is an amplified version of the "Twelve-Day War" of June 2025 or moves towards a more extreme scenario. To provide a reference for potential market impacts, CITIC Securities reviewed the market effects of eight major conflicts in the Middle East since 1970, which can be summarized as the following patterns: safe-haven asset gold outperforms the U.S. dollar, oil prices in the long term still depend on supply and demand, U.S. stock performance is directly related to the extent of U.S. military involvement and the course of the war, while there is no significant impact on Chinese assets. (Jin10)
Odaily News According to Hareesh V, Head of Commodity Research at Geojit Investments, escalating geopolitical risks could trigger a buying frenzy in precious metals, potentially driving New York silver futures back above $100 per ounce. Furthermore, the analyst stated that while the possibility of global gold prices reaching $6,000 cannot be ruled out under extreme circumstances, its trajectory will largely depend on how the conflict evolves. In the short term, increased market volatility and safe-haven sentiment are likely to sustain investor sentiment in supporting gold prices. Jigar Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at IndusInd Securities, believes that due to unprecedented strikes by the US and Israel against Iran, which have heightened tensions in the Middle East and raised concerns about potential disruptions to global energy supplies, New York gold futures are expected to gain new upward momentum driven by safe-haven buying. Since the beginning of the year, persistent geopolitical tensions have been supporting prices. Last Friday, gold closed higher, and the precious metals market is likely to gap up again on Monday. (Jin10)
Odaily News Nasdaq-listed Sui treasury company Sui Group Holdings has released its full-year 2024 operational performance report. The report discloses a net loss of $221.8 million for Q4 last year. As of February 23, its SUI token holdings have increased to 108,368,594 tokens, nearly all of which are staked, generating a daily average yield of approximately 5,000 SUI. The company also disclosed that it has completed the repurchase of 7,801,042 common shares under the previously approved $50 million share repurchase program, representing 8.80% of the issued common shares. (Businesswire)
Odaily News Nasdaq-listed Antelope Enterprise Holdings Limited (AEHL) announced that it has officially launched its digital asset allocation "Genius Plan" and completed its first $1 million BTC purchase. The plan will adopt a phased accumulation approach to gradually build a structured portfolio system, aiming to establish a Bitcoin allocation and capital recycling framework. It seeks to buy the dip during significant market declines and rapid shifts in investor sentiment towards fear, exploring a new model of crypto-equity linkage between Wall Street capital and the digital asset ecosystem. (Globenewswire)
Odaily News: Bakkt, the cryptocurrency trading platform owned by the New York Stock Exchange, announced the pricing of its registered direct offering of 3,024,799 shares of Class A common stock and prepaid warrants. Each prepaid warrant is exercisable for up to 2,475,201 shares of Class A common stock. The offering price is $8.75 per share and $8.7499 per prepaid warrant, with total gross proceeds expected to be approximately $48.125 million. The transaction is anticipated to close on or about March 2, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. (Globenewswire)
Odaily News According to Lookonchain monitoring, a whale today opened 40x leveraged BTC and 20x leveraged SOL long positions and suffered partial liquidation. The current liquidation price for the Bitcoin long position is $66,204.07, and the liquidation price for the SOL long position is $81.90.
Odaily News Hong Kong police announced that a total of 12,505 online shopping fraud cases were reported in 2025, an increase of 8.2% compared to 2024. The online shopping fraud case with the largest single loss amount for the year involved a cryptocurrency transaction. The victim joined a cryptocurrency trading group on Telegram and received a private message from a member in the group impersonating a Bittwatt (BWT) customer service representative, who requested a "verification code" as group entry verification. Subsequently, the scammer transferred all the virtual assets from the victim's cryptocurrency wallet connected to Telegram, resulting in a total loss exceeding HKD 3.7 million. The police remind the public to contact customer service through official channels when shopping online. Regardless of the form of transfer, always verify authenticity before making payments, carefully check payment details, and never click on unknown or suspicious links. (Hong Kong Commercial Daily)
Odaily News Iranian President Pezeshkian stated that Iran considers revenge its "legitimate right and duty" and will make every effort to fulfill this obligation. (Jin10)
Odaily News To align with the use of tokenization technology in the bond market, Hong Kong plans to provide guidance clarifying that debenture holder registers can be maintained using distributed ledger technology, and to explore the electronic signing of issuance documents and promote the digitization of bearer bonds. Zeng Gang, Chief Expert and Director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, believes this is a key institutional breakthrough for Hong Kong in promoting the deep integration of digital currency with traditional finance. After the Hong Kong government provides guidance, registration records on distributed ledgers will gain clear legal validity, equivalent to establishing a "language converter" between traditional financial infrastructure and the digital asset protocol layer, enabling institutions to confidently deploy related technologies within a compliant framework. (21st Century Business Herald)
Odaily According to price data analysis covering the period from July 17, 2010, to February 11, 2026, by digital asset management firm Bitwise Asset Management, the historical probability of investors incurring losses when holding Bitcoin for at least three years is only 0.70%. The longer the holding period, the lower the risk of loss. If investors hold Bitcoin for 5 years, the probability of loss drops to 0.2%, and for 10 years, it becomes 0%. In contrast, investors with holding periods of less than three years face higher risks. Specifically: the probability of intraday buyers experiencing unrealized losses is 47.1%, for those holding for one week it's 44.7%, for one month it's 43.2%, and even for one year, the probability of loss remains at 24.3%. Bitwise points out that the current Bitcoin price is around $65,000, representing a decline of approximately 50% from the high in October 2025. However, the realized price for the three-to-five-year holding cohort is about $34,780, indicating that investors within this range are still in a state of approximately 90% unrealized profit. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News According to the updated paid partnership policy on the X platform, financial products, services, or opportunities (including loans, investment services, cryptocurrency, buy-now-pay-later services, and other related financial content) have been listed as prohibited industry categories for paid partnership promotion. Furthermore, the policy requires all paid partnership content to be clearly labeled with its commercial nature, such as "Ad" or "Promoted Content," within the post and to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Users who violate this policy may face penalties such as being required to delete posts or account suspension.
Odaily News Israeli Defense Forces stated on March 1 that the Israeli military has for the first time struck targets of the Iranian regime located in the central area of Tehran, Iran's capital. Several loud explosions were heard in Tehran, and plumes of smoke were seen rising. The Israeli military issued a statement saying that, guided by intelligence units, the Israeli Air Force has begun striking targets of the Iranian regime in Tehran. This marks the first time during this Israeli military operation against Iran that targets in the central area of Tehran have been struck. (Xinhua News Agency)
