Even BlackRock Can't Move These Markets

Olivia Capozzalo & Squiffs _
February 12, 2026

gm Defiers!

Today’s big story:

• After BlackRock’s Uniswap investment failed to spark a sustained rally, everyone should be asking themselves: if this can’t make the space go up, what can?

In other news:

• Lombard launches Bitcoin DeFi product
• Prediction market OI crosses $1B
• Provenance TVL jumps almost 600% since November
• Rocket Pool’s Saturn One Upgrade [SPONSORED]

Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.

Stellar: The Proving Ground for Real-World Privacy

The latest Stellar upgrade, X-Ray, delivers zero-knowledge cryptography that lets developers build privacy into their apps—protecting what matters while keeping Stellar radically open, trusted, and ready for real-world finance.

We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today

📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours

	TICKER	VALUE	24H
	Bitcoin	$65,472	-2.64 %
	Ethereum	$1,917.87	-1.22 %
	XRP	$1.36	-1.26 %
	BNB	$606.47	-0.54 %
	Solana	$77.61	-2.69 %

Today’s Big Story

UNI’s Short-Lived Rally Shows Even BlackRock Buying Altcoins Can’t Reverse Current Sentiment

If you were to tell anyone in 2017, 2021, or even in the first half of 2024, that the largest asset manager in the world would soon be investing directly into DeFi tokens, they’d bet their life that, if that were to happen, every single token under the sun would be screaming to new all-time highs.

Yet, here we are with BlackRock, which manages over $14 trillion, investing in Uniswap (purchasing an undisclosed amount of UNI as part of a strategic partnership), and not only has the altcoin space hardly budged, but UNI itself is down 7% today and 2% over the last week.

UNI 7-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko

Considering the circumstances, the pump UNI made yesterday on the news was pathetic and short-lived — a mere 27% rally up to $4.36 before retracing the entire move by this morning.

The development is yet another massive blow to the crypto space’s morale. Because at this point, everyone should be asking themselves: if BlackRock directly investing in altcoins can’t make the space go up, what can?

Early 2024 was the last time the altcoin space felt “normal” and the average crypto participant was actually optimistic about where their coins might go this cycle.

Throughout the first half of the year, calls of liquidity fragmentation began rising, showing some cracks in the altcoin market, which were eventually blown open by the rampant rise of memecoins, financial nihilism, the “celebrity token meta” and everyone’s ability to launch tokens with no code.

Concerns were rightfully raised at the time, but mostly pushed to the side as “a phase,” and were completely disregarded following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, which provided two months of euphoria that pushed the altcoin space to its cycle highs.

However, following the TRUMP and LIBRA memecoin launches in early 2025, and the tariff liberation day selloff last spring, all sentiment has been completely destroyed. BTC recovered to all-time highs, and technically the total crypto market cap did too, but sentiment and belief in the space did not.

Then, immediately after BTC broke out above $123,000 in October, 10/10 happened and extinguished any last bit of hope people really had. The sequence of events over the last couple of years has been enough to emotionally break anyone, and it has.

Since then financial nihilism is the consensus, and it's showing in the way this market trades. Some are calling it “the end of the wild west” while others think the space is on a slow and steady bleed to zero.

Regardless of where you sit on the state of the market, a leading DeFi token is at its lowest price since 2020 the day after news broke that BlackRock is buying it, and if that doesn’t scream “bear market,” I have no idea what does.

Squiffs, resident degen at The Defiant

Forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe for daily insights and curated news from The Defiant team, Monday-Saturday. It’s free.

Subscribe to Defiant Daily

🎬WATCH

Rebuilding Global Payments with Stablecoins | Circle & USDC with Nikhil Chandhok

In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Cami sits down with Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Circle, explains why USDC is more than a digital dollar — it’s a global financial network.

We discuss economic inclusion, internet-scale finance, programmable payments, emerging markets, AI-driven payments, and why stablecoins are becoming the backbone of global money movement.

Watch the full interview:

Top News in the Past 24 Hours

Lombard Launches Smart Accounts to Connect Institutional Bitcoin to DeFi

DeFi protocol Lombard has launched Bitcoin Smart Accounts, a new product that allows institutions to use their Bitcoin in DeFi without moving it out of their custody.

Why it matters: The move lets institutions borrow against their BTC or potentially earn yield without transferring the underlying assets out of custody.

Prediction Market Open Interest Crosses $1B as Super Bowl Boosts Bets

Open interest (OI) across crypto prediction markets just hit over $1 billion for the first time, a surge likely fueled by increased activity around the 2026 Super Bowl.

Why it matters: OI indicates the value of all currently active positions that have yet to be resolved, making it an indicator of capital inflow and liquidity.

Provenance Blockchain TVL Hits All-Time High of $1.2 Billion

The Provenance blockchain hit a new milestone this week, as its total value locked climbed to an all-time high of $1.2 billion. This marks a roughly 570% jump since early November 2025.

Why it matters: On-chain custody platform Figure Markets is currently the only protocol on Provenance, and the two were developed by the same entity, which currently leads in the tokenized private credit space.

Trending on The Defiant

• Bitcoin Falls Below $67,000 as Losses Broaden Across Crypto
• UNI Soars 30% Amid Strategic Investment from BlackRock
• Robinhood Launches Public Testnet for Ethereum Layer 2 Blockchain
• Interop Protocol LayerZero Unveils L1 Blockchain Zero
• Interactive Brokers Taps Coinbase for ‘Perpetual-Style’ Crypto Futures
• Kaito and Polymarket Unveil 'Attention Markets'

That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe