Citi aims to make bitcoin ‘bankable’ while Barclays explores blockchain platform.
Bitcoin ended February down 15%, marking five consecutive months of losses and a decline of 48% since its all-time high of $126,500 in October 2025.
2026 is also the first time January and February have finished as back-to-back down months in bitcoin’s history, Simon Peters, cryptoasset market analyst at eToro.
March has already started off on the backfoot as tensions rise in the Middle East, triggering a flight from risk assets. If March finishes as a down month too, it would mark six consecutive down months and would be the second time this has occurred in bitcoin’s history.
Looking ahead this week, as well as monitoring any developments between the US and Iran, we have a slew of economic data from the US – ISM manufacturing and services PMI, ADP employment change, and the ‘big one’, non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate.
With the next Fed meeting happening later this month, these figures may very well have some weight on where interest rates go. The market is currently predicting the Fed to hold, but favourable data could potentially swing the pendulum towards a cut and in turn provide a much needed boost to cryptoasset prices.
BIGGEST MOVERS
$NEAR was up 17% last week, rising from $1.009 to $1.184 following the conclusion of NEARCON 2026 in San Francisco, where a number of AI products and network upgrades were released. The most notable releases were the Near.com Super-App, which will allow users to manage accounts across more than 35 blockchains through a single interface without any manual bridging, and ‘Confidential Intents’, a privacy execution layer for the NEAR Protocol designed to shield cross-chain transaction details from public view.
$DOT is also up 17% in the last week in anticipation of a major supply reduction on 14th March which will see the annual issuance of new DOT tokens reduced by just over 50%, from approximately 120 million tokens a year to 55 million.
Discover more here: https://www.etoro.com/discover/markets/cryptocurrencies/market-movers
EYE-CATCHING STORIES
Citi announces plans to integrate bitcoin into traditional finance. Barclays is exploring building a platform for stablecoin payments and tokenised deposits
Citibank, one of the United States’ largest banking institutions, last week announced plans to integrate bitcoin into its core banking systems.
Speaking at Strategy World in Las Vegas, Nisha Surendran, Head of Digital Asset Custody Development at Citibank, outlined that their goal is to make bitcoin ‘bankable’.
The new services will include providing institutional-grade custody of actual bitcoin (rather than just offering exposure through third-party instruments such as exchange traded funds), and providing key management and wallet services. They also plan to extend the same tax, reporting and compliance workflows currently used for traditional assets to bitcoin holdings.
The announcement from Citi positions it among a growing list of major US financial institutions moving to offer cryptoasset services to its clients, such as Morgan Stanley.
Although no exact launch date was given by Surendran, expectations are for the service to go live this year. Citi has not yet released details on fee structures or client requirements for access to the service.
Here in the UK, according to Bloomberg, Barclays is exploring building a blockchain platform to handle stablecoin payments and tokenised deposits, although discussions with technology providers are believed to be preliminary and Barclays has not publicly announced any launch plans.
Back in January Barclays did announce that it acquired a stake in Ubyx, a US-based clearing system for digital money including tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins, marking the bank’s first direct investment in a company focused on stablecoin technology.
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