Coinbase's Brian A. takes on the Big Banks, Crypto VC Dragonfly bags $650M, the Trumps keep pumping crypto, top 12 crypto VCs, and more inside scoops...
The Trump family Crypto Baron—are the First Family’s crypto bets paying off? For them, yes.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong goes after Big Banks
Brian Armstrong has always walked a high wire between dApp/DeFi enthusiasts who prioritize decentralization, self-custody, and ‘crypto purity,’ and Coinbase’s need for old-school banks for on- and off-ramps to convert crypto to USD and vice versa. Coinbase may be too ‘bank-like’ for the CryptoHeads, but Brian A. has championed the bigger cause for years and has the scars and success stories to prove it.
Brian Armstrong: Our man in Washington? We think so.
Brian A. may have leaped those regulatory hurdles, but he is still in the race. More recently, he has been hammering the Big Banks for pushing provisions that would ban stablecoin rewards for lending or staking their tokens, thereby stripping Americans of real yields averaging ~4-5% (e.g., via USDC rewards on platforms like Coinbase), dwarfing the sub-1% most banks pay on deposits.
‘The banks are really coming and trying to undermine the president’s crypto agenda.,’ Brian A. told Fox Business. ‘They’re trying to protect their own profit margins, taking money out of the pockets of hardworking, average Americans.’
Brian A: No, that’s not true. I think that’s a very solvable issue. Coinbase has been very front-footed on this. We have put together a Quantum Advisory Council that is in regular contact with the major blockchains regarding a path to a post-quantum cryptography world.
Brian Armstrong’s CNBC interview, February 19, 2026
The moral of this story is that stablecoins pose a competitive threat to bank deposits, so Big Banks are trying to protect profit margins at the expense of innovation. This isn’t going to work, given the entrenched (and self-interested) support of the Trumpets, who are pushing daily talks for a ‘win-win-win,’ and the crypto tailwinds favor innovation over legacy protectionism.
Be a Cryptonite Original — Join our CPRO ‘pre-pre’ private sale!
We invite our loyal Cryptonite Rap readers to join our historic journey to introduce the world’s first true Web3 professional + friend social network—with crypto rewards.
Secure your spot as 1 of ONLY 100 Cryptonite Originals buying CPRO at the ALL-TIME LOW $0.01 — Before It Doubles in ~60 Days!
Dragonfly Capital Partner Mia Deng, who shuttles between Asia and the US seeking crypto investments.
Dragonfly Capital closes $650M crypto VC fund—in spite of ‘mass extinction event‘
Crypto and blockchain-focused VC Dragonfly Capital just closed its fourth fund at $650 million—beating its $500 million target. This pushes the firm’s total assets under management past $3 billion. Portfolio highlights include Polymarket, Ethena, and Rain (as a stablecoin card issuer) 👍🏼, plus stalwarts like Avalanche, NEAR, MakerDAO, 1inch, and zkSync.
The firm zeros in on blockchain infrastructure, DeFi protocols, stablecoins, prediction markets, and crypto’s financial apps—the “next phase” of blockchain evolving into core financial plumbing.
Top LPs include Tiger Global, KKR, Sequoia China, and Invesco. Managing partner Haseeb Qureshi called Fund IV “our biggest bet yet that the crypto revolution is still early in its exponential curve.” Partner Rob Hadick noted the crypto venture ecosystem is enduring a mass extinction event.’
Co-founded by Donald Trump Jr., WLFI ripped nearly 20-30% in a single day on hype for the World Liberty Financial Forum at the family’s Mar-a-Lago compound yesterday. The invite-only bash reached capacity with ~400 attendees, including big names from Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, NYSE, Franklin Templeton, and Coinbase—plus policymakers, investors, and influencers.
WLFI and the rest of the Trump family crypto empire lean hard on that star power to hype and sell their tokens. At the forum, they were pushing World Liberty Markets, the new lending/borrowing platform supporting WLFI, Ether, USDC—and dropping fresh announcements like a partnership with Apex Group ($3.5T+ assets under management) to pilot USD1 stablecoin for tokenized fund ops, plus plans to tokenize loan revenue interests in the Trump International Hotel & Resort in the Maldives.
Greedy bastards—bad for the industry.
The not-so-dirty secret: WLFI and other Trump-family crypto plays have stuffed ~$1.2 billion in net gains into the family’s pockets (including $463M from WLFI token sales, $336M from the $TRUMP meme coin), while they sit on billions more in depreciated holdings like 22.5 billion WLFI tokens now worth around $2.7 billion.
Ironically (and quite sadly), retail investors in Trump-related cryptos—presumably a ton of MAGA faithful—have gotten absolutely wrecked, with net losses in the billions. WLFI plunged 74% from its $0.46 all-time high to ~$0.12, and $TRUMP meme coin cratered 90% from $37 to $3.40, wiping out speculative gains for early buyers during broader market dumps.
Not so happy after losing their ass in the Trump Crypto Pump & Dump👿
At the forum, WLFI was pitching World Liberty Markets, its new lending and borrowing platform that supports assets such as WLFI, Ether, and USDC. So here we go again. The Trump-brand pump, spurred on-chain activity yesterday for WLFI, showed large token withdrawals and deposits, including 235 million WLFI tokens to Binance for liquidity enhancement, while the event drew scrutiny from some U.S. Senators, for good reason, over a $500 million UAE investment in WLFI.
Other fresh drops from the World Liberty Forum:
On-chain action yesterday spiked with WLFI: big token withdrawals/deposits, including 235 million to Binance for liquidity boosts.
Eric Trump went full bull on Bitcoin, calling for $1M, while hyping stablecoins/USD1 as an “upgraded” dollar for the modern era.
Obviously, as Cryptonite, we love the pro-crypto energy from the Trump administration—clarifying rules, paving a cleaner path to prosperity for everyone—but… this? Not good form, kids.
Working hard to encourage your imagination and prosperity.
Asking for a Little Help from Our Readers...
💡 We’re a community-supported site, keeping content free for thousands of young readers worldwide.
💥 Subscribe now at 33% off—just $6/month (medium designer coffee ☕️)—and power Cryptonite! 🚀
🔒 Paid members unlock:
Early access + connections to next-gen Web3 companies, crypto projects & their VC backers
Innovation trends + growth analytics on emerging startups disrupting Big Tech
Special event and private party invites + exclusive discounts
💥 Building a Web3 startup? Hunting VCs for your Big Idea? Sharpening your investment thesis? Building a Web3 industry rep?
Your sub pays Big Time dividends for your career and feeds the young talent prepping the market intel to keep you relevant + competitive!
The Journey is the reward! — Let’s make it happen together! — The Cryptonite Team. Huff Puff 😅
Cryptonite — Your insider guide to the global Silicon Valley — Be There or Be Square 😎🤙🏼 — Your competitors are already subscribers.😳
Drape raised another $200M in 2025. His early bets on Bitcoin catapulted him onto the Cryptonite top 10 Wealthiest VCs list.
Crypto/blockchain VC firms raise $15 billion in last 2 years—a 2.5x fund raise pop!
Crypto and blockchain VC firms raised over $15 billion in new funds during 2024-2026, a 2.5x surge from the $6 billion raised in 2022-2023 during the bear market…
Read the rest of this article and more in the paid subscriber section of this Rap, including access to:
How crypto VC firms raised $15 billion in new funds—in the last two years—what’s given them momentum?
The top 12 crypto VC funds leading the pack, and their top portfolio companies…
Cryptonite’s top 10 hot market alerts: OpenAI/MSFT merger, Meta and Nvidia deal, Gemini execs walk, Benchmark new partner hire, Recursive Intelligence raises $335 million in 4 months, and more…
Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of The Cryptonite Weekly Rap.
