February 10, Tuesday: This day on the crypto market is heralded with three major stories, involving XRP, Bitcoin and, surprisingly, FTX, as the infamous founder of the exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, claims it was never bankrupt.
One of the largest dormant Bitcoin whales from 2019 just moved over $140 million worth of BTC. At the same time, XRP entered a range that could, within 5%, define whether a bullish reversal or a full breakdown to $1 follows. Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried reappeared, claiming FTX was never bankrupt and blaming the collapse on lawyers who allegedly hijacked the company.
TL;DR
A critical setup is unfolding on the XRP chart by TradingView that is getting zero attention, even though a 5% wide microzone will determine the coin’s entire Q1, 2026, structure. XRP is currently trapped between $1.396 and $1.47 — a demand pocket that formed during the vertical phase of the 2024 breakout and has not been revisited since.
With the price stuck inside this zone and no reaction from bulls or bears, the next few candles will determine if this is a structural or a trap door toward the Oct. 10 low of $0.99677.
This level marked one of the few high-liquidity pauses during XRP’s climb from below $0.60 to above $3 in less than 45 days. On-chain metrics now show SOPR collapsing and holder profitability turning negative, mimicking the capitulation of 2021-2022. Yet, the market is compressing inside this zone without follow-through, which is exactly where previous macro pivots formed.
This volatile vacuum has implications for broader altcoin sentiment. If this zone holds, XRP could trigger a short squeeze and reclaim $1.60. If it fails, there is nothing between the current price and the $1 liquidation shelf.
This setup is rare, and the move it will produce will be decisive. Right now, almost nobody is trading it as if it matters. But by the time they notice, the candle will already be printed.
A Bitcoin address dormant since February 2019 — untouched for over seven years — recently moved 2,043 BTC worth $140.95 million, triggering immediate on-chain alerts and one of the largest spent outputs from the five-year to seven-year age band in nearly three years.
An interesting detail is that the funds originated from Cumberland, one of the most influential OTC desks of the early institutional Bitcoin era.
Arkham identifies the sender as a wallet that once held over 39,000 BTC, a trove valued at $2.6 billion at peak 2025 prices. The cluster sent 2,071.66 BTC in a single movement — with 2,042.6 BTC now sitting untouched in a new wallet.
This is the first five-year-plus aged coin movement of this magnitude since the Mt. Gox trustees panic in 2023. It happened after Bitcoin rebounded from $60,000 and tried to reclaim $70,000 — a suspiciously precise timing window. CryptoQuant confirms the spent output spike in its age bands data, showing clear intent from long-term holders to reposition.
Whether it is presale structuring, OTC reshuffling or a silent accumulation exit, the move reawakens a narrative last seen in 2021: dormant giants do not act without a reason. And when they do, the rest of the market usually reacts.
Sam Bankman-Fried detonated a new wave of controversy today by claiming that FTX was never bankrupt as he never filed for it. The statement, paired with resurfaced legal filings and whistleblower threads, is now rewriting the post-collapse narrative of the industry’s biggest scandal. According to internal documents and SBF’s claim, FTX’s U.S. arm was solvent at the moment of filing — and lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell allegedly forced it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy to ensure access to its cash reserves for legal fees.
SBF alleges his ability to pay back customers was sabotaged, referencing Bitfinex’s 2016 playbook as the model he was not allowed to execute. In his version, FTX was a profitable exchange mid-crisis — derailed not by theft but by a coup disguised as legal procedure.
The response thread by trader Alex Wice, who once ranked as FTX’s #2 trader, added fuel to the fire. Wice accuses prosecutors of staging a “kangaroo court,” suppressing solvency data, barring defenses like “relied on counsel” and portraying SBF as a thief despite all on-chain flows being traceable. He even claims customers would have been made whole faster without the filing.
Whether true or not, the claim that FTX’s bankruptcy was optional instantly reopens questions regulators may have hoped were buried.
Between seven-figure whale awakenings, politically charged crypto legal sagas and altcoins like XRP flirting with structural cliffs, the 2026 market is now more reactive than directional. The next 5% in either direction across top coins, not only XRP, will define whether this week marks a bottom or just a pause before another drop.
