Equities update | February 13th 2026

Week 7 was characterised by continued volatility across both equity and crypto markets, as mixed corporate earnings and resilient U.S. macroeconomic data failed to establish a clear directional trend. In Japan, Prime Minister Takachi secured the expected election majority, stabilising near-term uncertainty in domestic markets which contributed to the yen appreciating approximately 2.7% against the U.S. dollar, while the government bond yield curve remained broadly flat across maturities. On the corporate front, adoption of on-chain market infrastructure accelerated, highlighted by BlackRock enabling DeFi trading in partnership with Uniswap. Meanwhile, earnings across crypto-linked platforms Coinbase and Robinhood continued to demonstrate sensitivity to trading volumes and asset prices, consistent with trends observed in previous weeks from Galaxy Digital and PayPal.

Week 7 Key Developments in Blockchain Equities:

• Index Performance: This week, the Index declined by (1.0%), while Bitcoin fell by (3.1%). U.S. macroeconomic data surprised to the upside, with payrolls showing 130k jobs added versus 65k expected, and headline CPI printing at 0.2% month-on-month versus expectations of 0.3%. While this reflects continued economic resilience, it sends mixed signals for the timing of future rate cuts, with Fed funds futures now pricing the first cut around June or July.

• Block Index Key Movers: 7-day top performers: Cipher Mining (+26.8%), Softbank Group (+26.3%), Bitfarms (+21.4) 7-day worst performers: CoinShares (-9.5%), Block Inc (-8.0%), Standard Chartered (-5.9%)

• BlackRock offers DeFi trading for the first time and buys Uniswap tokens - Index constituent BlackRock made its first formal move into decentralized finance this week, announcing that its US$2.2 billion tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL will become tradeable via UniswapX, the order-routing protocol developed by Uniswap Labs. The integration, facilitated by tokenization specialist Securitize, enables whitelisted institutional investors to swap BUIDL for stablecoins 24/7 through an automated request-for-quote system with approved market makers including Wintermute, Flowdesk, and Tokka Labs. Notably, BlackRock also disclosed a strategic investment in UNI tokens, the governance token of the Uniswap ecosystem, though the allocation size was not specified. 

  The move represents a significant validation of DeFi infrastructure by the world's largest asset manager and reinforces the tokenization thesis that underpins much of the blockchain equity sector's long-term value proposition. As institutional-grade assets increasingly migrate on-chain, infrastructure providers spanning custody, market-making, and DeFi protocols are positioned to capture meaningful fee revenue. This creates a positive read-through for other index constituents including Coinbase (BUIDL custodian) and Circle (stablecoin issuer), while trading and prime brokerage firms like Standard Chartered and Galaxy Digital stand to benefit from increased institutional on-chain activity.

• Earnings Recap – Key Holdings:

  • Mercari Group, Softbank Group, Monex Group - Positive

  • Ceres Inc , Nexon, Canaan Inc – Mixed

  • Coinbase, Robinhood, GMO Internet Group – Negative

• Other news: Both Coinbase and Robinhood reported disappointing results as crypto trading volumes and prices in Q4 exposed how much of the "diversification" narrative still rests on crypto price sensitivity as overall activity slowed. For Coinbase, even the "defensive" subscription line (staking rewards, USDC interest) proved correlated to crypto prices and macro rate cuts. For Robinhood, a single revenue line (crypto) swinging from tailwind to headwind was enough to miss the top line despite strength everywhere else. That said, both companies enter 2026 from positions of structural strength. Coinbase holds US$11.3B in cash, has doubled its crypto trading market share, and now operates the world's largest crypto derivatives platform following the Deribit acquisition. Robinhood's Gold subscriber base has grown 58% to 4.2M and its net interest and options revenues continue to scale independently of crypto cycles. The underlying businesses are materially more diversified than in prior downturns, even if Q4 reminded the market that crypto remains the swing factor. 

  Elsewhere, Index Constituent HIVE Digital signed a 2-year fixed term US$30m AI cloud contract, to be deployed in Manitoba, West Canada. Deutsche Börse has integrated the xStocks tokenized equity standard. Meanwhile, Aviva Investors has partnered with Ripple to advance the tokenization of investment funds.