Bitcoin surged more than 6% on Wednesday, climbing past $68,000 as a broader crypto rebound swept through the market.
The rally lifted major altcoins, with Ethereum rising nearly 11% to around $2,050, Solana gaining 11% to $88, and XRP advancing 7.5% to near $1.45. Filecoin led large-cap gainers, up 23% in the past 24 hours, followed by Polkadot at 22% and Aptos at 19%.
The move coincided with strength in equities. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% by midday, while the Nasdaq rose 1%, signaling renewed correlation between crypto and traditional markets after a period in which digital assets moved largely in isolation and primarily to the downside.
Commodities also advanced, with gold up 1.3%, surging past $5,200, and silver surging 4.2% to reclaim the $90 level.
The rally triggered nearly $80M in liquidations in the past hour and more than $429M over the past 24 hours, the majority tied to short positions, according to Coinglass data.
Crypto-related equities followed spot prices higher after Circle reported earnings that beat expectations earlier in the day.
Circle shares jumped more than 28%, while Coinbase gained 13%, Figure rose 12%, and Galaxy advanced 8%. Crypto treasury companies also moved higher, with Strategy up 8%, BitMine up 12%, and SharpLink up 12%. Miners posted gains as well, with WULF up 5%, MARA up 9%, and CleanSpark up 4%.
[This story contains spoilers from season two, episode five of Cross, “Climb.”]
For those who have read the more than 30 James Patterson books on homicide detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross, Cross aficionados will know that one of the protagonist’s best friends — and eventual greatest enemy — was an FBI agent name Kyle Craig.
But in the Prime Video series Cross starring Aldis Hodge as the titular Cross, the Kyle Craig character is reimagined. Instead of a male archenemy, Kyle is gender-flipped into a competitive law enforcement agent named Kayla Craig, who is played by Alona Tal. She is still an FBI agent, but much has changed and for Tal, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“When we first meet Kayla in season one, she’s there in the capacity of an assistant in the main storyline,” Tal tells The Hollywood Reporter of this new iteration of Craig (who first appeared in season one). “She’s someone who Cross finds as a good confidante and good part of the team to help support him in his journey to figure out who the killer is in season one. She provides invaluable help, access to information they don’t have and the ability to help him solve certain things because she has a lot of the same abilities that he does in the profiling world.
“Then in season two,” she continues, “I get a lot more runway to explore who Kayla was in her past, and a little bit more into the question of who she is now. She is extremely ambitious, extremely successful in her field. She is a woman who is very driven who very much understands that in order to achieve what she wants with her career, she has to put herself first. And she talks about it. She’s not in a relationship. She tried and it didn’t work. She understands sacrifices and is learning to understand the meaning of repercussions of choices.”
In season one, Craig did not want a relationship. She found her sexual release from being an FBI field agent by getting into bed with Cross’ pal, Det. John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa). But in the third episode of season two, “Feed,” Cross and Craig, who have been longtime associates, begin seeing each other differently. In the episode, Cross, Sampson and Craig discovered a truckload of children being trafficked in Texas, while tracking the movements of a disciple-like follower of serial killer Luz (Jeanine Mason). Lincoln Esteban (Rene Moran) traveled down there to take photos at the rendezvous location when he was captured by Cross and his team.
After the arrest, Cross and Craig decided to go out to a local Western bar to have some “stress shots.” That’s when the two law enforcement officers drink and dance up a storm, and the tune of a slow country song strips away their inhibitions. The two passionately kiss on the dance floor, and end up drunk at Craig’s motel room door. She tells Cross goodnight, but leaves the door open. He accepts the unspoken invitation.
If you ask Hodge who has caught more feelings, he will wager on Alex Cross.
Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge).
Prime Video
“Cross, even if he is not fully aware, presumably is about to lose the love of his life,” Hodge told THR about the breakup with season one love interest Elle (Samantha Walkes). “He has to deal with that. He’s in a stage of grief. And with Kayla, there is obviously some familiarity and history. I think based off of the friendship, he felt safe enough to engage. It was a safe place for him to grieve and deal with what he was going through at the time. But, in the interim, his true love still rested with Elle.”
Cross creator, showrunner and writer Ben Watkins breaks down those heated moments between Cross and Kayla.
“From the writing perspective, we looked at it like we intentionally set up a chemistry between them, but a chemistry that was built out of appreciation of a shared obsession with getting inside the minds of killers and hunting down people,” says Watkins, who also plays FBI Assistant Director Roy McElhannon. “They have a shared appreciation of each other’s brilliance. And what we did in season two was set a situation up where that chemistry turns into something physical, and we were very specific about how that happens.”
Watkins points out that Cross is struggling about being on the outs with Elle, and also in the midst of a “high-stakes, very emotional and pressurized case, and a hunt for a killer,” he says. “In the aftermath of a chase and a shootout and rescuing some kids, that’s when they actually cross the line into something physical. We thought that was really important because it asked these questions about what happens when you’re in different emotional states, and what do you need and what do you cling to? And when it happens, is it real or is it something of the moment? It’s like a war-zone relationship.”
The new relationship, or fling, between Cross and Craig gets even messier as the season progresses. In this week’s fifth episode, viewers learned more of Craig’s backstory. Earlier in the season, Craig was tasked with discovering a person known as Mastermind who holds dark secrets about her that could derail her career and potentially send her to prison. This week, Craig’s serial killer C.I., Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill), discovers video footage from years back of a lab experiment with a U.S. military soldier who was drugged and ends up killing himself. When the technician in the lab coat turns around to face the camera after the soldier dies, it appears to be Craig. Bobby Trey is about to end Craig’s life over the video footage, but she convinces him that the image is not her, and a deep fake created to frame her.
“That was so horrendous — that she knew about those experiments,” Tal adds. “She was involved, but she wasn’t involved, like the deepfakes are trying to make it seem. That’s them trying to frame her. And that’s what she’s trying to prove. There’s a bigger story here. There’s a bigger reveal later.”
Kayla Craig (Alona Tal).
Prime Video
Craig is in a precarious situation trying to uncover who is trying to frame her while these new feeling are developing between her and Cross. She’s just as strong-willed as Cross and wants to be in control, and have the lead on the case they are working on. But she can’t lean on Cross and tell him about her side issues.
In episode five, “Climb,” when Cross decides to meet with Luz privately against Craig’s wishes, Craig has a feeling that her new lover may be putting his life in danger. Her instincts are right, as Donnie tries to kill Cross. Yet Craig has Bobby Trey trail the detective and ultimately saves his life in the episode. But meeting with an alleged serial killer by himself without her is also grating on Craig’s nerves.
“It’s not safe, she doesn’t know enough,” says Tal. “And he is going around to take the lead, after she warned him not to do it. He can’t help himself, and she gets annoyed with that. She’s also conflicted because she trusts Alex, but doesn’t want to give him full rein because that goes against his ego.”
If Cross gets a third season, Tal believes there will be questions that need answering after the forthcoming finale.
“I was told by one of the writers [initially for this season], ‘You have no idea. Whatever you think you’re doing, you have no idea,’” Tal recalls. “What I hope to see is that there will be a reckoning and repercussions to what happens at the end of our season. When alliances change and choices are made, I would like to see that there has to be a series of consequences. I would like to know more about my character, and what this means in the world we live in.”
***
Cross is now streaming the first five episodes of season two on Prime Video.
SAG-AFTRA leaders are laying into Nexstar for conducting sweeping layoffs at local television stations across the country, saying the action demonstrates the dangers of media consolidation.
Local L.A. station KTLA, Chicago station WGN and WPIX in New York have all reportedly been impacted by the cuts. In L.A. alone, anchors Glen Walker and Lu Parker and meteorologist Mark Kriski have been swept up in round the layoffs, The Los Angeles Timesreported. SAG-AFTRA claims that eight union members have been laid off at Chicago’s WGN.
Leaders of the performers’ union, which represents local TV journalists, went on the offensive about the layoffs on Wednesday. “By laying off journalists across the country, Nexstar is eroding the resources and talent that local communities rely on for trusted news,” union president Sean Astin said in a statement on Wednesday. “These actions highlight the risks of media consolidation and underscore the urgent need for regulators and the company to prioritize the public interest and the professionals who serve it.”
The Hollywood Reporter has contacted Nexstar, the largest television station owner in the U.S., for comment.
Nexstar is currently in the process of attempting to consummate a $6.2 billion merger with rival station owner Tegna. With his remarks, Astin appears to be flagging regulators to consider the deal closely, even as Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr has previously signaled support for the transaction.
SAG-AFTRA, meanwhile, is presently negotiating several labor agreements with Nexstar stations. “At the table, Nexstar is pushing to gut severance pay and insert onerous provisions into the union contract that limit workers’ ability to freely negotiate the terms of their own employment,” SAG-AFTRA claimed in its press release.
The union’s chief negotiator vowed to get his members a good deal in those ongoing negotiations. “SAG-AFTRA will not stand by while the future of local news is put at risk,” said SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “We will continue to fight for strong agreements that protect journalists and the audiences who rely on them every single day.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal has opened an investigation into alleged sanctions violations at Binance.
A Wall Street Journal report claimed that $1.7 billion flowed from Binance accounts to Iran-linked entities.
Binance has denied wrongdoing and accused the WSJ of defamatory reporting.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has opened a preliminary inquiry into Binance following reports that the cryptocurrency exchange allowed $1.7 billion in transactions tied to Iranian entities and Russia’s sanctions-evading oil trade.
The probe follows reporting by The Wall Street Journal alleging that internal Binance investigators uncovered transfers from accounts on the platform to intermediaries connected to Iran, including entities linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Yemen’s Houthi militants.
According to the report, two Hong Kong-based partners—Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust—acted as conduits for some of the transactions. The articles said investigators identified roughly 2,000 accounts associated with Iranian entities despite Binance’s stated ban on Iranian users, and that some compliance staff who raised concerns were later suspended or dismissed.
Binance has denied the allegations. In a tweet posted Tuesday, CEO Richard Teng accused the WSJ of publishing “defamatory claims” about the company’s compliance program and said the outlet failed to acknowledge corrections provided by the exchange.
Recently there has been inaccurate reporting about our compliance program.
The Wall Street Journal published defamatory claims, and despite our efforts to set the record straight, the journalist failed to acknowledge any of our corrections on the allegations. We have sent the… pic.twitter.com/rgl7KrwqUL
In a legal letter to the newspaper, Binance said it wants the “false information” corrected immediately and the “defamatory imputations retracted.”
Binance has said its sanctions exposure is minimal, that it detected and reported suspicious activity, and that it found no evidence of violations in its own review. The company said accounts linked to the reported transactions were removed and that it stopped working with Blessed Trust in January.
Decrypt has reached out to Binance and will update this article should the exchange respond.
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving tens of millions of users globally and offering trading in hundreds of digital tokens. The company has sought to position itself as having strengthened its compliance controls in recent years following heightened scrutiny from U.S. regulators.
Binance and compliance
The latest allegations come after Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws and sanctions requirements, agreeing to pay $4.3 billion in penalties and to exit the U.S. market. Founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for his role in the violations. He was given a presidential pardon by Donald Trump in October last year.
That hasn’t stopped U.S. lawmakers taking an interest. In a letter to Teng dated Tuesday, Blumenthal wrote that “Binance appears to have ignored warnings and recommendations to prevent Iranian money laundering schemes on its cryptocurrency exchange,” allowing $1.7 billion in transfers to Iran.
He cited reports that internal compliance staff found that Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust facilitated laundering and trade with Iranian government entities, and that investigators traced cryptocurrency transfers to wallets associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as payments tied to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers.
“Binance appears to have ignored clear warning signs, knowingly allowed illicit accounts to operate, and even provided hands-on support to entities engaged in money laundering,” Blumenthal wrote. “…The scale of the newly revealed illicit transfers — uncaught until nearly two billion dollars flowed to sanctioned entities — and the unexplained firing of internal investigators call into question Binance’s compliance with American sanctions and banking laws.”
He also pointed to Binance’s ties to World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture associated with the family of President Donald Trump, suggesting the company has sought to influence policymakers while facing scrutiny.
The senator requested that Binance provide extensive records by March 6, 2026, including documents related to the activities of Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust, internal reports and communications concerning Iranian and Russian-linked accounts, records tied to the use of Tether and the USD1 stablecoin in potential sanctions evasion, and documentation surrounding the suspension or dismissal of compliance staff involved in the investigations.
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Kotb does not plan to rejoin the program full time, this person says, noting that Guthrie is expected to return to “Today” on her own timeline, even though her absence may continue for a significant period.
Guthrie has been absent from the show since the start of the month. Her mother, Nancy, has been missing since January 31.
Kotb, who left the program in early 2025, has remained under contract to NBC since that time. She has taken part in a podcast as well as NBC’s annual telecast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, while making occasional appearances on “Today” hours. Kotb was originally supposed to attend NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage in Italy along with Guthrie and other “Today” personnel, but those plans were scaled back after Nancy Guthrie disappeared.
Kotb’s decision to stay offers a viable solution for NBC and “Today” producers. She’s already affiliated with the show, and adding someone new to the mix during such a difficult moment could be ill advised The introduction of someone new to fill in more regularly for Guthrie — even on an interim basis — could alienate viewers, who have a years-long relationship with her and don’t want to see her treated poorly, particularly under duress.
When Kotb announced her decision to exit in 2024, she cited a desire to spend time with two young daughters. “I realized it was time for me to turn the page,” after a recent 60th birthday, she told colleagues on the program. She noted that she had children later in life and that “they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have.”
Kotb had been at NBC News since 1998, when she joined as a correspondent for the “Dateline” newsmagazine. She arrived at NBC after logging years at CBS affiliates in Florida and Louisiana. But she gained a wider profile after joining a fourth hour of “Today” in 2007 that typically airs at 10 a.m. At first, Kotb was one of group of personnel assigned to the show, but within months was paired with Kathie Lee Gifford, a veteran of the syndicated ABC program “Live” who held her own for years opposite Regis Philbin.
Suddenly, Kotb was talking about her dating adventures with Gifford. being satirized on “Saturday Night Live” and sharing more of her personal life than than a journalist might expect. “It used to be you could host a morning show, even the 7, and not really reveal too much. And I think everything has changed now. I think now part of entering into this world, you have to reveal things. Because people expect so much more,” Kotb told Variety in 2014. “They don’t know whether to love you or not if you don’t share anything and sometimes you have to go beyond. I feel like I’ve gone beyond what I’m comfortable with.”
“Trump Deranged Robert De Niro [is] another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!” Trump posted. “When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realized that he may be even sicker than Crazy Rosie O’Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States.”
“The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn’t saying much,” the president continued. “The good news is that America is now Bigger, Better, Richer, and Stronger than ever before, and it’s driving them absolutely crazy!”
Trump’s latest rant encouraged De Niro to get on a boat and leave the country with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), both of whom walked out of Trump’s State of the Union address before it was over and shouted at him in disapproval.
“When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump posted. “When people can behave like that, and knowing that they are Crooked and Corrupt Politicians, so bad for our Country, we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible. They can only damage the United States of America, they can do nothing to help it.”
During his interview with Nicole Wallace, De Niro said Trump is “destroying” America, adding: “It’s sick, it’s fucked up. We have to save the country.”
“People have to resist, resist, resist, resist, resist. That’s the only way,” De Niro said. “There’s no magic. There’s no nothing – people are not going to go away, even if Trump dies for some reason by having an illness or something,” he said at one point. “Parts of that movement are still there, and that’s the scary part. It has to be neutralized by the people.”
Full Circle, the developer behind the new Skate game, has announced that it is restructuring and laying off staff. It’s not yet clear how many roles will be impacted by the changes, but the restructuring is happening less than six months after skate. launched in early access on September 15, 2025.
“We’re reshaping Full Circle to better support skate.’s long-term future,” Full Circle says. “These shifts mean making changes to our team structure, and some roles will be impacted. The teammates affected are talented colleagues and friends who helped build the foundation of skate. Their creativity and dedication are deeply ingrained in what players experience today. This decision is not a reflection of their impact and we’re committed to supporting them through this transition.”
Engadget has contacted Full Circle’s owner EA for more information about the layoffs. We’ll update this article if we hear back.
EA originally formed Full Circle in 2021 with a staff of development talent from the original Skate team. Skate was often positioned as a more realistic competitor to the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, but the new studio has ultimately taken the franchise in a slightly different direction than fans may have expected. Previous Skate games were paid experiences with single-player and multiplayer modes, while skate. is a free-to-play live-service game supported with microtransactions.
Recent history, both the failure of Concord and the ongoing struggles of Highguard, serves as a testament to how hard it is to launch a live service game in the 2020s. Full Circle’s announcement notes the “tens of millions” of players that have tried the new game, but it’s possible a struggle to keep players interested and spending on microtransactions could be why it’s restructuring.
Nvidia(NVDA), the world’s largest public company by market value and bellwether for the AI sector, once again topped Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter, reporting results after the close of U.S. markets on Wednesday.
The chipmaker beat estimates, reporting revenue of $68.1 billion, a 73% increase from a year earlier, as continued AI-related capital spending fueled strong demand for its chips. It also reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.62, beating estimates. Wall Street analysts expected Nvidia to report approximately $66.1 billion in revenue and $1.54 in adjusted EPS, according to FactSet data.
Shares rose nearly 3% in post-market trading on Wednesday following the earnings release.
Investors are now focused on guidance. Nvidia expects first-quarter revenue of around $78 billion, up from analyst expectations of $72.9 billion, setting the tone for the next phase of AI-driven growth.
The chip-making giant also said that its Data Center revenue for the fourth quarter was a record $62.3 billion, up 75% from a year ago and up 22% from the prior quarter, driven by the “major platform shifts – accelerated computing and AI.”
Following the results and outlook, bitcoin remained at session highs around $69,500 after a 10% rally from Tuesday’s lows. AI-focused crypto tokens such as Bittensor (TAO) and Internet Computer (ICP) added to their gains.
Crypto miners, increasingly linked to AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, also saw modest gains following Nvidia’s report. IREN (IREN), Cipher Digital (CIFR), and TeraWulf (WULF were 1%-2% higher in after-hours trading.
The company will host a conference call at 5 p.m. ET, where investors will be listening closely for further signals on the next phase of the AI infrastructure buildout.
Solana flipped a downside range break back into support after a quick sweep on both sides of the range. Meanwhile, traders pointed to bullish divergence signals that could grow across higher timeframes if support holds.
Solana reclaims breakdown after range sweeps, analyst flags bullish divergence
Solana traded near $78 on Coinbase’s 4 hour SOLUSD chart after price swept both sides of a recent range and then reclaimed a break to the downside, according to crypto trader Bluntz Capital, who posts on X as @Bluntz_Capital. The latest candle in the screenshot showed $SOL at about $78.27, up roughly 1.25% on the session, after earlier trading between about $77.23 and $78.56.
Solana U.S. Dollar 4 hour chart (SOLUSD, Coinbase). Source: TradingView / X
The chart showed Solana still below key moving averages, with the 50 period simple moving average near $82.67 and the 100 period near $83.50, while the 200 period sat much higher around $96.88. Inside the marked range box, price pushed below the lower boundary before snapping back, a move the analyst described as a reclaimed breakdown following a liquidity sweep.
Bluntz said the setup includes a bullish divergence on the 4 hour timeframe and argued it could extend into a daily bullish divergence and later a 3 day signal. He added that sentiment on “crypto TL” has turned gloomy during the pullback, while he described the sharper capitulation move as occurring a little more than two weeks earlier.
Solana holds $75 support as analyst maps rebound toward $100
A 12 hour $SOL/USDT chart on Binance showed Solana trading inside a defined accumulation range, with repeated defenses near the $75 area and capped moves below a resistance band just under $90, according to analyst CryptoCurb, who posts on X as @CryptoCurb. The chart marked several downside probes that held near the lower boundary, followed by rebounds back into the range, a structure the analyst framed as sustained support.
The visual also showed two failed pushes near the upper boundary of the range, where price rolled over after testing the same resistance zone. Inside the boxed area, price oscillated between the range low near the mid $70s and the upper band just below $90, signaling compression after a broader downtrend that unfolded earlier in the month. The setup highlighted a pause in directional momentum after the prior selloff.
CryptoCurb wrote that holding the $75 area keeps the path open for a move back toward the $100 region. The chart overlaid a projected path that curves higher after a final dip inside the range, then accelerates once price clears the upper boundary. The projection reflects the analyst’s roadmap rather than confirmed price action and shows how a breakout from the accumulation zone could develop if support continues to hold.
In the video released by SNL, the 26-year-old is seated across from Marcello Hernández and Ashley Padilla when Hernández mentions how great Storrie’s Russian accent was in Heated Rivalry. “I actually do all kinds of accents,” Storrie bashfully tells the cast members, causing James Austin Johnson to challenge the actor to an accent duel.
Hernández and Padilla call out a slew of accents for Storrie and Johnson to showcase, with the Heated Rivalryactor trying out his German, French, “bad” Shakespeare, Shrek, and of course, Russian accents. “When you get to hell, tell them Rozanov sent you,” Storrie says in the trailer, a callback to his Heated Rivalry character, Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov. The duel ends with Storrie excitedly claiming his victory and Johnson “dying” from the duel.
Storrie is set to make his SNL debut on Saturday (Feb. 28) alongside musical guest Mumford & Sons. The hosting gig, announced last month, is the latest in a long string of appearances for Storrie and his co-star Hudson Williams since the queer Canadian hockey drama took off at the end of 2025. Last month, Storrie, who has signed with CAA, and Williams served as torchbearers ahead of the 2026 Olympic Games and presented at the Golden Globes.
The actor has is in talks to join the ensemble cast of Molly Gordon and Allie Levitan’s A24 comedy Peaked. If the deal makes, Peaked will mark the first post-Heated Rivalry role for Storrie. Levitan is also a writer on SNL.
Heated Rivalry, hailing from Canadian streamer Crave and airing on HBO Max in the U.S., centers on a fictional hockey universe based on books by Rachel Reid. The show focuses on two rival professional players — Canada-born Shane Hollander (Williams) of the fictitious Montreal Metros and Russia-born Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) of the fictitious Boston Raiders — as they navigate a near-decade-long situationship-turned-relationship.
