A major investment is shaking up the AI landscape in India, signaling growing confidence in the region's technological potential.

**Blackstone Inc.**, a global investment giant, is leading a group of investors in a massive equity investment of up to **$600 million** in **Neysa**, an Indian artificial intelligence cloud startup. This move highlights the increasing interest in AI infrastructure and its applications worldwide.

Alongside this equity raise, Neysa aims to secure an additional **$600 million in debt financing**, as announced in a recent statement. The combined funds are earmarked for a significant expansion: deploying more than **20,000 graphics processing units (GPUs)** across India. These GPUs will be dedicated to **AI training** and **high-performance applications**, positioning Neysa as a key player in advancing India's AI capabilities.

This investment underscores the strategic importance of AI development and the role of cloud computing in driving innovation. As global firms like Blackstone pour resources into startups like Neysa, it could accelerate India's position in the competitive AI market, potentially influencing tech trends and investment flows in related sectors.

A group of investors led by Blackstone Inc. plans to make an equity investment of up to $600 million in Indian artificial intelligence cloud startup Neysa.

Blackstone's $600 Million Bet on AI Startup Neysa: A Game-Changer for India's Tech Future?

## Altcoins Surge as Bitcoin Remains Rangebound

A selection of **altcoins** have posted double-digit gains over the past week, while **Bitcoin** remains less volatile and range-bound.

Bitcoin has been trading below $71,000 since February 6, when it briefly touched $62,822, according to CoinGecko data. That indecision—coupled with five separate liquidation events that wiped out over **$1 billion in positions in 2026**, per CoinGlass—has prompted investors to scan the altcoin landscape for speculative trading opportunities.

The result is a selective rotation into tokens with specific narratives, rather than a broad-based altseason.

## Top Performers Among Altcoins

Among the top 50 coins by market cap, **Zcash** is up 24.1% over the past week, followed by **Pepe**, **Bittensor** and **Aster**, up 21.9%, 19.8% and 18.5% over the same period.

Lai Yuen, investment analyst at Fisher8 Capital, said weekend price action briefly flashed risk-on signals before fizzling. "There were some attempts at rallies over the weekend after Bitcoin broke $70,000 and Solana went above $90," Yuen told Decrypt. "Probably some people took that as a risk-on signal over an illiquid weekend to pump altcoins. But now that the breakout on majors has failed, I think altcoins are returning their wins."

Improving macro sentiment—particularly softer U.S. inflation data has boosted risk appetite across assets, according to Ignacio, CMO at Bitget.

"Capital is rotating selectively into high-conviction altcoins with strong narratives, such as ETF speculation and ecosystem momentum in sectors such as **DeFi**, **AI agents**, and **gaming**," he told Decrypt. "This has triggered short-term relief rallies and double-digit gains in select tokens as traders regain confidence after earlier volatility."

## Still Far From All-Time Highs

Interestingly, though, each of these altcoins remains dramatically below all-time highs set years ago.

Despite the green candles, Zcash trades more than **90% below its 2016 all-time high** of $3,191. Pepe and Bittensor are both 84% and 75% off their respective ATHs formed in December 2024 and March 2024.

Even Aster, the recently launched decentralized exchange token, sits some 70% below its September 2025 high—underscoring how much ground most altcoins still need to recover.

The pessimism is aptly captured in prediction market Myriad, with users assigning a mere **9% chance** to the possibility of an altcoin season before April 2026.

## A Targeted Altcoin Narrative

The current move isn't narrative-free—it's just more targeted than past cycles, Ryan Yoon, senior analyst at Seoul-based Tiger Research, told Decrypt.

"While 2025 saw massive narratives without short-term outcomes, institutional-grade sectors like stablecoins, RWA, and privacy chains have focused on long-term growth," Yoon said.

The sustainability of recent altcoin gains depends on continued favorable macroeconomic tailwinds, such as stable or improving liquidity conditions and positive U.S. economic indicators in the coming weeks, analysts agreed.

"While short-term momentum looks constructive with rising stablecoin inflows and neutral-to-positive altcoin impulse signals, a broader sustained rally would require Bitcoin to stabilize or break higher while dominance eases gradually," Ignacio explained.

## Macroeconomic Factors at Play

All eyes are on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the **PCE price index, on February 20**. That event, along with the inflation and jobs data, will play a pivotal role in the interest rate decision scheduled for March 18.

So far, the markets have assigned a **90% probability** that the Federal Funds Rate will remain unchanged at 3.50%-3.75%, according to CME’s FedWatch tool. Myriad predictors put just a 31% chance on the Fed cutting rates by more than 25bps before July.

Altcoins notch double-digit weekly gains as Bitcoin remains rangebound, but most remain well below all-time highs with macro data looming.

Crypto Traders Are Piling Into These Altcoins While Bitcoin Stalls - Here's Why

## Metaplanet's Operating Profit Skyrockets on Bitcoin Options Strategy

**Metaplanet (3350)**, Japan's largest **Bitcoin treasury company**, has reported an astonishing **1,700% increase in operating profit** for 2025, driven primarily by its **options writing strategy** on its substantial Bitcoin holdings.

The company, which holds **35,102 BTC** (worth over $2.4 billion), saw its operating profit jump to **6.29 billion yen ($40.8 million)** last year, up from just 370 million yen in 2024. This dramatic growth was fueled by **premiums from writing options**, which surged to **7.98 billion yen** from 691 million yen the previous year.

### The Bitcoin Valuation Paradox

Despite the impressive operating performance, Metaplanet faced significant challenges from **Bitcoin's price volatility**. As BTC dropped from a near **$125,000 all-time high** to below **$90,000** by year-end, the company recorded a **non-cash valuation loss of 102.2 billion yen ($650 million)**.

This substantial paper loss dragged net income down to a **95 billion yen ($605 million) loss**, highlighting the dual nature of corporate Bitcoin holdings - generating income through financial strategies while remaining exposed to market fluctuations.

### Current Position and Future Outlook

Metaplanet currently holds **$1.2 billion in unrealized losses** with Bitcoin trading around **$68,550**. However, the company remains optimistic about its Bitcoin-centric business model.

For 2026, Metaplanet forecasts:
- **Full-year revenue growth of almost 80%** to 16 billion yen
- **Operating profit reaching 11.4 billion yen** (an 81% increase)
- **Nearly all revenue** expected to come from Bitcoin holdings

The company's shares responded positively to the announcement, rising **0.31% to 326.0 yen** on Monday.

### Strategic Implications

Metaplanet's experience demonstrates how companies can leverage **Bitcoin holdings for income generation** through sophisticated financial instruments like options writing, even during market downturns. The **17-fold profit increase** from this strategy shows the potential for corporate treasuries to actively manage crypto assets beyond simple holding.

However, the **$650 million valuation loss** serves as a stark reminder of the **volatility risks** inherent in cryptocurrency investments, even for companies with substantial experience in the space.

The company recorded a non-cash bitcoin valuation loss of 102.2 billion yen ($650 million) due to the cryptocurrency’s price drop.

Metaplanet's Bitcoin Strategy Delivers 1,700% Profit Surge Despite $650M Crypto Loss

## Bitcoin Takes Step Towards Quantum Fix as Experts Diverge on Urgency of Threat

Bitcoin developers have taken another step towards addressing the risk posed by future quantum computers, merging **BIP 360** into the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals GitHub repository as the long-running debate over the timeline intensifies.

### The Quantum Vulnerability in Taproot

BIP 360 introduces a new output type called **Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR)**. The design disables a technical feature called key-path spending, which exposes public keys when coins are spent, and lays the groundwork for adding post-quantum signature schemes in future soft forks. The merge does not activate the change, but rather moves the proposal into formal review.

Ethan Heilman, a cryptographic researcher and BIP 360 co-author, explained that the proposal addresses a specific weakness in **Taproot**, an upgrade added to the Bitcoin network in 2021.

“The key spend is not quantum-safe because it exposes the public key," he said, "which means that a quantum attacker could attack the key spend and steal your funds, even if the script spend was totally safe.”

Pay-to-Merkle-Root removes the vulnerable portion of Taproot while preserving its ability to upgrade.

“This is important," he said, "because it removes the quantum-vulnerable key path spend."

### The Quantum Threat Timeline Debate

The debate around how best to address a future quantum threat stems from **Shor’s algorithm**, which could derive private keys from public keys if run on a sufficiently powerful, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

In a recent public discussion, Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum said he expects fault-tolerant quantum systems to emerge within years.

“We will, I believe, create a functioning, fault-tolerant quantum computer in five to seven years,” he told the audience, adding that the United States must rethink how it protects sensitive information.

Recent developments in quantum computing support Rosenbaum’s claims:

* In September, Caltech said researchers kept more than **6,000 qubits**—the basic units of quantum information—coherent, meaning stable in their quantum state, with 99.98% accuracy.
* One month later, IBM reported creating a **120-qubit entangled state**, linking 120 qubits so they functioned as a single system, which it described as the largest and most stable demonstration of its kind to date.

Despite recent advances, Heilman said precise forecasts for quantum computing advancements are unreliable.

“There's no good, concrete way of actually predicting it on a timescale of more than one or two or three years out,” he said. “I would be really surprised if it happens within the next five years. I think about it as uncertainty and as a risk that increases with time.”

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has set post-quantum migration targets stretching into the **mid-2030s**. At the same time, cypherpunk and co-founder and Chief Security Officer of Bitcoin wallet developer Casa, Jameson Lopp, suggested that quantum machines able to threaten modern cryptography may be decades away.

“Right now, we’re several orders of magnitude away from having a cryptographically relevant quantum computer, at least as far as we know,” Lopp told Decrypt. “If innovation in quantum computing continues at a similar, fairly linear rate, it’s going to take many years—probably over a decade, maybe even several decades—before we get to that point.”

### The Real Challenge: Bitcoin's Resistance to Change

Lopp said the greater concern may not be quantum hardware, but the Bitcoin community’s growing resistance to change.

“It’s the nature of network protocols to ossify over time,” he said, referring to the process of turning to bone. “What it really means is that it becomes harder and harder to reach consensus in a decentralized network made up of many different nodes.”

According to Heilman, activating a proposal requires **“rough consensus”** across miners, node operators, businesses, and users, followed by the release of a separate activation client that typically requires about 95% support over a sustained period before the change locks in.

Still, some in the blockchain industry view the quantum risk as speculative or driven by fear, arguing that if large-scale quantum systems arrive, they would likely target centralized infrastructure before individual wallets.

Heilman acknowledged that there is a small but real chance that physical limits could prevent quantum computers from ever scaling to the point where they threaten Bitcoin.

“But I treat it very much like something which is uncertain,” he said. “It is important for Bitcoin to be valuable, useful, and take existential risks seriously, even if there is some uncertainty over how dangerous they actually are.”

Bitcoin developers lay the groundwork for post-quantum upgrades, but experts vary on whether the threat is years or decades away.

Bitcoin's Quantum Defense: Is the Crypto Apocalypse 5 Years Away or Decades?

The recent crypto market sell-off has been brutal, with major cryptocurrencies crashing by **14% or more** on February 5th and failing to fully recover. While it's a risky time to buy the dip, now might be the perfect moment to hunt for bargains. If you're looking to allocate **$1,000** to crypto via lump sum purchases today, here are three coins that stand out as compelling buys.

![An investor sits at a cafe investigating a sheaf of papers in front of a laptop.](https://g.foolcdn.com/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fg.foolcdn.com%2Feditorial%2Fimages%2F854702%2Finvestor-consider-papers-and-laptop-while-sitting-in-cafe.jpg&w=3840&op=resize)

## Bitcoin is the Anchor

**Bitcoin (BTC)** deserves the largest slice of your investment—**$700**—because it's the foundational asset in the crypto sector. As a **scarce, in-demand asset**, Bitcoin is becoming increasingly valuable as its supply diminishes. It's also an excellent starting point for a diversified crypto portfolio, teaching key lessons like the importance of **patience**, ignoring day-to-day price fluctuations, and embracing a **long-term investment horizon**. While Bitcoin isn't a safe investment by traditional standards, it's one of the safest options in the volatile crypto world, making it the core of this allocation.

## Ethereum Offers Upside, but with More Moving Parts

**Ethereum (ETH)** is the second choice, with an allocation of **$200**. Despite its recent price decline, Ethereum remains the **nexus for most smart contract activity** in crypto. It has a solid plan to scale further, reducing transaction costs and increasing speed. For applications in **decentralized finance (DeFi)** and **asset tokenization**, Ethereum has no equal, and this dominance is likely to persist and even intensify. However, Ethereum is far riskier than Bitcoin due to intense competition, technical complexity, and potential execution disappointments, justifying its smaller share.

## XRP is the Riskiest Pick, for Now

**XRP** gets the smallest allocation of **$100** because its upside depends on winning tight contests in areas like becoming a hub for **financial institutions** handling tokenized real-world assets. Currently trailing Ethereum, XRP has strengths in **regulatory compliance features**, which could help it succeed in payments and international money transfers. But it faces stiff competition from incumbents and new entrants, making it the riskiest bet of the three.

In summary, this strategy balances risk and reward by focusing on **Bitcoin** as the anchor, **Ethereum** for growth potential, and **XRP** for speculative upside, all while capitalizing on current market dips.

It's a risky time to buy the dip, but here's how I'd do it.

Bitcoin Articles Published Today

Bitcoin Articles Published Yesterday