As we move through the third Thursday of February 2026, the digital asset landscape is defined by a curious decoupling of “crowd” sentiment. While the heavyweights, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are laboring under a cloud of social pessimism, XRP has surged to its most bullish positioning in over a month, fueled by a string of aggressive partnership expansions.
At the same time, the Ethereum Foundation has just dropped its definitive 2026 roadmap leading to the “Glamsterdam” upgrade, and Robinhood’s foray into the layer-2 space is seeing explosive early testnet activity.
TL;DR: The Morning Brief
- XRP decouples: Santiment data shows XRP hitting a five-week “bullishness” high, while BTC and ETH dip into bearish sentiment territory.
- Ethereum’s 2026 Vision: The Foundation outlines “Glamsterdam” and “Hegotá” upgrades, targeting 100M+ gas limits and parallel execution.
- Robinhood chain momentum: CEO Vlad Tenev reports four million transactions in the first week of the RWA-focused L2 testnet.
XRP news: Santiment reports five-week high in “bullishness”
While the broader market appears to be catching its breath, XRP is currently riding a wave of social optimism that we have not seen since mid-January. According to the latest data from Santiment, the “Positive/Negative Sentiment Ratio” for XRP has spiked significantly, carving out a local peak that stands in sharp contrast to the “bearish territory” currently occupied by Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The visual data from Sanbase highlights a telling trend: as the BTC price action continues to struggle with maintaining momentum, the crowd is actively pivoting its attention. This five-week high in bullishness appears to be a direct reaction to a series of strategic partnership expansion announcements that have refocused the narrative on XRP’s utility in cross-border settlements.
On a market where social volume often precedes price volatility, the fact that XRP is the lone “green” outlier in sentiment suggests that the “smart money” and retail crowd alike are betting on a fundamental breakout while the rest of the majors consolidate.
Ether unveils Glamsterdam 2026 roadmap update
The Ethereum Foundation has officially clarified the path forward for 2026, providing a high-stakes protocol development structure that looks to solve the perennial issues of scale and user experience.
Following the successful activation of the Fusaka upgrade in December 2025 — which brought the network to a 60 million gas limit — the 2026 roadmap is split into two massive phases: Glamsterdam in the first half of the year and Hegotá to follow.
Quick summary of Ethereum protocol priorities update for 2026:
- Scale: Focused on consensus, execution and blob scaling.
- Improve UX: Doubling down on the work from last year.
- Harden the L1: Ensuring the core properties of Ethereum are preserved through it all.
Glamsterdam represents a sophisticated “marriage” of the Amsterdam execution layer and the Gloas consensus layer. The goal is nothing short of transformative: the foundation is targeting a gas limit growth that could finally push past the 100 million mark. By implementing enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) and block-level access lists, Ethereum is attempting to “harden the L1” while simultaneously making it efficient enough to handle the next generation of global demand.
For developers, the real “meat” of this update lies in parallel transaction execution, a move that brings Ethereum’s throughput closer to its high-speed competitors while maintaining the security of its decentralized base.
Robinhood chain hits four million transactions, CEO Vlad Tenev confirms
The “Next Chapter of Finance” is apparently being written on an Ethereum L2, at least according to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. In a significant update posted today, Tenev confirmed that the Robinhood chain testnet has processed over four million transactions in its first seven days of public life.
Launched on Feb. 10, 2026, this Arbitrum-based L2 is specifically engineered for the “Onchain Finance” era, focusing heavily on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) like equities and private funds.
Built using the Arbitrum Orbit stack, the chain is achieving block times of approximately 100ms, a necessity for Robinhood’s vision of 24/7 trading for traditional financial instruments. With major infrastructure partners like Alchemy, Chainlink and LayerZero already integrated, the testnet’s success suggests that the transition from a traditional brokerage model to a self-custody, on-chain ecosystem is accelerating.
The chain allows for native issuance of tokenized assets, which can then be traded via the Robinhood wallet, effectively bridging the gap between Wall Street liquidity and DeFi efficiency.
Crypto market outlook: Divergence phase
The current market environment is one of technical maturity versus social exhaustion. While the underlying infrastructure — exemplified by Ethereum’s roadmap and Robinhood’s L2 success — is scaling rapidly, the “crowd” is showing signs of fatigue regarding the primary assets.
Key levels and trends to watch:
- XRP: With sentiment at a five-week high, watch for a potential “short squeeze” or a price breakout if the partnership news translates into sustained buying volume. Key resistance remains at the psychological $1.50 level.
- Ethereum (ETH): As the Glamsterdam hype builds, the 2026 roadmap provides a fundamental floor. Traders should monitor the $2,000 level; staying above this confirms that the market is pricing in the upcoming scaling benefits.
- Bitcoin (BTC): Bitcoin remains in a “wait-and-see” zone. Until sentiment recovers from the current bearish dip, we expect sideways consolidation between $71,000 and $60,000.
The roadmap for 2026 is becoming clear: Ethereum is scaling to become the global settlement layer, while platforms like Robinhood are building the “last mile” infrastructure to bring that scale to millions of retail users. XRP, at the same time, is in its own lane, targeting institutions for its next era.
We are entering a phase where the “Infrastructure Play” is outperforming the “Pure Currency Play” in terms of development milestones, a typical chapter in bear market structures.
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