GeckoPulse: A BIRB Cage

Moonbirds Massacre

The Moonbirds NFT project has announced the tokenomics of its upcoming BIRB token, which has left some community members disappointed.

Of the 1B total BIRB supply, 65% of tokens will be distributed to the community, with 27% going directly to NFT holders.

Besides that, the team has also introduced a new vesting mechanic known as Nesting 2.0, where users deposit their NFTs to unlock their airdrop allocations.

NFTs deposited into the Nesting protocol will receive a soulbound NFT, while allocations will unlock on a monthly basis over a 2-year period.

Notably, Moonbirds clarified that holders of their various SBTs acquired through different campaigns will have their allocation fully unlocked, while NFT holders will get their first month’s allocation on day one.

Additionally, Moonbirds, Oddities and Mythics holders will have the opportunity to receive up to 25% of the total BIRB supply.

However, the community remained unconvinced, causing the floor price of Moonbirds to plummet sharply from 1.74 ETH (~$5K) to 0.95 ETH (~$2.9K).

The Agent Economy Comes to Ethereum

Ethereum has announced that its latest ERC-8004 proposal is scheduled to go live on the mainnet very soon.

The proposal will provide AI agents with the necessary tools to interact with dApps and smart contracts on the network.

In a nutshell, the update introduces 3 deployable lightweight registries designed to discover and give approval to AI agents for performing on-chain actions.

While the Ethereum team did not provide an exact launch date, the proposal’s co-author and MetaMask’s head of AI, Marco De Rossi, stated that the ERC-8004 may be implemented by Thursday.

Nifty No Longer

The Gemini-owned NFT platform Nifty Gateway has announced it will officially shut down all operations on February 23, 2026.

Effective immediately, Nifty Gateway has halted all trading and primary sales of NFTs. 

Additionally, the platform has transitioned into a "withdrawal-only" state, meaning users can no longer buy or list new NFTs but can still access the site to remove their existing assets.

However, any leftover funds can still be withdrawn to a Gemini Exchange account or to a bank account through Stripe.

In Gemini’s recent blog post, the sunset is part of a broader strategy by the exchange "sharpen its focus” on building a new superapp that encompasses more than just NFTs.

However, the sudden closure has left many scratching their heads on whether their NFTs could still be recovered after the February deadline.

Bitwise Taps into Morpho

Asset management firm Bitwise has teamed up with DeFi lending protocol Morpho to deploy its own set of on-chain yield vaults.

According to Bitwise’s latest announcement, its first vault aims to achieve average annual yields of 6% through overcollateralized lending.

Asset selection and curation of vaults will be managed by Jonathan Man, Bitwise’s current Portfolio Manager and head of Multi-Strategy Solutions.

The price of MORPHO has remained unchanged since the announcement.

In Other News

Forgotten Runiverse Shuts Down. Forgotten Runiverse is the latest blockchain game to shut down following financial difficulties. The MMORPG was hosted on Ronin, an ETH L2 designed for crypto games. At its peak, Runiverse had over 250K concurrent players.

United States of Stablecoins. USDT issuer announced the launch of the USAT stablecoin. USAT is a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin made in America.

Mesh Secures $1B Valuation. Mesh, a crypto payments startup has secured an additional $75M in funding during a Series C raise at a total valuation of $1B. Mesh has raised a total of $200M in funds so far.

The Last Rodeo. SocialFi network Rodeo announced its closure after struggling to find product market fit. As a thank you, the project is offering its current and past users a personalized send off message before the project officially shuts down on March 10.

Kraken Lists HYPE. Kraken crypto exchange announced the listing of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token. This move is notable as it is theorized that centralized crypto exchanges have so far avoided listing HYPE because Hyperliquid is a major competitor of centralized exchanges.

AVAX ETFs Launched. The first AVAX ETF debuted on the US Nasdaq stock exchange yesterday under the ticker VAVX. Global asset manager VanEck issued the ETF and promised to waive fees for the first $500M worth of deposits.

Tom Lee Continues ETH Buying Spree. Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies, an Ethereum treasury firm, added more than $116M in Ethereum last week. The firm now holds 4.2M ETH, 3.5% of ETH’s total circulating supply.

RIVER Flows in You. The native crypto token of the River stablecoin abstraction protocol has been making waves in the crypto markets with promotion from crypto personalities such as Justin Sun and Arthur Hayes. RIVER is up more than 1900% and has entered the top 100 coins by market capitalization.

A Spike in Liquidations. The crypto market saw over $750M in liquidations over the past 24 hours. $579M came from long positions indicating a general market downturn.

The Ticker is HYPE. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token is up 23% after its team announced that HIP-3 Open Interest hit an ATH of $790M, fuelled by a surge in commodities trading.

Kraken Launches DeFi Earn. Kraken crypto exchange is bringing DeFi yields to the masses, offering up to 8% interest on USDC deposits with flexible withdrawals. Rewards are said to come from DeFi lending protocols such as Aave, Morpho and more.