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As discussions surrounding the CLARITY Act—often referred to as the crypto market structure bill—continue in Washington, Kristin Smith, President of the Solana Policy Institute, has provided insights on the current status of the legislation and the organization’s top priorities. 

Solana Policy Institute’s Optimism For CLARITY Act 

One of the main priorities disclosed by Smith in a recent post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), is the importance of protecting open-source developers in the legislative landscape.

Smith pointed out that the recent delay in the markup of the market structure bill last week after Coinbase’s withdrawal should be seen as a temporary setback. “Despite the delay, industry engagement remains robust, and there is clear bipartisan support to achieve durable regulatory clarity for market structure,” she noted.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is making advancements with its own draft of the legislation expected to be released on Wednesday, as earlier reported by Bitcoinist.

Smith also highlighted a shared objective: to create a framework that protects consumers, fosters innovation, and provides certainty for developers operating in the United States. A central tenet of this goal is the safeguarding of developers, which Smith argued is crucial for the success of the industry.

Smith Advocates For Developer Protections

The Solana Institute was founded to ensure that policymakers gain a comprehensive understanding of public blockchains and the protocols that underpin them. 

Smith articulated the critical role that open-source software plays within the crypto ecosystem, noting that developers around the world collaborate to produce software that anyone can inspect, use, or improve. “Openness is a strength—not a liability,” she asserted.

However, she raised concerns regarding the case against Roman Storm of Tornado Cash, indicating that it treats open-source innovation as something questionable. Smith warned that penalizing developers merely for writing and publishing open-source code endangers all those involved in such collaborative efforts. 

She emphasized the “chilling effect” that the prosecution could have on open-source developers, asserting that writing code is an expressive act protected by the First Amendment.

Smith called for clear policy that differentiates between bad actors and developers working on lawful, general-purpose tools. To bolster this cause, she encouraged supporters to draft letters expressing their stance in favor of open-source protections.

Roman Storm responded to Smith’s support, thanking her and the broader community for advocating for open-source principles. He remarked, “Criminalizing the act of writing and publishing code threatens not just one developer, but the foundations of digital security, privacy, and innovation.” 

At the time of writing, Solana’s native token, SOL, was trading at $130.33, mirroring the performance of the broader crypto market, dropping 11% in the weekly time frame.   

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com

American fast food chain Steak ‘n Shake has announced that all hourly employees will receive a Bitcoin bonus starting on March 1st.

Steak ‘n Shake Integrates Bitcoin Bonus Payments

Steak ‘n Shake will pay all hourly employees at its company-operated restaurants a bonus in Bitcoin for every hour of work, as revealed by the company’s official X handle. Steak ‘n Shake, primarily based in the United States, is a fast food chain that mainly serves burgers and milkshakes, with its flagship item being the Steakburger. Back in May 2025, the firm opened itself to Bitcoin, allowing customers to pay at all its locations using the cryptocurrency.

Last Friday, Steak ‘n Shake provided an update on the scheme, noting that same-store sales have dramatically increased for the company since it started accepting BTC. The firm added that all of its BTC sales go into its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) and announced that it expanded this reserve by an additional $10 million in notional value in that same update.

“We have created a self-sustaining system — growing same-store sales that grow the SBR,” wrote the company. “Improving food quality expands Steak n Shake’s reach and leverages Bitcoin into a new and delicious dimension.” Now, it seems Steak ‘n Shake has taken its BTC acceptance a step further with the employee bonus integration.

According to the announcement, all hourly employees will receive $0.21 BTC for every hour worked. However, only workers who have passed a two-year vesting period will be able to collect their digital asset pay.

Steak ‘n Shake credited Fold for providing assistance on the initiative. Fold is a financial services platform that offers, among other features, a debit card allowing users to earn BTC rewards on payments.

The Bitcoin bonus program is set to go live on March 1st. “We take care of our employees; they, in turn, take care of customers; and the results take care of themselves,” said Steak ‘n Shake.

In some other news, institutional demand for Bitcoin has remained strong recently, according to CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju. To track the behavior of these large entities, Young Ju has referred to the supply of addresses carrying between 100 and 1,000 BTC.

“US custody wallets typically hold 100-1,000 BTC each,” explained the CryptoQuant founder. “Excluding exchanges and miners, this gives a rough read on institutional demand.” As the chart below shows, the supply of this investor segment has shown significant growth in recent months.

In total, Bitcoin wallets in the 100 to 1,000 tokens range have collectively added 577,000 BTC (roughly worth $51.5 billion) to their holdings over the past year. So far, this accumulation hasn’t shown signs of slowing down.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $89,200, down 6% in the last seven days.

Bitcoin slipped below the $90,000 level as global markets reacted to rising macroeconomic tension between the United States and the European Union. Investors are closely watching the latest trade headlines, as renewed tariff threats increase uncertainty around global growth, corporate earnings, and inflation dynamics. When friction between major economies escalates, risk appetite typically fades, and crypto tends to feel the impact fast as traders reduce exposure and cut leverage.

According to an analysis by XWIN Research Japan, Bitcoin’s recent weakness fits a broader pattern that has been developing since 2025. The report argues that the Trump administration’s renewed tariff push has acted as a consistent downside pressure for BTC, mainly because tariffs influence multiple pillars of the macro environment at once. Higher tariffs can squeeze company margins, disrupt supply chains, and push inflation expectations higher, which complicates the outlook for interest rates and monetary policy.

In this environment, Bitcoin has continued to behave more like a macro-sensitive risk asset than a defensive hedge. Instead of attracting safe-haven flows, BTC has often moved in sync with equities during trade-driven risk-off waves. As a result, even brief bursts of bullish momentum have struggled to hold when economic uncertainty rises and capital rotates into safer positioning.

Tariff Risk Keeps Bitcoin Tied to Macro Conditions

The XWIN Research Japan report explains that several Bitcoin pullbacks between 2025 and 2026 aligned with periods of rising economic uncertainty driven by tariff hikes and trade frictions. During these episodes, BTC declined alongside equities, reinforcing that the market still treats Bitcoin as a macro-sensitive risk asset rather than a defensive hedge. Instead of decoupling during stress, Bitcoin often reacts like a high-beta instrument when traders rush to reduce volatility in their portfolios.

Economic risk tends to hit Bitcoin quickly because investor behavior adjusts fast. As uncertainty around growth and interest rates increases, capital typically shifts toward short-term protection. In that process, Bitcoin is frequently viewed as a liquid asset that can be sold temporarily to lower portfolio risk, rather than a long-term store of value that benefits from risk-off flows. This dynamic can amplify downside moves even when long-term fundamentals remain intact.

Exchange Netflow provides a supplementary layer of evidence. During correction phases, brief spikes in exchange inflows often appear, consistent with tactical repositioning and short-term profit protection. However, these inflows have not persisted, suggesting the absence of sustained structural selling pressure.

For now, the base scenario remains that tariff-driven economic risk is weighing on Bitcoin. If exchange inflows become sustained and supply-demand conditions weaken further, that assessment would need to be reassessed.

BTC Holds Its Ground After Breaking Below $90K

Bitcoin is trading around $88,800 on the weekly chart after a sharp selloff that briefly pushed price below the $90,000 psychological level. This drop marks a clear shift in momentum, as BTC failed to hold the mid-range structure that supported price action throughout the late-2025 consolidation phase. The weekly candle shows heavy downside pressure, with sellers rejecting attempts to stabilize above $92,000 and forcing a retest of lower demand.

Technically, Bitcoin remains trapped between key moving averages. Price is still below the blue long-term trend line, which has acted as dynamic resistance since the breakdown from the $100,000+ region. At the same time, BTC is holding above the green moving average, suggesting that while the market is weak, longer-term buyers are still defending the broader uptrend structure.

This creates a fragile equilibrium: as long as Bitcoin holds above the current support zone, bulls can attempt to rebuild a base and reclaim $90,000-$92,000. However, if volatility expands and the market loses the green trend line, it would expose BTC to a deeper correction toward the mid-$80,000s, where previous demand briefly stepped in during the prior drawdown.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com