Blockchain & Web3 Weekly Bytes Edition #100

🪙 Bridge OCC Nod, Robinhood L2 at 4M, Bitcoin Covenants Primer

Feb 21, 2026

Hello Blockchain Enthusiast,

Welcome to Edition #100! 🎉

We built Blockchain & Web3 Weekly Bytes to deliver a sharp Saturday snapshot in under three minutes. One hundred editions later, that focus remains the same. Thank you for reading, replying, and growing this community with us.

This week says a lot about where the space stands. Bridge, owned by Stripe, secured conditional OCC approval for a national trust bank. Robinhood processed 4 million transactions on its Arbitrum-based Layer 2 testnet in week one. Wintermute opened institutional OTC trading for tokenized gold via PAXG and XAUT.

TLDR – This Week at a Glance:

Bridge wins conditional OCC approval to establish a national trust bank for stablecoin custody and reserves
Robinhood Chain testnet processes 4 million transactions in week one
Wintermute launches institutional OTC desk for tokenized gold PAXG and XAUT
Tech Spotlight: Bitcoin Covenants Primer and programmable spending rules
Chart of the Week: More than 3,000 financial institutions own bitcoin, per River
Affiliate Spotlight: 101 Blockchains Certified Web3 Blockchain Developer program

🧠 Weekly Trivia

On Ethereum, what does “gas” actually measure?

A) The dollar value of a transaction
B) The computational work required to process an action
C) The size of the transaction in kilobytes
D) The number of validators approving the block

*Answer revealed at the end 👇

📰 This Week’s Blockchain and Web3 Highlights

Bridge earns conditional OCC trust bank approval: Stripe-owned Bridge received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank.

Robinhood Chain testnet posts 4 million transactions in week one: The chain is positioned around tokenized assets and onchain financial services, with early activity signaling strong internal testing momentum.

Wintermute opens institutional OTC desk for tokenized gold: Wintermute launched over-the-counter trading for gold-backed tokens PAXG and XAUT, targeting institutional flows. The firm projects the tokenized gold market could expand meaningfully into 2026 as settlement demand grows.

Stablecoins show up in work and savings data: A global study tracking user behavior found over half of surveyed crypto users held stablecoins in the past year, with many planning to increase allocations.

Coinbase CEO addresses quantum concerns: Brian Armstrong described quantum computing risks as manageable and highlighted Coinbase’s advisory efforts as developers across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana assess future cryptographic transitions.

Goldman Sachs CEO discloses personal bitcoin holdings: David Solomon said he owns a very small amount of bitcoin. The statement marks a rare personal disclosure from the head of a major global bank.

SEC outlines measured path for tokenized securities: SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Atkins discussed an innovation exemption framework that could allow compliant experimentation in tokenized equities without immediate structural overhaul.

🔦 Tech Spotlight: Bitcoin Covenants Primer

Bitcoin covenants introduce spending conditions at the coin level.

Instead of controlling access solely through private keys, covenants can restrict how a specific output may be spent.

Examples under discussion include:

Predefined withdrawal paths for vault-style custody
Transaction templates that limit destination addresses
Time-based constraints combined with recovery flows

Why it matters:

Covenants can reduce certain theft risks by enforcing structured withdrawal paths. They can also introduce new complexity, because anyone receiving a coin must understand the script constraints attached to it.

The upside is policy enforcement embedded directly in the UTXO. The trade-off is added responsibility in transaction awareness.

Takeaway: Covenants add guardrails. Guardrails change behavior.

📊 Chart of the Week: 3,000+ Financial Institutions Own Bitcoin

River reported that over 3,000 financial institutions now hold bitcoin.

That figure spans hedge funds, asset managers, pension funds, endowments, and insurance firms.

What stands out:

Ownership is broadening across categories
Exposure is no longer isolated to early adopters
Institutional participation continues to scale through ETFs, direct custody, and treasury allocations

Source: River

😂 A Little Blockchain Humor Break 🤣

Source: Naiive

Bridge secured conditional OCC approval.
Robinhood processed 4 million transactions on its Layer 2 testnet.
Wintermute opened institutional tokenized gold trading and more.

Edition #100 closes the same way it began: with signal over noise.

✅ Trivia Answer: B) The computational work required to process an action

On Ethereum, gas measures the amount of computational effort needed to execute a transaction or smart contract operation. More complex actions require more gas. It reflects processing load, not dollar cost.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and holding this newsletter to a high bar. We’ll be back next Saturday with another sharp snapshot in under three minutes.

Thank you,
Blockchain and Web3 Insights

🌐 blockchainweb3insights.com
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