February 4th replace: The cryptocurrency market continues to experience volatility. As of the time of writing, $Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$Bitcoin fell by 2.21%, buying and selling at $76,406.10; $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$Ethereum dropped by 1.42%, buying and selling at $2,270.54.
Lightspark CEO and $PayPal (PYPL.US)$ former PayPal President David Marcus revealed a retrospective on PayPal almost 12 years after his departure, stating that the corporate had lengthy prioritized monetary optimization over product and platform technique. Marcus particularly highlighted the stablecoin PYUSD: whereas technically sound, it lacks a compelling strategic rationale. Regardless of having distribution capabilities, it doesn’t exhibit real, intrinsic transaction demand, neither is it deeply built-in into funds, cross-border settlements, or programmable money flows. As an alternative, it’s extra “hooked up to merchandise” slightly than changing into a core settlement layer or new fee rail.
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Monitoring Cathie Wood: Continued aggressive accumulation of crypto property, elevated positions in CoreWeave and Google, important sell-off in on-line playing and promoting shares
In a single day, as market sentiment shifted in direction of cyclical and worth shares, coupled with a brand new wave of software program inventory sell-offs amid considerations about AI-driven job displacement and escalating tensions between the US and Iran, all three main indices declined. In opposition to this backdrop, Cathie Wood’s ARK Make investments as soon as once more engaged in widespread shopping for, however its buying and selling fashion remained extremely distinctive: firmly bullish on cryptocurrencies and AI infrastructure whereas considerably lowering publicity to sure shopper and playing shares for profit-taking or stop-loss functions.
Ebury, a fintech subsidiary of Banco Santander, introduced the official launch of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related providers in Brazil as a Digital Asset Service Supplier (VASP) coming into the native market. The service is ready to go reside in January 2026, with an preliminary give attention to stablecoin buying and selling (on-ramp / off-ramp), totally compliant with the most recent regulatory framework for crypto exchanges issued by Banco Central do Brasil (Bacen). Ebury acknowledged that the brand new answer will allow companies to use crypto property for cross-border funds and settlements, combining on-chain effectivity with bank-grade compliance capabilities.
针对“$Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US)$In response to the assertion that “Bitmine faces $66 billion in unrealized losses and future promoting strain will restrict Ethereum (ETH) costs,” Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine Treasury Firm, acknowledged that such feedback overlook the essence of the Ethereum treasury. He emphasised that Bitmine goals to monitor ETH costs whereas outperforming the broader market throughout cycles; experiencing unrealized losses on ETH holdings throughout crypto market downturns is a ‘function, not a flaw,’ simply as index ETFs additionally incur losses throughout declines.
In accordance to a report by CoinDesk, UBS Group, Switzerland’s largest financial institution, has elevated its stake in Bitcoin Reserve Firm by 3.23 million shares.$UBS Group (UBS.US)$The group elevated its holdings in 3.23 million shares of the Bitcoin reserve firm.$Strategy (MSTR.US)$This brings its whole holdings in Technique to 5.76 million shares, valued at $805 million.
Non-custodial crypto pockets Protected (previously Gnosis Protected) launched its 2025 efficiency information, exhibiting annual income elevated fivefold year-over-year to exceed $10 million (roughly $2 million in 2024). In 2025, the protocol processed a complete transaction quantity of $600 billion, accounting for 43% of its cumulative historic transaction quantity, finishing a complete of 326 million transactions. Protected acknowledged it’s not but worthwhile however plans to break even and double its income by 2026, with a long-term purpose of reaching $100 million in annual recurring income by 2030.
In accordance to Christine Kim’s abstract of the 68th Ethereum Core Developer Take a look at assembly (ACDT), builders targeted on advancing Fusaka-related implementations. The consensus layer shoppers are testing larger blob portions and refining partial cell proofs, however Prysm and Lighthouse uncovered discipline response points on blob-devnet-0. Glamsterdam’s bals-devnet-2 stays scheduled for launch on February 4, with EIP-7928 execution layer interfaces mandated for necessary integration. The deadline for submitting proposals for Hegota improve header performance can also be set for February 4.
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AllUnity, a European licensed digital cash establishment, plans to launch a Swiss franc-pegged stablecoin known as CHFAU.
In accordance to Crowdfundinsider, AllUnity, a European licensed digital cash establishment, introduced plans to launch a Swiss franc-pegged stablecoin named CHFAU. The challenge is collectively developed by asset administration agency DWS, market maker Stream Merchants, and digital asset firm Galaxy, aiming to present a compliant digital asset below the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Property Regulation (MiCA).
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Michael Burry, generally known as ‘The Huge Quick,’ warns {that a} Bitcoin worth crash might set off a sequence response.
Michael Burry, the fund supervisor well-known for the film ‘The Huge Quick,’ warned {that a} plunge in Bitcoin costs might escalate right into a self-reinforcing ‘demise spiral,’ inflicting lasting harm to firms which have hoarded Bitcoin over the previous yr.
Burry wrote in a Substack publish on Monday that this authentic cryptocurrency has confirmed to be a purely speculative asset, failing to function an efficient hedge towards depreciation like valuable metals. He acknowledged that additional declines might quickly intensify stability sheet pressures on main holders, forcing the complete cryptocurrency ecosystem into sell-offs and triggering widespread worth collapses. Since peaking in October, Bitcoin costs have fallen by about 40%.
Leonard, CEO of Aster, formally responded to the continued FUD (concern, uncertainty, and doubt) focusing on the challenge. He acknowledged that the circulating allegations are ‘fully false on factual grounds’ and represent ‘unsubstantiated, maliciously intended舆论 manipulation.’ Relating to accusations akin to ‘dumping allegations, CZ’s involvement, and whether or not the challenge is an ‘exit liquidity scheme,” Leonard clarified: CZ is merely a challenge advisor; investor Yzi Labs’ funding stays in long-term lock-up; Aster operates as an unbiased challenge, not managed or straight operated by CZ or Binance entities. These allegations are ‘groundless.’
He additionally emphasised that token releases and buybacks strictly adhere to the publicly disclosed tokenomics mannequin, designed to incentivize ecosystem members slightly than facilitate dumping. The challenge just lately upgraded its buyback mechanism, executing day by day on-chain automated buybacks (funded by protocol income) to improve transparency and predictability. Leonard offered the next verifiable on-chain information: cumulative repurchase of 254 million tokens; 78 million tokens burned and an equal quantity relocked into the airdrop pool; plans to burn all remaining repurchased tokens in the long run.
The subsequent improvement priorities for the challenge embrace: increasing asset liquidity and accelerating new listings; launching a privacy-first Layer 1 community in March, enabling each transaction verifiability and privateness safety; adopted by introducing a staking function for token holders; optimizing buying and selling experience and interface design. Instructions for tokenomics optimization embrace: S6 as the ultimate spherical of buying and selling airdrops, with future circulating provide development slowing down; suspending month-to-month 1% unlocks till staking goes reside; persevering with automated buybacks (up to 80% of charges will probably be used for buybacks throughout S6).
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KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, elevated its shares in MSTR to 95,160.
KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, has elevated its stake in firms holding Bitcoin as reserve property. $Strategy (MSTR.US)$ The holding elevated to 95,160 shares, with a complete worth of $13.5 million.
In accordance to Wintermute’s evaluation, Bitcoin fell below $80,000, triggering $2.55 billion in leveraged place liquidations over the weekend. The decline was pushed by a number of macro elements: underwhelming earnings from giant tech shares (Mag7) pressuring AI-related narratives, coverage uncertainty brought on by Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Federal Reserve Chair, and important unwinding of speculative positions in the valuable metals market. The report famous that the market’s response to these unfavorable elements was delayed, ultimately being launched throughout the sometimes low-liquidity weekend interval. Excessive leverage ranges prior to the occasion resulted in one of many ten largest liquidation occasions in cryptocurrency historical past. On this correction, crypto property underperformed the overwhelming majority of conventional property.
The report argues that the market has entered a bear part, however not like earlier bear markets triggered by structural collapses inside the business (e.g., FTX, Luna incidents), this downturn is primarily pushed by macroeconomic circumstances and narrative shifts, main to an natural deleveraging course of. Absent compelled bankruptcies or contagion results, this cycle could conclude sooner than previous bear markets. Present infrastructure is extra strong, stablecoin adoption continues to develop, and institutional curiosity stays intact however is quickly on the sidelines.
As soon as macroeconomic uncertainty dissipates and the Federal Reserve’s coverage path turns into clearer, market consideration might quickly return in the second half of 2026. Market positioning has lightened after the liquidations, however confidence stays fragile, with costs coming into a brand new exploratory part after two months of consolidation. Whereas it’s untimely to focus on development reversals, given the absence of structural harm to the crypto ecosystem, any significant upward tendencies could emerge extra clearly in contrast to rebounds in earlier bear markets.
Stablecoin issuer Tether introduced the launch of its open-source Bitcoin mining working system, MiningOS. The system goals to simplify the administration of mining infrastructure and scale back reliance on proprietary vendor software program. Tether describes MiningOS as a modular and scalable working system appropriate for operations of all sizes, from dwelling miners to giant establishments. It employs a self-hosted structure, enabling miners to handle actions with out counting on centralized providers by way of built-in peer-to-peer networking and gadget communication. Constructed on the Holepunch peer-to-peer protocol and launched below the Apache 2.0 license, the system is designed to keep its open-source nature freed from third-party dependencies.
Matt Hougan, Chief Funding Officer at Bitwise, acknowledged that the cryptocurrency market has been in a ‘full-fledged crypto winter’ since early 2025, however the present market could also be nearer to the top of the downturn than the beginning. Hougan famous that Bitcoin has fallen roughly 39% from its October 2025 all-time excessive, whereas Ethereum has dropped round 53%, with many different digital property experiencing even steeper declines.
He believes the present part could be in contrast to the crypto winters of 2018 and 2022, characterised by extreme leverage and widespread profit-taking by early holders, with unfavorable sentiment overshadowing incremental constructive developments. Though Bitcoin peaked in October 2025, the precise market weak spot started in January 2025 however was masked by robust inflows from ETFs and digital asset treasuries. With out this assist, Bitcoin’s decline might have approached 60%.
Regardless of the weak market, Hougan believes that the crypto ecosystem continues to make structural progress in regulation, institutional adoption, stablecoins, and asset tokenization. Reviewing historic cycles, crypto winters typically finish in despair and stagnation slightly than reversing in pleasure; the present sentiment resembles traits of earlier market bottoms. Though the timing is unsure, contemplating this adjustment has lasted for over a yr, mixed with potential constructive catalysts akin to robust financial development, the passage of regulatory payments, and indicators of sovereign adoption of Bitcoin, he believes the market is nearer to restoration than additional decline.
Jack Yi (Yi Lihua), founding father of Liquid Capital, posted on the X platform: ‘Because the bulls in this cycle, we stay optimistic concerning the efficiency of a brand new bull market: Ethereum reaching above $10,000, and Bitcoin surpassing $200,000. We now have solely made partial changes to handle dangers, and our expectations for a significant bull market in the long run stay unchanged. I perceive the frustration in direction of the business and main initiatives, particularly the liquidity scarcity and manipulation by some platforms brought on by the 1011 incident. Nonetheless, I consider the long-term development of the crypto area stays intact, and now could be completely the most effective time to purchase spot property primarily based on a three-year funding return calculation. Volatility is the most important attribute of the crypto market. Traditionally, numerous bulls have been shaken out by this volatility, however subsequent rebounds are sometimes doubled.’
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BitMine bought 20,000 ETH by way of FalconX 20 minutes in the past, equal to roughly $46.04 million.
In accordance to on-chain analyst Yuhuo’s monitoring, the Ethereum treasury firm $Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US)$ continued to purchase to decrease the typical worth: 20,000 ETH (price $46.04 million) have been bought by way of FalconX 20 minutes in the past.
Chiliz Chain, a sports activities and leisure blockchain, introduced on the X platform that Chiliz will launch US fan tokens in the approaching months, with 10% of the fan token income allotted to repurchasing and burning CHZ tokens. Chiliz goals to purchase minority stakes in sports activities golf equipment and allow followers to acquire actual possession by way of fan tokens. Chiliz Group has been invited to be part of the primary CHZ Digital Asset Treasury (DAT).
Payward, the mum or dad firm of cryptocurrency alternate Kraken, launched its 2025 monetary outcomes, exhibiting adjusted income of $2.2 billion, marking a 33% year-over-year enhance. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 26% to $531 million. The firm acknowledged that buying and selling enterprise income accounted for 47% of whole income, with the remaining income coming from non-trading companies akin to custody, funds, and financing. Its whole buying and selling quantity elevated by 34% to $2 trillion, whereas platform property grew by 12% to $48.5 billion. The variety of buyer accounts elevated by 50% to 5.7 million, partly due to acquisition actions. Throughout this era, the day by day common earnings buying and selling quantity of its futures merchandise surged by 119%.
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MetaMask Helps Tokenized US Shares, ETFs, and Commodities Buying and selling By Integration with Ondo Finance
In accordance to an official announcement, MetaMask, the non-custodial pockets below Consensys, has accomplished integration with Ondo Finance, a tokenized real-world asset platform. By this collaboration, eligible non-US cellular customers can now straight buy, maintain, and commerce over 200 tokenized US shares, ETFs, and commodities inside the MetaMask pockets by way of Ondo World Markets.
The first batch of supported property consists of $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ 、 $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ 、 $Apple (AAPL.US)$ 、 $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ 、 $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ and different shares, in addition to $iShares Silver Trust (SLV.US)$ 、 $Gold Trust Ishares (IAU.US)$ 、 $Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$ and different ETFs. Customers don’t want to open a standard retail brokerage account, as all transactions are performed by way of encrypted channels.
Customers can make the most of the MetaMask Swaps function to alternate USDC for Ondo’s World Market tokens (GM tokens) on the Ethereum mainnet. These tokens are designed to monitor the market worth of their underlying securities. Buying and selling hours are from 20:05 EST on Sundays to 19:59 EST on Fridays, supporting 24-hour buying and selling 5 days per week, with tokens transferable at any time.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform: “With Ethereum’s primary chain (L1) itself scaling and gasoline restrict plans considerably growing, L2, initially envisioned as ‘branded shards,’ is now not vital. L2 can’t totally meet the traits anticipated of ‘branded shards,’ and a few initiatives could even stay in part 1 completely to meet buyer regulatory necessities. Due to this fact, L2 must be repositioned—not merely pursuing scaling however offering distinctive extra functionalities, akin to privacy-focused digital machines, application-specific effectivity, final scaling, designs for non-financial purposes like social/identification/AI, and options akin to low latency or built-in oracles.”
Finest practices for L2 embrace sustaining no less than part 1 requirements (in any other case they’re primarily standalone L1s with bridges) and reaching most interoperability with Ethereum whereas exploring integration with native Rollup precompiles (ZK-EVM verification) to allow safe, trustless cross-chain operations and synchronous composability. Customers ought to clearly perceive the ensures offered by L2, and the L2 ecosystem will supply various choices: some chains will totally depend on Ethereum’s belief and credit score, whereas others can have various levels of affiliation, every specializing in completely different features or use circumstances, actually including revolutionary worth slightly than merely extending L1.”
In accordance to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency alternate Crypto.com introduced the upcoming launch of an unbiased prediction market platform named ‘OG.’ The OG platform will supply leveraged prediction contracts andmargin trading, with its backend persevering with to be supported by Crypto.com’s current alternate and clearing home, that are already registered with the U.S. CommodityFutures TradingFutures Buying and selling Fee. As well as to sports activities occasions, the platform additionally plans to supply prediction contracts associated to leisure, politics, and publicly traded firms.
In accordance to CoinDesk, Geoff Kendrick, head of cryptocurrency analysis at Normal Chartered Financial institution, acknowledged that $Solana (SOL.CC)$ is evolving from a community targeted on meme cash into the spine of micropayments primarily based on stablecoins. Regardless of reducing his SOL worth forecast for 2026 to $250, Geoff Kendrick expects SOL to attain $2000 by 2030. SOL has been significantly affected by the downturn in the cryptocurrency market, having fallen roughly 60% since mid-September.
With $150 billion in property below administration, $WisdomTree (WT.US)$ CEO Jonathan Steinberg acknowledged that cryptocurrency has now turn into a core a part of the corporate’s operations. Its efforts in the tokenization sector are nearing profitability, with tokenized property rising from round $30 million to roughly $750 million. The firm has additionally expanded to rising blockchains akin to Solana.
Jonathan Steinberg views cryptocurrencies because the cornerstone of contemporary monetary infrastructure, highlighting initiatives akin to tokenized funds, the WisdomTree Join platform, and strategic investments in compliant tokenization know-how as key drivers of the corporate’s long-term development.
Editor/Joe
