Important news from last night and this morning (February 10-11)

Galaxy Digital CEO: The "speculative era" of cryptocurrencies may be coming to an end.

According to CNBC, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz stated at a digital finance forum on Tuesday that the "speculative era" of cryptocurrencies may be coming to an end, and the industry will shift towards a development phase characterized by real-world assets and lower returns. Novogratz pointed out that this market correction reflects a structural shift in the industry, rather than being caused by a single event. He specifically mentioned the massive liquidation of leveraged positions in October 2025, believing it "cleared out a large number of retail investors and market makers" and put sustained pressure on prices. As more institutional investors with lower risk appetites enter the market, the industry will gradually shift from expectations of high returns to the widespread adoption of global financial services based on blockchain infrastructure.

Russian State Duma passes bill on cryptocurrency seizure and confiscation procedures

According to Bits.media, the Russian State Duma has passed a procedural law on the seizure and confiscation of cryptocurrencies in criminal cases during its final reading. The bill affirms the legal status of cryptocurrencies as property and clarifies the seizure process. Under the bill, law enforcement agencies are required to record the type, quantity, and wallet address of the seized digital assets. Related storage devices, information carriers, and wallet access keys must be kept in sealed containers. If technically feasible, seized cryptocurrencies can be transferred to designated national wallets. The bill also authorizes Russian government departments to develop specific rules for the transfer and storage of seized cryptocurrencies and allows Russian state agencies to cooperate with foreign cryptocurrency exchanges in carrying out seizures or confiscations. The bill is pending approval by the Federation Council and signature by the President, and will take effect ten days after its official publication.

An hour ago, a whale deposited 2,500 BTC, worth $172 million, into Binance.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, the whale address 3NVeXm deposited 2,500 BTC (worth $172.56 million) into Binance an hour ago.

Robinhood has launched a public testnet for its Robinhood Chain.

According to The Block, the US online trading platform Robinhood has officially launched the public testnet for its proprietary blockchain, Robinhood Chain. This blockchain is an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum technology. Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President of Crypto at Robinhood, stated that this testnet will lay the foundation for building an ecosystem that defines the future of real-world asset tokenization and will help developers access decentralized finance liquidity within the Ethereum ecosystem. The testnet will allow developers to experiment, identify problems, and improve network stability in preparation for the mainnet launch.

The CEO of Crypto.com stated that after he purchased the AI.com domain, someone offered him $500 million to acquire it.

According to DEGEN NEWS, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek revealed that after purchasing the AI.com domain for $70 million, someone offered more than $500 million to buy it.

An entity minted 376 million BUIDL tokens on Solana early this morning.

According to Emmett Gallic, around 4:00 AM today, an entity minted 376 million BUIDL tokens on Solana. BlackRock's BUIDL fund is one of the largest tokenized real-world asset funds, providing institutional investors with access to invest in U.S. Treasury bonds and cash equivalents on-chain.

Michael Saylor: Concerns about Strategy selling off Bitcoin are "unfounded"

According to CoinDesk, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor stated in an interview with CNBC that market concerns about the company potentially being forced to sell Bitcoin due to a price drop are "unfounded," and reiterated the company's continued commitment to increasing its Bitcoin holdings. Saylor pointed out that the company's net leverage ratio is only half that of a typical investment-grade firm, and its balance sheet has cash reserves sufficient to cover 50 years of dividends. He emphasized, "We are not selling; we will continue to buy Bitcoin. I expect to buy Bitcoin every quarter going forward." Saylor described Bitcoin's extreme volatility as an inherent characteristic of "digital capital," believing its volatility is two to four times that of traditional assets such as gold, stocks, or real estate, but its performance over the next decade will also be two to four times that of traditional assets.

Crypto Reporter: The White House's second round of stablecoin yield meetings was "productive" but no compromise has been reached.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, details from the White House stablecoin yield meeting, revealed by bankers and crypto industry insiders present, indicated that both sides described the meeting as "productive," but no compromise was reached at the end. However, more in-depth discussions on the details of an agreement took place today. For example, the Banking Association prepared a written "prohibitionary principles" document detailing their willingness and unwillingness to compromise on stablecoin yields. Sources indicate that a key concession from the banks was the wording "any proposed exemption" in the second paragraph—previously, the banks were completely unwilling to discuss any possibility of exemptions for yields based on transactions. Ripple's Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, stated, "An atmosphere of compromise is forming."

Hyperliquid's HIP-3 trading volume surpasses $5 billion in a single day, with the precious metals boom driving up activity.

According to The Block, Hyperliquid's permissionless perpetual contract market, HIP-3, set a new single-day trading volume record of $5.2 billion on February 5th, the highest level since its launch in October 2025. This trading volume was primarily contributed by TradeXYZ, a mainstream market provider deployed on HIP-3, which accounted for nearly 90% of the trading share through perpetual contracts for precious metals, stock indices, and individual stocks. On February 5th, TradeXYZ's silver contracts saw a single-day trading volume of $40.9 billion, accounting for approximately 68% of the total HIP-3 trading volume that day, indicating that the volatility in precious metal prices is attracting traders to seek alternative assets beyond cryptocurrencies. The surge in HIP-3 trading volume began in the last week of January, when gold first broke through $5,000 per ounce and silver broke through $100.

Bitmine pledged over 140,000 ETH again 4 hours ago, equivalent to approximately $282 million.

According to on-chain analyst Ember, Bitmine staked an additional 140,400 ETH ($282 million) four hours ago. Their total ETH holdings are now 4,325,738, with 3,037,859 ETH already staked. This means their ETH staking ratio has exceeded 70%. At the current annualized staking rate of 2.8%, they would earn 85,000 ETH ($172 million) in interest annually, averaging 233 ETH ($470,000) per day.

Coinbase has included ETHGas (GWEI) in its listing roadmap.

According to an official announcement, Coinbase has included ETHGas (GWEI) in its listing roadmap. Trading on the platform will require meeting market-making and technical requirements, and the specific timing is yet to be determined.

Robinhood shares fell after the earnings release, as its Q4 cryptocurrency revenue declined by 38%.

According to The Block, Robinhood's fourth-quarter earnings report showed a 38% year-over-year decline in cryptocurrency trading revenue, causing the company's stock price to fall by approximately 8% in after-hours trading. Total net revenue for the quarter increased by 27% year-over-year to a record $1.28 billion, with trading revenue growing 15% to $776 million. Cryptocurrency trading revenue was $221 million, a significant decrease compared to the same period last year, contrasting sharply with options revenue growing 41% to $314 million and stock trading revenue growing 54% to $9.4 million. The platform's total notional cryptocurrency trading volume reached $82 billion, but this was primarily contributed by the Bitstamp exchange, acquired last year; cryptocurrency trading volume on Robinhood's own app declined by 52% year-over-year.

The former CEO of SafeMoon was sentenced to eight years in prison for defrauding investors; the funds were used to purchase luxury homes and sports cars.

According to The Block, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Tuesday that former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for defrauding investors and had approximately $7.5 million and two residential properties confiscated. Karony, 29, was convicted in May by a federal jury of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors stated that he misled investors through false advertising, illegally misappropriating over $9 million from the project to maintain a lavish lifestyle, including purchasing a $2.2 million Utah home, an Audi R8 sports car, a Tesla, and a custom Ford F-550 truck. The SafeMoon project issued tokens in 2021, at one point reaching a market capitalization of over $8 billion.

LayerZero will launch a new blockchain called "Zero" for traditional finance, with Citadel, ICE, and Cathie Wood involved.

According to Fortune magazine, LayerZero, a cross-chain protocol backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sequoia Capital, has announced the launch of a new blockchain, "Zero," designed specifically for traditional finance, and has already secured support from several major Wall Street institutions. The Zero blockchain aims to achieve a processing capacity of 2 million transactions per second at a cost of less than one cent per transaction through breakthroughs in zero-knowledge proof technology, addressing the high throughput and low cost demands of the traditional financial system. The company plans to officially launch the network in September. Citadel Securities, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, have participated in the project as investors, partners, or advisors.

Coinbase will launch spot trading for RAVE, DEEP, and WAL, and has already launched spot trading for UP.

According to an official announcement, Coinbase will launch spot trading for RaveDAO (RAVE), DeepBook (DEEP), and Walrus (WAL). If liquidity conditions permit, the RAVE-USD, DEEP-USD, and WAL-USD trading pairs will open on or after 01:00 Beijing time on February 12th in supported trading regions. In addition, Coinbase has already launched Superform (UP) spot trading, and the RNBW-USD and PLU-USD trading pairs are now fully available on the Coinbase exchange and Coinbase Premium. Limit orders, market orders, and stop-loss orders are now available.

Coinbase has included OPINION (OPN) in its listing roadmap.

According to an official announcement, Coinbase has included OPINION (OPN) in its listing roadmap. Trading on the platform will require meeting market-making and technical requirements, and the specific timing is yet to be determined.

Goldman Sachs disclosed that it indirectly holds $2.361 billion in cryptocurrencies through ETFs.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) has just disclosed that it holds $1.1 billion in BTC, $1 billion in ETH, $153 million in XRP, and $108 million in SOL. Its exposure (like most large institutions) is through spot crypto ETFs, not by directly holding the tokens. Goldman Sachs sent representatives to the White House meeting today regarding stablecoin yields. Its CEO, David Solomon, is scheduled to speak at the WLFI forum in Palm Beach next week.

A Hyperunit whale who once held over $10 billion in BTC lost $250 million due to going long on ETH on Hyperliquid.

According to Arkham, a Hyperunit whale lost $250 million on the Hyperliquid platform due to its long ETH position, the largest ever held on the platform. It is said to have held Bitcoin for nearly 10 years and is apparently linked to Garrett Jin. Arkham speculates that this whale is Chinese and has held Bitcoin since 2017-2018. In the first six months of 2018, it purchased over 100,000 Bitcoins. It held over 90% of its position for seven years until August 2025—after Tom Lee began a major Ethereum purchase—when its strategy changed. At its peak, the whale held Bitcoin worth $11.14 billion.

CZ shared his early experiences: He worked at McDonald's at the age of 14 and bought Bitcoin at an average price of about $600.

In an in-depth interview, Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) recounted his life trajectory from childhood to the present. Born in China, his father went to Canada to study in 1984 and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 1989. The family faced financial difficulties in the early days of immigration; his father worked as a teaching assistant at UBC, and his mother worked for many years in a sewing factory due to her limited English proficiency. CZ began working at McDonald's at the age of 14. During his university years, CZ studied biology at McGill University, later switching to computer science, but did not graduate formally. After obtaining his degree through an online education program, he began his career, developing a securities trading system in Tokyo before joining Bloomberg, where he quickly rose from programmer to managing a team of 80 people. In 2005, he co-founded a fintech company in Shanghai, serving clients such as General Motors.

Sources familiar with the matter: Kraken replaced its CFO ahead of its IPO.

According to sources familiar with the matter, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has replaced its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Stephanie Lemmerman ahead of its planned IPO. Lemmerman joined Kraken from Dapper Labs in November 2024 and is now serving as a strategic advisor. Vice President Robert Moore has taken over as CFO. Kraken filed for an IPO with U.S. regulators last November and completed an $800 million funding round, valuing the company at $20 billion. The company also recently promoted Curtis Ting to Chief Operating Officer and Kamo Asatryan to Chief Data Officer. Kraken declined to comment.

YZi Labs responds to CEA Industries' board statement and requests clarification of misleading information.

YZi Labs issued an open letter responding to the statement from the CEA Industries board of directors, stating that the so-called "secret agreement" does not exist and that the board was already aware of and approved its contents. YZi Labs confirmed that the Strategic Services Agreement (SSA) terminated on December 11, 2025, and notified the board on December 13, questioning the board's inaccurate information and governance practices in its statement. YZi Labs demanded that the board immediately clarify the erroneous statements, fully disclose the relevant transaction details, and genuinely protect shareholder interests; otherwise, it will take action to replace board members to ensure corporate governance.

Pakistan and DFINITY are collaborating to advance sovereign cloud and AI digital infrastructure.

DFINITY Foundation announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pakistani government to establish a sovereign cloud infrastructure, develop generative AI applications, and build a secure national communications system on the Internet Computer network. The collaboration includes: Pakistan Subnet: A sovereign, cyberattack-immune serverless cloud created by a network of nodes, with data and computing resources remaining within Pakistan, designed to prepare for the future of AI-built and running software. Caffeine AI Licenses: Pakistan will receive 1,500 initial licenses to support government, academia, the private sector, and startups in interacting with AI through natural language, developing applications and services on the Pakistan Subnet, and accelerating digitalization.

Interactive Brokers partners with Coinbase to expand cryptocurrency futures offerings

According to Business Wire, Interactive Brokers announced a partnership with Coinbase Derivatives to further expand its cryptocurrency futures offerings. This move will provide clients with more trading options to meet the growing demand for cryptocurrency investments. Interactive Brokers already supports trading in a variety of crypto assets, and this partnership will enhance its cryptocurrency portfolio by introducing Coinbase Derivatives' products. The company stated that this initiative aims to provide investors with more convenient tools to help them participate in the cryptocurrency market, while also optimizing the trading experience.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new intraday record high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to hit new intraday record highs, reaching a peak of 50,471.58 points.

State Street Bank: 2026 rate cuts may exceed market expectations; the dollar could fall 10% for the year.

State Street strategist Lee Ferridge stated on the sidelines of the TradeTech FX conference in Miami that the next Federal Reserve chairman may face pressure from Trump to cut interest rates, leading to a larger-than-expected rate cut in 2026 and a potential 10% decline in the dollar for the year. Currently, the market expects the Fed to resume rate cuts in June and implement at least two more 0.25 percentage point cuts by the end of the year. However, Ferridge believes the Fed has room for a third rate cut, which would further depress the dollar exchange rate and reduce the cost for foreign investors to hedge currency risks on their US investments. Ferridge pointed out that if former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, nominated by Trump, succeeds Powell as Fed chairman, he could meet Trump's demand for lower borrowing costs, thereby narrowing the interest rate differential between the US and other regions.

The EU plans a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrency transactions with Russia to curb sanctions circumvention.

According to the Financial Times, the European Commission has proposed a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrency transactions with Russia to prevent Moscow from circumventing sanctions using assets outside the traditional banking system. This measure aims to prevent Russia from circumventing existing sanctions through newly established platforms, covering all Russian cryptocurrency service providers and related transfer and trading platforms. Furthermore, the EU plans to ban the export of certain dual-use goods to Kyrgyzstan due to allegations of reselling embargoed goods to Russia. This ban would be part of the 20th round of EU sanctions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, marking the first use of anti-circumvention powers. Data shows that since the start of the war, Kyrgyzstan's imports of key goods from the EU have increased by nearly 800%, while exports to Russia have increased by 1200%.

Tether invests in LayerZero Labs to advance blockchain interoperability infrastructure.

According to an official announcement from Tether, Tether Investments has announced a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs. LayerZero Labs is a developer of interoperability protocols whose technology is widely used to support cross-chain value transfers across the global digital asset ecosystem. This investment aims to support LayerZero Labs in developing efficient and secure cross-chain technology. LayerZero Labs' technology has already been used to support cross-chain transfers of assets such as USDt0 and XAUt0. Since its launch, USDt0 has facilitated over $70 billion in cross-chain value transfers in less than 12 months, validating the global-scale interoperability of its technology.

US retail sales fell short of expectations.

US retail sales rose 0% month-on-month in December, below market expectations of 0.4% and the previous month's figure of 0.60%. Additionally, the US fourth-quarter labor cost index rose 0.7% quarter-on-quarter, also below expectations of 0.80% and the previous month's figure of 0.80%.

The million-dollar winner of the X Creators Contest has been exposed for involvement in a Memecoin scam.

According to Bubblemaps, @beaverd, the winner of the $1 million prize in the X Creators Contest, is accused of defrauding people of approximately $600,000 through the Memecoin project. The investigation found that his associated wallet launched the $SIAS token, which briefly surged to a market value of $6 million before quickly plummeting to zero, and he subsequently deleted all his social media posts. Furthermore, @beaverd is suspected of using multiple associated wallets to launch Memecoin projects multiple times and ultimately cashing out.

The seller purchased the domain AI.com in 1993 for only $100, simply because "AI" happened to be an abbreviation of his name.

According to Malaymail, Malaysian tech entrepreneur Arsyan Ismail sold the top-level domain AI.com for a staggering $70 million (approximately RM300 million) in April 2025. The buyer was reportedly Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com. The domain had previously been listed for $100 million, making this the highest publicly disclosed domain transaction in history. The seeds of this enormous fortune were sown 32 years ago. In 1993, at the age of 10, Arsyan registered the domain using his mother's credit card for a mere $100.

Polymarket partners with Kaito AI to launch a social data-driven attention market.

According to Forbes, prediction market platform Polymarket announced a partnership with Singapore-based crypto data company Kaito AI to launch "Attention Markets," allowing users to bet on trends, brand popularity, and public opinion. Kaito quantifies mindshare and sentiment shifts by integrating data from X, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, helping to create new markets such as "Anthropic vs. OpenAI Popularity Comparison." Polymarket plans to launch dozens of markets starting in March and expand to thousands by the end of the year. Kaito has raised $10.5 million to date, with a valuation of $87 million.

Data: 400 million USDT transferred from Binance to unknown wallets

According to Whale Alert, 400,000,000 USDT (approximately $399.851 million) were transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet.

LayerZero is reportedly preparing to launch its own blockchain, "ZERO".

According to Agggr News, the cross-chain protocol LayerZero made a significant announcement in a now-deleted YouTube video: the launch of its own blockchain, "ZERO".

Bretton AI raises $75 million in Series B funding to combat fintech crime using artificial intelligence.

According to Fortune, Bretton AI, an AI-driven financial compliance startup founded by Will Lawrence, a former employee of the Paxos compliance team, announced the completion of a $75 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Greylock, Thomson Reuters Ventures, and Citi Ventures. The company's clients are primarily fintech service companies, including fintech startups such as Mercury, Ramp, Robinhood, and Coinbase, as well as some community and regional banks, helping them achieve anti-money laundering and customer due diligence (KYC) compliance operations.

Solana Treasury reported a loss of over $1.5 billion, and related companies' stock prices fell by 59%-80%.

According to Cointelegraph, publicly traded U.S. companies that publicly hold Solana (SOL) as an asset are currently facing book losses exceeding $1.5 billion. These companies collectively hold over 12 million SOL, representing approximately 2% of the total supply. Due to the market price decline, the companies' stock prices are significantly lower than the token's value, limiting their fundraising capabilities. CoinGecko data shows that Forward Industries, Sharps Technology, DeFi Development Corp, and Upexi have book losses exceeding $1.4 billion. Forward Industries alone holds 6.9 million SOL at an average cost of approximately $230, resulting in a book loss exceeding $1 billion.

BlackRock deposits $234.3 million in BTC and $60.83 million in ETH into Coinbase Prime.

According to Lookonchain, BlackRock recently deposited 3,402 bitcoins (worth approximately $234.3 million) and 30,216 ETH (worth approximately $60.83 million) into Coinbase Prime.

Users with over 240 Binance Alpha Points can participate in the Espresso (ESP) pre-sale.

Binance Wallet announced that users holding 240 or more Binance Alpha Points can participate in the Espresso Pre-TGE Prime Sale through the Alpha Events page. Participation will deduct 15 Alpha Points. Refunds are supported. Users must claim their staked BNB and Alpha Points by 22:00 on February 11th. For users who fail to claim by this time, their staked BNB and Alpha Points will be automatically refunded to their participating wallets within 7 business days.

The People's Bank of China released its fourth-quarter 2025 monetary policy implementation report.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) released its 2025 Fourth Quarter Monetary Policy Implementation Report, outlining several key policy directions: 2025 marks the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the national economy maintained a steady and progressive development trend, and the main economic and social development goals were successfully achieved. The annual GDP grew by 5% year-on-year. The PBOC adhered to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, implemented a moderately loose monetary policy, and, on the basis of effectively implementing existing monetary policies, introduced a package of monetary and financial policies to strengthen counter-cyclical adjustments and effectively support the stable growth of the real economy and the smooth operation of the financial market. First, maintaining reasonable growth in money and credit.

Defiance Capital investor Kyle adjusted his portfolio, allocating 75% to non-US markets.

Kyle, an investor at Defiance Capital, stated on social media that the stock market performance over the past four months indicates that non-US markets are in a structural bull market, while the US market has experienced significant volatility, facing both currency depreciation and two-way fluctuations exceeding 20% ​​even in non-bull market conditions. Therefore, he has decided to adjust his portfolio to allocate 75% to non-US markets and 25% to the US market.

Wintermute: Bitcoin market demand is insufficient, and it may remain volatile in the short term.

According to Windemute analysis, Bitcoin's price fell below $80,000 for the first time since April of last year, before rebounding to around $70,000 after touching $60,000. This correction resulted in over $2.7 billion in leveraged liquidations, wiping out all gains since Trump's election in 2024. Three factors combined to influence the market: Warsh's nomination of the Federal Reserve Chair, Mag7's poor earnings report, and a significant correction in the precious metals market. Data shows continued selling pressure in the US, with BTC ETFs experiencing net outflows of $6.2 billion since November of last year, indicating a significant weakening of institutional demand. Furthermore, capital inflows into the AI ​​sector negatively impacted the crypto market. Analysts believe that despite the liquidation of leverage, spot trading volume remains low, indicating insufficient market demand, which may limit future price movements.