Stocks

The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.6 for January, the highest reading since August 2022. Some analysts view the stronger print as a potential tailwind for Bitcoin, which hovered near $78,000 after touching $75,442 on Monday and remains down almost 38% from its October peak.

ARK Invest disclosed on Monday that it increased holdings of crypto‑linked companies across ARKK, ARKF and its Next Generation Internet ETF. A trade notice showed 235,077 Robinhood shares valued around $21.1 million and 274,358 BitMine shares worth about $6.2 million were among the largest allocations. The trades were dated Feb. 2 amid a broader stock pullback.

Over the last two weeks, US spot bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $3 billion in redemptions, according to Coinglass, as BTC fell from about $84,000 to $74,600 over the weekend into Monday. With combined ETF assets near $113 billion and holdings around 1.28 million BTC, the average cost basis is roughly $87,830, leaving many positions below water.

On Tuesday in Asia, Bitcoin hovered around $78,000 while regional equities bounced, with Japan’s Nikkei up 2.5%, South Korea’s KOSPI up 4%, and S&P 500 futures up 0.3%. CoinGlass reported about $2.56B in Bitcoin liquidations in recent days as leverage unwound, even as metals rebounded with gold at $4,800 and silver at $83.34.

SpaceX confirmed the acquisition of xAI on Monday via a memo from Elon Musk posted on the company website. The move consolidates rockets, satellites, and AI, with Musk outlining space-based power and orbital data centers to meet rising compute needs. For investors, pre-IPO access remains limited, with SPVs and select public funds offering indirect exposure.

On 2 February 2026, Trump Media & Technology Group reaffirmed that 2 February 2026 is the record date for a shareholder-only digital token program. Holders with at least one full share of "DJT" will receive non-transferable tokens providing access-based rewards across Truth Social, Truth+, and Truth.Fi, with no equity, cash redemption, or investment features.

Since October, shares of major crypto exchange operators have dropped 40–60% amid a severe contraction in spot trading activity. Monthly spot volumes fell from roughly $2.3 trillion in October to $120–150 billion in January 2026, while an October 10 liquidation event erased about $19 billion in positions, raising concerns over market depth.

In a weekend post on X, Global Macro Investor founder Raoul Pal argued that bitcoin’s drawdown reflects a short‑term US liquidity squeeze, not a broken crypto cycle. He cited the 2024 reverse‑repo drain, a July–August TGA rebuild and shutdown effects, and said gold and long‑duration tech competed for flows; BTC was $77,510 at press time.

On February 2 2026, Trump outlined a $12 billion initiative called Project Vault to create a national civilian mineral stockpile aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on Chinese rare earths and other key materials. The structure combines a $10 billion, 15-year loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank with $1.67 billion in private capital, giving manufacturers such as GM, Boeing, Google, Stellantis and others paid access to stored resources they must later replenish.

On Monday, Strategy said in a US SEC filing that it bought 855 BTC for $75.3 million last week at an average $87,974 per coin. Bitcoin opened the week above $87,700, touched $90,000, then briefly slipped under $75,000 on Sunday, per CoinGecko, moving below the company's $76,052 average cost for the first time since late 2023.