The Ethereum Foundation said Tuesday it began staking part of its ether reserves with an initial 2,016 ETH deposit and expects to stake about 70,000 ETH in total, with rewards flowing back to its treasury. The initiative aligns with its June 2025 treasury policy to actively deploy assets via staking and other strategies while maintaining operational reserves.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told clients in a Tuesday memo that decentralized finance, supported by stronger fundamentals and institutional activity, could help pull the crypto market out of its current downturn. He highlighted governance changes at Aave, heavy usage at Uniswap and new investments from firms such as BlackRock and Apollo as key signals. Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor separately said in a Fox Business interview that the ongoing crypto winter appears milder than prior cycles and argued that growing backing from the banking system supports a coming bitcoin recovery.

A.J. Scaramucci purchased Logan Paul's previously tokenized PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card for $16.49 million, setting a record for a trading card sale. Gemini is parting ways with its COO, CFO and CLO effective Feb. 17 amid restructuring, while Michael Saylor's Strategy acquired 2,486 bitcoin for $168.4 million, and a global study reports $300 billion in stablecoins are increasingly used as everyday money. DeFi lender ZeroLend is shutting down after a 98% TVL drop as macro data and central bank events line up over the next 24 hours.

Research firm K33 argues that bitcoin's slide toward $60,000 last week likely formed a local low, citing capitulation-style signals across spot, ETF flows, and derivatives. The firm highlighted extreme readings in trading volumes, funding rates, options skews, and sentiment indices, and now anticipates a drawn-out consolidation band between $60,000 and $75,000 with possible retests of support but limited further downside.

Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor told CNBC he expects bitcoin to generate returns two to three times higher than the S&P 500 over the next four to eight years as his firm keeps accumulating BTC. Onchain data shows BitMine purchased about $84 million in ether in a single day while South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service opened a full investigation into Bithumb after a multibillion-dollar internal ledger error.

IREN shares dropped about 18% and traded around $39.79 after reporting fiscal second‑quarter results on Thursday. In a Friday client note, Bernstein said the selloff reflected the absence of a new AI hyperscaler agreement, adding that bitcoin‑linked volatility is no longer central as the company pivots toward AI infrastructure.

Blockratize Inc., the company behind the Polymarket prediction platform, filed U.S. trademark applications on Feb. 4 for the POLY and $POLY wordmarks covering software and crypto-related services. The move follows earlier confirmation from Polymarket executives that they intend to launch a native POLY token with an airdrop, although no launch date or token design has been disclosed.

Bitcoin fell back under $69,000 on Thursday, wiping out gains since its 2021 cycle peak amid intensified selling across spot and derivatives markets. Binance rejected claims it had sent a cease-and-desist letter over insolvency allegations, while U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $545 million in net outflows and related Ethereum and Solana products also recorded withdrawals. At the same time, Tether committed a $100 million equity investment in Anchorage Digital and U.S. lawmakers opened a probe into a $500 million World Liberty Financial deal tied to the UAE.

Ethereum developer Griff Green plans to redirect unclaimed funds from The DAO's 2016 exploit into a new Ethereum security fund targeting large-scale protection. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said USDT has no direct interest in proposed curbs on stablecoin yield because it does not share rewards with users, while the Senate Agriculture Committee narrowly advanced its digital asset market structure bill.