Important news from last night and this morning (February 3-4)

Aster CEO responds to market doubts and announces development roadmap

Aster CEO Leonard has officially responded to the ongoing FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) surrounding the project. He stated that the allegations circulating are "completely false" and constitute "unsubstantiated and malicious manipulation of public opinion." Regarding allegations of "sell-offs, CZ's involvement, and whether the project is a "liquidity exit," Leonard clarified that CZ is merely a project advisor, and the investment from Yzi Labs is locked up long-term. Aster is an independently operating project, not controlled or directly operated by CZ or Binance entities. The allegations are "baseless." He also emphasized that token releases and buybacks follow a transparent token economic model, designed to incentivize ecosystem participants rather than facilitate sell-offs. The project recently upgraded its buyback mechanism, implementing daily automatic buybacks on-chain (funded by protocol revenue) to improve transparency and predictability. Leonard provided the following on-chain verifiable data: a total of 254 million tokens have been repurchased; 78 million tokens have been burned and an equivalent amount relocked to the airdrop pool; and plans are in place to burn all remaining repurchased tokens.

The project's next development priorities include: expanding asset liquidity and accelerating new listings; launching a privacy-first Layer 1 network in March to achieve both transaction verifiability and privacy protection; subsequently launching a staking function for token holders; and optimizing the trading experience and interface design. Token economic model optimization directions include: S6 being the final airdrop, future circulating supply growth will slow; suspending the monthly 1% unlock until staking is implemented; and continuing automatic buybacks (up to 80% of fees will be used for buybacks during S6).

Binance Wallet launches Security Center and Security Scanning Function

According to the official announcement, to further enhance the user's asset security experience, Binance Wallet has officially launched Security Center – a brand-new platform integrating security management, risk monitoring, and protection. Through Security Center, users can comprehensively understand the risk status of their wallets, promptly identify potential vulnerabilities, and thus more effectively protect their assets. As a core function of Security Center, Security Scan has also been launched. This function can automatically scan your wallet, promptly identify potential security vulnerabilities, and provide actionable suggestions to help users proactively prevent risks.

In addition, the Security Center integrates multiple existing security management tools, including backup, verification methods, authorization management, and secure automatic signatures, to provide users with a unified, efficient, one-stop security management experience, making wallet security management more convenient and comprehensive.

Wintermute: Macroeconomic factors and other drivers have propelled the crypto market into a bear market, but it may end sooner than previous bear markets.

According to Windemute analysis, Bitcoin's drop below $80,000 triggered $2.55 billion in leveraged position liquidations over the weekend. This decline was driven by multiple macroeconomic factors: earnings from the "Mag7" tech giants weighed on the AI ​​narrative, Kevin Warsh's nomination as Federal Reserve Chairman created policy uncertainty, and a sharp sell-off of speculative positions in the precious metals market. The report points out that the market's reaction to these negative factors was delayed, ultimately culminating in a concentrated release during the typically less liquid weekend period. Given the previously high leverage levels in the market, this resulted in the tenth largest liquidation event in cryptocurrency history. During this correction, crypto assets underperformed the vast majority of traditional assets.

The report argues that the market has entered a bear market, but unlike previous bear markets triggered by structural collapses in industries (such as the FTX and Luna incidents), this decline is primarily driven by the macro environment and narrative rotation, leading to an organic deleveraging process. Due to the absence of forced bankruptcies or cascading contagion, this cycle may end faster than past bear markets. Current infrastructure is more robust, stablecoin adoption continues to grow, and institutional interest has not disappeared but is temporarily on the sidelines. Once macroeconomic uncertainties subside and the Fed's policy path becomes clearer, market attention may quickly return in the second half of 2026. Current market positioning has lessened after liquidation, but confidence remains weak, and prices have re-entered an exploratory phase after two months of sideways trading. While it is too early to discuss a trend reversal, given the lack of structural damage to the crypto ecosystem, any meaningful upward trend may be clearer than rallies in previous bear markets.

Tether releases open-source Bitcoin mining operating system MiningOS

Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced the release of its open-source Bitcoin mining operating system, MiningOS. The system aims to simplify mining infrastructure management and reduce reliance on proprietary vendor software. Tether describes MiningOS as a modular, scalable operating system suitable for operations of all sizes, from home miners to large institutions. It employs a self-hosted architecture, communicating with devices through an integrated peer-to-peer network, enabling miners to manage their mining activities without relying on centralized services. Built on the Holepunch peer-to-peer protocol and released under the Apache 2.0 license, the system aims to maintain its open-source nature with no third-party dependencies.

Bitwise CIO: The "full-blown crypto winter" masked by institutional funding is nearing its end, not its beginning.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that the crypto market has been in a "full-blown crypto winter" since the beginning of 2025, but the current market may be closer to the end of a downtrend cycle than its beginning. Hougan pointed out that Bitcoin has fallen by about 39% from its all-time high in October 2025, Ethereum by about 53%, and many other digital assets have fallen even more. He believes that the current phase is comparable to the crypto winters of 2018 and 2022, characterized by excessive leverage and widespread profit-taking by early holders, with negative sentiment outweighing incremental positive factors. Although Bitcoin peaked in October 2025, the actual market weakness began in January 2025, only masked by strong inflows into ETFs and digital asset treasuries. Without this support, Bitcoin's decline could be close to 60%.

Despite the market weakness, Hougan believes the crypto ecosystem continues to make structural progress in areas such as regulation, institutional adoption, stablecoins, and asset tokenization. Historically, crypto winters have often ended in despair and depression rather than a reversal in euphoria, and the current sentiment resembles the characteristics of past market bottoms. While the timing is uncertain, considering this correction has lasted for over a year, coupled with potential positive catalysts such as strong economic growth, regulatory legislation, and signs of sovereign adoption of Bitcoin, he believes the market is closer to recovery than further decline.

BlackRock deposited 1134.13 BTC and 35358 ETH into Coinbase.

According to Onchain Lens, BlackRock deposited 1,134.13 BTC (worth $88.69 million) and 35,358 ETH (worth $80.65 million) into Coinbase, and may deposit more.

Yi Lihua: My expectation for a major bull market in the future remains unchanged; now is the best time to buy spot stocks.

Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi posted on the X platform: "As bulls in this round, we remain optimistic about the next bull market: ETH has reached over $10,000 and BTC has exceeded $200,000. We only made some adjustments to control risk, but our expectations for a major bull market in the future remain unchanged. I know everyone is disappointed with the industry and leading companies, especially with the liquidity shortage and manipulation by some platforms caused by the 1011 incident. However, I believe the long-term trend of the crypto market remains unchanged. Now is the best time to buy spot, based on the investment returns over the next three years. Volatility is the biggest characteristic of the crypto market. Countless bulls in history have been shaken off by this volatility, but they have often been followed by a doubled rebound."

BitMine purchased 20,000 ETH via FalconX 20 minutes ago, equivalent to approximately $46.04 million.

According to on-chain analyst Ember, Ethereum treasury BitMine continued to buy to lower the average price: it bought 20,000 ETH (US$46.04 million) through FalconX 20 minutes ago.

Coinbase will launch Tria (TRIA) spot trading.

According to an official announcement, Coinbase will launch spot trading for Tria (TRIA). If liquidity conditions are met and trading is supported, the TRIA-USD trading pair will open later today.

Chiliz will launch a US-based fan token, with 10% of the proceeds going towards buying back and burning CHZ tokens.

Chiliz Chain, a public blockchain for sports and entertainment, announced on the X platform that it will launch a US-based fan token in the coming months. 10% of the fan token proceeds will be used to buy back and burn CHZ tokens. Chiliz aims to acquire minority stakes in sports clubs and give fans true ownership through the fan token. Chiliz Group has been invited to join the first CHZ token digital asset treasury (DAT).

Coinbase will launch Tria (TRIA) perpetual contract trading.

According to an official announcement, Coinbase has announced that it will launch trading of Tria (TRIA) perpetual contracts. If liquidity conditions are met, the TRIA-PERP trading market will begin trading in supported regions at 23:30 Beijing time on or after February 3.

Kraken's parent company announced its 2025 results: adjusted revenue of $2.2 billion, a 33% year-over-year increase.

Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, announced its 2025 results, reporting adjusted revenue of $2.2 billion, a 33% year-over-year increase. Adjusted EBITDA rose 26% to $531 million. The company stated that trading revenue accounted for 47% of total revenue, with the remainder coming from non-trading businesses such as custody, payments, and financing. Its total trading volume increased by 34% to $2 trillion, and platform assets under management grew by 12% to $48.5 billion. The number of customer accounts increased by 50% to 5.7 million, partly attributable to acquisitions. The average daily trading volume of its futures products increased by 119% during the period.

MetaMask supports tokenized US stocks, ETFs, and commodities trading through its integration with Ondo Finance.

According to an official announcement, Consensys' non-custodial wallet MetaMask has integrated with Ondo Finance, a platform for tokenized real-world assets. Through this partnership, eligible mobile users outside the US can now directly buy, hold, and trade over 200 tokenized US stocks, ETFs, and commodities within their MetaMask wallets via Ondo Global Markets.

The initial supported assets include stocks such as Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, as well as ETFs such as SLV (silver), IAU (gold), and QQQ. Users do not need to open a traditional retail brokerage account; all transactions are conducted through an encrypted channel. Users can use the MetaMask Swaps feature to exchange USDC for Ondo's Global Market Token (GM token) on the Ethereum mainnet. This token is designed to track the market value of its underlying securities. Trading hours are from 8:05 PM ET on Sundays to 7:59 PM ET on Fridays, supporting 24/7 trading, and tokens can be transferred around the clock.

Vitalik: Unless L2 can be "extremely scaled" or innovated, the original vision is no longer applicable.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated on the X platform: "With the Ethereum mainnet (L1) scaling itself and the gas limit plan significantly increasing, L2, originally envisioned as 'brand sharding,' is no longer necessary. L2 cannot fully meet the characteristics that 'brand sharding' should have, and some projects may even remain in Phase 1 indefinitely to meet customer regulatory requirements. Therefore, L2 should be repositioned, no longer just pursuing scaling, but providing unique additional functions, such as privacy-dedicated virtual machines, application-specific efficiency, extreme scaling, non-financial application design such as social/identity/AI, and low latency or built-in oracles."

Best practices for L2 include: maintaining at least the Phase 1 standard (otherwise it's essentially just a standalone L1 with a bridge), achieving interoperability with Ethereum as much as possible, and exploring integration with native Rollup pre-compilations (ZK-EVM verified) to achieve secure, trustless cross-chain operations and synchronous composability. Users should clearly understand the guarantees provided by L2. The L2 ecosystem will offer diverse choices: chains that rely entirely on Ethereum's trust and credibility, as well as chains with varying degrees of interconnectivity, each focusing on different functions or application scenarios, truly achieving innovative additions rather than simply extending L1.

Crypto.com will launch its independent prediction market platform, "OG," ahead of the Super Bowl.

According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com announced the launch of its independent prediction market platform, "OG," ahead of the Super Bowl. OG will offer leveraged and margin trading of prediction contracts, and its backend will still be supported by Crypto.com's existing exchanges and clearinghouses registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In addition to sporting events, the platform also plans to offer prediction contracts related to entertainment, politics, and publicly traded companies.

Bitcoin briefly fell below $73,000, with approximately $448 million in liquidations occurring across the network in the past 12 hours.

According to OKX market data, BTC once dipped to $72,917.8 and is currently trading at approximately $75,628.6; ETH once touched $2,108 and is currently trading at approximately $2,229.71. According to Coinank data, approximately $448 million in positions were liquidated across the network in the past 12 hours, including approximately $351 million in long positions and approximately $96.4832 million in short positions.

Standard Chartered Bank has lowered its 2026 SOL price forecast to $250, but expects it to reach $2,000 by 2030.

According to CoinDesk, Geoff Kendrick, head of cryptocurrency research at Standard Chartered Bank, believes that Solana is evolving from a meme-focused network into a backbone network for stablecoin-based micropayments. While Kendrick has lowered his 2026 price forecast for SOL to $250, he expects it to reach $2,000 by 2030. SOL has been particularly hard hit by the cryptocurrency market downturn, falling approximately 60% since mid-September.

WisdomTree CEO: Cryptocurrency has become a core business, and tokenized assets have increased to $750 million.

Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree, a company with $150 billion in assets, stated that cryptocurrency has now become a core business. The company's foray into tokenization is nearing profitability, with tokenized assets growing from approximately $30 million to approximately $750 million, while also expanding into emerging blockchains such as Solana.

Jonathan Steinberg views cryptocurrency as the cornerstone of modern financial infrastructure, and points to initiatives such as tokenization funds, the WisdomTree Connect platform, and strategic investments in compliant tokenization technologies as key to the company's long-term growth.

The real-life inspiration for the protagonist of "The Big Short": Bitcoin crash may trigger a $1 billion gold and silver sell-off.

Michael Burry, the real-life inspiration for the protagonist of "The Big Short" (an investor who successfully predicted the 2008 financial crisis), warned that the recent decline in Bitcoin could have a ripple effect across the entire market, particularly the gold and silver markets. The Bitcoin crash could force institutional investors and corporate finance executives to sell up to $1 billion worth of gold and silver to offset losses from cryptocurrencies.

Michael Burry believes that Bitcoin's drop below $73,000 exposed its fragile foundation. He argues that a price decline to $50,000 would threaten companies holding large amounts of Bitcoin and could even lead to the bankruptcy of some mining companies. Burry maintains that Bitcoin has failed as a digital safe-haven asset or a substitute for gold, and that the recent ETF-driven rally is merely speculative rather than a reflection of its sustainable real-world applications.

The "1011 Insider Whale" deposited 35,000 ETH into Binance within 7 hours to sell and repay loans.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, the "1011 insider whale" has deposited another 15,000 ETH (worth $33.35 million) into Binance for sale and loan repayment. In the past 7 hours, a total of 35,000 ETH (worth $78.31 million) has been sent to Binance, while $82.39 million worth of USDT and USDC has been withdrawn to repay loans.

Trump signs funding bill, ending partial government shutdown.

According to CLS News Agency, US President Trump signed a government funding bill in the Oval Office of the White House on February 3, ending the partial government shutdown. Earlier that day, the US House of Representatives passed a funding bill for several federal departments for the remainder of the fiscal year, resolving the deadlock caused by the partial shutdown that began on January 31. The bill will provide funding for several federal departments until September 30, the end of the fiscal year, and will also provide two weeks of funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which has recently faced controversy and protests over immigration enforcement actions, to allow continued negotiations on improving the department's operations.

U.S. stocks closed lower across the board, with Coinbase and Circle among those falling by more than 4%.

U.S. stocks closed lower across the board, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.34%, the Nasdaq Composite down 1.43%, and the S&P 500 down 0.83%. Blockchain-related stocks generally declined, with COIN (Coinbase) down 4.36%; CRCL (Circle) down 4.59%; BMNR (Bitmine) down 1.97%; and MSTR (Strategy) down 4.56%.

Spot gold rose above $4,980 per ounce, up 0.85% on the day. Spot silver turned positive during the day, after falling more than 2%, and is now trading at $85.18 per ounce.

Trend Research stopped losses on 153,500 ETH within two days and repaid 266 million USDT to reduce leverage.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, from the afternoon of February 1st to now, in just over two days, Trend Research has cumulatively reduced its holdings by 153,500 ETH (US$352 million) at an average price of US$2,294, and then repaid 266 million USDT to reduce leverage.

Currently, the liquidation price range for multiple ETH lending positions is between $1,685 and $1,855, with the majority concentrated around $1,800.

• Current holdings: 498,000 ETH ($1.11 billion), with an average cost of $3,180.
• Loss: $605 million (realized loss of $136 million + unrealized loss of $469 million).
• There are also leveraged loans: $743 million.

Spot gold has climbed back above $5,000.

According to Jinshi News, spot gold broke through $5,000 per ounce, with intraday gains widening to 1.1%, rebounding nearly $600 from this week's low.

According to Jinshi News, spot gold broke through $5,000 per ounce, with intraday gains widening to 1.1%, rebounding nearly $600 from this week's low.