CZ Rejects Blame for October Crypto Crash

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ CZ rejects claims that Binance $BNB caused the October 10th, 2025 crypto market crash; Binance says crash was caused by highly leveraged positions, market makers’ risk controls, and Ethereum congestion.

• US Senate Ag Committee advances crypto market structure bill (Clarity Act) in 12-11 vote; US Senate Banking Committee to markup the bill next.

• Tether releases Q4 2025 Attestation Report; reports $10B in net profits, $6.3B in excess reserves, $141B in US treasuries, 50B $USDT supply increase in 2025.

• Binance $BNB to convert $1B SAFU fund to Bitcoin $BTC over the next 30 days; to replenish the fund with more BTC if value falls below $800M.

• Metaplanet $3350.T to raise $137M via share issuance to buy more Bitcoin $BTC; currently holds 35,102 BTC (~$3B).

• Strive $ASST buys an additional 333.89 Bitcoin $BTC (~$28M) at $89,851 per BTC; now holds 13,131.82 BTC (~$1.1B).

• Vitalik Buterin, Griff Green, among others launch TheDAO Security Fund; to activate 75,000+ $ETH (~$205M) to strengthen Ethereum security.

• Hyperliquid $HYPE team unstakes 140,000 HYPE (~$4.5M); to distributes to team members on February 6th; unstaked 1.2M HYPE (~$39M) last month.

• Lighter $LIT announces Lighter EVM in collaboration with Axiom; to enable an ecosystem of Lighter EVM applications; to launch soon.

• Optimism $OP governance approves Buyback proposal; to use 50% of incoming Superchain revenue to buy OP every month.

• Bybit to launch "MyBank" in February; allows users to send and receive 18 fiat currencies using IBANs; also looking into launching in the US.

• Nubank receives conditional approval from US OCC to open branch in the US; to offer deposit accounts, credit cards, and digital asset custody services.

Alpha

• Nado $INK launches Open Beta Season 1; users can earn points by trading, NLP participation, & referring others.

• Aztec $AZTEC governance passes TGE proposal; TGE expected as early as February 11th.

• N1 to launch mainnet on February 3rd; 01 perps exchange to also launch "private mainnet" & points program on N1 on February 3rd.

• Cap $CAP launches Homestead points program; users can double earn caps (points) for the first month; to launch 'Stabledrop' for Frontier program participants soon.

• Infinex $INX launches TGE; unlocked Patrons holders can claim 100K unlocked INX; locked Patrons holders can claim 100K locked INX.

• OpenSea $SEA launches support for Ink chain; launches free commemorative 'Fresh INK' NFT; mint ends on February 1st.

• CoinGecko launches wallet tracking feature; tracks wallet holdings automatically, supports up to 100 wallets, & supports ~19 chains.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Moonbirds $BIRB launches airdrop claim; Moonbirds NFT & SBT holders are eligible.

• YO $YO to launch airdrop claim on February 5th; YO points holders will be eligible; token will be non-transferable until enabled via governance vote.

• Superform $UP to launch airdrop claim on February 10th; airdrop registration is live & closes on February 6th; Season 1 XP holders, Season 2 CRED holders, Season 3 Points holders, & more are eligible.

• Espresso $ESP announces another path to airdrop eligibility; Katana OG users are eligible; airdrop registration is live.

• Backpack allocates 25% of supply for airdrop at TGE; snapshot not yet taken; to launch airdrop soon.

• ICYMI USDai $CHIP to launch airdrop in Q1 2026; Allo (points) Airdrop Aligned holders will be eligible; to announce ICO details soon.

• ICYMI Rainbow $RNBW completes snapshot of points holders; points holders will be eligible for upcoming airdrop; to launch airdrop on February 5th.

Finance News

• ⭐️ US President Trump nominates Kevin Warsh as new Federal Reserve Chair; Warsh is regarded as "moderately hawkish"; Fed Chair Jerome Powell's term ends in May.

• US Government to partially shut down; US Senate passed government funding bill, but US House of Representatives needs to also pass it.

• US December PPI inflation comes in at 3.0%, above expectations of 2.7%; Core PPI inflation rises to 3.3%, above expectations of 2.9%.

• US Consumer Confidence continues to drop; fell 9.7 points to 84.5 in January, the 6th consecutive monthly decline & lowest since May 2014.

• ⭐️ Gold $XAU & Silver $XAG dump; Gold fell as much as ~10%, its largest daily drop in decades; Silver fell as much as ~40%, its largest daily drop ever.

• SpaceX reportedly in talks to merge with xAI or Tesla $TSLA ahead of IPO; reportedly targeting "conservative" $1.5T valuation & June 2026 launch date.

• OpenAI reportedly plans to IPO in Q4 2026; notably, talks over $100B deal between OpenAI & Nvidia $NVDA have reportedly stalled.

• Amazon $AMZN reportedly in talks to invest $50B in OpenAI; reportedly raising $100B at up to $830B valuation; SoftBank $9984.T was also reportedly in talks to invest $30B in OpenAI.

• Apple $AAPL reports Q4 2025 earnings; reports $143.8B in revenue (+16% YoY), beating expectations; reports EPS of $2.84 (+18% YoY), beating expectations; also acquires Q[.]ai for reportedly ~$2B.

• American Express $AXP reports Q4 2025 earnings; reports $19B in revenue (+10% YoY), beating expectations; reports EPS of $3.53 (+16% YoY), below expectations.

• Visa $V reports Q1 FY26 earnings; reports $10.9B in revenue (+15% YoY), beating expectations; reports EPS of $3.17 (+15% YoY), beating expectations.

• Mastercard $MA reports Q4 2025 earnings; reports $8.8B in revenue (+18% YoY), beating expectations; reports EPS of $4.76 (+25% YoY), beating expectations.

• US President Trump sues the IRS & Treasury for $10B for allegedly failing to safeguard his 2019-2020 tax records.

Security and Exploits

• US DOJ finalizes $400M forfeiture tied to Helix darknet crypto mixer; operator Larry Dean Harmon was sentenced to three years in prison in November 2024.

• Holdstation exploited for ~$66K due to team member compromise; user funds not impacted; team attempting to negotiate with the attacker.

• Apple to launch new security feature to limit cell carrier access to precise location data; to be available in the upcoming iOS 26.3 update for select devices.

• ICYMI Ethereum Foundation $ETH forms Post Quantum (PQ) team; will be led by Thomas Coratger with support from Emile; offers $1M Poseidon Prize to harden the Poseidon hash function.

• ICYMI ZachXBT reveals John Daghita (Lick) stole $40M+ from the US government through CMDSS, a company owned by John's dad; CMDSS was contracted to assist the USMS in managing seized crypto assets.

• ICYMI Coinbase $COIN & Crypto ISAC expand partnership "to continuously share high‑confidence threat intelligence, helping defenders respond faster to sophisticated attacks."

Token Unlocks

• Zora $ZORA / ~$5M / JAN 30th
• Kamino $KMNO / ~$9M / JAN 30th
• Optimism $OP / ~$9M / JAN 31st
• Sui $SUI / ~$55M / FEB 01st
• EigenCloud $EIGEN / ~$11M / FEB 01st
• Ethena $ENA / ~$6M / FEB 02nd
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• ⭐️ Talos raises $45M at $1.5B valuation in Extended Series B funding from Robinhood, Sony Innovation Fund, among others.

• Flying Tulip raises $25.5M at $1B valuation in Series A funding from Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, & Paper Ventures.

• Euclid raises $3.5M in Seed funding from KuCoin Ventures, Gate Ventures, among others.

The Degen Farmer