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- Star Xu Blames Binance, WLFI Secret Deal, Blockstream-Epstein Ties?
Star Xu Blames Binance, WLFI Secret Deal, Blockstream-Epstein Ties?
Alpha Team
February 03, 2026
🚨 Recent Crypto Developments
OKX CEO Blames Binance Crash: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao denied that Binance caused the October 10th, 2025 crypto market crash, which erased nearly $19 billion, attributing it to macro-driven factors like liquidity issues rather than platform actions. On January 31st, 2026, OKX CEO Star Xu responded on X, stating that the crash resulted from Binance's promotion of Ethena’s USDe synthetic dollar offering a 12% annual yield. He described this as creating a fragile leverage loop where users treated USDe like USDT and USDC as collateral without effective limits, inflating perceived APY to 70%. Xu stated, “No complexity. No accident. 10/10 was caused by irresponsible marketing campaigns by certain companies,” and added, “As the largest global platform, Binance has outsized influence—and corresponding responsibility—as an industry leader. Long-term trust in crypto cannot be built on short-term yield games, excessive leverage, or marketing practices that obscure risk.” Volatility on October 10th caused USDe to depeg and triggered liquidations in assets like WETH and BNSOL. Read More.
UAE Royals Invest in Trump Project: Shifting to another major crypto-related transaction, a UAE-linked investment vehicle associated with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan agreed to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project linked to the Trump family, for $500 million. Eric Trump signed the agreement four days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Of the proceeds, approximately $187 million went to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to Witkoff family-affiliated entities. The transaction occurred ahead of the Trump administration's decision to expand UAE access to advanced U.S. AI chips, previously restricted. Senator Elizabeth Warren commented, “This is corruption, plain and simple,” and called for investigations into potential conflicts involving Trump Administration officials and foreign crypto deals. Read More.
Blockstream Addresses Epstein Links: In a separate matter involving past associations, on February 2nd, 2026, Blockstream CEO Adam Back stated that his company has “no direct nor indirect financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein or his estate.” Newly unsealed Epstein files from January 30th, 2026 mention Back and co-founder Austin Hill. In a 2014 email, Hill discussed Blockstream's $18 million seed round, noting Epstein's allocation increased from $50k to $500k through a fund linked to Joi Ito, which later divested its shares due to conflict concerns. Documents also show travel bookings for Back and Hill to St. Thomas near Epstein's island. Back explained the introduction occurred via Ito during the 2014 investor roadshow, with Epstein as a limited partner in Ito's fund holding a minority stake. Read More.
️ On today's Top Picks:
- 🤔 OKX CEO says Binance & USDe caused Oct crash.
- 🔎 UAE entity bought 49% stake in Trump's $WLFI.
- 🏝️ Blockstream says it has NO connection to Epstein.
- 👀 Hyperliquid announces HIP-4 'outcome trading'.
- 🚀 SpaceX acquires xAI ahead of June IPO.
Read time: ⏰ 7 minutes
Crypto News
• ⭐️ OKX CEO Star Xu says Binance & Ethena's USDe caused October 10, 2025 crypto market crash; says Binance's 12% yield campaign on USDe encouraged excessive leverage.
• ⭐️ UAE-linked entity secretly bought 49% stake in World Liberty Financial $WLFI for $500M; deal was signed by Eric Trump four days before President Trump's inauguration.
• ⭐️ Blockstream Founder & CEO Adam Back says it has no "financial connection with Jeffrey Epstein"; says Epstein was a limited partner in a fund that previously held a minority stake in Blockstream, which was later divested.
• US White House meets with crypto & banking executives to discuss stalled crypto market structure bill; focused on stablecoin yield; banking representatives reportedly wouldn't compromise.
• Coinbase $COIN shareholder lawsuit allowed to move forward; alleges CEO Brian Armstrong, Marc Andreessen, & others used confidential information to sell $2.9B worth of Coinbase stock.
• Strategy $MSTR buys an additional 855 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$75M at ~$87,974 per BTC: now holds 713,502 BTC (~$55.8B) acquired for ~$54.3B at ~$76,052 per BTC.
• Binance $BNB begins conversion of $1B SAFU Fund to Bitcoin $BTC; buys 1,315 BTC (~$103M) for first batch; aiming to complete conversion within ~30 days.
• Bitmine $BMNR buys an additional 41,788 Ethereum $ETH (~$97M); now holds 4,285,125 ETH (~$10B) & $586M in cash; stakes 2,897,459 ETH (~$6.8B).
• Solana Foundation $SOL launches new trading program & product built for institutional traders; offering liquidity & incentives, data, tools, and more.
• Ripple $XRP secures full EU EMI license approval from Luxembourg CSSF; allows Ripple to scale its payments and digital asset services across the EU.
• ⭐️ Hyperliquid $HYPE announces HIP-4 'outcome trading'; enables prediction markets & options; feature already live on testnet.
• Circle $CRCL shares 2026 product roadmap; to launch Arc mainnet, expand global adoption of USDC, and further develop Circle Payments Network & StableFX.
• Digital Asset Investment Products saw $1.7B in outflows last week; Bitcoin $BTC ~$1.32B outflows, Ethereum $ETH ~$308M outflows, Solana $SOL ~$32M outflows, Ripple $XRP ~$44M outflows.
Alpha
• Upcoming Events: N1 mainnet launch on February 3rd; MegaETH public mainnet launch on February 9th; Aztec TGE in ~February.
• Uniswap $UNI launches Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCAs) directly on the Uniswap website; the first CCA Rainbow $RNBW is now live, ends on February 5th.
• Jupiter $JUP to launch prediction markets feature powered by Polymarket on Solana; also raises $35M in Strategic funding from ParaFi Capital.
• MegaETH $MEGA global stress test ends; to launch public mainnet on February 9th.
• N1 to launch mainnet on February 3rd; 01 perps exchange to also launch "private mainnet" & points program on N1 on February 3rd.
• MetaMask $MASK to launch Season 1 Rewards claim in ~February; to launch allocation checker this week; partner rewards already rolling out.
• Jumper partners with Katana to launch Shogun Season; users can earn 2.7M in KAT incentives ($270,000) & Jumper XP bonuses.
• ICYMI Aztec $AZTEC governance passes TGE proposal; TGE expected as early as February 11th.
Airdrops
• Upcoming Airdrops: YO on February 5th; Rainbow on February 5th; USDai in Q1, Espresso soon.
• Rainbow $RNBW to launch airdrop on February 5th; Rainbow points holders will be eligible; snapshot taken on January 26th.
• Espresso $ESP posts "Are you ready?" on X; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon; recently announced more paths to airdrop eligibility; airdrop registration is live.
• Cap $CAP to announce final details of upcoming "Stabledrop" on January 4th; Cap Frontier program participants will be eligible.
• Arcium $ARX launches Retroactive Token Grants (RTGs) eligibility checker; Arcium contributors are eligible.
• Echelon $ELON launches airdrop claim; Echelon points holders & veTHL holders are eligible; closes in ~30 days.
• ICYMI USDai $CHIP to launch airdrop in Q1 2026; Allo (points) Airdrop Aligned holders will be eligible; to announce ICO details soon.
Finance News
• Upcoming Events: AMD $AMD, PayPal $PYPL, Galaxy $GLXY earnings on February 3rd; Alphabet $GOOG earnings on February 4th; Amazon $AMZN & Strategy $MSTR earnings on February 5th; January jobs report on February 6th (delayed).
• US Government partially shuts down; US Senate passed government funding bill, but US House of Representatives needs to also pass it.
• US Labor Department says the January jobs report will NOT be released on Friday citing ongoing partial government shutdown; Polymarket projects ~26% chance 50K-75K jobs are added, ~24% chance 75K-100K jobs are added.
• US President Trump Administration to launch Project Vault, a $12B critical minerals stockpile to offset China supply risk; to create ~60-day emergency buffer for key minerals.
• US & India announce trade deal; US will reduce tariffs on India from 25% to 18%; India will reduce tariffs on the US to 0%, commits to buying $500B worth of US products, & agrees to stop buying Russian oil.
• ⭐️ SpaceX acquires xAI ahead of IPO; now valued at $1.25T; reportedly targeting June 2026 for IPO; Polymarket projects ~23% chance SpaceX & Tesla $TSLA announce merger by June 30th.
• Nvidia $NVDA CEO Jensen Huang says recent reports of friction between Nvidia & OpenAI are “nonsense”; the WSJ had reported that talks over $100B deal between the two companies have stalled.
• Bed Bath & Beyond $BBBY to acquire Tokens[.]com for an undisclosed amount; will launch a platform focused on asset tokenization, starting with real estate.
Security and Exploits
• PeckShield reports crypto saw 16 hacks totaling ~$86M in losses in January 2026; phishing losses exceeded $300M.
• Step $STEP drained for ~$40M due to team member device compromise; team advises users to avoid engaging with STEP until investigation is complete.
• Victim loses 4,556 ETH (~$10.6M) due to address poisoning attack; victim copied wrong address from a contaminated transfer history.
• CrossCurve $EYWA exploited for ~$1.4M due to missing validation check; exploit has since been contained; hacker given ~72 hours to initiate contact with team.
• Notepad++ compromised by threat actor Lotos Blossom; attackers breached Notepad++'s hosting provider to deliver malicious updates to certain users from June to December 2025.
Token Unlocks
• Sui $SUI / ~$50M / FEB 01st
• EigenCloud $EIGEN / ~$10M / FEB 01st
• Ethena $ENA / ~$6M / FEB 02nd
• XDC Network $XDC / ~$31M / FEB 05th
• Ethena $ENA / ~$24M / FEB 05th
Sourced from Tokenomist
Funding
• Jupiter $JUP raises $35M in Strategic funding from ParaFi Capital.
• Prometheum raises $23M in funding from undisclosed investors.
• Derive $DRV raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Variant.
The Degen Farmer
Top stablecoin yield farms of the day, more than $3,000,000 in TVL. DYOR and step up your farming game!
| PROTOCOL | ASSETS | APY |
|---|---|---|
 Spectra V2 (Katana) | YVVBUSDC | 82.97% |
 Uniswap V3 (Ethereum) | EUROCUSDC | 31.85% |
 Hyperion (Aptos) | SUSDEUSDC | 22.13% |
 ThalaSwap (Aptos) | USDTUSDC | 21.92% |
 YO Protocol (Base) | USDC | 20.40% |
 Curve DEX (Arbitrum) | SUSDAIUSDC | 19.43% |
 Frax (Ethereum) | WFRAXFRXUSD | 18.98% |
 Gains Network (Arbitrum) | USDC | 18.72% |
🌿 OpenEden: Tokenized Real-World Assets |  |
🌿 What is OpenEden: OpenEden is a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform focused on bringing regulated yield products on-chain. Its core offerings include TBILL, tokenized U.S. Treasury Bills, and USDO, a regulated yield-bearing stablecoin. OpenEden provides the infrastructure for issuing and managing compliant on-chain products, with over $200M in total value locked and partners including BNY as custodian, alongside backing from firms such as YZi Labs and Ripple.
🧩 New: Introducing PRISM: OpenEden recently announced the upcoming launch of PRISM, a tokenized multi-strategy yield portfolio developed with FalconX and Monarq Asset Management. PRISM is designed to target stable, risk-adjusted returns with low correlation to crypto prices, allocating capital across strategies such as cash-and-carry arbitrage, secured institutional lending, established on-chain yield venues, and regulated tokenized real-world assets, including U.S. Treasury–backed products. A limited pre-deposit campaign is currently open, with the full launch expected in February.
🔓 PRISM Pre-Deposit Vault
- Total rewards of 4,700,000 $EDEN tokens
- $50M deposit cap
- Accepts USDO, USDC, and USDT
- 30-day pre-deposit campaign
Rewards accrue at a fixed daily rate throughout the campaign. Deposits made earlier in the campaign may receive a proportionally larger share of incentives as the vault approaches its maximum capacity.
That’s it for today’s edition! See you soon.
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