Utah's Bitcoin investment legislation has been passed by the House of Representatives
According to Bitcoin Magazine, legislation on Bitcoin investment in Utah has been passed by the House of Representatives and is now submitted to the Senate for review.
SEC Seeks Public Comments on Proposal to Convert Grayscale Litecoin Trust into ETF
According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking public comments on a proposal to convert Grayscale's Litecoin (LTC) Trust into an ETF. In a document released on Thursday, the SEC acknowledged the application submitted by NYSE Arca on behalf of Grayscale and requested comments within 21 days of publication in the Federal Register. The SEC may decide to approve, reject or "initiate proceedings." NYSE Arca submitted a 19b-4 document last month to apply to convert the "Grayscale Litecoin Trust" and "Grayscale Solana Trust" into ETFs. The 19b-4 document is the second part of the two-step process for proposing a spot cryptocurrency ETF. Once the SEC confirms the document, it will be published in the Federal Register to initiate the agency's approval process. In the past few weeks, several companies have submitted proposals for funds based on other altcoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), seemingly hoping that changes in SEC leadership may be more conducive to approving cryptocurrency ETFs.
SEC Considers Proposal to Amend BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF to Allow Physical Redemptions
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering a proposal that would change BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF to allow physical redemptions, The Block reported. In a document published Thursday, the SEC acknowledged the proposal and requested comments within 21 days of its document being published in the Federal Register. According to the document, the SEC can then decide to approve, reject or "initiate proceedings." According to the Form 19b-4 document, Nasdaq issued an amended rule document on behalf of BlackRock last month that would allow physical redemptions and creations for the iShares Bitcoin Trust. More than a year ago, when the SEC was considering whether to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF, the companies were discussing technical details on how the redemption process for the product would work. The SEC favored a cash model that would require BlackRock to move Bitcoin out of storage, sell it immediately, and then return the cash to investors. The SEC later approved BlackRock's spot ETF proposal, along with other proposals, in January 2024. James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a post on the X platform that changes to the redemption and creation process do not mean individual investors will be able to conduct physical transactions, only authorized participants.
Foreign media: The US SEC seems ready to advance ETF applications for XRP, LTC and SOL
According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took the first step on Thursday to allow the launch of new cryptocurrency ETFs that track the prices of assets such as Litecoin and Solana, while also approving new ways to redeem funds from existing cryptocurrency ETFs. At the same time, several companies have also made progress in launching XRP ETFs, further indicating that the U.S. SEC is more friendly to cryptocurrencies under the country's new government. Earlier on Thursday, the SEC confirmed Grayscale's Solana (SOL) ETF application, which means the commission now has until October to approve or reject the application. The SEC also confirmed a series of other applications related to cryptocurrency ETFs on Thursday, including Grayscale's application for the Litecoin (LTC) ETF and BlackRock's proposal to allow iShares Bitcoin ETF to be physically created and redeemed. In the U.S. evening session, Cboe submitted four listing and trading applications for ETFs designed to track XRP prices. The exchange submitted four 19b-4 documents to the SEC on Thursday for potential ETFs from Bitwise, 21Shares, Canary Capital and WisdomTree. All four issuers have previously filed S-1 filings, the first step in bringing an ETF to market. While Thursday’s actions do not necessarily guarantee that the SEC will approve all of these products, they do indicate that under the current SEC management, these companies feel more comfortable expanding ETF products beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to The Block, Cboe BZX Exchange submitted a 19b-4 document on behalf of Bitwise, 21Shares and Canary Capital to apply for the listing and trading of XRP spot ETFs. The 19b-4 document is the second part of the two-step process of proposing a cryptocurrency ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Once confirmed by the SEC, the document will be published in the Federal Register to initiate the agency's approval process. Bitwise first submitted a registration application for a spot XRP ETF in October 2023, while 21Shares submitted an S-1 registration statement for an XRP ETF to the SEC in November. WisdomTree submitted an application for a spot XRP ETF to the SEC in December 2023, while NYSE Arca issued a 19b-4 document on January 30, applying to convert Grayscale's XRP Trust into a spot cryptocurrency ETF. CoinShares also submitted a registration statement for the "CoinShares XRP ETF" last month. Purpose Investments submitted a preliminary prospectus for the XRP ETF to Canadian regulators on January 31, hoping to become the world's first XRP ETF issuer.
According to Bitcoin Magazine, the Czech president has officially signed a bill stipulating that holding Bitcoin for more than 3 years will be exempt from capital gains tax.
According to Globenewswire, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) has applied to register the Truth.Fi branded exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and separately managed accounts (SMA) trademarks, including the Truth.Fi American Manufacturing ETF, the U.S. Energy Independent ETF and the Bitcoin Plus ETF. The plan is part of TMTG's fintech strategy and is expected to receive up to $250 million in investment and be managed by Charles Schwab. In addition, the company has reached a service and licensing agreement with Yorkville Advisors, and Yorkville will serve as a registered investment advisor responsible for product design and regulatory advancement. TMTG CEO Devin Nunes said the investment tool is designed to provide investors with options that are consistent with the "America First" principle, including Bitcoin-related strategies, to distinguish them from existing financial products on the market.
French prosecutors said the case of Telegram founder Pavel Durov will not go to trial for at least a year, and that it is “too early” to negotiate a settlement, Solid Intel reported.
Trump Family Crypto Project WLFI Plans to Create a “Strategic” Token Reserve
According to Bloomberg, Chase Herro, co-founder of World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the DeFi project of US President Trump, said that the platform plans to create a "strategic reserve" with the purchased tokens. Herro did not specify what the goal of World Liberty's token reserve is. The topic has been in the spotlight since Trump promised to set up a token reserve during his campaign last year. Last month, he signed an executive order to assess the feasibility of creating a digital asset reserve. Donald Trump Jr.'s appearance at the Ondo Summit at the Jazz Hall of Lincoln Center on Thursday was the president's latest move to show support for the digital asset industry. Although World Liberty is promoted as a DeFi lending platform, it has not yet begun operations. So far, the project is known for purchasing niche tokens.
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that Gemini, a cryptocurrency company backed by the billionaire Winklevoss twin brothers, is considering an initial public offering (IPO) as early as this year. The cryptocurrency exchange and custodian is in talks with potential advisers about listing. Gemini's website shows that the company has offices in New York, Seattle, Singapore, London, Dublin and Gurgaon, India, with more than 500 employees.
Justin Sun sues David Geffen over $78.4 million of art, alleging it was stolen by his art consultant
According to ARTNews, Justin Sun is suing billionaire collector David Geffen for the return of Alberto Giacometti's sculpture "Le Nez", which he purchased at Sotheby's for $78.4 million in 2021. Sun accused his art advisor Xiong Zihan Sydney of selling the sculpture to Geffen without his knowledge by forging signatures and fictitious lawyers. Sun claimed that he never authorized Xiong to make any transactions, but Xiong still reached a deal with art dealers through intermediaries between January and March 2024 to exchange two paintings and $10.5 million in cryptocurrency for the sculpture, which was far below Sun's target price. In addition, Xiong allegedly deceived Sun with the cash portion of the transaction, giving it to him as a "deposit" from a fictitious buyer, while withholding $500,000. Sun did not discover this until December last year when he asked about the progress of the transaction. However, Geffen's lawyers have disputed this accusation, calling it bizarre and unfounded, suggesting that Sun simply regretted the original transaction. His lawyers pointed out that the transaction was completed through an intermediary, and if Justin Sun is now unhappy with the deal his intermediary made for him, then this is not a basis for a claim against Geffen. Justin Sun's lawyers argued that Geffen's team should have spotted obvious red flags before the transaction, especially that the lawyer Xiong allegedly hired handled the business through a personal Gmail account. The lawyers questioned the existence of this lawyer and said that Xiong repeatedly forged Justin Sun's signature and fabricated the existence of a lawyer, which is illegal.
Warning: Beware of fake DeepSeek, over 2,000 phishing traps trick users into buying virtual assets
According to Hong Kong media Wen Wei Po, the network security report shows that there are currently 2,650 websites and phishing websites that counterfeit DeepSeek, and they are still increasing rapidly. Users need to be highly vigilant. The main uses of these counterfeit domain names are phishing fraud, domain name registration, and traffic guidance. Phishing fraud mainly steals user login credentials, misleads users with similar domain names and interfaces, and tricks users into buying virtual assets. Statistics show that large-scale counterfeit DeepSeek domain name registration activities started on January 26, 2025 and peaked on January 28. Although the increase has decreased since then, the number is still increasing. In addition, 60% of these counterfeit domain names have resolved IPs located in the United States. The scammers also launched various high-end functions of the so-called "DeepSeek blessing" air coins (virtual currencies with no real value), and even websites claiming that they can buy DeepSeek's internal original shares, which may cause users to suffer large property losses.
Franklin Templeton seeks SEC approval for new cryptocurrency index ETF
Franklin Templeton Investments said on Thursday it is seeking regulatory approval to launch a new cryptocurrency index ETF as the asset manager looks to profit from the cryptocurrency boom following Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, Reuters reported. "The Fund may not currently hold any digital assets other than Bitcoin and Ethereum," Franklin Templeton said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. "It is uncertain whether any digital assets other than Bitcoin and Ethereum will be added to the underlying index in the future," leaving room for Franklin Templeton to modify its ETF after other cryptocurrencies receive SEC approval.
Coinbase has listed Ether.fi (ETHFI) and Berachain (BERA)
According to the official announcement, Coinbase has launched Ether.fi (ETHFI) and Berachain (BERA) early this morning.
Ethereum developers have officially set a testing date for the Pectra upgrade, the network's first upgrade in 11 months, which is expected to be released in April, CoinDesk reported. Ethereum's core developers decided at their biweekly "all core developers" call on Thursday to begin testing Pectra on the Holesky testnet on February 26, followed by subsequent testing on the Sepolia testnet on March 5. If these tests are successful, developers will meet again on March 6 to determine the time for the official release of the upgrade. According to Tim Beiko, head of protocol support at the Ethereum Foundation, developers expect the upgrade to go live on the mainnet in early April. Pectra will include a range of improvements - with a particular focus on wallets and validators. Pectra is a combination of two separate upgrades, Prague and Electra, and includes eight major improvements to Ethereum. The most anticipated of these is EIP-7702, a proposal designed to improve the user experience of cryptocurrency wallets, where addresses on Ethereum called externally owned accounts (EOA) will be reconfigured to support smart contract functions. Another major feature of Pectra, EIP-7251, will allow validators to increase the amount of ETH they can stake — from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. It will also help speed up the process of setting up new nodes — the current system causes validators to wait in line for weeks to spin up new infrastructure.
Solana's re-staking platform Solayer announced the token economics of its governance token LAYER, with a maximum supply of 1 billion LAYER tokens and an initial circulation of 220 million. The distribution ratio is as follows: ① 51.23% is allocated to the community and ecosystem: 34.23% of which is used for continued research and development, developer programs, ecosystem development, and other user activities; 14% is used for community activities/incentives (12% is reserved for Genesis Drop, which includes rewards for early adopters and other initial claim activities); 3% is allocated through the Emerald Card community sale. ② 17.11% is allocated to core contributors. ③ 16.66% has been sold to investors. ④ 15% is allocated to the Solayer Foundation to support product expansion and network development. Regarding the LAYER Genesis Airdrop, the second LAYER distribution is for existing community members who have supported Solayer since its launch in 2024. Solayer reserves 12% of the total supply for Solayer community members, integration partners and liquidity providers, as well as users who meet the following qualifications: Solayer sSOL and sUSD holders, users who delegate sSOL to AVS partners, users who deposit sSOL or sUSD in cooperative DeFi protocols, users who deposit whitelisted LST (liquidity staking tokens) on Solayer, users who deposit Solayer through partner and wallet activities, LRT protocol, other claiming programs. In addition, Solayer stated that its core focus is on unlimited expansion of SVM (Solana Virtual Machine). In 2025, Solayer will introduce the concept of offloading blockchain hardware to programmable hardware chips to achieve unlimited expansion-launching a million-level TPS network, InfiniSVM.
Coinbase International will launch PENGU, POPCAT, and HNT perpetual contracts
According to the announcement of Coinbase International Exchange, the platform and Coinbase Advanced will support PENGU, Popcat (POPCAT), and Helium (HNT) perpetual contracts, and the relevant markets are expected to open for trading on or after 9:30 UTC on February 13, 2025.
Ondo Finance announces launch of Ondo Chain, a layer-1 blockchain to drive asset tokenization
According to CoinDesk, Ondo Finance, the world's second largest U.S. Treasury tokenization platform, announced the launch of Ondo Chain, a licensed Layer-1 blockchain designed for traditional financial institutions, aiming to connect traditional capital markets with decentralized finance (DeFi). Ondo Chain will meet compliance standards while maintaining the transparency and accessibility of the public chain, and use licensed verification nodes to ensure the accuracy of financial data. The network supports tokenized asset pledges and inter-chain interoperability, providing institutions with more efficient asset management solutions.
Coinbase International to List Berachain Perpetual Contracts
According to the announcement of Coinbase International Exchange, the platform and Coinbase Advanced will support Berachain (BERA) perpetual contracts, and the BERA-PERP market is expected to open for trading on or after 17:00 UTC on February 6, 2025.
DeepSeek: Never issued any virtual currency
According to Jinshi.com, regarding whether it has issued virtual currency, DeepSeek stated that it has never issued any virtual currency. Please pay attention to identification and rational investment to avoid property losses.
Berachain mainnet is officially launched, Bera NFT airdrop is now available
According to the official announcement of Berachain Foundation, the Berachain mainnet is officially launched. The chain is an EVM-compatible L1 blockchain, adopts the Proof of Liquidity consensus mechanism, supports single-slot finality, and is provided with security and liquidity integration by the BeaconKit modular framework. • Bera NFT airdrop: can be claimed at airdrop.berachain.com, and must first be bridged from Ethereum to Berachain through nftbridge.berachain.com. • Cross-chain bridge: bridge.berachain.com (supports LayerZero and Stargate). • Transaction query: berascan.com (supported by Etherscan). • Ecological infrastructure: including Safe multi-signature, Tenderly debugging, Fireblocks MPC wallet, Pyth oracle, etc., the ecological dApp TVL exceeds 3 billion US dollars. • Security audit: has been audited by Spearbit, Nethermind, and Quantstamp, and the bug bounty program has been launched on Immunefi.
Coinbase exec says Satoshi may have been active on-chain in 2014
According to The Block, Coinbase research director Conor Grogan found that wallet addresses associated with Satoshi Nakamoto may have been active as late as 2014, based on the "Patoshi Pattern" Bitcoin addresses recently compiled by Arkham. Grogan pointed out that these addresses sent BTC 24 times, some of which went to the Canadian exchange CaVirtEx (acquired by Kraken in 2016). He speculated that Kraken may have information about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity, but Kraken officials only responded: "We are all Satoshi." In addition, Grogan pointed out that the valuation of BTC held by Satoshi Nakamoto may exceed US$109 billion, and his wealth far exceeds that of Bill Gates. However, he believes that these bitcoins have not been moved so far, which increases the possibility that Satoshi Nakamoto is no longer active.
Binance to launch BERA U-margined perpetual contracts
According to Binance’s announcement, Berachain (BERA) will gradually launch Binance financial management, one-click coin purchase, flash exchange, leverage and contract services from February 6 to 7. • Financial management: BERA’s principal-guaranteed coin-earning current account will be open for subscription at 21:00 on February 6, and will be open for fixed investment purchase at 18:00 on February 7. • One-click coin purchase & flash exchange: BERA spot can be purchased with credit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay within 1 hour of its launch, and can be exchanged for BTC, USDT, etc. without handling fees. • Leveraged trading: At 00:00 on February 7, BERA/USDT and BERA/USDC full-position and position-by-position leverage will be supported, and VIP 7-9 users can borrow 30 minutes in advance. • Contract: BERA U-based perpetual contract (1-75 times leverage) will be launched at 23:00 on February 6.
Telegram requires all crypto wallets to use TON Connect, sparking community opposition
According to Cointelegraph, Telegram now requires all third-party crypto wallets to use TON Connect as the only wallet connection protocol, and restricts Mini Apps to only support the TON blockchain, sparking controversy over decentralization and exclusivity. Telegram has set February 21 as the migration deadline, and wallets that have not integrated TON Connect will be suspended. The official wallet Wallet in Telegram is not affected because it natively supports TON Connect. Bitget Wallet integrated TON Connect on January 16 to optimize the user experience of the Telegram ecosystem. This move has caused dissatisfaction among some developers, and Grindery Wallet is even considering withdrawing from the Telegram ecosystem. CEO Tim Delhaes pointed out that Telegram gave developers very little time to adjust, which is similar to the monopoly behavior of large technology companies and may damage developers' trust in the platform.
Canada bans crypto funds from receiving reduced margins, raising leverage trading costs
According to Cointelegraph, Canadian regulators announced that cryptocurrency funds are no longer eligible for reduced margin, a rule that applies to crypto funds involved in OCC options trading. The regulator pointed out that the policy is intended to reduce market instability due to volatility and liquidity risks, while increasing leverage trading costs. However, specific margin qualifications can still be individually assessed in accordance with Articles 5310(1) and 5311(1) of the IDPC Rules.
Strategy plans to list STRK convertible preferred stock on Nasdaq this Thursday
According to CoinDesk, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) expects to list its convertible preferred stock Strike (STRK) on Nasdaq this Thursday. The company announced key performance goals for 2025 in its latest financial report, including a $10 billion Bitcoin revenue target and a 15% Bitcoin yield. So far, its BTC-related revenue has reached $1.24 billion, with a year-to-date yield of 2.9%. In addition, due to the failure to adopt FASB accounting standards, the company recorded a $1 billion asset impairment loss and plans to adopt new rules this quarter. So far, the company has used $17 billion of the $21 billion ATM stock issuance plan, and stock sales accounted for 2.9% of total trading volume. Strategy shares rose 1.3% pre-market.
Bhutanese government transfers 377.77 BTC to two unknown wallets
According to Onchain Lens, the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 377.77 bitcoins to two unknown wallets, worth about $37.28 million. Currently, the Bhutanese government still holds 11,145 BTC, worth about $1.1 billion.
An investor opened a position 5 minutes before CZ mentioned $TST and gained 1885%
According to Ai Yi’s statistics, the address 0xeBB…74711c took the lead in opening a position of $35,000 5 minutes before CZ mentioned the $TST token, and has now made a floating profit of $657,000, with a return rate of up to 1885%. After CZ’s tweet, the address quickly added 2 BNB and currently holds 28.82 million TST, becoming the top 1 holding address of the token.
WLFI purchased 342,000 ONDO on the chain, worth about $460,000
On-chain information shows that WLFI purchased 342,000 ONDOs through the CoW Protocol, worth approximately US$460,000.
Pump.Fun deposited another 140,285 SOL to Kraken, worth $26.6 million
According to Onchain Lens, 3 hours ago, Pump.Fun deposited another 140,285 SOL worth $26.6 million to Kraken. In 2025, Pump.Fun sent a total of 1,021,162 SOL worth $208.32 million to CEX. They earned a total of 2,724,719 SOL worth $525.81 million.
