Today's news tips:
Binance will launch Heima (HEI) 1-75x U-margined perpetual contracts
Upbit to List TRUMP in KRW, BTC, USDT Markets
MyShell to Launch SHELL Token Generation Event on Binance Wallet and PancakeSwap
Ethereum Foundation deposits 10,000 ETH each to Aave and Spark
Regulatory/Macro
U.S. Government Efficiency Department plans to reveal details of cost cuts
The Department of U.S. Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Musk, tweeted that its official website doge.gov is now officially online, providing the following content: • Dynamic updates of the X platform • Government organizational structure integration (manually organized 16,000+ agencies) • Overview of the regulatory system, including the "Unconstitutionality Index" (a measure of the ratio of regulations enacted by unelected officials to congressional legislation) Future updates (expected to be launched on February 14): • Details and evidence of government cost cuts • Overall savings report DOGE said it will continue to optimize the website functionality and welcomes public feedback to improve transparency and practicality.
Coinbase seeks to re-enter Indian market, in talks with regulators
According to TechCrunch, Coinbase is in contact with the Indian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and plans to re-enter the Indian market after more than a year of suspension. Previously, Binance resumed operations in India after registering with the FIU in August 2024, setting a precedent for overseas crypto exchanges to enter the Indian market in compliance. Coinbase briefly launched its Indian business in 2022, but the service was suspended within three days because the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) refused to recognize its UPI payment support. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong once revealed that the company was under "informal pressure" from the Reserve Bank of India. A Coinbase spokesperson said the company is looking forward to the Indian market and plans to comply with all regulatory requirements. However, the growth of this market remains challenging due to the Indian government's implementation of a 30% income tax and a 1% transaction withholding tax on crypto asset transactions.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea announced that it will promote the opening of real-name accounts for crypto assets of legal entities in three stages. This year, it will first open trading rights to non-profit organizations, law enforcement agencies and crypto exchanges, and plans to allow professional investment legal entities to make crypto investments in the second half of 2025. Policy promotion details: Phase 1 (first half of 2025): • Law enforcement agencies (prosecutors' offices, national taxation agencies, customs agencies, etc.) have been approved to open crypto accounts to handle the confiscation of criminal proceeds and the auction of tax-delinquent assets. • Non-profit organizations (such as designated donation funds) are expected to be approved in Q2 2025 to accept and convert crypto donation funds. • Crypto exchanges can obtain legal entity accounts by Q2 2025 to convert platform fee income into fiat currency, but the exchange's selling behavior must be restricted by government guidance to prevent market volatility. Phase 2 (second half of 2025): • Professional investment entities (such as listed companies and registered professional investment institutions, about 3,500 of them) will be allowed to participate in the purchase and sale of crypto assets, but they must meet mandatory anti-money laundering (AML) requirements and be reviewed by banks and exchanges. Phase 3 (long-term plan): • The full opening of general corporate crypto investment is still in the medium- and long-term discussion stage, and the second phase of legislation needs to be completed, including stablecoin regulation, exchange operating rules, and cross-border crypto transaction monitoring. Kim So-young, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said that the second phase of crypto legislation will be accelerated, including the regulatory framework for stablecoins and security tokens (STOs), and that the National Assembly will be encouraged to pass relevant laws to promote the compliance development of the crypto industry.
According to CryptoSlate, Japanese medical services company SBC Medical Group Holdings announced that it will purchase 1 billion yen (about $6.7 million) worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to achieve its long-term strategic goal of asset diversification and inflation prevention. The company said that Bitcoin's fixed supply and global adoption growth give it long-term value-added potential. The purchase will be executed by SBC Medical's US subsidiary through Coinbase and is expected to be completed between February and May 2025. The company emphasized that it has fully considered accounting, taxation and cybersecurity factors and will continue to provide the latest investment progress. In Japan, the trend of corporate Bitcoin investment is heating up. Since the beginning of this year, companies such as Metaplanet and game publisher Gumi have announced plans to purchase Bitcoin. Among them, Metaplanet has accumulated 1,762 BTC (about $185 million) since April 2024, and its stock price has soared 3,500% in a year. It plans to increase its holdings to 21,000 BTC by the end of 2026, becoming one of the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holders.
According to the Securities Times, Du Xueyi, Director of the Economic Crime Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said at an interview with the Director of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on February 13 that the current telecommunications network fraud crimes are high and the situation is still severe and complicated. First, the fraud groups are cross-border and monopolized. Criminals set up "industrial parks" and "technology parks" abroad, implement management and control by providing guarantees, armed shelter, etc., and collect commissions or fees to obtain stolen money, forming a large criminal organization. Second, the fraud methods are diversified and complex, "pig killing + false investment", "combination of gambling and fraud", "combination of fraud and extortion" and other methods are more confusing, and serious violent crimes such as intentional injury have been derived. Third, the black industry crime module is becoming more stable, and the criminal tool software is simple and easy to use, resulting in a wider range of people being attracted to criminal activities. Fourth, the funding channels are intertwined and hidden, and virtual currency "money laundering" has become the mainstream method, helping criminals to transfer fraudulent funds in "small amounts and multiple transactions", which is difficult to trace back.
Brian Quintenz posted on X platform that he was honored to be nominated by US President Trump as the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He previously served as a CFTC commissioner in Trump's first administration. He said that the CFTC plays a key role in maintaining the world's leading hedging and price discovery market, and believes that the agency has the ability to ensure that the United States remains a global leader in blockchain technology and innovation. Hester Peirce, a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), congratulated Quintenz and looked forward to the SEC and CFTC strengthening cooperation in cryptocurrency regulation, saying that the focus this time will be on crypto regulation rather than the reform of Chapter VII of the Dodd-Frank Act after the last financial crisis.
Coinbase Derivatives Platform May Launch Solana and Hedera Futures
According to FulcrumNews, Coinbase Derivatives, LLC has submitted a self-certification application for Solana futures contracts to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and plans to officially launch trading on or after February 18, 2025. Contract details: • Solana futures will be settled in cash and margin trading, and settled on a monthly basis. • Hedera futures are expected to be launched simultaneously, further enriching Coinbase's derivatives trading categories.
Cboe BZX Exchange Submits Proposal to Allow 21Shares Ethereum ETF to Participate in Staking
According to The Block, Cboe BZX Exchange has submitted a proposal to allow Ethereum held by the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF to be pledged and is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, this is the first ETF to submit a pledge application to the SEC. The SEC approved several Ethereum ETFs including 21Shares, BlackRock and Fidelity last year, but many companies removed the pledge function when registering. The market expects that under the Trump administration, the SEC's stance on cryptocurrencies may be more friendly.
Financing
Gam3Girl Ventures strategically invests in YGG and purchases YGG tokens to join its ecosystem
Gam3Girl Ventures, an Asian fund focused on Web3 game incubation, announced a strategic investment in Yield Guild Games (YGG) and joined its ecosystem by purchasing YGG tokens directly from the market.
OKX Ventures announces investment in Web3 innovative trading application Blum
According to official news, OKX Ventures announced a seed round investment in the innovative trading application Blum, which aims to create a trading experience that connects DEX and CEX for 90 million users. This round of financing was led by gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from Spartan and No Limit Holdings. At the same time, it received continued investment from pre-seed round supporters YZi Labs and Top.co, as well as participation from well-known institutions such as Bitscale Capital and Wintermute. Currently, Blum has received a total of US$5 million in pre-seed financing and seed round financing. "This funding marks an important milestone for Blum as it will drive the development of our trading functions. We are very grateful to OKX Ventures and other supporters for their confidence in us," said Gleb Kostarev, CEO and co-founder of Blum. “Blum has attracted the attention of investors and users since day one. Our approach to fundraising is not just about securing funding; it’s about carefully selecting partners who have the expertise and resources to enhance the user experience,” said Jeff Ren, Partner at OKX Ventures. “We are excited to invest in Blum, one of the largest Telegram Web3 communities. At the same time, we will also establish a partnership with Blum through OKX Connect to jointly attract more users. With this investment, we hope to once again demonstrate our willingness and determination to drive the development of the Ton ecosystem.”
AI
Musk: Grok 3 will be released in about one to two weeks
Musk: In testing, Grok 3 has outperformed any product that we know of that has been released. We are in the final stages and Grok 3 will be released in about one to two weeks.
OpenAI board questions Musk's $97 billion acquisition proposal, accusing him of inconsistency
According to the New York Times, the board of directors of OpenAI questioned the $97.04 billion acquisition proposal made by investors such as Elon Musk, and pointed out in court documents on Wednesday that the proposal contradicted Musk's claims in the lawsuit against OpenAI last year. OpenAI stated in the document that Musk had previously advocated that the company's assets must remain under the control of non-profit organizations and cannot be transferred to other entities for the public benefit, but now he is trying to acquire the assets. OpenAI believes that this exposes Musk's "hypocrisy." Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff responded that the core of the lawsuit is not the control of OpenAI, but the misconduct against Sam Altman and OpenAI. He said that if OpenAI is willing to abandon the plan to "sell" non-profit assets, Musk will withdraw the acquisition proposal.
Musk's X agrees to pay about $10 million to settle Trump lawsuit
According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's social platform X (formerly Twitter) has agreed to pay about $10 million to settle with Donald Trump over his account ban. This makes X the second platform, after another social media company, to settle a lawsuit over the ban of Trump's account after the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. Trump and other plaintiffs sued Twitter and its former CEO Jack Dorsey in 2021. Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter on October 27, 2022. Trump's X account (formerly Twitter account) was restored on November 19, 2022.
According to the GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 roadmap released by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, GPT-4.5 (internal codename Orion) will be OpenAI's last non-"Chain-of-Thought" model and is expected to be launched in the coming weeks or months. After that, OpenAI will integrate the o series with the GPT series models to enable them to use tools more intelligently and adapt to different task requirements. GPT-5 will combine the o3 model and integrate functions such as voice, Canvas, search, and in-depth research. ChatGPT free users will have unlimited use of the standard intelligent version of GPT-5, and Plus and Pro users will have access to a more intelligent version of GPT-5.
Project News
Binance will launch Heima (HEI) 1-75x U-margined perpetual contracts
Binance announced the launch of Heima (HEI), and will support HEI trading in multiple functions such as wealth management, one-click coin purchase, flash exchange, leverage and contract. The specific arrangements are as follows: Binance Wealth Management: HEI current principal guaranteed coin earning product will be launched at 16:00 on February 13, and users can apply for it immediately; from 18:00 on February 14, users can purchase HEI through the fixed investment platform. One-click coin purchase & sale: Users can purchase HEI through credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc., or use wallet balances for buying and selling transactions. It is expected to be opened within one hour after HEI is launched on the spot market. Flash exchange transaction: HEI can be exchanged for BTC, USDT or other tokens, and the exchange is free of handling fees. It is expected to be opened within one hour after the spot market is launched. Margin trading: HEI will be added as a borrowable asset at 19:00 on February 13, and support HEI/USDT and HEI/USDC trading pairs. VIP 7 to VIP 9 users can borrow related assets 30 minutes in advance. Contract trading: HEI U-based perpetual contract will be launched at 17:00 on February 13, supporting 1-75 times leverage.
Upbit to List TRUMP in KRW, BTC, USDT Markets
According to the official announcement, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will launch TRUMP in the Korean won, BTC, and USDT markets, and trading will begin at 17:00 on February 13 (estimated).
Bittensor is about to launch dTAO upgrade and optimize the token issuance mechanism
According to the official Bittensor Discord announcement, the Dynamic TAO (dTAO) upgrade will be launched at 16:00-17:00 on February 13, EST. This upgrade is considered the most important upgrade since the establishment of the Bittensor network, and aims to change the issuance mechanism from a trusted capital allocation model of a few large validators to an issuance mechanism determined entirely by the market. After the upgrade, each AI market (now TAO subnet) will operate with independent tokens, and the issuance volume will be dynamically adjusted according to the relative market price of each token to enhance fairness and liquidity.
BNB surpasses Solana in market value, rising to fifth place in cryptocurrency market value
According to CoinGecko, BNB (Binance Coin) rose 23.7% in the past week and is now trading at $709.13, with a total market value of $103.5 billion, successfully surpassing Solana (SOL)'s market value of $96 billion, becoming the fifth largest asset in the crypto market. Solana is currently priced at $196.61, and its market value ranking has fallen to sixth. BNB's recent strong rise may be affected by increased market demand and the expansion of the BNB Chain ecosystem.
MyShell to Launch SHELL Token Generation Event on Binance Wallet and PancakeSwap
According to the official announcement, the decentralized AI consumer layer project MyShell will conduct a token generation event (TGE) on Binance Wallet and PancakeSwap from 10:00 to 21:59 (Beijing time) on February 13. SHELL token subscription details: • Total fundraising: US$800,000 (BNB settlement) • Total issuance: 40 million (4% of the total supply) • Token unit price: 0.00003175 BNB (about US$0.02) • Individual subscription limit: 3 BNB • Allocation method: Pro-rata basis • Lock-up period: no lock-up • DEX trading launch time: February 13, 22:00 (Beijing time) How to participate: Users need to create a Keyless wallet in Binance Wallet, hold BNB and submit subscriptions during the event period. MyShell tokens will be used for governance, AI content creation support, platform payments, and asset trading pairs. Important reminder: SHELL tokens will not be open for trading before the end of TGE. All tokens circulated in advance are counterfeit tokens. Please be sure to verify the official contract address.
Coinbase will list POPCAT and PENGU transactions
According to the Coinbase announcement, the platform will soon support Popcat (POPCAT) and Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) transactions on the Solana network (SPL tokens). Users must ensure that they only transfer funds on the Solana network to avoid losing funds. The POPCAT-USD and PENGU-USD trading pairs are expected to be launched on or after 9AM Pacific Time on February 13 (1AM Beijing Time on February 14), provided that liquidity conditions are met. Some regions may be subject to trading restrictions.
Robinhood Q4 Crypto Trading Volume Surges 400% to $70 Billion
According to The Block, Robinhood released its fourth-quarter financial report, showing that its cryptocurrency trading volume increased by 400% year-on-year to US$70 billion. Previously, the trading volume continued to decline in 2024, with US$36 billion, US$21.5 billion and US$14.4 billion in the first three quarters, respectively. The company's Q4 trading revenue increased by 200% year-on-year to US$672 million, of which cryptocurrency trading revenue reached US$358 million, an increase of 700%. At the same time, stock trading volume increased by 154% to US$423 billion. Robinhood added 7 new crypto assets during Q4 and launched Ethereum staking services in the European Union. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said in December last year that the company had discussed the possibility of holding Bitcoin internally, but there was no BTC reserve plan. In early 2025, the company also announced that it would launch Bitcoin, oil and gold futures trading.
Phantom Wallet service has returned to normal
According to the Phantom announcement, all services have now returned to normal. The official apologized for the outage, emphasized the importance of understanding users' access to assets, and promised to take measures to prevent similar failures in the future.
Viewpoint
Negentropic, co-founder of Glassnode, said that after the inflation data was higher than expected, the price of Bitcoin once hit the liquidity point of $94,000, and fell back to $96,000 after a brief rise to $98,000. He pointed out that the current weak market liquidity and slowing network growth are potential risk signals. If conditions do not improve, the price of Bitcoin may further drop to $92,000.
Important data
Ethereum Foundation deposits 10,000 ETH each to Aave and Spark
According to Lookonchain monitoring, the Ethereum Foundation has just deposited 10,000 ETH into Aave and Spark respectively, with a total value of approximately US$53.48 million. Earlier news reported that the Ethereum Foundation transferred 50,000 ETH to a multi-signature wallet for participating in DeFi.
According to Whale Alert, 20 million TRUMP tokens worth about $342 million were transferred from Binance to an unknown new wallet at 14:47. Earlier today, Upbit announced that it would list TRUMP in the Korean won, BTC, and USDT markets.
According to Whale Alert monitoring, about 1.4 billion USDC were transferred from Binance to the address starting with 0xad354 10 minutes ago, of which: 700 million USDC were transferred to the address starting with 0xad354 at 14:57; 699,999,990 USDC were transferred to the address starting with 0xad354 at 14:56.
According to The Block, the trading volume of Pump.fun tokens on Solana has cooled down recently, with an average daily trading volume of only $560 million in the past week, a new low since Christmas 2024, and a sharp drop of 82% compared to the single-day high of $3.13 billion three weeks ago. In addition, the Raydium graduation rate of Pump.fun tokens is also declining. Last week, an average of only 1.04% of tokens successfully graduated, compared with 1.54% and 1.59% in the previous two weeks. At the same time, Jito validator tips on the Solana network also dropped from 68,500 SOL (US$17.5 million) two weeks ago to 23,800 SOL (US$4.8 million) last week, indicating a decline in trading activity. Solana's recent meme coin market has been described as a "euthanasia roller coaster" effect, that is, the market value high of each round of new coins gradually decreases. For example, $TRUMP once reached a FDV of 75 billion US dollars, while the subsequent market value peaks of $MELANIA, $VINE, $JELLYJELLY and the latest $JAILSTOOL decreased to 13 billion, 500 million, 250 million and 220 million US dollars respectively, indicating that market sentiment has gradually cooled down.
A whale withdrew 104,500 ETH from Binance in two days, worth $279 million
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, a whale withdrew a net of 104,509 ETH (about US$279 million) in the past two days, with an average price of US$2,669, and deposited or pledged most of the funds to decentralized platforms such as Etherfi, Lido Finance, Spark, Compound, Aave, Gearbox and Morpho.
