Today's news tips:
1. Next week's macro outlook: Non-agricultural, Powell, and Trump compete for the spotlight, and the Fed's bet on rate cuts increases
2. Ethereum Foundation appoints Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors
3. Suji Yan issued an ultimatum to the hacker on the chain, if the funds are not returned within 72 hours, law enforcement action will be escalated
4. CZ releases "crazy idea of token issuance", but says he has no plans to issue tokens
5.Vitalik: Ethereum needs a large number of young people with cypherpunk vision
6. Michael Saylor: Bitcoin revenue of $2.6 billion in the first two months of 2025
7. In February, the net outflow of US Bitcoin ETF was about 40,000 BTC, and BlackRock set a record for the largest monthly outflow
8. Data: Pump.fun's fee income in February reached US$75.28 million, a decrease of 38% from the previous month
Regulatory/Macro
The dollar held near a two-week high after U.S. inflation data on Friday met expectations, with the Trump-Zelensky spat also boosting the dollar's safe-haven appeal. U.S. Treasuries had their strongest start to a year since the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020, with the 10-year Treasury yield, which was close to 4.8% in January, now close to 4.2%, and the two-year Treasury yield breaking below 4% intraday for the first time in four months. U.S. stocks nearly wiped out their gains through 2025, but rebounded sharply on Friday, narrowing their losses for a second straight week. Here are the key points that markets will focus on in the new week:
Monday 22:45, US February S&P Global Manufacturing PMI final value
At 23:00 on Monday, the U.S. ISM manufacturing PMI for February and the U.S. construction spending monthly rate for January
At 21:50 on Tuesday, 2025 FOMC voting member and St. Louis Fed President Moussalem will deliver a speech
At 3:20 on Wednesday, FOMC permanent voting member and New York Fed President Williams spoke at the Bloomberg Investment Forum
Wednesday 21:15, US February ADP employment data
At 22:45 on Wednesday, the final value of the US S&P Global Services PMI for February
At 1:00 on Thursday, the Federal Reserve released the Beige Book on economic conditions.
Thursday 20:30, US Challenger Enterprise Layoffs in February
Thursday 21:30 U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending March 1
At 21:30 on Friday, the seasonally adjusted non-farm payrolls, unemployment rate, hourly wage annual rate and monthly rate in the United States for February
At 23:45 on Friday, FOMC permanent voting member, New York Fed President Williams and Fed Governor Bowman participated in a panel discussion on the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum Report organized by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls for February are due on Friday, which could be a key indicator of the direction of U.S. interest rates. Economists estimate that the U.S. economy added 133,000 jobs in February, down from 143,000 in January; the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.3% month-on-month, down from 0.5% in January. The January PCE report is the last inflation data that Fed officials will have before their next policy meeting on March 18-19. After cutting interest rates by 100 basis points in three consecutive meetings through the end of 2024, the Fed is almost certain to keep interest rates steady for the second consecutive meeting this year.
Japan Finance Minister: 110% tax on crypto assets is possible, but not limited to crypto assets
Japanese Finance Minister KATO Katsunobu mentioned the possibility of imposing a 110% tax rate on crypto assets (inheritance tax + income tax + resident tax = 110%) at a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee. He said that this situation is indeed possible under current laws and is "not limited to crypto assets" and that the tax rate "only applies to cases where profits are extremely high."
Project News
Ethereum Foundation Appoints Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as Co-Executive Directors
The Ethereum Foundation announced the appointment of Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors to continue supporting the growing Ethereum ecosystem. The Ethereum Foundation announced that under the leadership of Hsiao-Wei and Tomasz, it will ensure that Ethereum and the ecosystem can grow while ensuring that this growth can promote the core values of Ethereum, such as open source, permissionless global collaboration, privacy and security.
About 18 hours ago, Mask Network founder Suji Yan sent a message to the hacker: "The FBI, Hong Kong Police, Interpol, and private security personnel are working together internationally. They have identified you and are hunting you down. You have been fully exposed, and evidence of your behavior is in our hands and in the hands of our law enforcement partners. You have 72 hours to return the stolen funds, otherwise the situation will become uncontrollable. If the funds are returned, we are willing to offer a generous reward. Once the funds are returned, we will stop all tracking, destroy the collected data, and close the case. If you do not return it, we will escalate law enforcement actions, blacklist your address worldwide, and face legal consequences for you and any accomplices."
Yuga Labs co-founder: Someone used flash loans to forge bids on the Punks market
Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano tweeted that someone was using flash loans to fake bids on the Punks market.
Previously, CryptoPunks Bot tweeted that the new bid for Punk 5822 was 8,888 ETH (US$19,587,819.67) and was issued by 0xe62ae5.
Viewpoint
CZ: I once sold a property for less than $1 million, and the Bitcoin crash did not affect my life
Regarding the previous disclosure that he sold his house in 2013 and quit his job to invest in Bitcoin, Binance co-founder CZ posted a message on the X platform to explain that the house was sold for less than $1 million at the time. Shortly after purchasing Bitcoin, the price fell from $600 to $200 and remained there for about 18 months. However, he was able to withstand the market decline at the time and was able to maintain his original moderate living standard. Thanks to his income, his lifestyle was not seriously affected.
CZ releases "crazy idea of token issuance" but says he has no plans to issue tokens
CZ posted on Platform X that he had a crazy idea for a token launch: What if someone launched a token with the following token economics?
Initially, 10% of tokens are unlocked and sold on the market, and the proceeds will be used for project team product/platform development, marketing, salaries, etc. Each future unlock must meet all of the following conditions:
1. Six months after the last unlock.
2. Only when the token price remains at more than 2 times the previous unlocking price for more than 30 days before unlocking.
3. A maximum of 5% of tokens can be obtained each time.
For example, if the TGE price is $1 in January, by June, if the token price is still below $2, no more tokens can be unlocked. Assuming the token price is above $2 between July 4 and August 3, then on August 3, 5% of the tokens can be unlocked into circulation. Assume the price on August 3 is $3. The next earliest unlocking time is March 3 of next year, and can only be unlocked if the price is above $6 for more than 30 days.
The project team has the right to decide to postpone or reduce the size of each unlock. If they don't want to sell more, they don't have to. But they can sell (unlock) up to 5% each time, and then they have to wait at least 6 months and the price doubles again. The project team does not have the right to shorten or increase the size of the next unlock. The tokens will be locked by a smart contract with a third party controlling the key. This avoids new tokens flooding the market when prices are low, and also incentivizes the project team to build for the long term.
However, CZ stressed that he has no plans to issue a new token, it’s just an idea for discussion.
CZ: May support some projects that adopt new token models
CZ tweeted to supplement the previous conception of the token economic model: "Some projects may try this new token economic model, and I may even support some of them (not all). Just because this token model is adopted does not mean that we will automatically support it. The token economic model cannot solve all problems. Any model can be manipulated, people can sell the first 10% of the shares, and the project may fail at any stage. For the success of the project, the basic elements are still needed: products, communities, income, etc. Most importantly, a mission-driven and trustworthy founder is needed. Compared with the existing fixed-time unlocking, the new token economic model conceived previously has some advantages (or at least differences)."
According to previous news , CZ released a "crazy idea for token issuance", but said that he personally had no plans to issue tokens.
Musk criticizes Memecoin and calls it a "casino," warning people not to invest their life savings
Musk severely criticized Memecoin in the latest podcast of Joe Rogan Experience, calling it something like a "casino", and warned market participants not to invest their life savings in Memecoin. At the same time, Musk also talked about Dogecoin, adding that Dogecoin was also originally a Meme coin, but it was more like a joke cryptocurrency involving Meme and Dog. Joe Rogan believes that the Meme coin craze is too crazy, especially when people invest real money in it.
Vitalik: Ethereum needs a lot of young people with cypherpunk vision
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said: "What Ethereum needs is a large number of young people who share the same cypherpunk vision. All the old guns are boring and now it has entered the next generation."
1confirmation founder: 4 of the top 10 tokens by market value follow the “crypto VC” script
Nick Tomaino, founder of 1confirmation, wrote on the X platform that over the past decade, crypto teams have raised a lot of venture capital, followed by large-scale token locks, small floats, and heavy marketing to manipulate prices and FDV and attract retail investors. There are undoubtedly other insider games, such as paid market makers to create liquidity or simply deliberately insider bidding for tokens, but the most basic "crypto VC" script is:
- Raise $100 million+ in funding and hype the deal with a great narrative;
- Launch of blockchain;
- Allocate 50%+ of tokens to insiders;
- Create a total token supply of over 100 million;
- 20% or less of the total supply of the token will be unlocked at launch;
- Execute paid marketing campaigns at scale.
Say what you will about this playbook, but the fact is that it works so well that 4 of the top 10 coins by market cap have executed it and created over $250 billion in value. Looking ahead, the big question is, will this model continue to work? But based on the recent Memecoin pump and dump, it seems like there is still a long way to go.
Michael Saylor: Bitcoin gains of $2.6 billion in the first two months of 2025
Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), posted on the X platform that the company achieved $13.1 billion (140,538 BTC) in Bitcoin revenue last year and $2.6 billion (30,702 BTC) in Bitcoin revenue in the first two months of 2025.
Important data
According to data disclosed by Trader T, the net outflow of US Bitcoin ETFs in February was about 40,000 BTC, worth about US$3.546 billion. The market situation in February was as follows:
1. The price of Bitcoin fell from $102,400 to $843 million, a drop of about 18%;
2. Almost all Bitcoin ETFs have experienced outflows;
3. BlackRock IBIT reduced its holdings by about 9,740 BTC and currently holds 573,136 BTC, with an outflow of about US$721 million, setting a record for the largest monthly outflow;
4. Fidelity FBTC outflows of $1.202 billion;
5. Grayscale saw outflows of $585 million (GBTC outflows were approximately $404 million, and Bitcoin Mini Trust Fund outflows were approximately $181 million).
NFT transaction volume fell 28.93% month-on-month to US$107.1 million in the past 7 days
According to CryptoSlam data, the total transaction volume of the NFT market fell to $107.1 million, down 28.93% from the previous week. The number of NFT buyers increased by 36.02% to 456,874; the number of NFT sellers increased by 32.81% to 314,871; the number of NFT transactions remained stable, up 0.86% to 1,566,183.
Ethereum network transaction volume plummeted 67.86% to $25.3 million, although the number of buyers increased 20.27% to 50,056. Bitcoin network sales bucked the trend and rose 16.73% to $24.3 million, with the number of buyers increasing 30.71% to 30,203. The Mythos Chain network fell 4.79% to $14.7 million, but still ranked third. Polygon jumped to fourth place with a transaction volume of $14.2 million, an increase of 45.35%. The Solana network ranked fifth with a transaction volume of $12.1 million, an increase of 12.41%.
Notable sales this week include:
- Book.io – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: $390,410 (600,000 ADA)
- Book.io – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Second Edition): $386,179 (600,000 ADA)
- CryptoPunks #1062: $177,517 (80 ETH)
- CryptoPunks #2948: $139,250 (52.5 ETH)
- Ordinal Maxi Biz (OMB): $110,374 (1.1442 BTC)
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, since the Bybit hacker resumed money laundering at 3 pm yesterday, 62,200 ETH (US$138 million) have been laundered. Now, of the 499,000 ETH stolen from Bybit, only 156,000 (US$346 million) have been laundered. It is expected that all will be cleared in three days.
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the ETH OG whale in 2018 sold 4,245 ETH again a week later, worth $9.44 million. The cumulative number of ETH sold since February 15 has reached 16,499 (42.92 million). The address deposited ETH to Binance 8 hours ago and is suspected of selling. Its ETH cost is as low as $194. If it is sold, it will make a profit of $8.62 million.
According to DefiLlama data, Pump.fun's fee income in February was US$75.28 million, a decrease of 38% compared to January ($121 million).
