Today's news tips:
1. Czech President signs new bill, exempting capital gains tax for holding Bitcoin for more than 3 years
2. Cboe BZX Exchange submits 19b-4 documents on behalf of multiple issuers to apply for listing and trading of XRP spot ETF
3. Legislation on Bitcoin investment in Utah, USA has been passed by the House of Representatives
4. Japan's Financial Services Agency asks Apple and Google to suspend five unregistered crypto exchange apps
5. Telegram requires all crypto wallets to use TON Connect, sparking community opposition
6.Ondo Finance announces launch of Layer-1 blockchain Ondo Chain to promote asset tokenization
7.Solayer announces LAYER token economics: maximum supply of 1 billion, 51.23% allocated to the community and ecosystem
8. Ethereum Pectra upgrade will start testing in February and is expected to be launched on the mainnet in April
9. Justin Sun sued David Geffen for his $78.4 million collection, claiming it was stolen and sold by his art consultant
Regulatory/Macro
Canada bans crypto funds from receiving reduced margins, raising leverage trading costs
Canadian regulators have announced that cryptocurrency funds are no longer eligible for reduced margin requirements, a rule that applies to crypto funds involved in OCC options trading. The regulator noted that the policy is intended to reduce market instability due to volatility and liquidity risks, while increasing leveraged trading costs. However, specific margin eligibility can still be individually assessed in accordance with Sections 5310(1) and 5311(1) of the IDPC Rules.
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.
Cboe BZX Exchange has filed a 19b-4 filing on behalf of Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital to list and trade an XRP spot ETF. The 19b-4 filing is the second part of a two-step process to propose a cryptocurrency ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Once confirmed by the SEC, the filing will be published in the Federal Register, initiating the agency's approval process.
Bitwise first filed 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 filed an application for a spot XRP ETF with the SEC in December 2023, while NYSE Arca published a 19b-4 filing on January 30 to apply for the conversion of Grayscale's XRP Trust into a spot cryptocurrency ETF. CoinShares also filed a registration statement for the "CoinShares XRP ETF" last month. Purpose Investments submitted a preliminary prospectus for an XRP ETF to Canadian regulators on January 31, hoping to become the world's first XRP ETF issuer.
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. In a document published Thursday, the SEC acknowledged the proposal and asked for 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 a Form 19b-4 filing, Nasdaq last month issued an amended rule filing on behalf of BlackRock that would allow for 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 working out the technical details of 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.
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.
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.
According to Nikkei, the Japanese Financial Services Agency has requested Apple and Google this week to block the download of applications from five overseas crypto exchanges that are not registered and operating. The five companies are Bybit Fintech Limited, MEXC Global, LBank Exchange, KuCoin and Bitget Limited. The Japanese Financial Services Agency issued a warning to these companies under the Payment Services Act and published their names. It had previously warned these companies not to conduct business with Japanese customers, but they did not stop, so the Japanese Financial Services Agency decided for the first time to ask them to stop operating. In accordance with the request, Apple has removed these applications from the App Store and no new downloads have been available since February 6. Google, which operates the Play Store, has not yet announced the results of the processing.
Earlier today, it was reported that Bybit, Bitget, MEXC, Kucoin and other apps have been removed from the Japanese App Store.
Kentucky Congressman TJ Roberts sponsored HB376, proposing to invest 10% of state funds in digital assets with a market value of more than $750 billion.
Earlier news , lawmakers in South Dakota and Kentucky planned to propose Bitcoin reserve legislation.
Project News
Strategy plans to list STRK convertible preferred stock on Nasdaq this Thursday
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is expected 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, the company recorded a $1 billion asset impairment loss due to not adopting FASB accounting standards and plans to adopt new rules this quarter. So far, the company has used $17 billion of its $21 billion ATM stock issuance plan, and stock sales accounted for 2.9% of total trading volume. Strategy shares rose 1.3% in pre-market trading.
Ondo Finance announces launch of Ondo Chain, a layer-1 blockchain to drive asset tokenization
Ondo Finance, the world’s second-largest U.S. Treasury tokenization platform, announced the launch of Ondo Chain, a permissioned Layer-1 blockchain designed for traditional financial institutions to bridge 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 pledge and inter-chain interoperability, providing institutions with more efficient asset management solutions.
Telegram requires all crypto wallets to use TON Connect, sparking community opposition
Telegram now requires all third-party crypto wallets to use TON Connect as the only wallet connection protocol and limits 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 has integrated TON Connect on January 16 to optimize the user experience of the Telegram ecosystem.
This move caused dissatisfaction among some developers, and Grindery Wallet even considered withdrawing from the Telegram ecosystem. CEO Tim Delhaes pointed out that Telegram gave developers very little time to adjust, which was similar to the monopoly behavior of large technology companies and might damage developers' trust in the platform.
Binance to launch BERA U-margined perpetual contracts
According to the Binance announcement, Berachain (BERA) will gradually launch Binance financial management, one-click coin purchase, flash exchange, leverage and contract services from February 6th to 7th.
- Financial management: BERA 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 & instant exchange: BERA spot can be purchased with credit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay within 1 hour of listing, and can be exchanged for BTC, USDT, etc. without any handling fee.
- Margin trading: From 00:00 on February 7, BERA/USDT and BERA/USDC full-position and position-by-position leverage will be supported. 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.
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: You can claim it at airdrop.berachain.com. You must first bridge from Ethereum to Berachain via nftbridge.berachain.com.
- Cross-chain bridge: bridge.berachain.com (supports LayerZero and Stargate).
- Transaction query: berascan.com (powered 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: Audited by Spearbit, Nethermind, Quantstamp, and a bug bounty program has been launched at Immunefi.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) has applied to register the trademarks for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and separately managed accounts (SMAs) under the Truth.Fi brand, 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.
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.
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.
Gemini, a cryptocurrency company backed by the billionaire Winklevoss twins, is considering an initial public offering (IPO) as early as this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The cryptocurrency exchange and custodian is in talks with potential advisers about the listing.
Gemini has more than 500 employees in offices in New York, Seattle, Singapore, London, Dublin and Gurgaon, India, according to its website.
Trump Family Crypto Project WLFI Plans to Create a “Strategic” Token Reserve
Chase Herro, co-founder of World Liberty Financial (WLFI), President Trump's DeFi project, said the platform plans to create a "strategic reserve" with the purchased tokens. Herro did not specify what World Liberty's goal is for holding token reserves. 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 started operations. So far, the project is known for purchasing niche tokens.
Solana re-staking platform Solayer announced the token economics of its governance token LAYER. The maximum supply of LAYER tokens is 1 billion, and the initial circulation is 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 Emerald Card community sales. 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, and 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 partnered 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 infinitely scaling SVM (Solana Virtual Machine). In 2025, Solayer will introduce the concept of offloading blockchain hardware to programmable hardware chips to achieve infinite scaling - launching a million-level TPS network, InfiniSVM.
Ethereum developers have officially set a testing date for the Pectra upgrade, the network’s first in 11 months, which is expected to be released in April.
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, with subsequent testing planned for the Sepolia testnet on March 5. If these tests are successful, developers will meet again on March 6 to determine the date 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. Combining two separate upgrades, Prague and Electra, Pectra includes eight major improvements to Ethereum. The most anticipated of these is EIP-7702, a proposal that aims to improve the user experience of cryptocurrency wallets. Addresses on Ethereum, called externally owned accounts (EOA), will be reconfigured to support smart contract functionality. 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 start new infrastructure.
Justin Sun sues David Geffen over $78.4 million of art, alleging it was stolen by his art consultant
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 consultant, Xiong Zihan Sydney, of selling the sculpture to Geffen without his knowledge by forging signatures and using fictitious lawyers.
Sun claimed that he never authorized Xiong to conduct any transactions, but Xiong nevertheless reached a deal with an art dealer between January and March 2024 to exchange two paintings and $10.5 million in cryptocurrency for the sculpture, 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 inquired about the progress of the transaction.
However, Geffen's lawyers disputed the allegation, calling it bizarre and unfounded, suggesting that Sun simply regretted the deal. His lawyers noted that the deal was done through an intermediary, and if Sun is now unhappy with the deal his intermediary secured for him, that is not a basis for a claim against Geffen. Sun's lawyers, in turn, argued that Geffen's team should have spotted obvious red flags before the deal, 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 Xiong had illegally forged Sun's signature repeatedly and fabricated the existence of a lawyer.
Oneness Labs issued a statement saying: "Regarding the recent false statements made by Lingkong Company and Mr. Luo Yuxiang against Oneness Labs and SHOWA, we hope to clarify the facts and respond to external questions. First of all, in the past 4 months, Oneness Labs and Lingkong Games, as well as the production team of "Showa U.S. Story", the senior management of both sides have maintained close communication. We have had in-depth exchanges and discussions with the senior management and shareholders of Lingkong Games, including Luo Yuxiang himself, including conference calls and tens of thousands of message exchanges, and have carried out long-term and in-depth designs around the empowerment model of tokens, community management and future development. Lingkong Games has been aware of the development process of SHOWA from beginning to end. We reserve the right to publish all conversations, recordings and texts.
Secondly, Oneness Labs did become one of the shareholders of Lingkong Games by acquiring the company shares held by Lingkong Games co-founder Troy Dunniway. This acquisition transaction has been confirmed by Troy Dunniway himself. Denying the identity of Oneness Labs as a shareholder and the legitimacy of SHOWA is a malicious and dishonest act, and it also seriously damages the rights and interests of Oneness Labs as a shareholder of Lingkong. Oneness Labs will immediately resort to legal action for the reputational damage and economic damage caused to Oneness Labs and related stakeholders by the actions of Lingkong Games and Luo Yuxiang himself. "
Earlier yesterday , Lingkong Games issued a statement saying that it has never had any commercial cooperation with Oneness Labs and has nothing to do with the "SHOWA Token".
Bybit will launch IPUSDT perpetual contract
According to official news, Bybit will launch Story (IP) U-based perpetual contract in pre-market trading at 8 pm (UTC+8) tonight.
Viewpoint
CZ initiates a vote on “Should BNB Chain try to eliminate/actively reduce the MEV problem?”
CZ initiated a vote on the X platform, "Should BNB Chain try to eliminate/actively reduce the MEV problem?" CZ said he hates any type of "front-running", and MEV is just that. In a decentralized world, no one can completely prevent it. But there are ways to reduce it.
VanEck: Solana’s SOL token price is expected to reach $520 by the end of 2025
Investment firm VanEck predicts that Solana’s SOL token price will reach $520 by the end of 2025 as demand for its smart contract platform (SCP) grows and the U.S. M2 money supply increases in the coming months. VanEck predicts that the M2 money supply will grow from the current $21.5 trillion to $22.3 trillion by 2025. When the U.S. central bank increases M2 by lowering interest rates or through quantitative easing, more money enters circulation, leading to increased liquidity in the economy and encouraging investment in risky assets such as cryptocurrencies.
The SCP market, on the other hand, is the area where platforms such as Solana operate, allowing the creation and execution of smart contracts. VanEck estimates that the SCP market could grow 43% to $1.1 trillion by the end of 2025. Currently, Solana holds about 15% of this market, but VanEck expects this to rise to 22% by the end of 2025. The report adds: "Using an autoregressive (AR) forecasting model, we estimate that Solana will have a market cap of approximately $250 billion, which would imply a price of $520 for SOL based on approximately 486 million circulating tokens."
Matrixport: Solana whales are cashing in their gains, and the hype of meme coins is receding
Matrixport pointed out in the report that many traders may make emotional trading decisions, but Bitcoin always responds rationally to macroeconomic, monetary and liquidity events. After Trump's victory in November 2024, Bitcoin and altcoins both rose sharply due to the market's widespread expectation that he would establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and position the United States as a global cryptocurrency center. However, the hawkish tone at the December FOMC meeting suppressed liquidity expectations. Market sentiment remained strong until Trump's inauguration on January 20, but uncertainty gradually increased afterwards.
Unlike the new DeFi cycle in the 2020/2021 bull run, the era of memecoins and Pump.fun has arrived. The two main beneficiaries of the Pump.fun memecoin craze were Solana and Raydium, but the hype-driven momentum quickly faded as daily trading activity declined. Daily memecoin issuance on Pump.fun has decreased by 16% over the past 30 days, indicating that speculative interest is waning. A key factor in this slowdown is Trump Memecoin, which attracted a large number of retail investors to enter the market at unfavorable prices.
Despite the recent surge in the price of Raydium (RAY), a notable trend has emerged: the number of wallets holding more than 10,000 SOL has dropped sharply in the past two months, indicating that large holders are selling, which may suppress the continued rise in the price of SOL. However, this may also indicate that early whales who accumulated SOL before the memecoin cycle in late 2023 are now cashing out and reallocating their gains to Bitcoin. This rotation may explain why Bitcoin remains resilient despite the overall correction in the mountain currency market.
Important data
A whale made $589,000 in profit by shorting BERA in less than 2 hours
According to Lookonchain monitoring, after BERA was listed, a whale made a profit of $589,000 by shorting BERA in less than 2 hours. The whale deposited 1.6 million USDC to Hyperliquid 16 hours ago and shorted BERA at about $13. He then closed his position and withdrew 2.19 million USDC, making a profit of $589,000.
A whale sold 8,500 ETH in nearly an hour in exchange for 23.25 million DAI
According to Lookonchain monitoring, in the past hour, a whale sold 8,500 ETH at an average price of US$2,736 in exchange for 23.25 million DAI.
