Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering the week's key news, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is one of the news weekly, taking you to a glance at the major events in the blockchain industry this week.
Headline
▌OpenAI opens ChatGPT search for free, no registration required
At 3 a.m. on February 6, OpenAI announced that the ChatGPT search function is open to all users without registration. Compared with Google's traditional search engine, ChatGPT search can capture network information faster and can achieve minute-level analysis, which is very helpful for industries such as stocks, sports, and finance that need to quickly obtain news content in the first place. At the same time, with the power of large models, users' search ideas can be better interpreted, and the source address of search results can be provided.
▌Trump's IEEPA tariff order may boost Bitcoin growth
US President Trump recently invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose comprehensive tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, sparking market concerns about the dominance of the US dollar. This move not only affects the global trade pattern, but may also prompt more investors to turn to Bitcoin as a safe haven. James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, pointed out that the unconventional use of IEEPA may accelerate global de-dollarization and drive capital to decentralized assets such as Bitcoin to hedge against economic instability. Crypto derivatives trader Gordon Grant also believes that frequent use of IEEPA may weaken the credit of the US dollar and make digital assets such as Bitcoin more attractive.
▌Trump's cryptocurrency project appears to have increased its holdings of tens of millions of dollars in Ethereum after the price plummeted
After US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Mexico and Canada, causing the cryptocurrency market to plummet over the weekend, World Liberty Financial, a decentralized financial project associated with the Trump family, appears to have increased its holdings of Ethereum worth tens of millions of dollars. Trump's third child, Eric Trump, posted on social media platform X on Monday that "it seems to me that now is a good time to increase your holdings of Ethereum. You can thank me later." He later edited the post and deleted the second sentence.
▌NYSE has submitted a 19b-4 filing application for Grayscale's Litecoin ETF
Litecoin's official Twitter account said that NYSE has now submitted a 19b-4 filing application for Grayscale's Litecoin ETF to the US SEC to seek to convert its Litecoin (LTC) Trust into a spot ETF.
▌Ethereum's Pectra upgrade will begin testing in February, and the upgrade is expected to land on the Ethereum mainnet in April
Ethereum's "Pectra" upgrade will land on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets in February and March. Pectra will include a series of improvements, with a particular focus on wallets and validators. If these tests are successful, developers will reconvene on March 6 to determine when to officially launch the upgrade.
Some developers now say it could land on the mainnet in early April. Pectra is a hybrid word that represents two separate upgrades, Prague and Electra, and contains eight major improvements to the second-largest blockchain. The most anticipated of these is EIP-7702, which aims to improve the user experience of crypto wallets. Another major feature of Pectra, EIP-7251, will allow validators to increase their stake amount - from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH.
▌Solayer announces LAYER token economics: maximum supply of 1 billion, 51.23% allocated to the community and ecosystem
Solana 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: ①51.23% is allocated to the community and ecosystem: 34.23% is used for continued R&D, 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. ②17.11% is allocated to core contributors. ③16.66% has been sold to investors. ④15% 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 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.
▌Trump: Musk has been instructed to review US Department of Defense spending
US President Trump said that he has instructed the Department of Government Efficiency team led by Elon Musk to review the US Department of Defense spending. On January 20, local time, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the day he was sworn in to form an advisory committee called the "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)" in order to initiate major reforms to the federal government.
▌The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed the resolution of BlackRock's Ethereum ETF options trading to April 9
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday postponed the resolution of BlackRock's Ethereum ETF options trading.
The SEC said in a document that it would postpone the decision on whether to approve or disapprove until April 9, 2025. The agency said: "The Commission believes it is necessary to specify a longer time to issue approval policies."
▌Reuters: The Republican-led U.S. SEC strengthens supervision of investigations
On February 4, Reuters reported that lawyers at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were told that they must obtain leadership approval before officially launching an investigation. This procedural change may slow down the investigation process. This change has not been reported before. The adjustment is said to have been made under the new leadership team after Trump took office. People familiar with the matter said they requested anonymity because the change has not been made public. Typically, the SEC Governed by five commissioners (including the chair), the commission is an independent body. Currently, the commission consists of three members, including two Republicans and one Democrat. The commissioners of the SEC are appointed by the president of the United States. Recently, some law enforcement officials were told that all formal investigative orders - which are necessary to issue subpoenas for testimony or documents - require the approval of the commission. Previously, this authority was delegated to lower-level staff, and the commission could exercise a veto, but it was not always exercised, people familiar with the matter said.
▌The U.S. Department of Justice charges Canadian hackers with two attacks totaling $65 million
U.S. prosecutors on Monday charged 22-year-old Andean Medjedovic with two hacks totaling $65 million. Court documents show that Medjedovic previously admitted to making about $16 million in profits from the DeFi protocol Indexed Finance in October 2021. He is also believed to be the person who attacked KyberSwap in November 2023. , which caused the protocol and its users to lose about $48 million in cryptocurrency. The hacker later sent about $2 million in cryptocurrency to a digital wallet believed to be controlled by Medjedovic. Medjedovic faces five charges, including fraud, money laundering and racketeering. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday.
▌New York Times: The U.S. SEC takes steps to scale back its enforcement efforts in the cryptocurrency field
According to the New York Times: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken steps to scale back its enforcement efforts in the cryptocurrency field.
▌U.S. SEC Acting Chairman Appoints Former Coin Center Director to Join Cryptocurrency Working Group
Landon Zinda has resigned from his position as policy director at cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center to join the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) cryptocurrency working group.
In a notice on February 4, Acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda said Zinda has joined the commission as his legal counsel and senior advisor to the cryptocurrency working group. The former Coin Center director will join the working group led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, working with Chief of Staff Richard Gabbert and Chief Policy Advisor Taylor Asher.
▌Crypto Czar David Sacks: The feasibility of Bitcoin reserves is being studied
Crypto Czar David Sacks said that the feasibility of Bitcoin reserves is being studied.
▌Chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee: Both Houses of Congress will set up cryptocurrency working groups
French Hill, chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, said that both houses of Congress will set up cryptocurrency working groups.
▌US New Mexico Senator Submits Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act, Proposing to Allocate 5% of Public Funds
U.S. Senator Ant Thornton submitted the "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act" to the New Mexico Senate, proposing to invest 5% of public funds in Bitcoin, aiming to establish an alternative treasury for the state. The proposed 5% allocation will diversify the state's funds and allow it to benefit from the long-term price appreciation of Bitcoin.
The bill also proposes that the Bitcoin reserve be managed by the State Investment Officer and operate under the supervision of the State Investment Committee. The bill also clarifies the need for cold storage as a viable means of protecting the state's Bitcoin.
▌Acting CFTC Chair slams resistance to prediction markets under previous leadership
Caroline Pham, acting chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the commission has gone too far in its fight against prediction markets and it will take a lot of energy to overturn its rules, orders and court arguments.
Pham, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has been moving quickly to overturn the policy positions of the derivatives regulator's previous Democratic leadership.
The CFTC will soon schedule an expert roundtable to kick off work on restarting the agency's stance on prediction markets.
▌Musk supports putting U.S. Treasury transactions on the blockchain
Musk supports putting U.S. Treasury transactions on the blockchain for full transparency, according to Watcher.Guru on the X platform.
▌The U.S. FDIC is re-evaluating its regulation of cryptocurrency activities, and the original regulatory warning has been deleted
According to crypto KOL MartyParty, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced today that it is actively re-evaluating its regulatory approach to cryptocurrency-related activities. This includes replacing Financial Institution Letter (FIL) 16-2022 and providing institutions with a path to participate in cryptocurrency and blockchain-related activities while adhering to the principles of security and soundness.
This information was emphasized in a statement by Acting Chairman Travis Hill, indicating that the FDIC has changed in regulating banks involved in cryptocurrency activities. This means: banks can custody customers' cryptocurrencies and they will be insured by the FDIC. The Biden administration's Choke Point FIL 16-2022 letter has been withdrawn and replaced.
MartyParty commented: The original FIL-16-2022 letter link has been deleted and displays a 404 error. The FDIC is removing all evidence related to its politically motivated policy against cryptocurrency.
Blockchain Application
▌Tether CEO: AI model training platform Tether Data is expected to be launched soon
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino published a preview of the AI model training platform Tether Data on the X platform. He said that any company interested in (pre)training its own model can use this PaaS product. In addition, the core of this platform uses Holepunch's technology to handle all data structures to make training and models highly resilient and unstoppable. It is expected that the platform will be launched soon through Northern Data Group, using 24k+H100 GPU.
▌Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch a tokenized securities trading system
According to the Bangkok Post on February 3, Jomkwan Kongsakul, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, said that token investment is gaining attention and regulators will allow securities companies to trade digital tokens to take advantage of their large investor base. "The SEC is using technology to improve the efficiency of the capital market by promoting an electronic securities ecosystem," said Jomkwan Kongsakul, adding that "new regulations will be introduced to promote the issuance of electronic securities and the online purchase of bonds," i.e. medium- and long-term debt instruments used by large companies to borrow money.
▌Berachain releases white paper, will replace incentive mechanism with PoL mechanism and adopt dual token model
The Berachain Foundation released a white paper to launch a new EVM-compatible Layer 1 public chain. The white paper details its innovative Proof of Liquidity (PoL) mechanism, which directly links validator rewards to network application demand. The economic model adopts a dual-token design: BERA is used for staking and trading, and BGT is a non-transferable governance token. The BGT Foundation will adopt a three-phase governance plan, gradually transitioning from the initial BeraSwap reward pool to fully decentralized governance.
▌Mempool Research: Bitcoin Block Size Could Increase to 4 MB
Block size has grown steadily since Bitcoin's Taproot upgrade, but there is still room for more growth, Mempool Research said.
Widespread adoption of inscriptions could push the Bitcoin network's average block size to 4 megabytes (MB) per block, far higher than the current average, according to a report released by Mempool Research on Feb. 4. Bitcoin's average block size (the amount of data contained in each block published to the network's public ledger) is currently just over 1.5 MB, the report said.
Bitcoin's block size could increase significantly if inscriptions (a method of efficiently encoding arbitrary data within a block) are more widely adopted, Mempool Research said.
▌CryptoQuant CEO: PoliFi may become a killer application in the crypto industry
Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, said in a post on the X platform, "PoliFi may become a killer application in the crypto industry. A strong crypto asset can attract capital and talent through an engaging narrative to form a self-constructed Internet organization. The influence of a narrative depends on the following three points: it resonates with most people; it has extreme and provocative themes; it can arouse heated debate. Politics meets these three criteria. It is widely relevant, highly controversial, and inherently polarizing. Political parties should issue their own tokens. Members can invest in these tokens to enhance their sense of belonging, and the free market will quantify public sentiment. With their natural narrative advantages, these communities will be self-sustaining and highly active. Imagine that the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States launch official PoliFi tokens, and ETFs track tokens supported by politicians. Trump Coin Maybe it’s just the beginning. ”
Cryptocurrency
▌Eric Trump, the second son of Trump: Now is the best time to increase holdings of ETH
Eric Trump, the second son of Trump, said on his social platform that now is the best time to increase holdings of ETH (In my opinion, it’s a great time to add ETH.).
▌WLFI transferred 8 crypto assets worth a total of US$307 million to Coinbase Prime in the past 6 hours
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, World Liberty Financial transferred 8 crypto assets worth a total of US$307 million to Coinbase Prime in the past 6 hours for fund management and business operations. Subsequently, 19,423 stETH were unpledged and converted into ETH, and 1,826 ETH were purchased at an average price of US$2,738 per coin for 5 million USDC. Currently, World Liberty Financial still holds $96.62 million worth of various assets in 9 known wallets.
▌Bitcoin Miners in the Satoshi Era Move $5 Million in BTC When the Price Was Just 10 Cents
A wallet containing 50 bitcoins, mined about 15 years ago, suddenly became active, moving about $5 million worth of tokens that were originally worth just $0.10 each.
Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo discovered and shared the wallet transaction using a screenshot of mempool.space. The movement of this wallet has since sparked discussion and concern in the crypto community. Some onlookers have speculated that it may be related to Ross Ulbricht, the recently pardoned founder of "Silk Road".
However, it is highly speculative to attribute old Bitcoin movements to any specific individual who has not voluntarily disclosed their wallet address.
▌Arkham announced that it has supported monitoring of Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings
Arkham announced that it has supported monitoring of Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings. Satoshi Nakamoto's address currently holds 1,096,354 bitcoins, worth approximately $108.88 billion.
▌David Sacks: Cannot make any answer to "whether sovereign wealth funds hold encryption"
David Sacks answered the last question in the Q&A session of the press conference, saying that studying the feasibility of Bitcoin reserves is one of the top priorities the president has instructed him to do, and will be studied as part of an internal government working group. "Putting cryptocurrencies in sovereign wealth funds" is another question that could not be answered at this press conference.
As previously reported, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday instructing the Treasury and Commerce Departments to establish a sovereign wealth fund. Although crypto was not mentioned, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant has expressed some interest in cryptocurrencies, while Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick is a staunch supporter of the crypto industry.
▌The U.S. SEC has transferred crypto litigation lawyers involved in Ripple and Coinbase cases to the IT department
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reassigned Jorge Tenreiro, a former deputy director of the Crypto Assets and Networks Division and a crypto litigation lawyer, to its Computer Systems Management (IT) Division.
Tenreiro worked at the SEC for more than 11 years, starting as an enforcement attorney according to his LinkedIn information, and then served as the head of the agency's Crypto Enforcement Division from October 2022 to November 2024. Tenreiro has been involved in several high-profile SEC enforcement cases against cryptocurrency companies, such as Ripple and Coinbase. The SEC has reportedly scaled back its crypto enforcement division as it takes a less hostile stance toward the crypto industry since President Donald Trump took office in 2025. Analyst: Bitcoin market cap needs to exceed 70% to kick off a new round of "altcoin season" According to crypto analyst Rekt Capital, Bitcoin market cap (BTC Dominance) needs to break through 70% to usher in a new round of altcoin season. Currently, Bitcoin market cap has risen to 64.3%, then fell back to 61%, but the overall trend is still rising. The analysis pointed out that the altcoin season at the end of 2024 has ended, and Bitcoin has started to recover since it fell below 55% in December last year, and has now risen by 6%. Historical data shows that 71% is the key point of Bitcoin market cap. If BTC.D encounters resistance at this level, the market may usher in a new round of altcoin market.
▌Raydium derivatives contracts have reached $100 million in daily trading volume
Solana's decentralized crypto trading engine Raydium launched derivatives contract trading a few weeks ago, and its daily trading volume has exceeded $100 million. Such contracts allow cryptocurrency traders to speculate on price fluctuations without holding actual tokens. Currently, it is Solana's third most popular perpetual contract trading platform, second only to the ecosystem's trading giants Jupiter and Drift.
It is reported that Raydium's perpetual contract trading is supported by Orderly Network, a trading project outside the Solana ecosystem. Orderly allows perpetual contract traders from multiple blockchains to trade assets on a unified order book.
▌Copper to Provide Crypto Custody Services for Fineqia’s Crypto ETNs
Digital asset business Fineqia AG has partnered with crypto custodian Copper to provide custody solutions for its exchange-traded notes (ETN) business, a move the company says will increase the reliability and transparency of its products. Under the new agreement, Copper will safeguard the underlying assets held by Fineqia’s ETNs, including the Fineqia FTSE Cardano Enhanced Yield ETN, which provides direct exposure to Cardano.
As of January 29, the product had over $45 million in assets under management. The Cardano ETN began trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange about 10 months after Fineqia AG initially received approval.
▌Michigan's $20 billion state pension fund disclosed holdings of $9 million in Bitcoin ETFs
According to Cointelegraph, Michigan's $20 billion state pension fund disclosed holdings of $9 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
▌Trump family encryption project WLFI plans to create a "strategic reserve" with purchased tokens
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 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. appeared at the Ondo Summit held at the Jazz Hall of Lincoln Center on Thursday, the latest move by the president 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 buying niche tokens.
Important Economic Dynamics
▌U.S. bond market reacts coldly to U.S. Treasury Secretary's 10-year yield commitment
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessant's commitment to controlling the 10-year Treasury yield on Thursday was met with some skepticism in the bond market, as inflationary pressures and expectations of a widening federal deficit could overshadow efforts to curb borrowing costs. "While Trump wants lower interest rates, he won't ask the Fed to cut rates," Bessant said in an interview yesterday. "President Trump and I are both focused on the 10-year Treasury yield." But bond investors and analysts still don't quite believe Bessant's remarks, as Trump's trade and fiscal policies are expected to push up long-term Treasury yields despite falling energy prices and government spending cuts. "The bigger problem in the composite inflation is service inflation and the stickiness of inflation that has been prevalent over the past few months," said Padhraic Garvey, head of research for the Americas at ING. "The tariff agenda will only put upward pressure on prices and, in fact, may be more influential than the energy price control program," he added.
▌Fed's Logan: 2% inflation is not a necessary condition for the FOMC to cut interest rates
Fed's Logan said the choice for 2025 comes down to resuming rate cuts "as soon as possible" or keeping rates unchanged for "quite a long time." If the U.S. job market deteriorates, the Fed may cut interest rates. A strong labor market could mean that the policy rate is close to neutral. 2% inflation is not a necessary condition for the FOMC to cut interest rates. Central banks must anchor inflation expectations. Changes in trade policy may have a lasting impact on the economy.
▌U.S. Treasury Secretary: 10-year Treasury yield is the key, Trump did not call on the Fed to cut interest rates
U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson said the Trump administration's focus on lowering borrowing costs is the 10-year Treasury yield, not the Fed's benchmark short-term interest rate. When asked if U.S. President Trump wants to lower interest rates, Bessant said in an interview with Fox Business Channel: "He and I are both focused on the 10-year Treasury bond." "He is not calling on the Fed to lower interest rates." Bessant reiterated his view that by expanding energy supply, inflation will be reduced. He said that as far as the American working class is concerned, "energy prices are one of the most reliable indicators of long-term inflation expectations for them." Bessant also said that about the Fed, "I will only talk about what they have done, not what I think they should do from now on." He said that after the Fed's "sharp rate cuts," the 10-year Treasury yield climbed.
▌DeepSeek ignites AI market. Many fund people remind: focus on innovation opportunities and grasp the investment rhythm
On the first day of the opening of the market in the Year of the Snake (February 5), concept stocks such as DeepSeek and humanoid robots performed strongly. On the news side, during the Spring Festival holiday of A-shares, DeepSeek's large model continued to be popular, and Yushu Robot also brought a shocking performance in the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Snake. Many people from public and private equity funds said that DeepSeek and humanoid robots, as important breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of software and hardware, will greatly improve human production efficiency and change society and lifestyle. Technological progress will give rise to new demands, which are less affected by macroeconomic fluctuations and have a relatively high growth rate of demand. In 2025, the style of A-shares will be more inclined towards technological growth. (China Securities Journal)
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