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
▌Utah Bitcoin Bill Approved by the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee Utah Bitcoin Bill Approved by the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee
Golden Finance reported that according to Cointelegraph, Utah's Bitcoin Bill has been approved by the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee. The bill has now been submitted to the House for deliberation. The bill will pave the way for Utah to invest in Bitcoin and other digital assets.
▌CME to Launch Options Contracts Based on Bitcoin Futures Expires on Friday
Golden Finance reported that market news: CME will launch options contracts based on Bitcoin futures expiring on Friday.
▌DeepSeek impacts US stocks, Silicon Valley tycoons lose tens of billions of dollars
According to Forbes, China's generative artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek impacted US stocks, Nvidia's stock price plummeted 16%, and its market value evaporated more than $500 billion. Its CEO Huang Renxun's net worth shrunk by $19.8 billion as of 1:45 Beijing time, and his total wealth fell from $124.4 billion to $104.6 billion, falling from 10th to 17th on the Forbes real-time billionaire list. The biggest drop was in Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who lost $24.9 billion and fell to fourth place, overtaken by Meta CEO Zuckerberg.
▌DeepSeek-based AI project VVV breaks through $17
Affected by Coinbase's listing of Venice Token (VVV), VVV rose above $17 and is now at $17.75, with a 24-hour increase of 103.7%. The market is volatile, so please do a good job of risk control.
▌OpenAI is in talks to raise $40 billion in new funds
ChatGPT maker OpenAI is in early talks with investors to raise $40 billion in a new round of financing, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The new financing will value the artificial intelligence (AI) giant at $340 billion.
This could be a good sign for AI-related cryptocurrencies, as OpenAI's valuation has almost doubled after the rise of competitor DeepSeek helped the industry get rid of some bubbles, which will bring some confidence to the industry.
▌CME Group plans to launch Bitcoin Friday Futures Options (BFF) on February 24
According to TheBlock, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Platform Group (CME Group), the world's largest financial derivatives exchange operator, announced today that it plans to launch Bitcoin Friday Futures (BFF) on February 24, and is currently awaiting regulatory approval. BFF will be the first cash-settled cryptocurrency options offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with expiration dates every weekday from Monday to Friday. These contracts are small in size (only 1/50 of a BTC each) and expire daily, providing market participants with a set of capital-efficient tools to effectively adjust their Bitcoin exposure, suitable for both institutional investors and active retail traders.
Policy
▌Trump: Plans to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods from February 1
On January 30, local time, US President Trump said that he plans to fulfill his promise to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports on February 1, and will decide on the evening of January 30 whether to include oil in the tariffed goods.
On January 20, Trump told the media when signing a series of executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House that day that he was considering imposing a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, and the taxation action may be implemented from February 1 this year. (CCTV News)
▌US SEC approves Bitwise Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF to be listed on NYSE Arca
The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the rule change application proposed by the New York Stock Exchange Arca to allow the listing and trading of Bitwise Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF shares on its exchange. According to the proposal, the Bitwise Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF will hold spot Bitcoin and spot Ethereum based on the market value ratio of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
▌Market News: PumpFun is facing a class action lawsuit, accused of violating US securities laws
According to market news, PumpFun is facing a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff accuses the platform of violating US securities laws and claims that all tokens created through its "Meme Factory" are securities.
▌US Democratic Congressman Elizabeth Warren asks federal agencies to investigate the Meme coin launched by the Trump family
Golden Finance reported that according to Bitcoin Magazine, Indiana Congressman Jake Teshka proposed legislation to allow retirement funds to purchase Bitcoin ETFs.
▌The Lieutenant Governor of Texas, USA, announced that "Bitcoin Reserve" will be a legislative priority in 2025
According to Golden Finance, Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, announced the state's legislative priorities for 2025, including the proposal to establish the Texas Bitcoin Reserve. Texas joins at least five states in the United States that are pushing to establish Bitcoin (BTC) or cryptocurrency reserves, including Arizona and Utah, where strategic reserve bills have passed in committee.
▌The US SEC has recognized the 19b-4 filing submitted by Canary Capital for its spot Litecoin ETF
According to Golden Finance, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has recognized the 19b-4 filing submitted by Canary Capital for its spot Litecoin ETF.
▌El Salvador's President asks Congress to reform the country's Bitcoin law
Golden Finance reported that ruling party lawmakers said that El Salvador's President Bukele asked Congress to reform the country's Bitcoin law.
▌Arizona approves strategic Bitcoin reserve bill
On January 28, Arizona lawmakers proposed a bill to allow public funds to invest in Bitcoin and other digital assets. The state's Senate Finance Committee approved the bill on January 27 with a 5-2 vote.
Blockchain Applications
▌EigenLayer: Seeking AI Agent Use Cases Built on AVS
EigenLayer announced a $20,000 reward on the X platform to support re-staking and protect Actively Validated Services, bringing together Ethereum's trust network for projects such as oracles and Rollups. In addition, EigenLayer also announced that it is looking for innovative AI agent use cases as or built on EigenLayer AVS.
▌Cardano Foundation Research Report: Blockchain Applications Have "Fundamentally Shifted"
The Cardano Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Cardano applications, released a report stating that blockchain applications have undergone a "fundamental shift."
The study highlighted Cardano's global influence and noted that 70% of the projects in its ecosystem are targeting international markets. “Roughly 70% of the projects in our ecosystem are designed for international deployment, reflecting not only geographic scope but also a fundamental shift in how blockchain technology is being used,” the report said. Cardano’s CEO said he was interested in how projects could transform global supply chains through verification mechanisms that track assets from their origin to the end consumer.
▌DAO Governance Platform Agora to Acquire Boardroom
Blockchain governance startup Agora is set to acquire its competitor Boardroom. The company sees the acquisition as a strategic move to strengthen governance within the wider Ethereum ecosystem, citing the expectation that decentralized governance will grow again in light of U.S. President Trump’s promise of regulatory clarity for the blockchain industry.
Boardroom was founded earlier than Agora and has similar goals, but takes a more horizontal approach to blockchain governance. Boardroom has gradually moved from an Agora-style DAO tool software to a data feed – a sort of “Bloomberg” for crypto governance data. Agora declined to disclose the price for the acquisition of Boardroom. Boardroom employees have been hired to Agora, and Boardroom founder Kevin Nielsen will continue to serve as an advisor. Agora co-founder Yitong Zhang said there are "no plans to abandon" Boardroom, and the Agora team will keep both platforms running and work with users to determine how to gradually integrate these tools.
Cryptocurrency
▌Mizuho Securities: MSTR holdings are expected to reach 783,000 BTC by the end of 2027, and the price of the currency will rise to $166,000
According to TheBlock, Mizuho Securities believes that the price of Bitcoin has 30% room to rise in the next three years, which is why the company rated MicroStrategy's stock as outperforming the market. Mizuho analysts led by Dan Dolev pointed out that Bitcoin is increasingly being adopted around the world, and the political environment under U.S. President Donald Trump is more favorable.
Assuming adoption growth continues on the same trajectory as before until 2027, it means that the price of Bitcoin will rise by 25-30% per year. MSTR's Bitcoin holdings are expected to reach 783,000 by the end of 2027, and the market price of Bitcoin will rise to $166,000, which means that MSTR's holdings are worth $130 billion.
▌Cryptocurrency companies will influence the US election through PACs in 2026
Political Action Committees (PACs) reportedly hold more than $116 million in funds to influence the results of the 2026 midterm elections.
“We will continue to step up our efforts,” said Josh Vlasto, a spokesperson for Fairshake. “With the midterm elections approaching, we are ready to continue to support candidates who are committed to promoting innovation, increasing employment, and enacting thoughtful and responsible regulations, and oppose those who play politics and hinder voters from supporting cryptocurrencies.”
▌Coinbase applies to list Solana and Hedera futures on its derivatives trading platform
Coinbase Derivatives, a subsidiary of Coinbase, has filed regulatory documents on Thursday, planning to launch new futures contracts for Solana (SOL) and Hedera (HBAR) on or after February 18. The contracts will be cash-settled and settled monthly.
▌Robinhood CEO advocates for updated SEC investor rules to promote tokenization
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev advocates for updated SEC investor rules to promote tokenization. Tenev said, "The United States is finally starting to make up for lost time and start taking cryptocurrency seriously. We have made many promising progress. Now it's time to further expand our understanding of what is possible." Tenev believes that there are unnecessary restrictions on investment in early-stage private companies in the United States, and regulators should work to change the law to encourage the adoption of tokenization to achieve a fairer situation. In particular, the United States' "qualified investor" law limits private market investment to investors with a net worth of more than $1 million or an income of more than $200,000, resulting in wealth being concentrated in the hands of the richest 20%.
▌U.S. digital asset reserves should represent the entire industry
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently expressed his views on the current discussion of the U.S. government's plan to establish a national digital asset reserve. Despite Ripple's growing influence in the United States, Garlinghouse reiterated the company's commitment to the concept of a multi-chain future and cooperation in the cryptocurrency field.
▌VanEck executives: Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency suitable for US government reserves
Matthew Sigel, director of digital asset research at VanEck, said Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency suitable for US government reserves because it is fundamentally different from all other digital assets.
▌A certain address spent 48.6 ETH to buy 414,845 VVVs and made a profit of $3.16 million
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a user made a profit of $3.16 million through VVV in just a few hours. He spent 48.6 ETH (155,000 US dollars) to buy 414,845 VVVs and sold them at a price of $3.32 million.
▌Venice Token (VVV), an AI project based on DeepSeek, announced airdrops to active users of the Base ecosystem
On January 28, Venice Token (VVV), an AI project based on DeepSeek on the Base chain, announced airdrops to active users of the Base ecosystem, including AERO, DEGEN, AIXBT, GAME, LUNA, VADER, CLANKER, MOR holders, etc.
Important Economic Dynamics
▌CICC: The Fed can only continue to cut interest rates if it suspends interest rate cuts
The Fed's January FOMC meeting decided to keep its hand on the table and maintain the benchmark interest rate at 4.25%-4.5%, which is consistent with market expectations. Can interest rates be cut in the future? CICC's research report believes that there is no need to assume that the Fed will not be able to cut interest rates in the future. From the perspective of the reflexive effect of interest rates, the less you expect a rate cut, the more likely it is to be a rate cut, just like the more you worry about a recession in September last year, the less likely it is to be a recession. Therefore, the current belief that it is impossible to cut interest rates is the same as the belief in September that the Fed needs to cut interest rates continuously and significantly.
▌The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in March is 82%
Golden Finance reported that according to CME's "Fed Watch": The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in March is 82.0%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 18.0%. The probability of maintaining the current interest rate unchanged by May is 57.0%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 37.5%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 5.5%. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged at 4.25%-4.5% in the early hours of this morning.
▌"Fed Mouthpiece": Fed enters wait-and-see phase, satisfied with interest rate stance
Golden Finance reported that "Fed Mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos said that the Fed has pressed the pause button on interest rate cuts and entered a new wait-and-see phase, where it is trying to decide whether to cut interest rates from the recent 20-year high and how much to cut them. Before deciding to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, the Fed had cut interest rates three times in a row starting in September, when the interest rate was about 5.3%. Officials made only minor changes to the policy statement issued at the end of the two-day meeting. The statement shows that they are satisfied with their interest rate stance in an economic situation where inflation is still slightly above target and labor market conditions are solid.
▌The Federal Reserve maintains interest rates unchanged
Golden Finance reported that the Federal Reserve’s first show in the new year will maintain the benchmark interest rate at 4.25%-4.50%, which is in line with market expectations.
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