BlockBeats will organize the key industry news content of the week (2.10-2.16) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and learn about industry trends.
Important News Review
Argentina's "Presidential Coin" LIBRA has raked in $100 million and is caught in a public opinion storm: Milei's president deleted his tweet and said he was unaware of it, and the token issuance consultant accused him of breach of contract
On February 15, the official account of Argentine President Javier Milei announced the launch of the meme coin LIBRA and published the address. LIBRA soared all the way and its market value once exceeded 4 billion US dollars. But 4 hours later, Milei deleted the tweet and said that he was not aware of the release of LIBRA, and the token price fell. In the afternoon of the same day, the Web3 AI base layer KIP Protocol stated that it was the protocol that launched the Viva la Libertad project to help private enterprises in Argentina. The team responded to the president's questioning of deleting the tweet and made it clear that President Milei was not involved in the development of the LIBRA project.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, in the 4 hours between the token release and the presidential deletion, 8 wallets related to the LIBRA team cashed out a total of about $107 million by adding liquidity, removing liquidity, and charging fees. The founder of Solayer said that he and his team engineers lost more than $2 million due to LIBRA, and threatened to fight back and gradually expose the information of KIP Protocol members. KIP Protocol co-founder Julian responded that the team did not profit from LIBRA, did not hide, and did not need to be tracked.
On February 16, as the incident further fermented, Argentine President Javier Milei was impeached by the country's opposition party for this matter. KIP Protocol clarified that the issuance and market making of LIBRA tokens were entirely the responsibility of Kelsier Ventures and the project initiator Hayden Davis. KIP was only invited to manage and supervise the selection of funding technology projects after the issuance, and provide technical infrastructure for AI programs. When Argentine President Milei issued the project on X, KIP did not participate in the issuance.
LIBRA issuance consultant Kelsier Ventures believes that Argentine President Miley breached the contract by deleting his tweet, and Kelsier Ventures has not engaged in any wrongdoing. Kelsier currently still maintains control of all related expenses and treasury funds and will not use these funds for personal gain. Kelsier proposed to use 100% of the funds under his control (up to $100 million) to repurchase LIBRA tokens and destroy them. Unless a more viable alternative is proposed, Kelsier intends to begin implementing this plan within the next 48 hours. Related reading: " Timeline | The LIBRA team was "opened" by the founder of Solayer; the former responded that he had not profited from LIBRA and was not hiding "
Central African Republic president launches meme token
On February 10, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African Republic, announced the launch of the Meme coin CAR through his official X account and published the contract address. Three hours after the issuance of CAR, the transaction volume exceeded US$300 million, and the market value once exceeded US$600 million. Later that day, Touadéra wrote again that "the launch of CAR was a great success, and I would like to personally thank everyone who believed in our vision." However, after the president of the Central African Republic confirmed the authenticity of the token, the price of CAR fell all the way. As of press time, the market value was only US$21 million. Related reading: "When TRUMP becomes a thing of the past, can the president of the Central African Republic get on board with CAR?"
CZ tweeted to learn how meme coins work. After announcing his pet dog’s name, multiple tokens with the same name appeared in the market
This week, a netizen asked CZ on Twitter if he had a pet dog, and he announced the breed of the pet dog. Afterwards, many netizens left messages and hoped that he would announce the name so that they could buy related meme tokens at any time. On February 13, CZ said that he had a general understanding of how the meme coin narrative works, and he felt it was quite interesting... and said that he might also interact with several memes on the BNB chain. "
On February 14, CZ released a photo of his pet dog Broccoli. In a short period of time, multiple meme tokens with the same name appeared. Faced with the market frenzy, CZ said that he would not issue meme coins, and whether to issue them would be decided by the community. However, it may interact with some meme coins that are more popular on the BNB chain, and the BNB Foundation may provide rewards for popular memes on the BNB chain. Related reading: "CZ's pet dog Broccoli triggered a PVP war, and retail investors became victims of liquidity withdrawal?"
Driven by CZ, BNB Chain transactions are hot, and the total gas fee in the past 7 days has exceeded Ethereum
This week, perhaps due to CZ's frequent interactions with the community, the BNBChain ecosystem has seen a general rise, with multiple tokens such as BAKE, CAKE, and BNX rising by more than 50%. On February 15, according to Nansen data, BNB Chain surpassed Ethereum in total Gas fees over the past 7 days. Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik said, "As far as I know, this is the first time in history that has happened." CZ commented on this data, "Take it slow and move forward steadily." In addition, BNB Chain's transaction volume in the past 30 days ranked first among EVM chains, processing 68.3 million transactions. Related reading: "BNB Chain dominates the list of gains. Can CZ's enthusiasm drive the BNB Chain ecosystem to soar?"
The market questioned Binance for selling a large amount of assets; Binance responded that it did not sell any assets and user funds are safe
On February 11, according to the relevant page, the reserve ratios of many assets in Binance's latest PoR were significantly reduced, including Bitcoin's asset reserve ratio from 108.15% in January to 100.45% in February, and Ethereum's asset reserve ratio from 104.2% in January to 100% in February. BNB's asset reserve ratio dropped from 115.75% in January to 112.73% in February. Among them, among the mainstream assets, only USDC's reserve ratio increased significantly, from 132.32% in January to 141.28% in February. According to estimates, Binance's own assets decreased by US$5.489 billion compared with January. The community suspected that Binance sold the above-mentioned mainstream assets. However, according to Shenyu analysis, the above phenomenon may be due to profit provisions at the beginning of the year. Similar situations occurred in June 2023 (when a $4.3 billion settlement agreement was reached with the U.S. Department of Justice) and February 2024.
Later that day, Binance officially responded that the recent changes in Binance assets were merely adjustments to the accounting procedures of Binance’s financial department, and no assets were sold, and user funds were always in a safe state (SAFU).
Pi Network mainnet will be launched on February 20; OKX will launch PI (Pi Network) spot trading
On February 12, Pi Network officially announced that "Open Network will be officially launched at 16:00 on February 20, 2025, Beijing time. Open Network will expand more available opportunities, enabling users to connect Pi to external systems and apply it to the real world." On the same day, OKX announced that it would launch PI (Pi Network) spot trading at that time. On February 14, according to the official supplementary announcement of OKX, based on the requirements of the Pi Network project, PI will adopt an isolated listing model, and users in some countries and regions will not be able to recharge and trade. Other relevant rules remain unchanged. Related reading: "Detailed explanation of Pi Network: How does the "brainless" electronic religion attract 60 million users?"
Data: Ethereum short positions increased 40% in a week and soared 500% since November last year
On February 10, the global market macro review magazine "Kobeissi Letter" stated that Ethereum's short positions increased by 40% in a week and soared 500% since November 2024. Wall Street's short of Ethereum is unprecedented, even more than ever before. On February 2, coinciding with the emergence of news related to the trade war, Ethereum plummeted 37% in 60 hours. This plunge is almost similar to the "flash crash" in the stock market in 2010, but there was no clear news catalyst at the time. The entire crypto market evaporated more than $1 trillion in just a few hours. Despite the rapid increase in short positions in December 2024, Ethereum still attracted a large amount of capital inflows. In just 3 weeks, ETH's capital inflow exceeded $2 billion, including a record weekly inflow of $854 million. However, hedge funds are still short heavily, trying to suppress ETH's rise and limit the breakout.
Crypto quantitative analyst PlanB said: Bitcoin has been transferred to ETF, no private key is very safe
On February 15, PlanB published a post disclosing: “I have transferred my Bitcoin to the ETF. Yes, I know, ‘not your private key, not your coin’. But for me, it is more convenient to manage Bitcoin in the same way as stocks and bonds. Moreover, I feel more at ease not having to worry about private keys. It seems that I am no longer a Bitcoin believer. "
The zkLend attacker attempted to mix coins through Railgun, but was forced to return the money due to policy restrictions.
On February 12, it was monitored that the lending protocol zkLend suffered a vulnerability attack on the Starknet network and lost $4.9 million. The attacker transferred the stolen funds across the chain to Ethereum and laundered them through the privacy protocol Railgun, but due to the policy restrictions of the Railgun protocol, the funds were forcibly returned to the original address. The next day, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik, who has always stood up for Railgun, posted on social media, specifically explaining how Railgun successfully avoided handling funds obtained from crime this time. Subsequently, Railgun rose 7.00% in response, and trading volume increased by 162.31%. Related reading: "US$5 million in stolen funds were rejected, and the mixer Railgun became the "collection tool" of the DeFi protocol?"
Jupiter: 50% of the protocol fee will be used to repurchase JUP and locked for 3 years
On February 14, Jupiter officially announced that 50% of all protocol fees will be used to repurchase JUP and locked for 3 years, and the repurchase will start from next Monday. On the same day, its co-founder Meow announced that Jupnet is building a full-chain network to achieve the goal of "aggregating everything". Jupiter needs infrastructure to connect a billion people and trillions of tokens. However, there are still many technical problems and important design issues to overcome, and it is expected to provide a technical preview and detailed technical overview in early April. Related reading: "50% of revenue is used for repurchase. What does Jupiter's new token economics mean for the DeFi track?"
OpenSea: SEA token is coming soon
On February 13, OpenSea stated on the social platform that "the OS2 open beta is now online, and the token SEA will be launched soon. OpenSea's historical usage (not just recent activities) will become an important factor in the airdrop. The OS2 open beta has the following features: a completely rebuilt product designed for collectors and professionals; NFTs and tokens, all content gathered in one place; a new way to explore; support for 14 chains; native cross-chain purchases; platform market fees of 0.5% and redemption fees of 0% at launch; all types of users can receive rewards.
Jiangsu court in China hears virtual currency lending dispute case, finds Tether is not legal tender
On February 11, the People's Court Daily reported that the People's Court of Tongzhou District, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, China, recently heard a private loan dispute case involving virtual currency, and the court finally rejected the plaintiff's request for repayment. In this case, Han claimed that in the loan between him and Ji, Tether was delivered to Ji through an investment platform, and used this as the basis for the loan delivery. However, after the trial, the court held that Tether is not a legal tender, is not legally enforceable, and cannot be circulated and used as currency in the market, so it cannot be regarded as Han's obligation to deliver the loan in the loan agreement. Therefore, the loan agreement between the two parties is not established. Han's claim for Ji's repayment based on the loan agreement has no factual and legal basis.
VIRTUAL tokens have been deployed to Solana chain
On February 10, Virtuals Protocol announced that VIRTUAL tokens can now be traded on the Solana chain, its official LP is now online on Meteora, and preparations have been made for Virtual Protocol's Launchpad on the Solana chain. Related reading: "Virtuals' first day on Solana was "uncomfortable": Agent graduation rate was only 8.3%"
Bittensor dTAO upgrade completed this week, subnet tokens are now available for trading
On February 14, according to the relevant page information, the Bittensor dTAO upgrade has been completed. Currently, the tokens of each subnet can be traded on DEXs such as taosats. The dTAO upgrade is considered to be the most important upgrade of Bittensor since the establishment of the network. The upgrade aims to transform the issuance distribution from the trusted capital allocation of a few large validators to pure market forces. Each AI market (now the TAO subnet project) will operate with its own tokens, and the issuance will flow according to the relative price of the tokens. Related reading: "Where are the opportunities for retail investors in Bittensor's dTAO upgrade?"
This week's hot articles
BNB Chain has seen a significant increase in ecological activity recently, with the number of independent addresses exceeding 500 million and surpassing all EVM-compatible chains in terms of transaction volume. BNB Chain released its 2025 technical roadmap, proposing a gas fee upgrade, supporting multi-currency payments and project sponsorship of user gas fees. Affected by this, BNB ecological tokens have risen sharply, with Meme tokens performing particularly well. This article summarizes the high-quality assets worth paying attention to in different tracks or sectors of the current BNB Chain ecosystem for readers' reference.
"Six-year-old project Picoin will be launched, is it a social fission tool or a Ponzi scheme?"
Pi Network announced that it will open the network on February 20, 2025, a moment that may become a watershed in the history of cryptocurrencies. Six years ago, the project attracted 50 million users with the concept of "mobile phone mining" and formed certain commercial applications in many countries. However, the Pi token has been controversial due to multiple delays in the mainnet and lack of trading liquidity, and its true value remains uncertain. In the future, Pi's success depends on trading liquidity, ecological construction and regulatory compliance, and whether it can become a "civilian blockchain" or just another bubble will be revealed in the market test.
"What else is on the big investors ' buy the dips list besides AAVE and UNI?"
From February 3 to February 10, the price of Bitcoin experienced dramatic fluctuations, falling to a low of $92,996 and a high of $102,052.28, and finally fluctuated between $96,500 and $98,200. Market sentiment is affected by macro factors such as the US tariff policy, but on-chain data shows that the number of active Bitcoin addresses increased by 10%. At the same time, data on the Ethereum chain shows that whale actively deployed multiple tokens such as LINK, AAVE, and UNI during this period, with a single transaction exceeding $200,000, indicating that they are still making strategic purchases in market fluctuations.
"Ethereum spot ETF continues to flow in, why is the ETH price not improving at all?"
ETH has lagged behind in this cycle, triggering criticism of the Ethereum Foundation and Layer 2. Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje (AC) accused Layer 2 on X of profiting from selling sorter revenue and becoming a "parasite" of Ethereum. Layer 2 sorters are operated by a centralized team and earn huge profits through fee spreads, MEV capture, etc. Base was questioned for transferring sorter revenue to Coinbase, and the community believed that these ETH may have been sold. Vitalik has not yet responded positively, but has previously called on Layer 2 to make concessions to the Ethereum ecosystem.
"Is it worth arguing whether Aave will go to Solana?"
Virtuals Protocol announced that its token VIRTUAL can be traded on the Solana chain, marking its expansion in the ecosystem. At the same time, the community has launched a heated discussion on whether Aave should be deployed on Solana, especially around the competition for lending protocols. Although the Solana ecosystem is gradually maturing, Aave chose not to enter Solana because of its strong brand image, security, and capital pool, which have been verified by multiple security audits and markets on Ethereum. Although Solana has advantages in transaction speed and fees, it is still relatively weak in security and risk control, resulting in high expansion costs and trust costs for DeFi applications.
"Pump.Science is about to launch a new product. Can the new compound project match Rif/Uro?"
The DeSci track recently welcomed the launch of a new launch platform by Pump.Science, which aims to revive this weak field. The platform combats automated trading through a dynamic fee structure and launches new compound tokens such as $Rif and $Uro, hoping to attract more attention and increase market heat. The new compound project $EGS attracts investors through a high refund strategy and becomes a new highlight of the DeSci track. Although DeSci is currently facing severe challenges, Pump.Science's new strategy and compound projects still have the potential to activate the market and inject new vitality into DeSci.
CZ (founder of Binance) triggered a broccoli-themed on-chain PVP battle by sharing a photo of his pet dog Broccoli, causing BNB Chain to undergo a large-scale stress test. With the emergence of a large number of MEME coins, a large number of speculations and scams have appeared in the market, causing investors to become victims. Despite the high market heat, there is a lack of a fair environment and leadership organization, and many investors have suffered losses under the operation of insider players. CZ responded that the MEME project was not led by him, and he only released information about his pet dog and will continue to learn and improve.
"B3 tokens quadrupled in 3 days: retail investors' carnival or capital harvesting again?"
The price of B3 tokens soared by nearly 400% in just three days, attracting a lot of attention from investors. Its background is led by former Coinbase employees, and it relies on the Base chain technically, claiming to provide low-cost, high-speed solutions for the gaming industry. However, B3's high valuation is limited by its airdrop strategy and control height. The team and investors hold a large number of tokens, and retail investors face high risks. Although B3 claims to have 80 games, the actual content is mostly low-quality reskin games or unfinished projects, and there is still a huge bubble in the ecosystem. For investors, short-term price fluctuations and long-term regulatory risks make its prospects full of uncertainty.
"An article interpreting the Solana re-staking market, which breeds new DeFi opportunities"
Currently, Ethereum is the main battlefield for re-staking, but with the rapid development of Solana in this round of bull market, its low cost, high throughput and strong network effect make it a potential hot track for re-staking. In this article, the author explores the market opportunities of Solana re-staking, including its ecological maturity, innovation potential, network expansion capabilities and optimization of DeFi capital efficiency.
In March 2024, Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan was detained by the Nigerian government. Gambaryan was not released until October of the same year. During this period, Nigerian officials demanded $150 million in cryptocurrency to resolve Binance’s problems in Nigeria. Before joining Binance, Gambaryan was a U.S. federal agent and pioneered modern cryptocurrency investigations. From law enforcement officer to regulatory victim, Gambaryan happened to be caught in Nigeria’s predicament at an extremely dangerous geopolitical moment.
MyShell's $SHELL token IDO on Binance Wallet and Pancakeswap attracted a lot of attention and investment, with nearly 42 times of oversubscription, and the market participation enthusiasm was high. MyShell is not only an AI platform, but also allows users to create and tokenize AI agents, providing multiple practical functions and tools. In terms of tokenization of AI applications, the platform adopts the Bonding Curve mechanism to encourage users to invest in and promote high-quality AI applications. The $SHELL token plays an important role in the MyShell ecosystem, supporting various activities within the platform, such as subscriptions, advertising promotion, application collections, etc., and is also the main payment tool between creators and users.
"Gold continues to be a bull market. What does it mean for Bitcoin in the future?"
Against the backdrop of increasing global economic uncertainty and trade wars, gold prices have risen sharply, and institutional investors have increased their gold holdings to hedge risks. In contrast, although Bitcoin should have been a safe-haven asset, it has gradually become a risky asset related to the US dollar under the influence of the Trump administration's encryption policy and risk factors in the US stock market. Gold and Bitcoin compete with each other to some extent. Gold attracts a lot of funds due to its safe-haven properties, while Bitcoin is more affected by liquidity. In the future, the role of Bitcoin may be redefined or return to its original intention as an anti-inflation tool.
After migrating to Solana, Virtual Protocol launched TracyAI, a sports commentary and analysis AI supported by NBA player Tristan Thompson, which aims to enhance the viewing experience of sports events through multi-language 3D commentary. TracyAI combines historical data and sentiment analysis to provide personalized event analysis, breaking the traditional way of watching games and bringing users a more immersive interactive experience. In addition, TracyAI also involves token economics design and improves liquidity and market share on the Solana platform through cooperation with Jupiter and Meteora. The success of this project is expected to promote Virtual Protocol's growth in the sports technology market and provide new development ideas for the Crypto AI industry.
On February 12, zkLend, a lending protocol on Starknet, was hacked and lost about $5 million. After the hacker mixed the funds into the Railgun platform, he failed to complete the money laundering because Railgun's anti-money laundering policy required the return of suspicious funds. Railgun successfully avoided handling criminal funds by establishing a blacklist, detecting the source of deposits, and using zero-knowledge proofs to protect privacy. This incident attracted market attention, and Railgun's compliance and privacy protection measures were recognized, which also prompted a deeper discussion in the crypto field on the balance between privacy and compliance.
《Glassnode: How severe is this round of selling? Is it a normal correction?》
Bitcoin investors have experienced huge losses in recent price fluctuations, especially when the price fell to $93,000, with losses reaching $520 million. These losses mainly came from the short-term holder group, especially investors who bought Bitcoin in the past month. Although Bitcoin prices have fluctuated sharply, the extent of the losses is similar to historical local adjustments. In contrast, the Altcoin market has suffered a more severe sell-off, with most token prices falling collectively, causing the global Altcoin market value to record a historic decline, showing a clear divergence from the Bitcoin market.
《Is the Solana Meme temporarily "extinguished"? Pump.fun's daily trading volume plummeted 82%》
The memecoin craze on Solana has gradually cooled down, with the average daily trading volume plummeting 82% for the first time since December, and the proportion of tokens launched to the decentralized exchange Raydium has also decreased significantly. At the same time, trading activity in the Solana ecosystem has declined, and the average daily gas total of Jito validators has also dropped significantly. This change reflects the weakening of speculative sentiment in the memecoin market, especially the gradual decline in the market value of memecoins on Solana. At the same time, BNB Chain has seen a significant increase in trading volume in recent times, outperforming competitors such as Uniswap.
After Richard Teng took over as CEO of Binance, he was committed to transforming the company from a "challenger" that evaded regulation to a compliant and transparent global leadership platform. Although CZ, as the largest shareholder, still has influence on the company's decision-making, Teng emphasized that he worked closely with the management team to drive the company to adapt to the new regulatory environment and has obtained regulatory licenses in many countries. In addition, Teng also mentioned that changes in US encryption policies and the launch of Bitcoin ETFs have had a positive impact on the market, and Binance is also constantly expanding new businesses and functions, such as wallets and payment platforms, to continuously improve user experience.
"History of Jupiter's Empire Expansion: Is Vertical Integration the End of the Crypto Industry?"
Jupiter announced several major initiatives at the Catstanbul Conference, including acquisitions, AI funding, token buybacks and destruction, and the launch of the full-chain interoperability network Jupnet, demonstrating its ambition for vertical integration. This article analyzes its business strategy and explores how brand, community, and user experience determine value capture in a permissionless crypto environment, revealing the inevitable trend of applications moving toward integration.
Marketing agencies in the crypto industry are often seen as a shortcut to increase brand influence, but the reality is not so. This article points out that most agencies find it difficult to truly understand the core of the project and are suitable for short-term execution rather than branding. In contrast, excellent internal marketing talents have more long-term value, can go deep into the industry, actively learn and establish real industry connections. Ultimately, the success or failure of marketing depends on the initiative of the project itself, not the commitment of the agency.
"The rise of the 'creator tokenization' narrative, will it be the next $100 billion market?"
This article explores how creator tokenization allows fans, investors, and brands to directly participate in creator growth, driving market-based transactions and value discovery. As the creator economy market size exceeds $500 billion, the tokenization model can help brands lock in early partnership opportunities and use DAO governance to allow fans to co-create business decisions. The financialization of the creator economy is becoming an inevitable trend in the Web3 era, and may reshape the way social media and financial markets interact.
"Coinbase: AI agent performance declines, is it because it was previously overestimated?"
Artificial intelligence agents have shown great potential in the crypto space and the wider technology space, especially in terms of automated decision-making and task execution. With the rapid development of technology, the infrastructure and tools of AI agents have been continuously improved, attracting a lot of attention from investors. However, despite its huge future potential, the current technology is not yet fully mature and faces challenges such as agent differentiation and unclear token utility in the short term. The recent market pullback may indicate that investor expectations have not yet kept pace with technological development and that competition in the crypto space is fierce. Overall, the application of AI agents in the crypto industry is still in its early stages and is expected to change the industry landscape in the future.
"Where are the opportunities for retail investors from Bittensor's dTAO upgrade?"
Bittensor's dTAO upgrade was launched on February 14, marking the official formation of its ecosystem. All 64 subnet projects will be able to issue their own tokens, which will enhance the decentralization and market competitiveness of the Bittensor ecosystem. The new mechanism determines the reward distribution by allowing holders to purchase subnet tokens. This "voting with your feet" approach brings more flexible value discovery. Compared with simply holding $TAO, staking to obtain dTAO tokens may bring excess returns, attracting more arbitrageurs and speculators to participate. In addition, multiple DEX platforms and liquid staking protocol will also provide opportunities for dTAO transactions.
This article criticizes Solana's value narrative, arguing that its short-term wealth effect, which relies on Meme coin transactions, is not sustainable and has structural risks. Solana's success may be more due to speculation rather than technical advantages, while Ethereum is still developing steadily in the DeFi field. Users should always think critically about the narrative in the crypto field to avoid being misled by the market craze.
Recently, South Korea plans to open up the virtual asset market to legal entities in stages. First, law enforcement agencies, non-profit legal entities and virtual asset exchanges can open real-name accounts for related operations, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025. The second phase plans to allow professional investment legal entities to participate in virtual asset investment, focusing on institutional investors with risk tolerance. The third phase is for ordinary legal entities to participate, which needs to cooperate with relevant legislation and foreign exchange tax system adjustments. This policy reflects South Korea's trend of accelerating the mainstreaming of virtual currencies, but it may also cause market concerns, especially about the use of virtual currencies by law enforcement agencies to transfer criminal proceeds and tax property.
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