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According to the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced that a Chinese national, Fei Liao, has been sentenced to federal prison for participating in the laundering of funds obtained from a cryptocurrency investment scam. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced to 40 months in prison by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in 2026.Liao was also ordered to forfeit over $2.3 million in seized funds and to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution to victims. The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs for the Eastern District of Texas and was investigated by the Tyler branch of the United States Secret Service, with federal prosecutor Robert Austin Wells handling the prosecution. Court documents show that Liao assisted in laundering funds from "Pig Butchering" and other cryptocurrency investment scams by setting up shell companies and bank accounts with others.Such scams typically contact victims through social media, dating platforms, or unsolicited phone calls, establishing a trust relationship before inducing them to invest in cryptocurrency. After victims transfer funds to accounts controlled by the scammers, the fraudulent platform displays high returns, encouraging further investment, ultimately leading to victims being unable to withdraw funds and suffering significant losses.Law enforcement agencies remind individuals that if they encounter similar scams, they can report them to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and provide as much information as possible, including the name of the investment platform, cryptocurrency addresses, transaction hashes, bank account information, and contact details of the suspects, while also retaining communications and transfer records with the scammers.

According to CoinDesk, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon stated at the World Liberty Forum that he holds "a very small amount, but indeed some" Bitcoin, although he is still closely monitoring this asset, viewing it as part of a broader trend of technology reshaping the financial system.He believes that traditional finance and the crypto industry are forming an evolving unified system, and tokenization is expected to play a central role in future market infrastructure. Solomon stated, "I am an observer of Bitcoin, still trying to understand how Bitcoin operates and its volatility mechanisms."Solomon pointed out that Goldman Sachs currently has limited involvement in the crypto space, primarily influenced by what he calls "restrictive regulation." He warned that excessive regulation could siphon capital out of the financial system, while also calling for a cautious and rational approach to regulation.

The Bitcoin treasury company Nakamoto announced that it has signed a final acquisition agreement to acquire the Bitcoin media and conference organization BTC Inc, as well as the asset management firm UTXO Management, which focuses on Bitcoin-related investments. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.According to the announcement, the acquisition will be completed in stock, with BTC Inc and UTXO shareholders collectively receiving approximately 364 million shares of Nakamoto common stock, corresponding to a total transaction value of approximately $107 million.

According to a report by the BBC, a kidnapping case in Tucson, Arizona, has drawn national attention. Nancy Guthrie, the mother of well-known morning show host Savannah Guthrie, went missing from her home in the early hours of February 1, and police believe she was forcibly taken. Once the case was made public, it quickly became a focal point of public opinion, with numerous media outlets and online amateur detectives flocking to the area, making Tucson a center of global attention.Police stated that the identity of the suspect has not yet been confirmed, and the investigation is still ongoing. Reports indicate that the kidnappers may have demanded a ransom in Bitcoin through anonymous means, showcasing a new characteristic of using cryptocurrency for extortion.A former FBI negotiator pointed out that although the suspect appeared at the door in surveillance footage wearing a mask, it is difficult for those involved to remain hidden under such intense scrutiny and ongoing exposure.The White House has stated that the FBI will dedicate all resources to assist in the investigation. As the case continues to develop, the local community has hung yellow ribbons and posted missing person flyers, with various sectors of society calling on the public to provide leads.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, in the past two days, a certain whale deposited 8,200 BTC (approximately $559 million) to Binance. The analyst stated that every time he deposits BTC, the price tends to drop; shortly after his deposit yesterday, BTC fell by more than 3%.

Ark Invest has increased its holdings in Bullish stocks for nine consecutive days, with a total investment amount of $11.6 million.

ValidatorQueue data shows that the Ethereum staking amount has surpassed 30% of the circulating supply, reaching 30.27%, marking a new milestone.Meanwhile, investors are still queuing in the validator queue to deposit $8 billion worth of pending staking tokens, also setting a historical high.

8300 Chinese victims apply for compensation in the case of 60,000 bitcoins related to Qian Zhimin's money laundering, where asset disposal has reached a deadlock, with multiple law firms representing and fighting for themselves. According to the UK judge, there are issues of repeated submissions, repeated debates, and prolonged procedures, and the lawyer fees are also rising, ultimately needing to be paid by the Chinese victims.It is reported that on the eve of the Lunar New Year and the first day of the New Year (February 16 and 17, 2026), the High Court of England will hold a hearing involving over 30 billion yuan, concerning nearly 130,000 Chinese victims. This is the asset disposal procedure for the highly publicized 60,000 bitcoins money laundering case. In addition, the price of bitcoin is highly volatile, and the market value of 60,000 bitcoins has shrunk from a peak of approximately 54 billion yuan on October 6, 2025, to about 31 billion yuan in early February 2026.

Gold (XAUT) is showing a gradually stabilizing trend in intraday movements. XAUT reached a high of $5,053.9 and a low of $4,979.2 within 24 hours. As of the time of writing, the XAUT price is fluctuating around $5,025, with a slight increase of 0.03% over the past 24 hours, showing relatively stable overall performance.According to CoinGlass data, the total trading volume of XAUT contracts across the network reached $724 million in 24 hours, with the contract open interest rising to $510 million, a slight increase of 1.90% compared to the previous period. Among them, the trading activity on the Gate platform is particularly prominent, with XAUT contract trading volume exceeding $41.15 million in 24 hours, ranking among the top three in the network.Currently, Gate has launched a metal contract section, providing 24/7 trading and USDT settlement mechanisms, continuously offering users an efficient and flexible one-stop metal trading experience, aiding in cross-market asset allocation and strategy layout. In addition, Gate TradFi has opened trading access on both APP and Web platforms, fully covering CFD trading services for gold, silver, foreign exchange, indices, commodities, and some popular stocks, with a maximum leverage of 500 times.

Coinglass data shows that in the past 4 hours, the total liquidation across the network was 124 million dollars, with long positions liquidated at 119 million and short positions liquidated at 5.15 million dollars. Among them, BTC liquidated at 4818 dollars and ETH liquidated at 4667 dollars.

According to official news, the Ethereum treasury company Sharplink received approximately 552 ETH in staking rewards last week, equivalent to about 1.1 million USD, bringing the total staking rewards to 13,113 ETH.

CZ posted on the X platform that, compared to all other centralized exchanges, Binance users hold the highest proportion of most stablecoins, including USDT, USDC, USD 1, and U.

According to Techub News, multiple sources have revealed that the first batch of compliant stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong is expected to be issued by the end of March, with HSBC and Standard Chartered likely to be among the first approved institutions.Insiders indicate that after the first round of licenses is issued, the approval process for the second round of licenses will also be expedited, with an announcement expected soon.

According to SoSoValue data, as of 8:30 AM Eastern Time on February 9, 2026, the total net purchase of Bitcoin by globally listed companies (excluding mining companies) for the week was $92.83 million, a decrease of 24.5% compared to the previous week.Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced on February 9 that it invested $90 million (an increase of 19.5% compared to last week's purchase) to acquire 1,142 Bitcoins at a price of $78,815, bringing its total holdings to 714,644 Bitcoins.The Japanese listed company Metaplanet did not purchase any Bitcoin last week, marking four consecutive weeks without purchases.Additionally, five other companies purchased Bitcoin last week. The Japanese food brand DayDayCook announced on February 5 that it invested $9.12 million to buy 105 Bitcoins at a price of $86,868, bringing its total holdings to 1,888 Bitcoins; the entrepreneurial education platform Genius Group Limited announced on February 6 that it sold 96 Bitcoins at a price of $73,238, generating a total revenue of $7.03 million, reducing its total holdings to 84.15 Bitcoins; the Swedish health tech company H100 invested $3 million on February 6 to purchase 4.39 Bitcoins at a price of $66,620, increasing its total holdings to 1,051.05 Bitcoins; the UK Bitcoin company BHODL announced on February 6 that it spent $70,000 to buy 1 Bitcoin at a price of $66,950, bringing its total holdings to 161.388 Bitcoins; and the French Bitcoin reserve company Capital B announced on February 9 that it invested $370,000 to purchase 5 Bitcoins at a price of $73,893, increasing its total holdings to 2,828 Bitcoins.The Canadian Bitcoin ecosystem company Metador Technologies announced the launch of an ATM equity issuance program, aiming to raise approximately $21.98 million for the purchase of Bitcoin. Metador Technologies plans to hold 1,000 Bitcoins by the end of 2026.As of the time of publication, the total amount of Bitcoin held by the globally listed companies (excluding mining companies) in the statistics is 974,480 Bitcoins, an increase of 0.035% compared to the previous week, with a current market value of approximately $6.736 billion, accounting for 4.9% of the circulating market value of Bitcoin.

According to DefiLlama data, Bitget has seen a net inflow of $640 million in the past 7 days, ranking first among global centralized exchanges (CEX); at the same time, it ranks third in the monthly net inflow ranking.

Wall Street investment bank Jefferies released a report stating that stablecoin issuer Tether continues to increase its gold holdings. As of January 31, its gold reserves have grown to approximately 148 tons, valued at about $23 billion at current prices, surpassing several sovereign nations and ranking among the top 30 gold holders globally.The report indicates that Tether added about 26 tons of gold in the fourth quarter of 2025 and continued to increase its holdings by approximately 6 tons this January. Its quarterly gold purchases are only surpassed by a few central banks, such as those of Poland and Brazil. Currently, its gold reserves exceed those of countries like Australia, the UAE, Qatar, South Korea, and Greece.Jefferies pointed out that the aforementioned gold is primarily used to back the US dollar stablecoin USDT and the gold-pegged token XAUT. As Tether is a private company, the disclosed data may only represent the minimum level, and the actual gold holdings could be higher than the reported figures. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino previously stated that the company plans to allocate about 10%-15% of its portfolio to physical gold.

According to CoinDesk, investment bank Jefferies has released a report stating that the physical gold reserves of stablecoin issuer Tether had increased to approximately 148 tons by the end of January, valued at about $23 billion, placing it among the top 30 gold holders globally.The report noted that Tether purchased about 26 tons of gold in the fourth quarter of 2025 and an additional 6 tons in January 2026. Its quarterly purchase volume exceeds that of most individual central banks, second only to Poland and Brazil. Currently, Tether's gold holdings surpass those of countries like Australia, the UAE, and Qatar. This gold primarily serves as reserve assets for its US dollar stablecoin USDT and gold token XAUT.Jefferies' analysis states that since Tether is a private company, this data is only a conservative estimate, and its actual gold holdings may be higher. According to its fourth-quarter verification report, by the end of 2025, there is approximately $17 billion worth of gold in the USDT reserves.

The gold (XAU) market is showing a high-level fluctuation trend. The opening price today is reported at $5,034.53, with a highest intraday peak of $5,046.36 and a lowest dip to $4,970.00. As of the time of writing, the gold price is fluctuating around $5,000.50, with a slight increase of 0.61% over the past 24 hours.According to CoinGlass data, the total trading volume of gold contracts across the network reached $924 million in the last 24 hours, with open interest rising to $231 million, a week-on-week increase of 9.73%. Among them, Gate's gold trading activity is particularly prominent, with XAU contracts achieving a 24-hour trading volume of $56.4092 million, ranking among the top three globally.Currently, Gate has launched a metal contract section, providing 24/7 trading and USDT settlement mechanisms, continuously offering users an efficient and flexible one-stop metal trading experience, aiding in cross-market asset allocation and strategy layout. In addition, Gate TradFi has opened trading access on both APP and Web, fully covering CFD trading services for silver, gold, foreign exchange, indices, commodities, and some popular stocks, with a maximum leverage support of 500 times.

According to RootData, last week (February 2-6), there were a total of 14 financing events and 4 mergers and acquisitions in the cryptocurrency market, involving nearly $300 million.Among the 14 financing events, cryptocurrency custody platform Anchorage received $100 million in strategic financing from Tether; compliance and risk management solution provider TRM Labs secured $70 million in Series C funding from institutions including Blockchain Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank, with a post-money valuation of $1 billion; DEX aggregator Jupiter obtained $35 million in strategic financing from ParaFi Capital.

According to Cointelegraph monitoring, over the weekend, an anonymous individual transferred 2.565 bitcoins to Satoshi Nakamoto's genesis address, worth approximately $181,000.