Risk Assets Rally: Asia-Pacific Stocks Surge, Bitcoin Tops $70,000

**Yonhap: South Korea’s FSS Unveils 2026 Work Plan Focused on Crypto Oversight, Financial Security** February 9 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) released its 2026 work plan on Wednesday, outlining key initiatives targeting crypto market risks, financial IT safety, and consumer protection. The plan includes: - Launching special probes into high-risk crypto market segments to crack down on price manipulation by crypto whales; - Establishing a task force to draft a Digital Asset Basic Law, supporting the rollout of a virtual asset regulatory framework; - Rolling out a punitive fine system for financial IT incidents, boosting CEO accountability for security, and launching an AI-powered network threat monitoring system; - Stepping up efforts to combat crimes targeting individuals (e.g., illegal private finance, telecom fraud), releasing the “Financial AI Ethics Guidelines,” and building a risk management framework.

Per Token Unlock data, several tokens including APT, AVAX and STRK are scheduled for one-time large token unlocks this week (Feb 9–15). Key details below: - **ME**: ~1.48M tokens unlocked Feb 9 | Value: ~$1.48M | Circ share: 2.32% - **MOVE**: 164M tokens unlocked Feb 9 | Value: ~$3.8M | Circ share: 5.46% - **APT**: 11.31M tokens unlocked Feb 10 | Value: ~$12.3M | Circ share: 0.69% - **LINEA**: ~4.38M tokens unlocked Feb 10 | Value: ~$4.38M | Circ share: 5.96% - **AVAX**: 1.67M tokens unlocked Feb 11 | Value: ~$15.2M | Circ share: 0.32% - **STRK**: 127M tokens unlocked Feb 15 | Value: ~$6.3M | Circ share: 4.61% - **SEI**: 55.56M tokens unlocked Feb 15 | Value: ~$4.2M | Circ share: 1.03% Note: Values are approximate based on current market rates.

On February 9, the Financial Times published an article noting that while Bitcoin has seen dozens of major crashes, hundreds of crypto firms have gone bankrupt, and countless people have lost their life savings, the token has always bounced back after each drop. Those who can hold on do so, and each rebound reinforces the belief that their favored cryptocurrency will endure forever. Yet from its launch, Bitcoin has been on a path bound for a tragic end. This week, Bitcoin suffered its steepest crash since 2022, at one point falling to roughly $60,000—wiping out all gains since Trump’s 2024 reelection. The token has shed more than half its value from its all-time high of over $127,000 last October. Coinglass data shows roughly $1.25 billion in Bitcoin positions were liquidated in just 24 hours between Thursday and Friday. The U.S. has a leader who’s perhaps the closest thing to a “Bitcoin president”—and his family holds crypto assets. Yet even after establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin

February 9th — Per GMGN monitoring (via [link]), Base ecosystem meme coin CLAWNCH saw its market cap briefly surge to nearly $10 million before pulling back to $7.5 million, with a 62% gain over the past 24 hours. CLAWNCH is reportedly a launchpad built for AI agents, drawing inspiration from Moltbook (an AI agent interaction and social ecosystem) and Clanker (another AI-focused launch tool on Base). BlockBeats notes that meme coin trading is highly volatile, largely driven by market sentiment and hype, and lacks tangible value or use cases. Investors are advised to exercise caution.

On February 9, ai.com announced its beta version is now live. Once users secure a username reservation, they’ll get their own AI assistant—each comes with a fully functional virtual machine that does more than just chat. It handles a range of tasks, from basic ones like managing emails and scheduling meetings, to making appointment calls or canceling unwanted subscriptions. ai.com is the world’s first user-friendly, secure implementation of OpenClaw, an open-source intelligent agent framework that gained traction two weeks ago. As previously reported, Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek paid $70 million to acquire the ai.com domain.

February 9 — Per data from Telegram’s HyperInsight and CoinGlass, Bitcoin’s brief spike to $72,300 early today drove roughly $93.14 million in BTC liquidations over the past 4 hours. BTC led all assets in liquidations, with 81.4% of closed positions being short positions. Hyperliquid accounted for 60% of these liquidations. Monitoring shows a whale with the address prefix 0x5dc on Hyperliquid had their BTC short positions liquidated in quick succession across 201 positions, totaling ~$14.49 million. The largest single liquidation from this whale hit $11.63 million, and the position is now fully closed. Separately, the platform saw another large liquidation topping $18 million over the same period.