The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

**February 1** This week, markets reacted to key macro events including the FOMC meeting and confirmation of the Federal Reserve Chair nomination. After a mid-term rally, precious metals plunged sharply—investors are watching for a potential trend reversal and whether capital will flow back into the crypto market. ### Next Week’s Key Macro Highlights Few major events/data are expected to disrupt markets, with top focus on the Bank of Japan (BOJ) January policy summary and U.S. non-farm payrolls (NFP). Below is the schedule: **Monday** - U.S. January Final Global Manufacturing PMI - U.S. January ISM Manufacturing PMI - **BOJ releases summary of opinions from January monetary policy meeting** **Tuesday** - U.S. December JOLTs Job Openings - Remarks by Raphael Bostic, Atlanta Fed President (2027 FOMC voter) - **Remarks by Fed Governor Michelle Bowman** **Wednesday** - U.S. API, EIA Crude Oil Inventory Data (as of Jan 30) - Final January Services PMI: Fran

On February 1, official data shows that fueled by the recent AI Agents boom spurred by Moltbook, tokens minted by Clanker—the Base Network’s launcher—surpassed 13,000 on both January 30 and 31, marking the highest level since mid-March 2025. Meanwhile, trading volume for Clanker-minted tokens topped $300 million over the past two days, with fees exceeding $3 million for two straight days—both hitting all-time highs.

Feb 1 – Vitalik Buterin published an article analyzing incentive design failures in the crypto space, including Steemit and BitClout. The core issue: those models failed to lift up high-quality content, instead amplifying the influence of people with existing social status. He praised Substack’s successful model, which drove content diversification and constructive discussions by manually curating top-quality creators (such as its top 10 subscription authors). Vitalik proposed creating a non-tokenized DAO (similar to the Protocol Guild framework) with two key goals: build a collective public brand larger than any single creator, and collectively negotiate profit opportunities—while keeping the group small enough for manageable internal governance. The critical detail? Creator tokens would act as a signaling tool: new members must burn some tokens to join the DAO, ensuring speculators function as quality filters rather than fueling self-reinforcing hype. This way, token spec

Feb. 1 — Per NBC News, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed confidence there will be enough votes by at least Tuesday to end the partial government shutdown.

February 1st: Per monitoring from HyperInsight (via its Telegram channel @HyperInsight), the "ZEC Largest Short" address (0xd475) partially closed out part of its ETH short position, temporarily reducing its ETH short exposure by 967.68 ETH—valued at roughly $3.11 million. Even after this reduction, the address still holds an ETH short position worth $53.55 million, with an unrealized profit of approximately $18.43 million to date. This address is well-known for amassing a massive short position on ZEC: it began shorting ZEC when the token traded at $184, turning a $21 million loss into a profit.

On Friday, February 1, Tom Lee shared his 2026 market outlook during an appearance on the podcast *The Compound*. Lee remains broadly optimistic about cryptocurrency, arguing that despite short-term pullbacks (including speculative capital shifting into precious metals), the long-term bull market—launched in 2022 as a decade-long cycle—remains in its early stages. He also acknowledges the crypto market is currently in a bearish phase, facing significant short-term pressure. Ether (ETH) could test a bottom around $2,400; today, Ethereum briefly hit a low of $2,200 and is now trading near $2,400. If the ETH/BTC ratio rebounds to its historical high, ETH could reach roughly $12,000. These views align with his public commentary since the start of the year, and Lee has repeatedly predicted 2026 will see a “drop followed by a rally” in the market, with Bitcoin still on track to hit a new all-time high.