U.S. CPI: +2.9% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +2.9%); U.S. CORE CPI: +3.2% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +3.3%)

February 3rd: Onchain Lens monitoring shows Vitalik Buterin swapped 211 ETH for 491,721 GHO. He has now sold a total of 704 ETH, worth $1.65 million.

On February 3, during a White House press conference, former President Donald Trump said: “I’m a strong supporter of cryptocurrency—in fact, I might be one of its biggest backers. I believe in it because if we don’t develop it, others will. It’s like artificial intelligence: we’re leading in that field.”

February 3, per data from Coinbob Popular Address Monitor: The former top long whale on Hyperliquid (address 0x152) ambushed ASTER in the spot market 5 days ago and re-leveraged into a long position last night. Its current 2x leveraged ASTER long position totals $5.55M, with an average entry price of $0.65, a floating loss of $630k (-22%), and a liquidation price of $0.29. Arkham on-chain monitoring shows the whale’s on-chain domain is neoyokio.eth. Its associated sub-address (0xfb5...) also leveraged up today, holding a 3x leveraged ASTER long position of ~$1.85M (avg $0.56, liquidation $0.361) with slight floating profit. This sub-address was previously closely linked to the main address via fund transfers, frequently swing traded XPL and HYPE, and has a historical win rate of over 80%. The whale also has a track record with XPL: It opened a 1x leveraged long at an average $0.69 before XPL’s sharp September 24 rally, with positions peaking at $20M (making it the top on-chain

February 3rd, Morgan Stanley said the Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh could exacerbate volatility in the U.S. Treasury market by reducing policy transparency. Warsh—nominated by Trump to succeed Powell as Fed chair in May—served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. Morgan Stanley’s review of past Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes found Warsh wanted investors to form their own views on economic growth, inflation, and monetary policy. At the bank, analysts Hornbach and Tauber note the former governor favors a smaller balance sheet: this could push long-term Treasury yields higher relative to short-term yields, steepening the yield curve. A key concern, however, is that the Fed under Warsh may alter its communication strategy, raising investor uncertainty. Changes could include less media interaction from Fed officials (especially ahead of FOMC meetings) and potentially scrapping the “dot plot” forecasts or economic projections summary (per FXStreet).

On February 3, ING Deutschland (ING Germany) launched access for retail customers to invest in cryptocurrency-related Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs/ETPs) via its Direct Depot platform. The offering supports investments in digital assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. ING noted the products are physically backed instruments issued by firms like 21Shares, Bitwise, and VanEck, and trade on regulated exchanges. This lets clients gain exposure to cryptocurrencies without managing wallets or private keys themselves. The bank also warned these products carry risks such as price volatility, issuer risk, liquidity issues, and regulatory uncertainty. It added that in Germany, the tax treatment for these ETNs mirrors directly holding cryptocurrencies—holdings of over one year may qualify for a capital gains tax exemption. (Source: The Block)

**Feb 3rd Crypto Update** Per HyperInsight monitoring (Telegram: @HyperInsight), at 13:14 today, an address starting with 0xb49 liquidated a 1,712.48 ETH long position with a liquidation price of ~$2,325 (equivalent to ~$3.98M). The proceeds were used to open a higher-leverage long position in xyz:GOLD (a tokenized gold asset). The address currently holds multiple leveraged positions: - 25x leveraged ETH long: 1,129.9 ETH (~$2.629M); unrealized gain ~$2,201 - 16x leveraged xyz:GOLD long: ~$11.3M; unrealized gain 1.53% - 10x leveraged xyz:SILVER long: ~$1.399M; unrealized loss 0.44%