Bitcoin Breaks $69K, Surges 1.7% in One Hour

**February 7** Renowned Argentine economist and senior crypto trader Alex Krüger took to social media to state the current crypto bear market isn’t driven by a single factor. He outlined 15 key catalysts fueling the sharp downturn, including the “1011” mass liquidation, cooling U.S. Treasury and corporate stock markets, quantum threats, the AI substitution effect (capital, talent and mining firms shifting to AI), political risks tied to Trump, a lack of innovation in the crypto space, oversupply of new tokens, and Powell’s nomination as the new Fed chair, among others. Smart contract pioneer and Castle Island Ventures co-founder Nic Carter endorsed Krüger’s view. Carter argued the bear market shouldn’t be blamed on one event, as many of the 15 factors cited are highly complex.

On February 7, Onchain Lens monitoring data indicates a Gnosis Safe multisig address withdrew 20,520 ETH—valued at $41.92 million—from Binance.

February 7th: Per LookOnChain data, whale address 0x3952—which accumulated 12,000 ETH in January—has shifted from profitable to loss-making and begun selling ETH to limit losses. Approximately 30 minutes ago, the whale deposited 24,452 ETH ($50.05M) into Binance, leaving 56,528 ETH ($115.3M) remaining. Its unrealized P&L has flipped from +$75M to -$57.3M.

On February 7, on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) reported that the "BTC OG Insider Whale" has again transferred 10,000 ETH to a Binance deposit address linked to Yiliwa. Within half an hour, the whale repaid its loan and withdrew 55,000 ETH from Aave—10,000 of which was deposited into the aforementioned address. Over the past 12 hours, a total of 20,000 ETH and 69.08 million USDT have been deposited, totaling $1.09 billion. This morning, it was revealed that Yiliwa and the "BTC OG Insider Whale" share the same Binance deposit address: - One day ago, the Trend Research address transferred 7.989 million USDT to an address starting with 0xcdF, which then moved the funds to a Binance hot wallet starting with 0x28C. - Earlier this morning, the "BTC OG Insider Whale" transferred 10,000 ETH to the 0xcdF address, which was then sent to the same 0x28C Binance hot wallet.

On February 7, Tether froze over $544 million in cryptocurrency assets at Turkey’s request, targeting funds tied to a suspected illegal online gambling and money laundering network. Analytics firm Elliptic data shows that by the end of 2025, Tether and Circle had blacklisted roughly 5,700 wallets, freezing a total of around $2.5 billion—with roughly two-thirds of that sum held in USDT. Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino noted the company took legal freezing actions after receiving information from law enforcement agencies. This cooperation is part of Tether’s global compliance efforts; the firm has previously collaborated with bodies like the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI. (Source: Cointelegraph)

**February 7 – Per Caixin, China’s State Council Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued Announcement No. 1 of 2026, titled *Regulatory Guidance on Domestic Assets’ Overseas Issuance of Asset-Backed Securities Tokens (RWA)*, outlining supervision rules for such offerings:** - Foreign debt-linked RWA falls under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)’s oversight. - Equity-backed RWA and asset securitization (ABS) RWA are regulated by the CSRC. - Repatriating funds from overseas RWA to the domestic market is overseen by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). - Other RWA types are supervised by the CSRC and relevant departments per their respective mandates. **Analysts note that token issuance financing via licensed exchanges in Hong Kong aligns more closely with China’s strategic goals. Currently, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) holds a monopoly on Hong Kong’s stock market—and should also allow licensed cryptocurrency exchan