Circle minted 250 million USDC on the Solana network 6 hours ago

Per an official announcement dated February 9, Binance is set to launch trading for the ASTER/U, PAXG/USD1, SUI/U, and XRP/U trading pairs at 08:30 UTC on February 10, 2026.

February 9 (Financial Times) — This week, the University of Chicago’s Clark Center for Global Markets surveyed 45 economists, with nearly 60% rejecting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s “AI Rate Cut Theory.” They contend AI’s impact on prices and borrowing costs over the next two years will likely be minimal, forecasting declines in PCE inflation and the neutral interest rate to fall by less than 0.2 percentage points in that period. Roughly a third of respondents noted the AI boom could even push the Fed to slightly lift the so-called neutral rate — the level where borrowing costs neither stimulate nor restrain economic demand. The survey suggests Powell’s push to win support from other Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members for his view that AI will drive rapid productivity growth faces hurdles. This could make it hard for him to deliver the size of rate cuts former President Donald Trump is seeking ahead of November’s midterm elections.

February 9th: Musk retweeted a post celebrating Grok’s landslide win in the AI Coin-Trade Competition’s Alpha Arena, adding, “We need to do better, and we will.” As of now, Grok 4.20 is dominating Alpha Arena—its ROI has surged from roughly 12% to nearly 35% in 10 days, holding the top spot on the leaderboard. Its return outpaces every other model on the list, and all Grok variants are profitable. Currently, Grok occupies 4 of the top 6 positions, with GPT-5.1-4 MAX in third and DEEPSEEK-CHAT-V3.1 in fourth among the top six. BlockBeats Note: Alpha Arena is a competition where AI models execute real-time cryptocurrency trades, using real capital to trade perpetual contracts on platforms like Hyperliquid.

On Feb 9, Binance’s SAFU Fund address successfully “bought the dip,” turning a loss into a profit. Across its four recent Bitcoin (BTC) purchases, the fund spent a total of $734.09 million (calculated based on the price at which BTC was transferred into the SAFU Fund). Its current holdings of 10,455 BTC are worth $741.39 million, with a paper profit of roughly 1%—equivalent to about $7.3 million. On Jan 30, Binance announced it would gradually convert its original $1 billion stablecoin reserves into Bitcoin, with plans to complete the process within 30 days. If the market value of these holdings drops below $800 million due to price fluctuations, the exchange will add more BTC to restore the value to $1 billion.

According to Arkham Monitor data, Binance’s SAFU Fund address has once again acquired 4,225 BTC—valued at $299.6 million at current rates. The fund now holds a total of 10,455 BTC, worth approximately $741.39 million. This follows Binance’s January 30 announcement that it would gradually convert its original $1 billion stablecoin reserve into Bitcoin, with the conversion set to wrap up within 30 days. If market fluctuations push the fund’s value below $800 million, additional BTC will be added to restore it to the $1 billion target.

February 9 A U.S. court previously ruled the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) violated the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Now, the FDIC has agreed to pay Coinbase $188,440 in legal fees, fully reform its FOIA policies, and reverse its prior position denying public release of a crypto-related "hold letter"—settling the FOIA lawsuit. Additionally, the FDIC committed to policy reforms, including adding provisions to training materials requiring staff to "broadly interpret" FOIA requests. It also stated it will not adopt a blanket secrecy policy for all bank supervision documents based on FOIA’s Section 8 exemption.