Crypto Market Fear Subsides Significantly, Today's Fear and Greed Index at 45

**Feb 4** Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted yesterday (Feb 3) that slow Layer 1 (L1) self-improvement and sluggish Layer 2 (L2) development mean the original vision for L2 and its role in Ethereum is no longer viable—calling for a new path and positioning. This isn’t the first time Vitalik has walked back a previously championed part of Ethereum’s roadmap, especially around scalability. - **2017–2018 Plasma Push**: Vitalik touted Plasma (a sidechain/childchain solution) as L2’s backbone, lauding its high throughput and security, with a top spot on the roadmap. But Plasma hit real-world roadblocks (data availability gaps, exit complexity). By 2020–2021, he noted Plasma “is not as practical as Rollups in most cases,” and the roadmap demoted it to a “research direction” (not core). - **2017 “Full Node Fantasy” U-turn**: In ~2017, Vitalik called regular users fully verifying Ethereum’s entire history a “fantasy” on Twitter. In early 2026, he reversed course—framing 2026 a

On February 4, monitoring from HyperInsight (Telegram: @HyperInsight) shows the largest ZEC short address (0xd475...) added to its HYPE short position consecutively over two minutes, increasing its holdings by a total of 119,470.37 HYPE—valued at approximately $4.1354 million. At 11:21 AM, the address first added 58,431.91 HYPE (≈$2.011 million) to its position; it then added another 61,038.46 HYPE (≈$2.1245 million) at 11:23 AM. After these two rounds of additions, the total value of its HYPE short position rose to $11.4743 million. However, the address still holds an unrealized loss of roughly $1.4174 million on the position, with a loss percentage of about 61.47%. Its average entry price is $29.08, and the liquidation price is $98.65. Notably, this address is known for building a massive ZEC short position: it began shorting ZEC when the price was $184, once facing an unrealized loss of $21 million before turning that position profitable.

**Goldman Sachs noted on February 4 that significant upside risk remains for its December 2026 gold price target of $5,400 per ounce.** The bank added that January’s gold price moves were mostly driven by Western fund inflows—not speculative activity—while silver saw a far steeper correction. Tight liquidity in the London market has amplified two-way price swings across precious metals. For silver, beyond volatility tied to a call option structure similar to gold’s, persistent London liquidity constraints have exacerbated extreme price moves. (Source: FX678)

February 4: Per LookOnChain monitoring, three four-year dormant addresses (likely controlled by the same entity) began buying ETH 8 hours ago. Collectively, they spent $13.1M to acquire 5,970 ETH at an average price of ~$2,195 each.

On February 4th, blockchain analytics provider LookOnChain reported that the Bitcoin whale address bc1pyd—after steadily accumulating BTC—stopped buying and sold all 5,076 of its holdings (valued at roughly $384 million) over the past 8 hours, incurring an approximate loss of $118 million.

**CoinDesk: WisdomTree Crypto Operations Shift to Core Priority, Near Profitability** Per a Feb. 4 CoinDesk report, Jonathan Steinberg—CEO of $150 billion asset manager WisdomTree—said the firm’s crypto business has moved from early-stage experimentation to a core strategic priority and is near profitability. The asset manager is rapidly expanding its digital asset footprint: its tokenized assets have grown from ~$30 million to ~$750 million, and it’s adding support for more blockchains, including Solana. Steinberg views crypto as a core component of modern financial infrastructure, noting that tokenized funds, the WisdomTree Connect platform, and strategic alignment with compliance-focused tokenization technology are key initiatives driving the firm’s long-term growth.