Today's news tips:
1. The United States announced a 10% tariff on Chinese goods and a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico
2. El Salvador’s Congress approved the reform of the Bitcoin Act, revoking Bitcoin’s legal currency status
3. 15 states in the United States are promoting strategic reserves of Bitcoin, with Arizona and Utah temporarily in the lead
4. Kraken will gradually suspend trading of stablecoins such as USDT, PYUSD, EURT, TUSD, etc. in Europe from February 13
5. In the past 7 days, NFT transaction volume decreased by 29.45% month-on-month to US$137.9 million, and the number of buyers and sellers increased by more than 30% month-on-month
6. Musk spent more than $290 million on the 2024 US election
7. ZachXBT: Coinbase users lost at least $150 million due to fraud in the past year
8. BTC falls below $101,000, down 1.08% on the day
Regulatory/Macro
According to Bitcoin Magazine's post on the X platform, citing Eric Weiss, a board member of Core Scientific, a US-listed company, 15 states, including Alabama, Arizona, and Florida, have launched plans for strategic Bitcoin reserves. Arizona and Utah have already reached the stage of approval by both houses, and are only one step away from being approved into law.
El Salvador’s Congress approves reform of Bitcoin Act, revokes Bitcoin’s legal tender status
According to the Spanish newspaper El País, the El Salvadorian Congress recently approved the reform of the Bitcoin Act, officially removing Bitcoin from its status as legal tender. The reform came after nearly two years of pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which set a condition of "reducing the risk of Bitcoin" in exchange for Kenyan President Nayib Bukele's approval of a much-needed $1.4 billion loan. If the Salvadoran government wants to receive the money, it must amend the law by the last day of January.
More than three years after the law was implemented, deputies have amended six of its articles and repealed three of the sixteen. From now on, Bitcoin will no longer be considered "currency"; its acceptance will become voluntary instead of mandatory, and it will not be used for taxation. The ruling party was forced to make these changes. Despite being very active on social media, President Bukele has not said anything about it.
Bitcoin was approved as legal tender in El Salvador in September 2021, despite 71% of the public opposing it, according to polls. Despite this, the government has invested more than $200 million to establish an operational framework, create digital wallets, and install ATMs across the country.
The law required all businesses and public institutions to accept Bitcoin unless they did not have the technology necessary to conduct transactions. To encourage usage, the government offered a $30 bonus to every user who installed the official Chivo wallet on their phone. A year later, only 21% of the population had used the service, according to a survey by Ludop, one of El Salvador’s most prestigious polling firms. By 2024, only 8.1% of the population reported using it.
The United States announced a 10% tariff on Chinese goods and a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico
According to CCTV News, on February 1 local time, the US government announced that it would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico.
US President Trump signed a tariff order on the same day, imposing an additional 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on energy resources from Canada. The tariffs are tentatively scheduled to take effect on the 4th. The White House said that if the US tariffs are retaliated, the US may increase the tariffs.
In addition, according to Xinhua News Agency, the White House said on the same day that the United States will impose a 10% tariff on all goods imported from China on top of the existing tariffs. Trump said this is consistent with the "protectionist measures" he supports.
Project News
As the EU Crypto-Assets Markets Act (MiCA) comes into full effect, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is preparing to delist several stablecoins for customers in the European Economic Area (EEA). The exchange announced that it will gradually remove margin trading restrictions on USDT, PYUSD, EURT, TUSD, and UST for EEA users starting February 13. Spot trading will be stopped on March 24, open orders will be cancelled, and assets will no longer be exchanged for cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies.
Kraken said the move ensures compliance with MiCA and allows it to maintain long-term operations in Europe.
Berachain Foundation: Boyco Market will close at 7:59 on February 3
The Berachain Foundation announced that the Boyco market will close at 7:59 on February 3rd.
Boyco is a pre-release liquidity platform where users can pre-deposit liquidity in Berachain’s DeFi protocol directly on Ethereum. After Boyco is officially launched, these assets will be transferred in an orderly manner to the Boyco dApp announced by Berachain.
Uniswap founder: V4 will provide users with lower gas costs and more LP profits
Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap, posted on social media, "Testing a $1,000 ETH -> USDT swap 12 hours after the release of v4. Our routing recommends a multi-hop swap of ETH -> USDC -> USDT through two v4 pools (total TVL of $400,000) as the best price. Even compared to a single-hop swap through any v3 ETH/USDT pool (total TVL of $150 million), this approach still has a better price. The pure gas efficiency advantage is beginning to emerge (native ETH + lower multi-hop route costs), which in my opinion will be one of the biggest catalysts for v4 growth - lower gas costs = better exchange prices = more LP profits."
Viewpoint
In response to OP Labs member Mark Tyneway's question about the "insufficient number of wallets supporting EIP-7702", Vitalik said that efforts will be made to ensure that 7702 (or the subsequent more powerful AA version, which does not require any "ECDSA master key" at all) is not only a blockchain feature, but a reality for users.
Important data
BTC falls below $101,000, down 1.08% on the day
The OKX market data shows that BTC has just fallen below $101,000 and is currently trading at $100,974.40 per coin, down 1.08% on the day.
In January, the DEX spot trading volume reached 454.1 billion US dollars, a record high
According to data from The Block, in January 2025, the spot trading volume of mainstream DEXs across the entire network reached US$454.1 billion, a record high. This is a 40% month-on-month increase from US$323.89 billion in December 2024. Among them, Raydium ranked first with a trading volume of US$124.13 billion.
In addition, Uniswap's spot trading volume in December reached US$100.47 billion, accounting for 22% of the market share.
CryptoSlam data shows that this week's NFT transaction volume fell from $198.1 million to $137.9 million, a month-on-month decrease of 29.45%. The number of NFT buyers increased by 31.92% to 589,960; the number of NFT sellers increased by 33.23% to 425,135; and the number of transactions decreased by 4.35% to 1,412,615.
The NFT transaction volume of the Ethereum network fell by 40.35% to US$67.9 million, but the number of buyers increased by 20.59% to 58,632; the NFT transaction volume of the Bitcoin network fell by 32.45% to US$17.4 million; Mythos Chain jumped to third place with a transaction volume of US$13.6 million, up 4.13%; the Solana network fell to fourth place with a transaction volume of US$12.4 million, down 39.21%.
Pudgy Penguins led the way with $13.9 million in sales, up 38.49%. DMarket ranked second with $8.5 million in sales, up 7.30%, and the volume remained high at 307,776. Azuki fell to third with $7.3 million in sales, down 74.73%.
This week's best-selling items include:
- CryptoPunks #5473: $547,670 (162 ETH)
- CryptoPunks #1925: $412,926 (125 ETH)
- CryptoPunks #7162: $373,166 (112 ETH)
- Autoglyphs #185: $348,295 (102.5 ETH)
- Autoglyphs #328: $332,290 (105 WETH)
Bitcoin network transaction volume hits 11-month low in January
The Bitcoin network hit an 11-month low in transaction volume in January, continuing a three-month downward trend. Monthly transaction volume fell by more than 43% compared to the network's all-time high monthly transaction volume in October 2024. The backlog of unprocessed Bitcoin transactions also fell sharply, and transaction fees hit a record low as miners emptied the memory pool of Bitcoin nodes. Several blocks were not filled on February 1.
A certain TRUMP whale liquidated 637,000 TRUMPs 5 hours ago, making a profit of $11.87 million
According to on-chain analyst Ember, an early TRUMP buyer, a whale, cleared 637,000 TRUMPs (US$12.59 million) 5 hours ago and made a profit of US$11.87 million. The whale spent 3,000 SOLs (US$720,000) to buy 637,000 TRUMPs at a price of only US$1.14 within half an hour after TRUMP was launched. 5 hours ago, the whale cleared the 637,000 TRUMPs and exchanged them for 55,000 SOLs (US$12.59 million), selling them at an average price of US$19.76. The whale gained 16.4 times (US$11.87 million) in profits on TRUMP.
Musk spends more than $290 million on 2024 US election
According to Cailianshe, on February 1, local time, the U.S. Federal Election Commission's year-end filing documents showed that Elon Musk spent more than $290 million in the 2024 U.S. election. The documents show that Musk donated about $11.2 million to the "Political Action Committee (PAC)" he funded on the last day of the year, bringing his total political donations to more than $290 million.
ZachXBT: Coinbase users lost at least $150 million to scams in the past year
On-chain analyst ZachXBT revealed that Coinbase users have lost at least $150 million to fraud in the past year based on cases that he has independently confirmed. The latest case is that a Coinbase user lost 110 cbBTC, worth $11.5 million. The stolen cbBTC (Coinbase's wrapped Bitcoin product) was quickly laundered on multiple instant exchanges. The attackers exchanged, bridged, and transferred funds through various platforms, and then integrated them with other stolen assets on Ethereum, making it almost impossible to track and recover the funds.
The incident is part of a growing trend, with multiple Coinbase users suffering similar losses. It is estimated that such scams have stolen at least $150 million from Coinbase customers. Coinbase has yet to comment. However, scams by scammers impersonating Coinbase support have become increasingly common. These attackers use phishing emails, fake phone calls, and other deceptive tactics to trick victims into revealing private keys or login credentials. Once they gain access, they steal wallets, transfer funds, and take control of accounts.
