Lunar New Year begins, marking the Year of the Horse
Iran-US negotiations will take place Tuesday in Geneva
Wed:
FOMC Minutes
FTX will begin repaying creditors
Thu: Trump set to unveil his reconstruction plan for Gaza
Fri:
China: interest rate decision
U.S. Q4 GDP
U.S. PCE
Supreme Court potential Opinions on Trump’s tariffs
TBA/Whole Week: DeepSeek v4?; Consensus Hong Kong event;
What Happened:
South Koreans Bail on Crypto:
“We’re seeing an ‘exit-crypto’ movement as investors grow tired,” said Bradley Park, an analyst at DNTV Research
“Retail investors feel ripped off.”
At the same time, almost everything else has risen. Korean stocks hit records, global equities rallied, precious metals climbed
Monthly trading value on the Kospi surged 221% in January from a year earlier. Over the same period, trading on Korean crypto exchanges fell about 65%.
“I don’t think I’ll ever touch crypto again,”
Option Trading on BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Hit Record Amid Crash
Bitcoin Looks for Direction After Four Straight Weekly Losses
Banks have formalized their opposition to giving crypto and fintech firms direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment systems, arguing that the Fed should block access until newly licensed stablecoin issuers prove they can operate safely.
Aave Labs proposes sending 100% of protocol revenue to DAO in exchange for funding
Crypto exchange Kraken fires CFO Stephanie Lemmerman as long-awaited IPO draws closer
Robinhood launches test version of its own blockchain
Korea Probes Crypto Exchange Bithumb Over $40 Billion in ‘Ghost Bitcoin’
Fed’s Waller Says Trump-Induced Crypto Euphoria May Be Fading
Jump Trading Poised to Gain Stakes in Kalshi and Polymarket
UK’s Digital Bonds to Be Issued Using HSBC ‘Orion’ Blockchain Platform
Bitcoin Traders Warn the $60,000 Mark Is a Liquidation Trigger; The biggest cluster of bets in Bitcoin’s options market are contracts that pay off if the price falls below $60,000, according to data from Deribit. “$60,000 is the key level to watch,” said Seiler. “A break under $60,000 could trigger forced deleveraging and hedging flows, creating a cascade effect. In that scenario, volatility would likely rise sharply as liquidations accelerate and traders rush to protect downside exposure.”
Hackers drained over $200 million from a crypto wallet and swapped some of the loot into Monero, a type of digital token designed to be near-impossible to trace.
Carney constructs a mega anti-Trump trade alliance:
Two of the world’s biggest trading blocs are cautiously eyeing closer ties to short-circuit Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The European Union and a 12-nation Indo-Pacific bloc are opening talks to explore proposals to form one of the largest global economic alliances, multiple people with knowledge of the talks told POLITICO.
It would bring nearly 40 nations on opposite sides of the globe closer together with the aim of reaching a deal on so-called rules of origin.
A deal would allow manufacturers throughout the two blocs to trade goods and their parts more seamlessly in a low-tariff process known as cumulation.
Pentagon Used Anthropic’s Claude in Maduro Venezuela Raid; Pentagon threatens Anthropic punishment; Pete Hegseth is “close” to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the AI company a “supply chain risk” — meaning anyone who wants to do business with the U.S. military has to cut ties with the company, a senior Pentagon official told Axios. Anthropic is prepared to loosen its current terms of use, but wants to ensure its tools aren’t used to spy on Americans en masse, or to develop weapons that fire with no human involvement.
U.S. Equity turnover averaged a record $1.03 trillion in January, a roughly 50% increase from the same period in 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. More than 19 billion shares traded hands daily over the span, the second-most ever.
US military preparing for potentially weeks-long Iran operations
US conducts first air transport of nuclear microreactor in bid to show technology’s viability
Japan’s Ex FX-Chief Says Rate Hike Needed for Market Stability
Fed’s Hammack Says Rates Could Be on Hold for ‘Quite Some Time’
Fed’s Logan Says Cooling Inflation Not Enough for More Rate Cuts
Fed’s Schmid Says Restrictive Rates Needed to Cool Inflation
Fed’s Goolsbee Says More Cuts Hinge on Inflation Heading to 2%
Trump Privately Weighs Quitting USMCA Trade Pact He Negotiated
AI Bubble Fears Are Creating New Derivatives; Wall Street Says Software’s AI Stock Market Wipeout Went Too Far; Goldman Traders Launch AI-Proof Software Basket Amid Sector Rout
Spotify says its best developers haven’t written a line of code since December, thanks to AI
China’s ByteDance releases Doubao 2.0 AI model for ‘agent era’; ByteDance pledges to prevent unauthorised IP use on AI video tool after Disney threat
US Consumer Delinquencies Jump to Highest in Almost a Decade
China Stocks Win Most MSCI Index Additions in Nearly Three Years
MiniMax Shares Surge 25% as Optimism Over Chinese AI Firms Grows
fyi: China’s holdings of US Treasuries have been declining for more than a decade without causing a bear market in bonds or the dollar.
Amazon Eyes Longest Losing Streak Since 2006 on Capex Angst
China Expanding Aid to Russian War Effort, Western Officials Say
Transportation beat S&P 500 by nearly most since financial crisis
Wall Street Banks Are Paying Their CEOs Like It’s 2006 Again
bullion futures in New York hit a record high above $5,600 an ounce in late January, only to suffer an unprecedented plunge the next day, an investor or group of investors started buying December $15,000/$20,000 call spreads on the CME Group’s Comex exchange. Even after prices consolidated around $5,000, the position has continued to build, to around 11,000 contracts.
