Stablecoin

Standard Chartered lowered its end-2026 Solana price target to $250 from $310 and reaffirmed a roadmap to $2,000 by end-2030. The bank cites a shift in DEX activity away from memecoin trading toward SOL–stablecoin pairs and a micropayments push, with stablecoin velocity reportedly two to three times Ethereum's. At press time, SOL traded at $96.93.

On 4 February 2026, Binance expanded its SAFU insurance fund by purchasing 1,315 BTC valued at roughly $100.4 million, according to Arkham Intelligence. During the selloff, Bitcoin dipped below $73,000 and later hovered near $76,000, while 24-hour liquidations totaled roughly $681 million, with longs about $508 million and shorts near $173 million.

On February 4, 2026, Binance reported completing a second batch of Bitcoin conversions for its SAFU fund, adding another 1,315 BTC while BTC traded around $76,248.05. The exchange plans to shift a total of $1B in stablecoins into BTC for the insurance fund and has pledged to top it up if its value drops below $800M. The moves come amid renewed insolvency speculation, even as on-chain data indicate stable reserves and no abnormal outflows.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority aims to approve the first batch of fiat-referenced stablecoin licenses by March 2026, following a disclosure by Chief Executive Eddie Yue on 02 February 2026. The regulator has received 36 applications but intends to grant only a very small number initially to prioritize prudence and financial stability.

On February 4, 2026, Tether scaled back plans for a $15–$20 billion equity raise after investors balked at a $500 billion valuation. Talks that began last year now focus on about $5 billion, with terms unresolved. CEO Paolo Ardoino said the figure was never a target and noted insiders are reluctant to sell.

On February 3, 2026, U.S. investigators opened a probe into crypto platforms suspected of facilitating Iranian sanctions evasion, according to Ari Redbord at TRM Labs. TRM Labs estimates about $10 billion of crypto activity in Iran in 2025, while Chainalysis reports $7.8 billion received by Iranian wallets, and Elliptic says the central bank bought at least $507 million in USDT.

On 2 February, a White House meeting designed to break a long-running deadlock on U.S. crypto market structure legislation ended without a deal, with stablecoin rewards remaining the core sticking point. Banking groups want the bill to restrict interest and other rewards on stablecoins, while crypto firms insist such incentives are essential for growth, leaving the Senate unable to move the bill forward.

The Avalanche Policy Coalition has introduced an advisory council led by Ava Labs General Counsel Lee Schneider, with UK legislator Chris Holmes and leaders from the Avalanche ecosystem joining. The council will address 2026 priorities: token classification, defining intermediaries, and protecting internet access, as regulators in the U.S., EU, UK and Japan move forward with crypto frameworks.

Bitcoin's downturn traces back to Oct. 10, 2025, when a derivatives washout forced roughly $19 billion in futures liquidations as prices fell. CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost says open interest collapsed by about 70,000 BTC that day, resetting months of leverage and leaving speculation subdued amid weaker spot volumes and declining stablecoin liquidity.

On Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, DOGE spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $246,030 and $252,530 after a 20‑day zero streak, according to SoSoValue. On Feb. 2, Ripple's RLUSD treasury minted 59,000,000 tokens on XRPL, taking supply to 1.45 billion, while Arkham logs show OKX reactivated 162,874,151,430 SHIB from cold to hot storage.