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 Tuesday, spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $272 million in net outflows, pulling assets under management below $100 billion for the first time since April 2025, according to SoSoValue. Bitcoin fell under $74,000 and the crypto market cap declined from $3.11 trillion to $2.64 trillion over the past week, per CoinGecko, while Ether-, XRP- and Solana-linked ETFs saw $14 million, $19.6 million and $1.2 million in inflows.

On 4 February 2026, Bitcoin was trading near $76,300 after retreating from levels above $100,000, while total crypto market capitalization slipped to about $2.58 trillion with a daily drop of roughly 2%. Sentiment stayed fragile as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index sat at 14 in extreme fear, technical indicators like RSI and MACD pointed to ongoing downside pressure, and altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana, BNB, and XRP continued to underperform.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently signaled a shift toward specialized Layer 2 designs beyond pure scaling. In that context, SUBBD Token ($SUBBD) positions itself as an AI-driven creator platform; the project reports over $1.47M raised in presale at $0.05749 per token, and advertises 20% APY staking with VIP perks.

XRP-focused spot ETFs recorded $19.46 million in net inflows yesterday, outpacing Ethereum ($14.06 million) and Solana ($1.24 million) products while Bitcoin funds recently saw withdrawals. It was the strongest day for XRP ETFs since January 5, and cumulative inflows reached $1.20 billion, even as XRP's price swung between $1.53 and $1.63 before settling near $1.60.

On 4 February 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued that the network’s rapidly scaling base layer is eroding the original idea of layer-2s as mandatory scaling extensions. He now sees many L2s as systems with differing trust and security assumptions, whose future value will lie in specialization and innovation rather than simply providing extra Ethereum block space. Ethereum is also moving toward features like a native rollup precompile to streamline interoperability and reinforce security for L2s that handle ETH and Ethereum-based assets.

In a video shared on X on Monday, Alex from Uma Protocol and Across Protocol unveiled rentahuman.ai, a website where people list hourly rates so AI agents can book them for real-world jobs. The platform, described as a "meatspace layer for AI," reports nearly 26,000 registrations and supports tasks from shopping to attending meetings, while explicitly ruling out the launch of its own token. Alex said the site was developed using "vibe coding" with Claude-based AI agents running in recursive Ralph loops that iteratively generate and fix code.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) released an interim Digital Asset Custody Framework setting tiered limits on how dealer members and custodians hold client crypto. The rules introduce four risk-based tiers with caps from 40% to 100%, restrict internal custody to 20% of client assets, and add stricter governance, insurance, and audit requirements as Canada tightens oversight of hacks and compliance failures.