Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder stated on Feb. 4 that "Arbitrum is not Ethereum", describing the two as close allies in a symbiotic relationship but emphasizing they remain distinct, BlockBeats reports. He argued there is no conflict between a scaled Layer 1 and a thriving Layer 2 ecosystem, noted Offchain Labs supports L1 expansion by acquiring and funding Prysm to help sustain Ethereum development, and said he has never heard of an L2 team opposing L1 scaling. Goldfeder added that while Vitalik Buterin is correct the rollup narrative has evolved, Ethereum's best path to winning large institutions remains through L2, citing Arbitrum and Base both surpassing 1000 TPS during last Saturday's market volatility compared with about 40 TPS on Ethereum L1.

WhiteWhale's market cap briefly rebounded above $100 million on Feb. 4 and was last at $99 million, with the token trading around $0.105 and posting a 24-hour gain of 25%, GMGN data show. On Solana, The White Whale bought more than 2.39 million WhiteWhale tokens for about $200,000 and moved them to a main address (EBxg...), with a related address shown as ECyvt..., according to GMGN. That main address holds about $56 million of the token, representing 56% of the memecoin's total supply, with unrealized profit of $17.7 million (30%) and an average buy price near $0.0213, with no sales to date. The token was created on Oct. 13, 2024 on pump.fun by fans using the avatar of trader The White Whale (X: TheWhiteWhaleV2); BlockBeats said the latest rise may be tied to the trader's ongoing personal buys and cautioned that meme-coin trading is highly volatile and sentiment-driven with no inherent value or use case.

Binance Wallet will launch the Opinion (OPN) Booster on Feb. 6 at 11:00 Beijing Time, offering a 5,000,000 OPN airdrop—0.5% of total supply—to users who complete tasks and support the project's early phase, according to an official announcement. The campaign is open to keyless-mode Binance Wallet users with sufficient Binance Alpha points, and participation deducts 5 points. First-phase rewards of 3,000,000 OPN will be released on the token generation event date, with subsequent phase details to be announced via Binance Wallet's X account.

Address 0x880a…, known as "the 20M swing trader," trimmed 155.17 ETH from its long position on Feb. 4, reducing the marked value to $1,096,500, Hyperinsight data show. The remaining position shows a floating gain of about $9,600, or 10.51%, with an average entry price that rose from $2,257.91 to $2,259.63. Since October, the address has deployed roughly $20 million in principal and realized nearly $100 million in profit through high-frequency swing trades across multiple tokens, maintaining an average holding period of about 20 hours, according to Hyperinsight.

Binance Alpha will list Warden Protocol (WARD) on Feb. 4, according to an official announcement. Eligible users can claim an airdrop using their Alpha Points on the Alpha page once trading begins. Further details on the listing and airdrop will be disclosed later, the notice stated.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has said that his earlier vision of layer-2 networks acting as separate, branded shards of Ethereum "no longer makes sense" as the base layer continues to scale, and that layer-2 projects should instead focus on offering distinct functionality while remaining closely interoperable with Ethereum, according to Cointelegraph. He linked the shift in strategy to recent improvements in Ethereum’s layer-1 scalability, which have reduced the need for layer-2 networks to serve solely as throughput solutions, the report said.

Three cryptocurrency wallets that had been inactive for about four years purchased a total of 5,970 ETH at an average price of $2,195, spending approximately $13.1 million, about eight hours ago, according to on-chain data reported by blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain.

Trend Research sold 153,500 ETH at an average price of $2,294, totaling $352 million, between February 1 and the present, according to data from EmberCN. Concurrently, the firm repaid 266 million USDT on February 4, a strategic move aimed at reducing its overall leverage. Despite these actions, EmberCN data indicates that Trend Research currently holds 498,000 ETH, valued at $1.11 billion, with a cost basis of $3,180. The firm has incurred total losses of $605 million, comprising $136 million realized and $469 million unrealized, while still maintaining $743 million in leveraged borrowing. Their ETH borrowing positions show liquidation prices ranging from $1,685 to $1,855.

On February 4, a significant cryptocurrency whale, identified by on-chain analytics as "BTC OG Insider," executed substantial transactions involving Ethereum. Over a seven-hour period, this entity transferred a total of 35,000 ETH, valued at approximately $78.31 million, to the Binance exchange. Concurrently, the whale repaid $82.39 million in outstanding loans. A portion of these funds, specifically 15,000 ETH worth $33.35 million, was explicitly deposited to Binance for loan repayment purposes, according to data from Onchain Lens, as reported by BlockBeats. These movements highlight notable activity within the crypto market, indicative of strategic asset management by large holders.