In an interview with Ecoinimist, Akash Network CEO Greg Osuri said decentralized AI's next step is widening access to compute rather than chasing new virtualization. He emphasized virtual machines to match how ML practitioners work and described blockchain as a coordination layer for identity, access, and payments. Akash has discussed retiring its Cosmos app chain and is evaluating Solana.

On Monday, Michael Burry published a Substack note warning that Bitcoin’s slide is spilling into gold and silver, estimating up to $1 billion in metals was sold at January’s end. He said there is "no organic use case reason" for a halt and cautioned a move toward $50,000. On Tuesday, BTC briefly traded below $73,000.

At the Ondo Summit in New York on Tuesday, WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg said the firm's crypto and tokenization initiatives have shifted from experimentation to a central business focus as the unit approaches profitability. He noted that tokenized assets under management have climbed from about $30 million to roughly $770 million over the past year, with expansion beyond Ethereum into networks such as Solana and wider distribution via the WisdomTree Connect platform.

On a Tuesday post on X, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said his earlier view of layer-2 networks as the main path for scaling “no longer makes sense,” citing their limited decentralization and growing base-layer capacity. He now favors expanding Ethereum’s mainnet through gas-limit increases and native rollups, while suggesting L2s focus on specialized use cases instead of serving as the core scaling engine. Developers are already discussing raising the gas limit from 60 million to 80 million, and researcher Justin Drake has outlined a roadmap targeting 10,000 transactions per second on Ethereum over the next decade.

According to Bitwise's latest Weekly Crypto Market Compass, Bitcoin's price slump driven by heavy crypto ETP outflows and widespread futures liquidations has pushed key valuation metrics into rarely seen discount territory. The report notes that BTC briefly dropped to about $74,700, with nearly 78% of invested capital estimated to be underwater, while sentiment and positioning indicators suggest an increasingly contrarian setup for the broader crypto market.

SpaceX said it will merge with xAI, aligning Elon Musk's AI startup with the aerospace company to pursue orbital data centers and off-Earth AI infrastructure. Tesla previously disclosed a $2 billion purchase of xAI preferred stock, while questions remain about how the combination could influence any future SpaceX listing.

On February 1, 2026, Michael Saylor said Strategy lifted the dividend on its Stretch (STRC) preferred stock by 25 bps to 11.25% for February. It is the sixth rise since the product launched in July 2025, and the rate resets monthly to help keep pricing near the $100 par. STRC last closed at $98.99, with $2.25 billion in reserves supporting payout obligations.

On Friday, Bitcoin fell up to 4% to $81,045, its lowest since November, before trading near $83,651. The move followed U.S. President Donald Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as Fed chair and coincided with three straight months of spot ETF net redemptions. Traders debated support near $85,000–$90,000 amid a lingering risk-off tone.

On January 30, 2026, Tether published its Q4 2025 attestation, reporting more than $10 billion in net profit for 2025. The BDO Italy–signed report showed $6.3 billion in excess reserves against $186.5 billion in liabilities, as USDT supply climbed by roughly $50 billion to over $186 billion.