Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said his original vision of Layer 2 networks as Ethereum's primary scaling engine "is no longer reasonable" and called for L2s to pursue stronger specialization, BlockBeats reports. He noted many L2s still rely on multisig bridges without fully inheriting Ethereum's security, while rising gas limits and native rollup advances are boosting mainnet throughput and prompting a reassessment of L2's role. Optimism Foundation co-founder Karl Floersch said he supports modular L2 designs across the decentralization spectrum but acknowledged issues including long withdrawal times, immature Stage 2 proof systems and limited cross-chain tooling, while Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder argued scaling remains L2's core value and warned institutions may choose independent Layer 1 chains if Ethereum proves unfriendly to rollups. Base lead Jesse Pollak and StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson each highlighted differentiation through account abstraction, privacy features and ZK-native L2s as aligning with the specialization trend.

BitMine chairman Tom Lee rejected claims that the company's roughly $6.6 billion in unrealized Ethereum losses will impose a long-term price ceiling on ETH, stating that book losses during market downturns are an inherent feature of its reserve strategy rather than a design flaw, BlockBeats reports on Feb. 4. Critics had argued the losses would eventually force selling and described Lee as "exit liquidity" for early ETH holders, while Lee countered that such views misunderstand how Ethereum reserve companies operate and said BitMine aims to track and outperform ETH over a full market cycle instead of trading short term. Over the past month, ETH has fallen nearly 30% and BitMine's share price has dropped by a similar 30%, with the company currently holding about 4,285,000 ETH, or roughly 3.5% of circulating supply, after the market value of its position slid from close to $14 billion in late 2025 and early 2026 to below $10 billion. Lee likened the situation to index ETFs, arguing that unrealized losses during systemic declines are normal, while the broader debate around ETH reserve companies has intensified as critics point to potential sell pressure and supporters highlight their role as long-term, index-like exposure tools.

Ethereum risks falling below $2,000 in February, with an Inverse Cup and Handle breakdown targeting around $1,665, Cointelegraph reported on Feb. 4. ETH fell below an approximately $2,960 neckline in January, failed a retest, and remained under the 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages; MVRV data point near $1,725.

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.