Cryptopolitan

A wallet long associated with Bitcoin’s elusive founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, just received 2.565 BTC, worth over $150,000. Several analysts and DeFi researchers on X, among them 0xNobler, flagged the unusual transfer.

That speculation ranged from theories that Satoshi may still be alive to suggestions that the transaction was merely a symbolic tip sent to the creator’s untouched BTC stash.

While optimists have been reading deeply into the transfer, their excitement has been tempered by warnings that the transaction doesn’t prove Satoshi Nakamoto is active, only that his address received funds.

X users say the BTC transaction was a digital offering or a tribute

The BTC funds were sent to 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, the address that still holds Bitcoin’s original 50 BTC genesis block reward from January 3, 2009. The wallet now contains around 57 BTC, worth roughly $4 million at current prices near $71,000.

Some X users have taken the transaction as a sign that Satoshi is still active. Discussing the transaction on X, DeFi researcher 0xNobler also asked whether it could mean that Satoshi is still alive and actively buying Bitcoin. Nonetheless, sending BTC does not require the recipient’s involvement, meaning the deposit could happen without Satoshi having to act.

While deposits to wallets associated with Satoshi are rare, they are not unheard of. Crypto enthusiasts sometimes sent small amounts of BTC to addresses associated with Satoshi as symbolic gestures honoring the anonymous inventor. In most cases, the value of these contributions is negligible—just a few satoshis or a few dollars worth. However, sending a six-figure sum like $150,000 in BTC is far from subtle, leaving open the question of who sent the amount and why.

Crypto analyst StarPlatinum shared that he believes the transaction was either a tribute or a burn. A theory many users supported, describing it as “throwing Bitcoin into the void,” “a digital offering,” or “respect paid to the origin of the network.”

Some commentators on X also offered more cynical, often humorous interpretations, arguing that the transfer was a deliberate act of destruction. X user CaffeSatoshi remarked, “For every Bitcoin destroyed, the rest become more valuable.” 

There have been similar BTC transactions in the past few years

This is not the first time a cryptic Bitcoin transaction has been linked — whether or not definitively — to Satoshi Nakamoto. Earlier, Bitcoiners were startled when 50 BTC mined in February 2009 were moved after 11 years of inactivity in May 2020, sparking rumors on the internet that Satoshi was back. But blockchain experts found that the coins did not fit the “Patoshi pattern”, ruling out Satoshi and suggesting another early miner. Put simply, someone other than Satoshi from Bitcoin’s early days spent their long-held BTC.

Furthermore, just 2 days after Bitcoin’s 15th birthday in January 2024, an unknown sender sent 26.92 BTC to a Genesis address. From a dormant Binance-linked wallet, the move erased about $1 million from circulation. Back then, some believed the sender transferred the assets, intending to flush Satoshi out.

Moreover, in June 2025, Arkham Intelligence spotted a small transfer of 0.185 BTC – around $20,000 – into Satoshi’s wallet. Some $200,000 in BTC had also been sent to the same address a few months earlier.

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Elon Musk just made it clear that the Moon comes first now. In a post on X, he said SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon. The reason? It’s faster.

“We can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years,” Elon wrote, adding that Mars would take over 20. That’s a long time, and Elon says the goal of SpaceX is still to spread life beyond Earth, but doing it through the Moon is just more realistic right now.

Trips to Mars are rare. You can only launch to it when Earth and Mars are lined up, and that happens once every 26 months. Then the trip itself takes six months. The Moon, on the other hand, is right there.

Elon pointed out SpaceX can launch to the Moon every 10 days. It takes just two days to get there. That means they can keep testing, launching, and building a lot quicker. “We can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city,” he said.

Elon links Moon plan to bigger AI and internet strategy

This announcement didn’t come out of nowhere. Just last week, Elon confirmed that SpaceX is acquiring xAI, the company he started to develop the chatbot Grok. That chatbot is already plugged into the X platform, which xAI bought back in March 2025. Now, he’s combining all of it

(AI, rockets, internet satellites, mobile tech, and social media) under one roof.

According to Elon, the xAI acquisition is meant to build “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth.” That includes AI, space-based internet, and what he called “the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.”

He wants all the tech to work together. He sees this as part of the plan to build working systems on the Moon (bases, factories, and communications) that don’t rely on Earth to survive.

Elon has also said SpaceX still plans to start working on a Mars city in five to seven years, but the Moon now takes top priority. The reason is simple: “The overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” he said.

Elon even talked about self-growing bases and automated factories that could build more bases without human help.

Meanwhile, NASA is still doing its own thing. The agency will stream the SpaceX Crew-12 launch to the International Space Station live. That’s planned for no earlier than 6:01 a.m. EST on Wednesday, February 11. Docking is expected the next morning at 10:30 a.m. The launch will happen from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The Crew-12 mission will carry four astronauts: Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway from NASA, Sophie Adenot from ESA, and Andrey Fedyaev from Roscosmos. This will be the 12th crew rotation mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and the 13th human flight on SpaceX’s Dragon since 2020.

Back in 2020, Elon said he believed humans would reach Mars by 2026. That clearly didn’t happen. Now, he’s aiming closer. Same goal, different path. Moon first. Mars can wait.

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The beginning of 2026 has triggered a new era in the digital asset market. The new technical challenges that the old guard of the crypto world is about to face are making a tangible change in momentum. The average returns of the known giants are no longer good enough to satisfy many investors. 

Rather, in the quest to maximize their portfolio, the quest of the next crypto generation of utility has taken the centre stage among the portfolio optimization seekers. A certain story is beginning to emerge on a project that is out of the idea phase and towards a working reality. 

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a persistent suggestion in the majority of long-term stocks and it is presently trading at approximately $0.30. It still is among the most important proof-of-stake networks in terms of its market capitalization of approximately $10 billion. 

Nevertheless, ADA entered a rough situation at the beginning of 2026. The token is also encountering good resistance levels between the $0.34 to 0.36 areas that the past rallies have worn out.

As the community sticks to its sluggish and gradual process, some retail traders have been frustrated with the absence of an explosion in price. The existing market structure implies that ADA can remain at the stage of consolidation in the near future. 

Dogecoin (DOGE)

The current price of Dogecoin is at $0.09, and the market cap is maintained at $16 billion. The great initial rise that transformed DOGE into a worldwide phenomenon is a legend every one remembers. 

Social media and celebrity advertising contributed to that huge increase, which is a roadmap to wealth being created by communities. Nevertheless, with the maturity of the market in 2026, the hype premium begins to subside.

Some of the early DOGE investors who previously made money out of pure sentiment are seeking ventures that can provide actual financial instruments. This is the reason why many are considering Mutuum Finance (MUTM).

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance is a startup decentralized lending and borrowing hub designed to let users keep their crypto while still accessing liquidity. Instead of selling assets, users can use them as collateral or supply them to earn yield in a non-custodial setup. The project has already gained strong traction, raising over $20.4 million and attracting more than 19,000 holders worldwide.

Mutuum Finance is currently in Phase 7 of its presale, with the MUTM token priced at $0.04, up roughly 300% from the initial $0.01 level. The stated launch price is $0.06, which is narrowing the early entry window. 

The protocol is being built around two models, Peer-to-Contract (P2C) liquidity pools and a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) option for custom terms, both aimed at giving users flexible and practical ways to use their assets as the platform continues to develop.

The Reason Why ADA and DOGE Investors are Rotating

The rationale of the switch to MUTM is straightforward. It is common belief that Mutuum Finance is taking the initial strides undertaken by successful giants but with the new-age DeFi flavor. ADA and DOGE are constrained by the fact that they have big market caps whereas MUTM is only beginning to venture upwards. As a recent official statement on X says, the project has already deployed its V1 protocol on the Sepolia testnet.

By using this launch, the users would have the opportunity to test the core lending and borrowing flows in a live environment. The early investors have been given the confidence they require after seeing a working product prior to the launch of the mainnet. 

To understand the scale of this opportunity, one can look at a price prediction contrast. For an asset like ADA or DOGE to see a 6x return from current levels, their market caps would need to expand by tens of billions of dollars, which is a massive hurdle for mature coins. 

In contrast, even though MUTM’s official launch price is set at $0.06, many investors expect the token to jump to $0.25 as the ecosystem matures. This move would represent a potential 6x appreciation from the current Phase 7 price of $0.04. 

Security and Final Stages

The Mutuum ecosystem is based on trust. The protocol has passed a deep security audit conducted by Halbon and has a high score provided by CertiK. In order to keep the code safe, it has a bug bounty that is $50,000 and offers a way that encourages developers to identify and correct any vulnerabilities. This is a significant factor driving the holder base to increase so rapidly since this is a professional approach to security.

The community is also kept involved with a 24 hours leaderboard provided in the project. The highest daily contributor in MUTM tokens is also offered a bonus of $500 in tokens at the end of every night. 

With Phase 7 already sold out, it cannot be denied that momentum is present. Having a known security, a running testnet, and a clear roadmap to the launch at $0.06, the position of Mutuum Finance at the top of the 2026 cheap crypto watchlist has been solidified.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Global searches for “crypto” on Google are at their lowest level in nearly a year, a sign of diminished investor interest amid market problems worldwide. 

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has plummeted by 43% from a record $4.2 trillion at its peak to around $2.4 trillion today. The decline in searches and market value is a signal of investor anxiety amid ongoing uncertainty.

The global search volume for “crypto” is 30 out of 100 on Google Trends, with 100 being the highest level of interest. The last peak came at the market cap peak in August 2023 – the 12-month trough of 24 – showing that global interest is falling and that attention will further shrink worldwide for cryptocurrencies as well.

The retreat in online interest parallels sharp price declines across major assets. Bitcoin recently fell below $64,000. Other leading tokens have also seen steep drawdowns, further eroding market confidence.

US crypto searches bounce after January slump

Search trends in the United States paint a slightly different picture. US search interest was set at 100 in July 2025 but fell below 37 by January 2026. However, interest returned to 56 in early February, indicating that certain American investors are re-evaluating their positions. 

The US had the lowest search volume around 32 during the April 2025 market crash, which was influenced by President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. 

Market analysts say that, though US interest is showing some renewed enthusiasm, global searches indicate that excitement around crypto is much lower than during previous peaks. Market action, in turn, follows suit. 

Total daily crypto trading volume has plummeted from more than $153 billion on Jan. 14 to around $87.5 billion this past Sunday, according to CoinMarketCap. Reduced trading activity, along with waning search interest, underlines the overall market slowdown.

Fear grips the crypto market as sentiment mirrors the Terra collapse

Investor sentiment is extremely cautious. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which gauges market mood, bottomed out at 5 on Thursday and edged up to 8 by Sunday. 

Both readings are signs of “extreme fear,” at levels consistent with those seen after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the dollar-pegged stablecoin that it created in 2022. Investors are increasingly tracking social signals and online chatter to determine when to buy, analysts say. 

Market sentiment platform Santiment says, “crowd sentiment is fiercely bearish. The ratio of positive to negative commentary has collapsed; negative comments have reached their highest level since December 1.”

Many traders are sitting around waiting for signs that the market has hit bottom before making any new moves. The low trading volume, fear, and falling search interest suggest that the market is still in a weak phase. In the past, Google searches have generally mirrored market highs and lows. 

For instance, a lot of searches usually mean it’s rallying, and little interest usually goes when there’s a downturn. Now, crypto is about to cool down, and the optimism wave is yet to return. Long-term investors still see the market as a buying opportunity at lower prices, but they should remain on guard. 

Experts suggest monitoring both sentiment indexes and search trends to pinpoint where recovery could occur, and an increase in search interest or a deluge of social commentary might signal the time to rebound. Now, volatility is expected to hang around for the long haul, while many investors remain on the sidelines.

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Crypto venture capitalists openly disagree about whether nonfinancial Web3 applications have a genuine future. The debate revolves around whether digital identity platforms, blockchain gaming, and decentralized social media failed because people didn’t want them, or whether they are still early-stage ideas that need more time to grow. 

The conversation reflects deeper divisions among investors over where crypto innovation should head next. Public disagreement arose when Chris Dixon, managing partner at venture capital firm a16z crypto, wrote an article arguing that external factors had slowed the growth of nonfinancial crypto applications. For Dixon, years of scams, exploitative behavior, and severe regulatory pressures discouraged developers and users from fully adopting Web3 projects outside of finance. 

Those nonfinancial applications comprise decentralized social networks, digital identity frameworks, blockchain-centric media platforms, digital ownership mechanics, and Web3 video games. Advocates of the concepts argue that blockchain could empower users to have more control over their data, online experiences, and connections than centralized companies. But Dixon’s explanation doesn’t resonate with everyone. Haseeb Qureshi, a managing partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly, vehemently disagreed. 

These products, he argued, had failed primarily because users found them neither useful nor attractive. And in his reply, Qureshi explained that it wasn’t regulators or major crypto scandals that were the issue of concern, but poor product design and the absence of real demand. Many of those projects, in his view, “failed the market test,” so they didn’t address problems that interested people. That disagreement plays into the broader divide in the crypto investment world. 

Several investors think tech is a very young venture that will take more time to mature, while others believe the market has already proven what works and doesn’t.

Different investment timelines drive opposing views

The disagreement is in part due to how venture capital firms manage investment timelines. A16z crypto, Dixon added, invests over the long term, with a typical expectation of delivering projects lasting 10 years or more before they succeed. 

One also needs the patience to establish entirely new kinds of online platforms and industries. But, as Nic Carter, a founding partner at Castle Island Ventures, pointed out, venture capital firms generally don’t have unlimited time. Investors, too, generally needed to find promising markets more quickly than before—often within 2 to 3 years—to invest in them, he said. This puts pressure to support ideas that can scale quickly and generate early returns. 

The time horizon gap also affects investors’ evaluations of Web3 projects differently. Longer-term investors are likely to be promoters of experimental ideas, such as decentralized social networks or identity systems, even if the initial momentum is lukewarm. 

Other investors prefer sectors with strong existing demand and defined revenue prospects. This has been a more prominent issue as crypto’s venture capital funding ballooned in 2022. 

It’s mostly invested in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), which consist of physical or traditional financial assets (such as real estate and bonds) sold as digital tokens on the blockchain. Such initiatives are seen as most realistic and comparable to existing financial markets.

Venture firms support different sectors based on their outlook

This disagreement is also mirrored in the types of projects different companies take up to support. The core of Dragonfly has been in financial use cases and technical design work to support blockchain-based financial systems. 

Some of the investments include the Agora stablecoin and payments platform, the payments infrastructure company Rain, the synthetic dollar project Ethena, and the Monad blockchain network.

They resonate with Dragonfly’s view that financial applications are now the most realistic and valuable use of blockchain technology.

It has supported financial platforms such as Coinbase and the decentralized exchange Uniswap, and has also invested in nonfinancial projects. Friends With Benefits, a blockchain-based online community, World, a digital identity platform, and Yield Guild Games, a Web3 gaming network, are among them. 

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CoinShares, the leading European investment company specializing in digital assets, published a statement on Friday, February 6, alleging that earlier concerns about the threats posed by quantum computing to Bitcoin are overstated.

According to the company’s findings, this issue can be addressed through engineering solutions, as it is not considered an immediate crisis.

Individuals in the crypto ecosystem raise concerns about quantum risks to BTC 

Earlier, Chaincode Labs researchers Anthony Milton and Clara Shikhelman shared a study released in May last year proposing that 20% to 50% of the total Bitcoin available in the crypto market could be at risk amid the emergence of quantum technology. 

Nonetheless, in response to this study, CoinShares argued that the suggested numbers incorporate different types of risk with distinct real-world impacts. While pointing out this argument, the leading European investment company focused particularly on legacy Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK) addresses, a type of ScriptPubKey that locks Bitcoin to a public key. 

Afterwards, the firm anticipated that around 1.6 million BTC, or 8% of the total cryptocurrency available in the market, is held in these addresses. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that only about 10,200 BTC of this estimated amount is kept in sufficiently large accounts that a breach could substantially interrupt the market.

The remaining amount of coins is later widely dispersed across over 32,000 individual UTXOs. On average, this is around 50 BTC per UTXO. Following this discovery, sources argued that it would take almost a lifetime to crack them, even under optimistic quantum conditions.

Apart from these claims, CoinShares also stressed that allegations of a 25% vulnerability frequently involve temporary threats, such as the recycling of exchange addresses, which, according to its Bitcoin Research Lead Christopher Bendiksen, can be resolved with ease.

At this moment, Christopher Wood, the Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jefferies, comments on the topic. He pointed out that he had decided earlier this year to eliminate the entire 10% Bitcoin allocation from his model portfolio due to Chaincode Labs’s significant estimates. Moreover, Wood cited quantum risk as a severe threat to BTC’s value stability, according to a report from a reliable source. 

The report mentioned that, “Wood stated that while GREED & Fear doesn’t think the quantum issue will significantly impact bitcoin prices soon, the idea of bitcoin as a store of value is not as strong for long-term pension portfolios.” 

CoinShares expresses disapproval that threats related to quantum computing are close 

Even after several individuals pointed out that quantum computing threats are approaching, CoinShares still expressed disapproval of the argument. 

Regarding their disapproval, Bendiksen attempted to explain that research demonstrates that, for a successful reversal of a public key to occur in just 24 hours, it would require a cutting-edge quantum computer with 13 million physical qubits.

Its ability is said to be 100,000 times more powerful than the largest machine available today. Notably, one would require a system whose capability is 3 million times greater than the available ones to successfully break a key in just one hour.

“To crack current asymmetric cryptography, you’d need millions of qubits,” said Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet to CoinShares. “Willow, Google’s latest computer, has only 105 qubits. Adding just one more qubit makes it exponentially harder to keep the system stable.” 

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Economist and Bitcoin supporter Lyn Alden says the US Federal Reserve may be moving into a gradual phase of money printing, increasing liquidity steadily rather than all at once. She expects that process to drive up asset prices, albeit not as much as some Bitcoin fans had anticipated. 

Alden’s view is that the Fed will not accelerate it on a massive scale, expanding its balance sheet progressively during a period of overall economic expansion and banking activity. 

In her investment strategy newsletter for February 8, Alden said her most important expectation for the Fed is to increase its balance sheet at a rate similar to the growth of total bank assets or national nominal GDP. This suggests the central bank would still add liquidity to the financial system. 

Such an expansion of the money supply is often called “money printing,” although it is primarily achieved through digital financial operations, not physical cash. When the Fed expands its balance sheet, it typically buys government bonds or other financial assets. 

This injects money into the banking system, making credit more available and encouraging investment. Alden noted that this environment helps hold “high-quality scarce assets.” That covers investments with a limited supply and strong store-of-value qualities. 

Commodities such as gold, certain stocks, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are common examples. But she also cautioned investors to be wary of parts of the market that have gotten too hot and to pay attention to assets that remain undervalued or overlooked. 

Her comments were made soon after US President Donald Trump named Kevin Warsh to serve as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. The implication injected considerable uncertainty into financial markets because some investors believe Warsh aligns more closely with tighter monetary policy than other candidates. 

Markets remain unsure about interest rates before the Fed meeting

Interest rate policy is a major factor in financial markets (cryptocurrencies included). When interest rates are low and the money supply is high, many investors turn to riskier assets in search of higher returns. That can drive up prices of stocks, crypto, and other investments. 

Then, when interest rates are higher, and it’s more difficult to borrow money, asset prices can slow or fall. Recent market research indicates mixed hopes regarding the Fed’s next move. Roughly 19.9% of traders say the Fed will cut rates next month at its next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, according to CME FedWatch. 

That’s lower than 23% who had anticipated a rate cut only days previously, indicating waning confidence in the prospect of near-term easing. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has shown caution and at times sent mixed signals about future policy. The Fed cut interest rates several times in 2023, but Powell has cautioned that inflation risks persist. 

At the same time, he expressed concerns about employment. This illustrates very clearly how delicate a balance the Fed must maintain. Powell said he believes that after the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting, inflation risks remain tilted upward, and employment risks are tilted downward.

Fed leadership transition increases market uncertainty

The change in governance at the Federal Reserve is another factor shaping market expectations. Powell’s term as Fed chairman is set to expire in May 2025, and Kevin Warsh has been nominated as a possible successor. 

But Warsh has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, leaving uncertainty over the future direction of monetary policy. Different Fed leaders can have different priorities. Some advocate a tighter policy to tame inflation, while others advocate a looser policy to boost growth and employment. 

Investors pay close attention to leadership changes because they could impact interest rates, liquidity, and broader market conditions. But even as uncertainty continues to loom, Alden’s outlook suggests the Fed won’t increase the money supply by much in the foreseeable future. 

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Futures are slightly green heading into Monday, with S&P 500 up 0.2%, Nasdaq 100 up 0.3%, and Dow futures up 87 points, after a wild week of tech-led selling and a Friday bounce.

Bitcoin reclaimed $70,000 after diving below $61,000 on Thursday night. Gold is holding above $5,000 and silver’s still near $77, all steady going into the next macro print.

The dollar had its worst year in nearly a decade, and traders aren’t falling for the tough talk anymore. While officials inside Donald Trump’s White House keep insisting they’re backing a “strong dollar,” the currency is still slumping. The dollar index is down another 1% since the start of 2026. That’s on top of the 9% plunge it saw in 2025, its biggest annual loss in eight years.

Goldman Sachs foreign exchange strategists said in a note to clients that:- Fundamentally, we think the recent injection of policy uncertainty will be sufficiently durable to keep the dollar from making up lost ground.”

They said investors had been expecting more support for the economy in 2026. What they got instead was a series of new tariff threats, which shook those expectations.

Traders respond to tariffs and political shifts

The real damage started last April, when Trump rolled out his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Within days, the dollar sank more than 5%. Almost a year later, it still hasn’t bounced back. Traders haven’t forgotten. And the rally some people hoped for never came.

The dollar used to be the place everyone ran to in a crisis. It was seen as a safe haven. For decades, it held the unofficial title of the world’s reserve currency, which gave the US huge advantages. That status is now being questioned.

Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie Bank, said, “If the reserve status of the USD does depend on the US role in the world — as guarantor of security and a rules-based order — then the events of the past year carry the seeds of a reallocation away from the USD, and the search for alternatives.”

This isn’t just about tariffs. It’s also about the future of US monetary policy. President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, to take over from Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair. Warsh is known as a hawk from his days during the 2008 crisis. But the market didn’t take the bait this time.

The dollar only jumped briefly when his name came up. That bounce faded fast. Traders quickly realized that Trump doesn’t want someone who’ll hike rates. In an interview with NBC News on February 4, Trump said clearly, “If he came in and said, ‘I want to raise them’ … he would not have gotten the job, no.” He added, “We’re way high in interest,” and said there’s “not much” doubt the Fed will lower rates under Warsh.

Investors search for hedges as confidence slips

As the political noise builds, the dollar is still technically the backbone of global finance. But a growing number of traders are looking for safer bets. They’re moving to the euro, the Swiss franc, and especially to gold. And it’s not just gold. Other metals like silver, platinum, copper, and steel are all spiking too.

Gold alone surged more than 60% through 2025. It’s still up over 70% across the past year, despite some recent cooling. The broader metals rally that started last year is still rolling into early 2026.

Macquarie’s Wizman doesn’t think this trend is short-term. “We do not think that over the medium- and long term the USD ‘diversification trade’ is over,” he said. According to him, weak dollar phases triggered by geopolitical shifts and policy chaos in Washington can drag on for ten years or more.

He added, “Under the direction in which the US administration seems to want to take the US vis-a-vis the rest of the world, the USD cannot maintain its reserve currency status indefinitely.”

So even though the White House keeps repeating that it backs a “strong dollar,” no one’s buying it. Not in the charts. Not in the trades. Not in the metals rally. And definitely not on the trading floors. Traders want less talk and more stability. Until they see that, the dollar isn’t getting their vote.

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Elon Musk acknowledged over the weekend that getting Tesla to a $100 trillion company value would demand massive effort and fortune. The statement came after investors suggested this sky-high number could happen if his various businesses merge together.

Right now, Tesla sits at $1.5 trillion in market value. Getting to $100 trillion would mean multiplying that number by 65 times. That target isn’t just about selling electric cars anymore. Musk wants robotaxis on roads, humanoid robots in factories, plus expanded energy storage and manufacturing operations.

“Obviously, a staggeringly enormous amount of work and good luck is needed for such an outcome! I’m just saying it isn’t impossible,” Musk wrote on X.

Wall Street projects massive markets for autonomous tech

The big question is whether these ambitious plans can actually deliver. Cryptopolitan reported in December that Tesla’s stock jumped when the company reached $1.5 trillion, driven mostly by excitement over robotaxis and AI rather than actual car sales. Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush called 2026 “a monster year ahead for Tesla” as the autonomous driving story begins.

But here’s where things get interesting. ARK Invest, run by Cathie Wood, projects the robotaxi market alone could hit $10 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley and Citi estimate humanoid robots will create a $5 trillion to $7 trillion market. Musk says Tesla plans to make 100,000 Optimus robots every month within five years, potentially bringing in $30 billion yearly.

Tesla also deployed 14.2 gigawatt-hours of energy storage last quarter and 46.7 gigawatt-hours over the past year. That business keeps growing quietly while everyone focuses on robots and taxis.

Tesla shareholders approved Musk’s massive pay package back in November 2025, worth potentially $1 trillion. The deal ties his compensation directly to company growth in AI and robotics. Then in January, Musk switched Tesla’s Full Self-Driving service to subscription-only, which could pump up recurring revenue. These moves align with the broader valuation goals.

However, reality has been messier than the promises. Cryptopolitan reported in September how California regulators got confused and frustrated when Musk claimed Tesla would launch robotaxis in San Francisco without even applying for permits. The company had no driverless operations, just invite-only rides with human drivers. That same month, another report noted Musk had said 80% of Tesla’s future value would come from Optimus robots, even though the bots weren’t generating any revenue yet.

Optimus robots still can’t walk without help

Most recent examination of the Optimus shows the robots still need help walking, get trained by copying humans, and haven’t been deployed in Tesla factories despite earlier promises. The third version is under development with no delivery date.

Some critics point out Tesla’s current $1.5 trillion value already assumes massive success. The company trades at much higher multiples than traditional automakers, pricing in future products that don’t exist yet. Michael Burry, who predicted the 2008 housing crash, recently called Tesla “ridiculously overvalued” and warned about shareholder dilution from stock-based compensation.

Musk has defended his compensation by pointing to the irony of critics who claim Tesla is overvalued while questioning his stock award at the same time.

Cathie Wood from ARK Invest believes the convergence of Musk’s companies creates unique advantages. She argues Tesla has proprietary data from roads, Neuralink provides biological data, and X offers real-time human conversation data. Together, this could create AI capabilities nobody else can match.

But getting from $1.5 trillion to $100 trillion would make Tesla worth nearly four times the combined value of the world’s ten most valuable companies today. That includes tech giants like NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. Tesla would essentially need to become bigger than entire industries.

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Large holders of Binance Coin (BNB) are beginning to shift part of their capital into a newer crypto protocol, and the numbers behind the move are starting to draw attention. As BNB trades in a tighter range and upside becomes harder to achieve at scale, some whales are reassessing where growth potential is strongest.

Analysts point out that even small reallocations from large-cap assets like BNB can have an outsized impact when directed toward early-stage protocols. This rotation is not driven by hype, but by simple math: lower market caps, active development, and clearer room for expansion. As a result, investors are closely watching how this capital shift could shape the next phase of the market.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance Coin (BNB) remains a titan of the industry, currently trading near $650 with a massive market capitalization of $100 billion. It is the backbone of the world’s largest exchange and the BNB Smart Chain. However, its recent performance shows signs of exhaustion. The coin has lost nearly 15% of its value in just the last week as traders shift into a risk-off mode. Despite its strong history, BNB is hitting a heavy wall of resistance between $850 and $915. For the price to move significantly higher, it needs billions of dollars in new capital, which is becoming harder to find in a saturated market.

The current technical outlook for BNB is cautious. Analysts warn that if the support level at $735 fails to hold, the price could retreat toward the $600 range. For long-term holders, the dream of a $1,000 BNB is still alive, but the path is getting steeper. 

With its all-time high of $1,370 still a far distance away, many investors are realizing that the “easy money” phase for BNB has passed. This stagnation is driving a rotation toward low-cap protocols that offer the same utility but with much more room for appreciation.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance is becoming a key destination for this rotating capital. It is a non-custodial lending protocol designed to let users access liquidity from their crypto without selling their positions. 

Since Q1 2025, the project has shown steady growth, raising over $20.2 million and attracting more than 19,000 holders worldwide. To build trust, Mutuum Finance has completed a full security audit with Halborn and maintains a strong 90/100 score from CertiK, which is an important signal for larger investors.

The structure of the MUTM presale is another point drawing attention. The total supply is fixed at 4 billion tokens, with 45.5%, or 1.82 billion tokens, allocated to the community. So far, over 840 million tokens have already been distributed. 

The token is currently priced at $0.04 in Phase 7, reflecting roughly 300% growth from the initial presale stages. With the stated launch price set at $0.06, current participants are entering below that level as the next crypto phase approaches.

MUTM vs. BNB: The $400 Contrast

To understand why whales are rotating, you only have to look at a small $400 investment. If you put $400 into BNB today, a move to $1,000 would result in a profit of about $124. While that is a solid gain, it does not change an investor’s life. 

On the other hand, putting that same $400 into MUTM at the current $0.04 price secures 10,000 tokens. When the token hits its launch price of $0.06, that $400 is already worth $600. As long as analysts are correct and MUTM reaches its long-term target of $0.40 by late 2026, that $400 could grow into $4,000.

This 10x potential is simply not possible for BNB anymore due to its massive size. BNB’s primary limitation is its market cap; it would need to reach a valuation of over $1 trillion to offer the same growth as a small DeFi protocol. 

By contrast, MUTM only needs to capture a small fraction of the global lending market to see massive vertical movement. For a whale, the choice is clear: stay in a slow-moving giant or rotate into a project with audited security and a 10x roadmap.

The window for this early entry is closing fast. The V1 protocol is already live on the Sepolia testnet, proving that the technology is real and functional. Investors can now test the lending pools and see exactly how the mtTokens earn yield. This transition from a concept to a working product has caused Phase 7 to sell out at a record pace. 

The project even features a 24-hour leaderboard that rewards the top daily contributor with a $500 bonus, keeping the momentum high around the clock. As the legacy market searches for its next direction, the whales have already made their move.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Thousands of Danes grabbed their phones and started scanning grocery store shelves, hunting for American products to avoid after President Donald Trump ramped up his talk about taking Greenland.

Two apps built to spot U.S. goods shot up the download charts in late January according to data from market intelligence firm Appfigures.

Made O’Meter, created by 53-year-old Copenhagen resident Ian Rosenfeldt, pulled in about 30,000 new users in just three days when tensions hit their peak. That’s out of more than 100,000 total downloads since the app launched last March.

Source: Appfigures

Another tool called NonUSA crossed the 100,000 download mark in early February. On January 21 alone, its 21-year-old creator Jonas Pipper watched 25,000 people grab the app, with users scanning 526 products in a single minute at one point.

Regular bar codes don’t tell you if a product is American or European. “Many people were frustrated and thinking, ‘How do we actually do this in practical terms,'” Rosenfeldt told the Associated Press. His app uses artificial intelligence to scan products and suggest European alternatives. Users can set their preferences, like blocking all U.S.-owned brands or only buying from EU companies. The app claims it’s more than 95% accurate.

From 500 to 40,000 daily scans

Made O’Meter was doing about 500 scans a day last summer. On January 23, that number exploded to nearly 40,000. It’s dropped since but still sits around 5,000 daily. The app now has more than 20,000 regular users in Denmark, plus people in Germany, Spain, Italy, and even Venezuela.

Trump later backed off his tariff threats after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. He said they’d reached a “framework” for a deal about access to Greenland’s minerals and Arctic security.

As Cryptopolitan covered at the time, the EU had called emergency meetings and European leaders warned the tariffs would “undermine transatlantic relations.” Few details about Trump’s framework deal have come out since. U.S. and Danish officials started technical talks in late January about Arctic security, but Denmark and Greenland keep saying their sovereignty isn’t up for discussion.

Boycott apps won’t put a dent in the U.S. economy

Louise Aggerstrøm Hansen, an economist at Danske Bank, told Euronews that only about 1% of Danish food consumption comes directly from the United States.

Rosenfeldt understands his app won’t damage the American economy. His hope is different to send a message to grocery stores and encourage more reliance on European producers. “Maybe we can send a signal and people will listen and we can make a change,” he said.

Pipper called his app “a weapon in the trade war for consumers.” His numbers show about 46,000 users in Denmark and 10,000 in Germany. Some users told him the app lifted pressure off them. “They feel like they kind of gained the power back in this situation.”

The spread to other Nordic countries matters too. Beyond Denmark, NonUSA users include thousands in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. Threats to one Nordic country can feel like threats to all.

Whether larger companies will respond is the bigger question. Individual consumer choices might not move the needle much. But if Danish pension funds, institutional investors, or major retail chains start making decisions based on similar sentiments, the impact grows.

AkademikerPension, a Danish pension fund, already sold $100 million in U.S. Treasury bonds in January over the Greenland situation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed it, saying “Denmark’s investments in US Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant.” That kind of talk might actually encourage more institutions to make symbolic moves.

In the end, this isn’t really about apps or boycotts. It’s about what happens when people feel their government can’t protect them from bigger powers. They look for any tool available, even if they know it’s mostly symbolic. As Rosenfeldt put it, Danish citizens “love the American people, but we don’t like the way that the government is treating Europe and Denmark.”

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Address poisoning attacks have become a persistent issue on Ethereum, and ironically, they have contributed to the recent record-breaking daily transaction counts. 

According to ScamSniffer, there has already been a victim of address poisoning this year, and that loss cost $12.25 million. It happened in January when the victim copied the wrong address from their transaction history, not noticing until it was too late. 

A similar story emerged in December when one user lost a whopping $50 million in the same way. That makes it two victims across two months with a total loss of $62 million. 

According to a ScamSniffer’s January report, signature phishing also went up, with a total of $6.27M stolen across 4,741 victims in January. The two cases involved a user losing $3.02M and another losing $1.08M and accounted for 65% of all phishing losses.

Why address poisoning attacks have become rampant in recent months

Address poisoning is a kind of scam that depends heavily on social engineering, where attackers monitor the target’s transaction histories, create lookalike addresses, and then send tiny amounts of ETH, called dust transactions, effectively poisoning the target’s history. 

What follows is a waiting game until the victim makes a mistake. The most important part of the whole operation, the dust transactions, were too expensive on Ethereum, so those address poisoning attacks were never as common before now.

However, in late 2025, Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade came through, and it improved scalability while reducing the transaction fees, causing gas costs to drop sharply. The upgrade has done many great things for the ecosystem, but it also made these low-value dust transactions economically viable for bad actors at scale for the first time. 

Address poisoning contributes to daily transaction record on Ethereum 

As earlier stated, address poisoning attacks depend heavily on dust transactions that the attackers send to poison the target’s history. 

These dust transactions are a prerequisite to the attack itself and are often numerous, and they are set like traps. But not all of them catch prey. Nevertheless, these dust transfers count as real transactions on-chain, and they have been inflating Ethereum’s metrics. 

Ethereum daily transaction chart. Source: Etherscan

After the Fusaka upgrade, the network saw massive surges in activity that lasted into 2026. Daily transactions hit all-time highs, and active/new addresses spiked dramatically. 

However, analysts and researchers have pointed out that a substantial portion of the surge is linked to mass address poisoning campaigns rather than organic adoption or usage.

The fact that the ETH price barely had a bullish reaction to all these new records further justifies talk of artificial inflation. However, the Ethereum maxis are not nitpicking over where the traffic is coming from. 

They have celebrated the new records, and the Fusaka upgrade has been widely hailed as a great implementation. Never mind that low-value spam transactions dominated the records or that many of the new active addresses received such qualification because they received tiny stablecoin transfers as their first activity.

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Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, has dismissed recent concerns about market volatility, pointing out that volatility is a standard part of the industry.

The cryptocurrency market’s recent volatility has been due to political factors, institutional trading. Recent concerns about quantum computing and the continued safety of Bitcoin have not helped matters either.

Should investors worry about the recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market?

In a post on X, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made it clear that the current market turbulence has not had a negative effect on his optimism for the future of the cryptocurrency industry. He reminded investors in his post that volatility is a standard part of the industry and pointed out that the sector has already survived many similar cycles.

Armstrong argued that it is hard to be anything but bullish because cryptocurrency is “eating financial services at an incredible rate.” Despite the falling prices seen on trading screens, the CEO stated that Coinbase would continue to “keep shipping” new products and updates.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,210 in October 2025. However, by early February 2026, the price had slumped to near $63,000. This represents a 50% decline in value in just a few months.

The current volatility is driven by several complex factors, like political changes. For instance, when President Trump threatened a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, the market was immediately affected, with many investors selling off their shares.

Contributing to the problem, in previous years, many hedge funds engaged in “arbitrage” trades. They would buy Bitcoin through ETFs and sell futures to lock in small, safe profits. However, in early 2026, these trades became less profitable. Data from CoinShares suggests that hedge fund exposure to Bitcoin ETFs fell by nearly one-third as these professional traders pulled their money out.

In a recent Cryptopolitan report, Bitwise advisor Jeff Park attributed the latest sharp BTC price drop that occurred on February 5, 2026, to a cascading effect of derisking moves happening in TradFi rather than some terrible event in crypto like a hack or blow up of massive entities.

Furthermore, the “Coinbase premium,” that is, the difference between the price of Bitcoin on Coinbase compared to other exchanges, turned negative.

In February 2026, Bitcoin was trading significantly cheaper on Coinbase than on Binance, a sign that American institutional investors are selling their holdings. When these large players exit their positions, it creates a “domino effect.”

Coinbase plans for success amid market uncertainty

Coinbase continues to keep trading volumes active by listing new tokens based on popular demand. The company is also focusing on bringing in revenue from subscriptions and services to make the business less dependent on trading fees.

Coinbase’s stock price (COIN) has dropped about 45% over the last three months. It declined sharply from a high of $444 to approximately $179.

Despite the drop in value, Coinbase reported that its transaction revenue remains particularly strong in derivatives trading and also receives stablecoin income from USDC.

Armstrong has been a vocal supporter of clear regulations for digital assets like the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts and government adoption of cryptocurrencies.

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Gold prices crashed last week after a record-setting rally, and Scott Bessent blamed it on reckless trading in China.

Speaking live on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Scott said, “The gold move thing, things have gotten a little unruly in China. They’re having to tighten margin requirements. So gold looks to me kind of like a classical, speculative blowoff.”

That was his way of saying the spike and sudden fall had little to do with demand and everything to do with panic buying by leveraged traders.

The rally in precious metals had been driven by fears about global conflicts, loose speculation, and growing concern about whether the Federal Reserve still operates freely. Then it collapsed.

Chinese authorities raised margin requirements, and the money dried up. The price didn’t fall because of the economy. It fell because regulators in China yanked the brakes on traders who had gone way too far.

Scott pushes Senate to start hearings despite Powell investigation

While traders were getting burned in the gold market, Scott was also dealing with a political standoff in Washington. He said the Senate should get moving with confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s Federal Reserve pick, Kevin Warsh.

Kevin was nominated on January 30 to replace Jerome Powell, but the process has been blocked.

Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina is behind the delay. He said he won’t let any of Trump’s Fed nominations go through until the Department of Justice finishes a criminal investigation into Powell.

The case is about comments Powell made to Congress last year about the costs of renovations at the Fed’s headquarters. Tillis said he was a witness and called it a threat to the Fed’s independence.

Even with that, Scott reminded everyone that Tillis had also called Kevin a strong candidate. “Senator Tillis has come out and said he thinks that Kevin Warsh is a very strong candidate,” Scott said. “So I would say: Why don’t we get the hearings under way and see where Jeanine Pirro’s investigation goes.” Pirro is the U.S. attorney running the case in D.C.

Scott outlines Fed policy, Japan ties, and Trump’s economy

Scott also spoke about how the Federal Reserve is handling its giant balance sheet. He said not to expect any sudden cuts.

“I wouldn’t expect them to do anything quickly,” he said. “They’ve moved to the ample-regime policy, and that does require a larger balance sheet, so I would think that they’ll probably sit back, take at least a year to decide what they want to do.”

On Kevin Warsh’s independence, Scott said Kevin “is going to be very independent, but mindful that the Fed is accountable to the American people.” He also said if Kevin didn’t lower rates like Trump wants, it would be up to the president to sue him.

Outside the Fed mess, Scott congratulated Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae for her coalition’s election win.

“She is a great ally, great relationship with the president,” Scott said. He added that Japan’s strength supports U.S. strategy in Asia, especially now with Donald Trump back in the White House.

When asked about how the economy was doing, Scott said:

“President Trump’s economy is delivering real results for the American people. POTUS’ policies are driving strong growth, bringing down inflation, and taking the stock market to historic highs, all while achieving the lowest crime rate in over a hundred years.”

Scott added that in 2025, Trump laid the foundation for strong job gains and income growth in 2026.

“The stock market lives in the future,” Scott said, “and its historic performance is a signal from Wall Street that Main Street will soon harvest the rewards from POTUS’ economic policies.”

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The crypto market is also moving into a period where first mover indicators, rather than headlines, are important. Although investors continue to pay attention to large, household assets, analysts are starting to pay attention to smaller protocols that have already begun to record actual improvements. 

They are initiatives that proceed unobtrusively through the process, establish a consistent demand, and a major breakthrough before the rest of the market takes notice. The analysts are now watching closely one such protocol as they highlight a possible 500% window of growth with efforts related to timing, implementation, and constrained initial supply.

Mutuum Finance Presale Development and MUTM Introduction

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is already at the seventh stage of its presale distribution, and the MUTM costs a value of $0.04. This step puts the project in the later stage of its presale, in which early prices are becoming scarcer. The price that is already confirmed is $0.06, which implies that the next crypto stage is almost twenty percent of growth over the current positions.

To date, the project has garnered more than $20.4 million dollars with a relatively increasing number of over 19,000 individual holders. This finance was not given out in a spurt. In its place, it accumulated over time with the increasing number of those joining the updates on development and testnet. Much of presale allocation has already been disbursed and some of the remaining supply at early price is constantly diminishing as Phase 7 progresses.

What Mutuum Finance is Building

Mutuum Finance is an on-chain decentralized lending protocol currently under development. The core idea is straightforward: users can access liquidity without selling their crypto. Long-term holdings can be kept in place while assets are either supplied to earn yield or used as collateral for borrowing.

At the center of the system are mtTokens. These tokens represent lending positions and are designed to increase in value over time as interest flows back into the protocol. mtTokens can already be tested in the current V1 testnet environment. The project also outlines a buy-and-distribute model in its whitepaper, where a portion of protocol fees is planned to be used to buy tokens from the market and distribute them to participants, linking token demand to platform activity rather than inflation.

Security is a major focus. Mutuum Finance has completed a full audit with Halborn, holds a strong CertiK security score, and maintains an active $50,000 bug bounty to support ongoing review and transparency as development continues.

Stablecoin Plans, and Analyst Outlook

The stablecoin functionality will also come with the broader ecosystem of Mutuum Finance. This is aimed at sustaining lending and borrowing that even in a volatile market will continue to be predictable. The protocol uses price oracles to monitor real-time asset values in order to assist in pricing it correctly. This assists in maintaining loans at the right level and pricing of positions.

Market wise, the gap between initial price formation and the estimated value based on utility is what analysts usually pay attention to. MUTM is currently trading at $0.04 and the launch price is set at $0.06, some analysts feel a shift to the range of $0.20 to $0.25 in the upcoming cycle would be realistic given the adoption dynamics. The range suggests that there could be a rise of approximately 500% of the current values, but on the basis of expected increased usage and not speculation.

Protocol Launch, Momentum Phase 7 and Whale Activity

One of the major causes of the increased attention is the launch of the V1 protocol in the Sepolia testnet. This release enables users to experiment with lending, borrowing, liquidity pools, mtTokens, debt tracking and risk controls. It is an assurance that the protocol is working and is no longer a mere idea.

Phase 7, meanwhile, is accelerating, and the allocations are taking place at a quick pace compared to previous levels. We are seeing bigger wallet entries as certain investors are already getting in positions before the following price tier. Such a mix of diminishing supply, increasing participation and working technology is commonly considered to be a pivotal juncture.

With the presale approaching an end and the project about to be expanded in wider use, the analysts note that, this can be one of the last chances to join in before the pricing and exposure can alter considerably.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman are pointing fingers at each other over connections to Jeffrey Epstein, but newly released government files show neither has clean hands.

Two of Silicon Valley’s biggest names, once colleagues in the tech world’s so-called PayPal Mafia, have spent recent days attacking one another on social media about their links to the convicted sex offender. The problem? Both men had more contact with Epstein than they previously admitted.

The Justice Department’s document dump has become ammunition in ongoing battles between powerful figures, but few fights have drawn as much attention as this one.

Musk shared records proving Hoffman traveled to Epstein’s private island back in November 2014. Hoffman fired back by highlighting emails where Musk asked about wild parties at that same island.

This is a classic case of people in glass houses throwing stones. Both tech leaders maintained relationships with Epstein years after his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting a minor for prostitution made him a registered sex offender. Epstein later faced federal sex-trafficking charges before his death in 2019.

The documents paint a particularly troubling picture for Musk, who has repeatedly denied various aspects of his Epstein connection.

Back in November 2012, Musk sent an email asking, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” On Christmas Day that same year, he wrote again saying, “I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose.”

November 25, 2012 email from Elon Musk to Jeffrey Epstein. Source: Department of Justice Epstein files.

Epstein’s response mentioned that “the ratio on my island might make Talilah uncomfortable,” referring to Musk’s then-wife Talulah Riley. Musk quickly replied that “Ratio is not a problem for Talulah.” Yet days later, he backed out, writing that “Logistics won’t work this time around.”

The SpaceX situation gets even messier

In February 2013, emails show Epstein and multiple assistants were set to tour SpaceX facilities after Musk invited them. Musk’s own assistant arranged a lunch meeting between the two men during this visit.

On February 26, Epstein thanked Musk for the tour, writing, “you would have had fun at xmas.” Musk’s two-word reply: “I see.”

But in 2020, he wrote on social media that “to the best [of] our knowledge, he never toured SpaceX. Don’t know where that comes from.” The emails prove otherwise.

Musk has also claimed he never attended any Epstein parties and never flew on his plane. He posted on January 31 saying he has “many times call (sic) for the prosecution of those who have committed crimes with Epstein.”

Hoffman’s involvement looks equally bad

In September 2014, Epstein’s assistant arranged helicopter transport for Hoffman and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito to visit the island. Ito resigned from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2019 when his Epstein ties came out.

On Christmas Eve 2014, Hoffman sent Epstein gifts: ice cream “for the girls” and “something that may strike your funny bone for the island.”

December 24, 2014 email from Reid Hoffman to Jeffrey Epstein. Source: Department of Justice Epstein files.

In January 2015, Hoffman confirmed he sent a metal sculpture as a gift, writing it might “strike your sense of humor” and had “an appropriate nature to the island.”

The artwork came from an artist who makes monster sculptures from recycled metal. Hoffman then offered to help with damage control. “Been giving a bit of thought to how I can help with the recent press fu,” he wrote, saying he was “mostly looking for help on the on-line front.” Epstein told him to wait out the storm.

Hoffman claimed on February 3 that he knew Epstein through an MIT fundraising relationship he regrets. He admitted to meetings from 2016 to 2018, contradicting his earlier claim they last met in 2015.

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Cryptocurrency protocols that are only starting to produce meaningful progress are becoming more and more of interest to investors looking into the future, in 2026. In such market rotation times, all investors tend to move off of large-cap assets and towards new altcoins that are still establishing a presence and gaining momentum.

In that regard, one emerging crypto protocol is being followed by the analysts as it has already begun to shine because of its developmental pace and popularity. Although it is still young, the recent achievements of the project make it possible to state that it may be among the altcoins to be observed when the next crypto stage of the market begins to shape.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance is a non-custodial lending hub designed to support different types of users through two planned market models. The first is the Peer-to-Contract (P2C) market. In this setup, users deposit assets into shared liquidity pools and earn interest over time. For example, depositing USDT into a pool offering 10% APY would return mtTokens. These mtTokens act as digital receipts and are designed to increase in value as borrowers repay interest, making passive income automatic and easy to track.

The second model is the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) market, which is intended for direct agreements between lenders and borrowers. Here, participants can set their own terms, such as interest rates and duration.

 Safety across both models is managed through Loan-to-Value (LTV) limits. For instance, with an 80% LTV, depositing assets worth $1,000 would allow borrowing up to $800 while keeping ownership of the collateral. An automated liquidator system is planned to monitor positions and step in if collateral values fall too far, helping maintain overall platform stability.

Momentum and MUTM Structure

The MUTM token has had tremendous demand. The project has received more than $20.4 million in addition to close to 19,000 holders across the world. The tokenomics are made to grow over a long period of time. 

The community presale is allocated 45.5%(1.82 billion tokens) of a total supply of 4 billion tokens. Up to now, more than 840 million tokens have been sold, that is, half of the amount of community supply is already exhausted.

There has been a stable and organized price action. It is evident that the token has reached its current price of $0.04 since the initial stage when it was only priced at a level of just $0.01. This is a 300% increase in the course of construction alone. 

The official price is set at $0.06 which offers people who sign up a 50% immediate edge. A 24-hour leaderboard will encourage the community to be active by offering the best daily contributor a $500 bonus each and every night.

Technical Preparation and Market Prospect

The main driver behind the recent surge is the official V1 protocol launch on the Sepolia testnet. This milestone shows that the project has moved from planning to execution. Users can now interact with a live version of the platform to test lending pools, borrowing flows, and the mtToken system, which tracks deposits and interest in real time within a risk-free environment.

Security has been treated as a top priority during this phase. The protocol has already completed a full audit with Halborn and maintains a strong CertiK score, alongside an active bug bounty program. These steps are designed to ensure the system behaves as intended while it continues to be tested and refined ahead of future upgrades. 

Due to this practical delivery, analysts have given good price projections. Most analysts tend to think that MUTM could hit $0.50 by the year 2027 as long as the mainnet is released. This would constitute over 1,100% increment to the current phase. 

The Road to Global Adoption

Looking ahead, Mutuum Finance has outlined plans for two key upgrades that are still under development: a native over-collateralized stablecoin and future Layer-2 integration. The stablecoin is intended to let users mint a dollar-pegged asset against their deposited holdings, aiming to provide more predictable liquidity within the ecosystem. At the same time, Layer-2 expansion is being explored to help lower transaction costs and improve speed as usage grows.

Interest around the project continues to build as Phase 7 progresses, with the token currently priced at $0.04. As this stage moves closer to completion, availability at this level is becoming more limited, which is drawing increased attention from early participants.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Dogecoin has taken a hard hit, with more than $30 billion wiped from its market cap, forcing many investors to stop and reassess their positions. What once felt like an unstoppable community-driven run has slowed, and the recent price action has made it clear that momentum alone is no longer enough to carry the token forward.

As DOGE struggles to regain traction, attention is starting to drift elsewhere. Many traders are now looking beyond meme-driven assets and asking a different question: where is real progress happening? This shift in focus reflects a broader change in the market, where investors are becoming more selective and are beginning to favor projects that offer clear use cases and visible development rather than relying on hype alone.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE) is at the moment trading at around 0.096 and this is way below its glory days. Although it continues to be one of the most renowned brands in the industry, its market value has suffered a huge blow. It is at approximately $16 billion after it lost billions in value in the past few months. The celebrity tweets and retail frenzy were the power behind the early wave that saw DOGE become a household name in 2021. In the absence of that equivalent energy of the virus, the coin is having a hard time thinking of a reason to go up.

The prognosis of Dogecoin in 2026 and 2027 is becoming rather skeptical. Lots of analysts are making poor price calls that DOGE is falling to as low as $0.05 in case it fails to locate a practical application. Its unlimited supply is the greatest issue. The price is continuously under pressure since it decreases with the 5 billion new tokens that are mined annually. The original meme coin will become an artifact of a bygone era market without a significant technological upgrade.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

As hype around older coins continues to fade, Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is starting to attract more attention from investors looking for substance. The project is currently in its presale stage, with the token priced at $0.04. So far, it has raised over $20.2 million and gathered a community of more than 19,000 participants, reflecting steady interest rather than sudden spikes.

Mutuum Finance is positioned as a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol rather than a meme-driven asset. Its goal is to let users access liquidity without selling their crypto holdings. By using smart contracts, users can supply assets to earn yield or use them as collateral to borrow, all in a non-custodial setup where they retain control of their funds. 

The project has also reached an important technical milestone with its V1 protocol live on the Sepolia testnet, allowing users to test lending pools, mtTokens, and basic risk controls in a live but low-risk environment. This combination of working technology, growing participation, and clear utility is why the project is gaining visibility as the market becomes more selective.

Why Investors Shift From DOGE to MUTM

The explanation for this massive rotation is simple: utility. Dogecoin has seen its market value erode by nearly $30 billion over the last six months because it lacks an underlying financial purpose. It does not generate yield, and it does not power a functional economic machine. As a meme-based asset, its price is heavily dependent on social media sentiment and celebrity mentions, which are increasingly difficult to sustain in a more mature market. 

In contrast, Mutuum Finance is built on a foundation of tangible financial services. It offers a decentralized lending ecosystem where token value is tied to protocol usage rather than internet trends. Even though MUTM’s official launch price is set at $0.06, many investors expect the token to jump to $0.25 as the platform scales. This move would represent a potential 6x appreciation from the current Phase 7 price of $0.04. To put this into perspective, consider a $600 allocation into both assets.

In DOGE, given its multi-billion dollar market cap, a 6x return would require an astronomical amount of new capital, roughly $60 billion, just to move the price to that level. In a cooling meme-coin market, such a move is statistically difficult because the asset has already reached a high level of saturation.

In MUTM, because it is in an early-stage presale with a low market cap, a move to $0.25 is driven by the fundamental repricing of a new utility protocol. A $600 investment at the current $0.04 price could potentially grow to $3,750 if the analyst target is reached. This represents the difference between chasing a mature trend and participating in the growth of a fresh financial infrastructure.

Security Milestones

The difference in the price forecast is impressive. As DOGE struggles to remain relevant, analysts do not think that MUTM will not be above $5 at the end of 2026 as its mainnet and stablecoin schemes move into production. This growth is based on security. 

Mutuum Finance is already fully audited by Halborn, which is one of the best security firms globally. In order to make the community prolific, the project is equipped with a 24-hour leaderboard that provides the best daily contributor a bonus of $500 in mUTM. The time to enter into this new crypto era of finance is running out soon as the window to join in is narrowing down to the launch price of $0.06.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance