PA Daily News | PENGUIN's market capitalization surges on Musk's tweets; Bitcoin spot ETFs see second-highest net outflows this week, reaching $1.328 billion.

Today's top news highlights:

1. Macroeconomic Outlook for Next Week: Fed Meeting Approaching, Silver Enters "Triple-Digit" Era, Will Trump Add Fuel to the Fire?

2. Binance Alpha lists Memes and Penguin.

3. Musk's response to a Grok-generated video related to PENGUIN caused the market value of the Meme coin PENGUIN to surge.

4. Space Public Sale Refund Details: Total $12.3 million, the first 5% of participants will only receive 11% to 21% refund.

5. NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway announced its closure and advised users to withdraw their assets before February 23.

6. Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net outflows of $1.328 billion this week, the second-highest on record.

Regulation & Macro

Macro Outlook for Next Week: Fed Meeting Approaching, Silver Enters Trillion-Digit Era, Will Trump Add Fuel to the Fire?

After threatening Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and forcibly taking control of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, US President Donald Trump seems to be adding another "bombshell" to the market. This week, another dramatic market swing triggered by Trump has occurred. However, even Trump's latest "backing down" hasn't deterred gold and silver bulls, who have pushed precious metals to the next milestone: silver has surpassed $100, and gold is very close to $5,000. Looking ahead to next week, market volatility is unlikely to abate. Weekend anxieties and a generally tense atmosphere surrounding Iran are fueling market activity, especially with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting approaching and Trump preparing to announce his nominee for the next Fed Chair. Here are the key points the market will be focusing on in the coming week:

At 23:00 on Tuesday, the US Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index for January and the US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for January will be released.

At 03:00 on Thursday, the Federal Reserve FOMC will announce its interest rate decision.

Powell will hold a monetary policy press conference at 03:30 on Thursday.

At 21:30 on Thursday, the US initial jobless claims for the week ending January 24 and the US trade balance for November will be released.

At 21:30 on Friday, the US December PPI data and Canada's November GDP month-on-month rate will be released.

The US January Chicago PMI data will be released at 22:45 on Friday.

Next week's biggest highlight may not come from the Federal Reserve or the data. Trump will likely try to steal Powell's thunder by announcing his nominee for Powell in May. It is believed that Trump has narrowed down his choices to four candidates: White House economic advisor Hassett, Federal Reserve Governor Waller, former Federal Reserve Governor Warsh, and Rick Reid, BlackRock's chief bond investment manager, who recently joined the list.

Trump will attend a summit on the "Trump Accounts" issue next Wednesday local time.

According to a report by Axios cited by Jinshi, Trump will attend a summit on the "Trump Accounts" issue next Wednesday local time.

Ukrainian officials: Prediction markets are not legally recognized, and Polymarket has no legal way to resume operations.

A senior official involved in developing Ukraine's digital economy policy stated that Ukraine currently lacks a legal framework for Web3 prediction markets, and existing laws do not recognize such platforms.

Days after Ukraine blocked Polymarket and nearly 200 gambling-related websites, Dmitry Nikolaievsky, chief legal officer of the Digital Economy Development Project Office of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, revealed that while the decision to ban Polymarket followed existing legal procedures, the fundamental problem was that the country's legal framework did not recognize prediction markets, and legal reform was unlikely in the short term because the possibility of the wartime parliament amending the definition of gambling was extremely low, which left prediction markets in a legal deadlock.

Oklahoma lawmakers have proposed allowing state employees, businesses, and individuals to accept Bitcoin payments.

According to market sources, Oklahoma State Representative Dusty Deevers has introduced a bill that would allow state employees, businesses, and individuals to accept Bitcoin payments.

The Gwangju Prosecutors' Office in South Korea is conducting an internal investigation into the suspected theft of 70 billion won worth of seized Bitcoin.

According to South Korean media outlet Ohmy News , the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office in South Korea recently reportedly lost a large amount of Bitcoin seized and stored in connection with a criminal case. The exact amount of Bitcoin lost has not been released, but it is understood to be worth hundreds of billions of won. The prosecution is conducting an internal investigation.

The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office discovered the loss during a routine inspection of seized financial assets for irregularities. They were examining Bitcoin-related passwords stored on a USB flash drive. A prosecutor stated, "We understand that the incident occurred during a routine inspection of seized Bitcoins when someone inadvertently visited a so-called 'fake (fraudulent) website.' Internal discussions within the prosecution suggest the lost Bitcoins are worth as much as 70 billion won."

When asked by the media, an official from the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office said, "We cannot confirm this."

The controversy surrounding the US cryptostructure bill's ban on stablecoin yields: Could it accelerate the flow of funds to a "synthetic dollar" and trigger capital flight?

Experts warn that proposed restrictions on stablecoin yields under the US Clarity Act could drive demand for offshore and synthetic dollar products as investors seek yields outside regulated markets. Under the already enacted Genius Act, payment-type stablecoins like USDC must be fully backed by cash or short-term US Treasury bonds and cannot directly pay interest, thus being considered "digital cash." Colin Butler, head of markets at Mega Matrix, stated that prohibiting compliant stablecoins from offering yields to holders would not protect the US financial system but would instead marginalize regulated institutions and accelerate capital migration outside regulatory boundaries. Currently, the digital yuan already has interest-bearing capabilities, and Singapore, Switzerland, and the UAE are advancing frameworks for interest-bearing digital assets. If the US bans yields on compliant dollar stablecoins, it could weaken global competitiveness.

Project Updates

Binance Alpha lists memes and penguin

NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway has announced its closure and advised users to withdraw their assets before February 23.

NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway has announced its closure and advised users to withdraw their assets before February 23. Nifty Gateway was one of the early NFT trading and management platforms and was acquired by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in 2019.

R3 announced its plan to transform into a Solana-based tokenization and on-chain capital markets platform.

Blockchain technology developer R3 has announced a repositioning and transformation into a Solana-based tokenized and on-chain capital market, focusing on high-yield institutional assets such as private lending and trade finance, packaged into DeFi-native structures. The aim is to bring Wall Street-level assets onto the blockchain and massively integrate off-chain capital into the on-chain market. R3 reportedly already supports over $10 billion in assets through its Corda blockchain platform and has partnered with HSBC, Bank of America, Bank of Italy, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Swiss National Bank, Euroclear, SDX, and SBI, among others.

Neynar co-founders released Farcaster's strategic vision and clarified that the client, protocol, and Clanker will not be shut down.

Neynar co-founder Rish announced on the X platform that he has officially taken over the Farcaster protocol, operating its client and Clanker. His future vision is to continue building a builder-centric ecosystem, enabling creators and developers to smoothly transition from initial ideas to sustainable revenue models. This includes: supporting product openness, ensuring products built on Farcaster can be used on any platform and directly support global trading, asset issuance, and on-chain ecosystems; ecosystem integration and fusion of software generation, crypto-native payments, and a builder-first network; and supporting multiple types of builders. Rish emphasized that the Farcaster client, protocol, and Clanker will not be shut down, and product iterations will be based on community feedback. Trader wallets and low-fee subscriptions for professional subscribers will also remain unchanged. Short-term planning will begin with priority assessments.

Space Public Sale Refund Details: Total $12.3 million, the first 5% of participants will only receive 11% to 21% refund.

Space has released its public sale refund details, allowing all participants to choose a partial refund: those with smaller initial investments will receive the largest refund amount first. All refunds will be verified on-chain. Space will allocate an additional $5 million for refunds, bringing the total refund amount to $12.3 million. The remaining funds will be used for platform launch, token deployment, and long-term ecosystem development. The process will begin on January 27th.

Space stated that among the 4,677 participating wallets:

• 100% of participants are eligible for a partial refund. Every participant is eligible.
• 80% of participants can apply for a refund of up to 70% of their committed funds.
• 86% of participants are eligible to apply for a refund of up to 50% of their committed funds.
• The top 5% of participants can apply for a refund, which will amount to 11% to 21% of their committed funds.

Musk's response to a Grok-generated video related to PENGUIN caused the market capitalization of the Meme coin PENGUIN to surge.

X platform user Jeffrey Weichsel commented on a "Trump walking with penguins" image posted by the White House, posting a related video generated by Grok, which received a "♥" comment from Musk.

According to GMGN market data, the market capitalization of the Meme coin PENGUIN rose to $170 million, reaching a high of $173.5 million, before falling back to $150 million. The 24-hour increase was 345.4%, with a trading volume of $154 million.

Scoll co-founder X's account has been hacked. Users are advised not to click on suspicious links or interact via private messages.

Scoll posted a notice on the X platform stating that co-founder @shenhaichen's X account has been hacked and they are actively working to recover the account. Users are advised not to interact with any links or private messages.

Analysis & Opinions

Community users are urging the X product manager to strengthen the cleanup of fraudulent accounts, and the relevant team has already intervened.

Community users are urging Nikita Bier, X product lead and Solana advisor, to focus more on cleaning up fraudulent accounts on the platform, rather than concentrating on niche communities like crypto or InfoFi. They claim there are approximately 22,600 newly registered fake X accounts frequently using Space live voice tags to lure users with phishing pre-sale links. The scale is too large to handle manually reporting or blocking each account individually. They also suggest introducing a facial recognition login mechanism, which could significantly reduce the number of malicious actors. In response, Nikita Bier stated that she is aware of the issue and the team is already working on a solution.

A World Gold Council survey indicates that 95% of central banks will continue to buy gold in the future, while the US dollar's share of global foreign exchange reserves has fallen below 60%.

According to a report by CCTV Finance cited by Jinshi, international gold prices rose by over 64% in 2025, marking the largest annual increase since 1979. At this year's World Economic Forum, central bank gold purchases, de-dollarization, and the independence of the Federal Reserve naturally became core topics in several sub-forums. As Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio stated, compared to dollar assets such as US Treasury bonds, gold is becoming a more valued reserve asset for global central banks, and the central bank gold-buying spree is reshaping the demand structure of the global gold market. Data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that the dollar's share of global foreign exchange reserves has fallen below 60%, hitting a multi-decade low. A survey by the World Gold Council shows that as many as 95% of central banks expect to continue buying gold in the future. This is interpreted by the market as using physical assets with "no sovereign credit risk" to hedge against deep-seated anxieties about the dollar's credibility.

Yi Lihua: I firmly believe that a crypto bull market will emerge during the interest rate cut cycle, and ETH's gains will outperform BTC.

Liquid Capital founder Yi Lihua has responded to some of the questions on the X platform, stating:

1. Why is the price of ETH lower than the previous peak of 50, while the price of BTC is higher than the previous peak by nearly 40%? Why is it not logical to be fully invested in ETH? First of all, this round is in an interest rate hike cycle. Apart from BTC breaking new highs, the performance of other cryptocurrencies has been unsatisfactory. These are the most difficult four years for crypto. However, we believe that with the upcoming interest rate cut cycle, we will usher in a crypto bull market. Moreover, the increase of ETH will outperform BTC. In addition, in the past, several bull markets have seen ETH outperform BTC.

2. Given the 4-year cycle pattern, isn't the recent ETH bottom-fishing opportunity around $3000, after months of consolidation, aren't you worried about the bear market continuing to fall, as some have suggested? We believe that with the DAT model, interest rate cuts, crypto policies, and the globalization of stablecoins, the 4-year cycle pattern has become ineffective. Now is the best time to buy crypto, especially ETH. ETH will be the biggest beneficiary of this bull market. In the previous round of ETH weakness, there weren't many applications or opportunities. However, with the continued support of US Treasury bonds, the only sustainable opportunity lies in stablecoins, which offer dozens of times the growth potential. There's also the opportunity for trillions of dollars in assets to be put into on-chain financial services, and ETH is the biggest beneficiary and ecosystem carrier in this regard.

3. Some people are concerned about the safety of their positions, especially since our ETH positions involve lending, which is essentially leverage. They worry about potential risks if the price drops. There's no need to worry. We are fully prepared and can repay most of our borrowed positions at any time. We've calculated that ETH is absolutely safe above $1000. So, there's no need to worry; it's just that each institution has different operational strategies.

4. If we don't buy in large quantities here, won't there be a better price to buy at the bottom? Why are we in such a hurry to buy at the bottom? We don't have God's perspective, we don't know when the bottom is, and it's impossible to accurately buy at the lowest point. Just like in the last round when Bitcoin was below $20,000, was there any difference between buying BTC at $15,000 and buying BTC at $20,000? I believe there wasn't. For us, the key is that this area is the bottom, and even if we don't buy, the market will buy. Our size can't affect the trend.

5. What do you think of those KOLs who are bearish but may not have large positions, yet they constantly criticize us bulls or try to gain attention? The market is always in balance; there will always be both bullish and bearish positions. Every opinion is valid, and we don't judge based on position size. We will carefully observe and learn from any objective and logical viewpoint. However, we ignore those who use extremely low methods to gain exposure, as they are truly worthless. Especially those KOLs who promote projects and then disappear—I guess everyone has their own survival strategy.

6. Most OGs have retired from the scene, yet you've been frequently updating Twitter this year, constantly advocating for ETH, and even sold at $4,500. Was this to encourage more people to buy in, or are you genuinely bullish on ETH? We firmly believe in the long-term value growth of ETH, and our actions have always been consistent. The only time we liquidated at $4,500 was because our analysis revealed significant short-term risks, and our operations were transparent on-chain, visible to everyone. You can use this as a reference for your own judgment. Selling was to buy more ETH; anyone with the opportunity to profit from large price swings would choose this strategy to earn more ETH. There was absolutely no intention to encourage others to buy in. ETH is a $360 billion asset; even though we are one of the world's largest ETH investors, we cannot influence its trend. We are simply following the trend; its price will rise regardless of our presence.

a16z Crypto: The biggest bottleneck in the prediction market is not pricing; AI-driven decision-making mechanisms may solve the scalability bottleneck.

An article published by a16z Crypto, titled "How AI Judges Can Scale Prediction Markets," points out that the biggest challenge facing prediction markets is not "pricing the future," but rather determining what actually happened. Similar problems frequently arise in small-scale events. Incorrect or opaque settlement mechanisms can undermine market trust, liquidity, and the accuracy of price signals. AI-driven judgment mechanisms can significantly improve the efficiency and scalability of prediction market settlements while ensuring transparency and fairness. Industry experts recommend introducing Large Language Models (LLMs) as arbitrators in prediction markets. This includes ensuring rules are committed to being on-chain, resisting manipulation, increasing transparency, and enhancing neutrality. For example, when contracts are created, the specific LLM model, timestamps, and judgment prompts are encrypted and recorded on the blockchain. Traders can understand the complete decision-making mechanism in advance. Fixed model weights cannot be easily tampered with to reduce the risk of cheating. The settlement mechanism is public and auditable, without arbitrary human judgment. Developers can experiment on low-risk contracts, standardize best practices, build transparency tools, and conduct continuous meta-level governance.

Pantera Capital: Quantum competition resistance could strengthen the "gravitational effect" of core blockchain networks, potentially making Ethereum a safe haven for data and assets.

Franklin Bi, General Partner at Pantera Capital, wrote on the X platform that the quantum-resistant race has begun, but the market has clearly misjudged the adaptability of traditional finance and blockchain. First, the market overestimated the speed at which the Wall Street system can adapt to quantum-resistant technology upgrades. The migration process for traditional financial infrastructure will be slow and chaotic, and it will be difficult to escape risks such as single points of failure. The overall security of the traditional financial system depends on its weakest link. Second, the market underestimated the unique upgrade capabilities of blockchain technology. If upgrades can be successfully completed within the critical window, some blockchains have the potential to evolve into "safe havens" for data and assets in the quantum-resistant era. Ethereum is already one of the few successful examples demonstrating the ability to complete complex system upgrades globally (such as the previous The Merge upgrade). The security risks brought by quantum computing may actually strengthen the "gravitational effect" of a few core blockchain networks.

Coinbase CEO: Most people at the Davos Forum support cryptocurrency; some banks even believe it's a matter of survival.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated on the X platform that during the World Economic Forum in Davos, most of the bank CEOs he met were actually very supportive of cryptocurrency and saw it as an opportunity (although some were not yet fully embracing it). The CEO of one of the world's top ten banks told Armstrong that cryptocurrency was a top priority for them, and they considered it a matter of life and death for the bank.

Santiment: The total holdings of wallets with over 1,000 bitcoins hit a four-month high.

According to Santiment, the pace of Bitcoin whales' accumulation is encouraging. Wallets holding at least 1,000 Bitcoins have collectively added 104,340 Bitcoins (a 1.5% increase), bringing their total holdings to 7.17 million Bitcoins, a four-month high. Furthermore, daily transfers exceeding $1 million have rebounded to their highest level in two months.

mechanism

AFP Protección, Colombia's second-largest pension fund manager, plans to launch a Bitcoin exposure fund.

AFP Protección, Colombia's second-largest pension fund manager, plans to launch a Bitcoin-exposed fund for long-term asset allocation and diversification, rather than short-term speculation.

The product will be available to investors who meet risk assessment criteria through a personalized investment advisory process, allowing them to allocate only a portion of their portfolio to Bitcoin. Protección manages assets for approximately 8.5 million clients, covering mandatory pensions, voluntary pensions, and severance pay accounts, with assets under management exceeding 220 trillion Colombian pesos (approximately US$55 billion).

Important data

Tether Gold's market capitalization surpasses $2.5 billion, setting a new all-time high.

According to the latest data from Coingecko, as gold prices continue to rise, the market capitalization of Tether Gold (XAUT) has surpassed $2.5 billion, currently trading at $2,600,883,164, setting a new all-time high. Furthermore, the total market capitalization of the tokenized gold sector has reached $5,189,004,214, also a new all-time high, with a 24-hour increase of 1.3%.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net outflows of $1.328 billion this week, the second-highest on record.

According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $1.33 billion this week (January 19 to January 23, Eastern Time).

The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest net outflow this week was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a weekly net outflow of $537 million. IBIT's historical total net inflow is currently $62.9 billion. This is followed by Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a weekly net outflow of $451 million. FBTC's historical total net inflow is currently $11.46 billion.

As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $115.88 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Bitcoin's total market capitalization) of 6.48%, and a cumulative net inflow of $56.49 billion.

Ethereum spot ETFs saw net outflows of $611 million this week, with BlackRock's ETHA experiencing the largest net outflow at $432 million.

According to SoSoValue data, Ethereum spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $611 million this week (January 19 to January 23, Eastern Time).

The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest net outflow this week was BlackRock ETF ETHA, with a weekly net outflow of $432 million. ETHA's historical total net inflow is currently $12.51 billion. This was followed by Fidelity ETF FETH, with a weekly net outflow of $78.03 million. FETH's historical total net inflow is currently $2.59 billion.

The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest net inflow this week was the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH), with a weekly net inflow of $17.824 million. The total historical net inflow of ETH has now reached $1.64 billion.

As of press time, the Ethereum spot ETF has a total net asset value of $17.7 billion, an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Ethereum's total market capitalization) of 4.99%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.3 billion.