On Friday, the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC blacklisted UK-registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion for facilitating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps transactions. The move also put Iranian financier Babak Morteza Zanjani back under sanctions after his 2024 death sentence commutation. Treasury said Americans are prohibited from dealing with the newly sanctioned entities.

On 1 February 2026, Zero Knowledge Proof drew attention with a continuous presale model that issues 190 million ZKP tokens every 24 hours and runs a $5 million rewards program. At the same time, Cardano is engaged in governance and regulatory debates, while Uniswap trades around $3.90 after a sharp pullback despite solid on-chain activity. These contrasting approaches highlight how token distribution design, oversight discussions, and DeFi sentiment are shaping investor focus in the current market.

On 24 January, Nietzschean Penguin (PENGUIN) spiked from under $0.01 to a $0.167 all-time high before sliding about 75% to the $0.037–$0.042 area. A wallet "8cgRT" exited with a $92,700 loss after $305,300 in buys as momentum reversed. Fixed 1 billion supply and over 45,000 holders by late January 2026 did not halt the decline.

According to commentary on X, gold's market capitalization jumped by about $2.2 trillion in a single trading session, briefly lifting its valuation far above major crypto assets. That one-day gain was nearly 20 times XRP's roughly $103 billion market cap and even exceeded Bitcoin's value near $1.77 trillion, underscoring how small percentage moves in huge markets translate into outsized dollar changes. Traders argued the headline figures can be misleading, while scenario analysis showed how dramatically XRP and Bitcoin prices would differ if they matched recent percentage moves in gold and silver.

On February 1, 2026, Bitcoin slid toward the 77,000 dollar area, testing a key support after several weeks of declines. The 24 hour snapshot showed BTC at 77,028 dollars, down 0.98 percent. Michael Saylor hinted at continued accumulation and said Strategy would not be liquidated even if prices fall further.

Hours after the firm's Bitcoin position briefly went below cost on Sunday, Michael Saylor posted "More Orange" on X, hinting at further accumulation. According to data released Sunday, Strategy holds 712,647 BTC at an average cost of $76,038, after price touched about $75,500. An analyst said unsecured debt and cash reserves help limit near‑term leverage risk.

On Friday, silver sank 26% and gold slid 9% in one of the sharpest single-day metal selloffs after weeks of speculative buying from China had driven prices to record highs. The move accelerated when reports surfaced that Donald Trump planned to nominate Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, lifting the dollar and ending the momentum trade. Trading volumes in silver products surged, with the iShares Silver Trust alone recording more than $40 billion in turnover as options activity and algorithmic strategies amplified the reversal.

Over the past week, Bitcoin moved toward $78K while Ethereum weakened, according to AMBCrypto. Select altcoins diverged: Hyperliquid rallied from the low $20s to test $32-$34, Canton advanced about 29%, and Stable spiked to $0.026 before easing to $0.023. Meanwhile, Solana fell ~15% and WLFI dropped ~26%.