Gate Research: Vitalik Reshapes L2 Development Path | Gate Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Mesh

Crypto Market Overview

• BTC (+0.71% | Price $76,449): Over the past day, BTC has continued a technical rebound following a period of low-level consolidation. Price quickly bounced from around $72,900 and has now moved back above $76,000, though it still remains within the broader weak range formed after the previous decline. In terms of moving averages, MA5 has crossed above MA10, but both remain below MA30, indicating that a short-term rebound is underway while the mid-term trend has yet to reverse. MACD has formed a golden cross below the zero line and is trending upward, with shrinking green histogram bars suggesting that bearish momentum is fading and bullish momentum is gradually recovering, though not yet strong. If BTC can hold above the $76,800–$77,200 resistance zone on strong volume, it may further test the $78,500 area; if it falls back below $75,000, a retest of support near the previous low around $73,000 becomes more likely.
• ETH (+0.94% | Price $2,262): ETH is showing a similar structure to BTC but with a slightly steeper rebound. Price has recovered from a low near $2,108 to above $2,260, forming a short-term recovery pattern. MA5 is approaching and attempting to cross above MA10, but the overall price structure is still capped by MA30, leaving the mid-term trend biased to the downside. MACD has also formed a golden cross below the zero line, with histogram bars shifting from deep green to lighter shades, indicating that bearish momentum is clearly weakening and the market is in a technical repair phase. If ETH can break above the $2,300–$2,320 zone with rising volume, the rebound could extend toward $2,380; if it drops back below $2,200, a renewed test of support near $2,100 is possible.
• Altcoins: The Fear Index has fallen to 14, entering the “extreme fear” zone and sitting well below last week’s and last month’s levels. This suggests further deterioration in market risk appetite, with short-term sentiment approaching a cyclical low.
• Macro: On February 3, the S&P 500 fell 0.84% to 6,917.81, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.34% to 49,240.99, and the Nasdaq dropped 1.43% to 23,255.19. As of February 4 at 2:30 AM (UTC), spot gold is trading at approximately $5,055 per ounce, up 2.20% over the past 24 hours.

Trending Tokens

ARC AI Rig Complex (+58.78%, circulating market cap $75.13 million)

According to Gate market data, ARC is currently trading at $0.07350, up about 58.78% in the past 24 hours. AI Rig Complex centers around the concept of “Rig,” a development and collaboration framework for AI builders that emphasizes a continuous feedback loop between creators and AI systems. The narrative stems from developer community discussions around next-generation AI build frameworks and toolchains. Its core idea is that modular “Rig” structures allow developers to more efficiently train, debug, and compose AI capabilities, forming a co-evolutionary loop where “we build Rigs, and Rigs in turn shape us.”

This latest surge in ARC appears driven more by capital flows and structural trading dynamics than by concrete fundamental milestones. Technically, after a prior downtrend, price entered a low-level consolidation zone and has recently broken above short-term moving average resistance on rising volume. Combined with its relatively small market cap and concentrated token distribution, this setup makes it more prone to sharp, sentiment-driven upside acceleration.

ALCH Alchemist AI (+17.99%, circulating market cap $83.75 million)

According to Gate market data, ALCH is currently priced at $0.09920, up 17.99% over the past 24 hours. Alchemist AI is positioned as infrastructure for AI workflows and automated execution, focusing on visual tools to build, debug, and deploy AI workflows for developers and the build-in-public community. The project emphasizes modularizing complex multi-step AI task flows and improving shareability, reproducibility, and debugging transparency, thereby lowering the barrier to developing AI agents and automated processes.

This round of gains in ALCH also appears to be driven more by sentiment and structural momentum than by a single major fundamental catalyst. From a technical perspective, the token broke out of a prior consolidation range on expanding volume after an earlier pullback, attracting short-term capital. With the AI infrastructure and agent tooling narrative remaining active, capital tends to concentrate in tokens with clearer product narratives and visible developer engagement.

ENSO Enso (+9.12%, circulating market cap $26.16 million)

According to Gate market data, ALCH is currently priced at $0.09920, up 17.99% over the past 24 hours. Alchemist AI is positioned as infrastructure for AI workflows and automated execution, focusing on visual tools to build, debug, and deploy AI workflows for developers and the build-in-public community. The project emphasizes modularizing complex multi-step AI task flows and improving shareability, reproducibility, and debugging transparency, thereby lowering the barrier to developing AI agents and automated processes.

This round of gains in ALCH also appears to be driven more by sentiment and structural momentum than by a single major fundamental catalyst. From a technical perspective, the token broke out of a prior consolidation range on expanding volume after an earlier pullback, attracting short-term capital. With the AI infrastructure and agent tooling narrative remaining active, capital tends to concentrate in tokens with clearer product narratives and visible developer engagement.

Alpha Insights

Puell Multiple Enters Discount Zone, Signaling Mid- to Long-Term Positioning Amid Miner Pressure

Bitcoin’s Puell Multiple has once again fallen back into its historical “discount zone.” This indicator can be understood as a measure of miner revenue strength, comparing miners’ current daily earnings to their average over the past year. When the metric sits at low levels, it indicates that overall miner income is significantly below normal conditions, with profitability deteriorating. As a result, some higher-cost mining operations may be forced to shut down or sell part of their BTC holdings to maintain cash flow, creating passive selling pressure from the miner side of the market. From a cyclical perspective, such periods often correspond to industry “capitulation” phases, where short-term supply pressure increases but also facilitates the redistribution of coins from high-cost miners to longer-term holders.

Historically, extended periods of low Puell Multiple readings tend to occur in the mid-to-late stages of bear markets rather than at the very beginning of a new bull cycle. In simple terms, the signal suggests that “miners are earning less, and the industry is under stress.” While this environment gradually brings Bitcoin’s long-term valuation into a more attractive range, it does not imply an immediate price reversal. The market may still go through a phase of weak consolidation or even another leg down. This stage is better characterized as one where value is gradually emerging but trend repair has yet to be completed. As such, a phased accumulation approach with careful pacing is more appropriate, while a full-fledged bull market would still require a recovery in demand and an improvement in macro liquidity conditions.

Gate Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Mesh, Expanding Crypto Payment Infrastructure

Gate Ventures announced a strategic investment in the crypto payment network Mesh. Mesh is building a unified payment connectivity layer that uses a single API to link wallets, exchanges, payment service providers, and fiat on- and off-ramps, reducing the structural complexity between crypto assets and traditional payment systems and improving cross-platform capital efficiency.

According to Gate Ventures, as stablecoins and crypto-native payments increasingly evolve into a new generation of financial infrastructure, industry fragmentation has become more pronounced. By abstracting multiple payment rails into a unified payment layer, Mesh enables seamless value transfer and settlement across ecosystems and regions. It also supports merchants, payment service providers, and AI-driven automated trading scenarios, positioning itself as a potential key bridge between traditional finance and the on-chain economy.

Vitalik Reassesses the Role of L2s, Shifting from “Brand Sharding” to Functional Differentiation

Vitalik Buterin stated on X that as Ethereum L1 scaling continues to accelerate and gas limits are expected to rise significantly by 2026, the original vision of L2s as Ethereum’s “brand sharding” is becoming less relevant. At the same time, the slower-than-expected progress of L2s toward higher stages of decentralization maturity makes it difficult for them to serve as true equivalents to mainnet shards. As a result, the future path for L2s needs to shift from primarily relieving L1 scaling pressure to delivering more differentiated forms of added value.

He suggests that L2s should focus on capabilities beyond pure scaling, such as privacy, efficiency for specific application domains, extreme performance scaling, support for non-financial applications, ultra-low latency architectures, and built-in oracles. If an L2 handles ETH or other Ethereum assets, it should at minimum reach Stage 1 security standards and maintain strong interoperability with Ethereum. Vitalik also emphasized the value of native rollup precompiles, especially as ZK-EVM proving systems mature. Such mechanisms could make EVM verification possible without relying on a security council, enabling stronger trust-minimized interoperability and synchronous composability between L2s and Ethereum.


References

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/eth/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/crypto-market-data
• Investing, https://investing.com/indices/usa-indices
• Investing, https://investing.com/currencies/xau-usd
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/49653
• X, https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2018815249806192860?s=20
• X, https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2018711006394843585

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Disclaimer
Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct their own research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such decisions.