MarketWhisper

Nancy Guthrie Bitcoin ransom case shows wallet activity after 84-year-old woman vanished from Arizona home. Ransom note demanded millions in Bitcoin. FBI investigates with searches near U.S.-Mexico border.

Taiwan stocks closed for the Lunar New Year on February 11, entering the Year of the Horse, while global capital markets continue to operate. Key events during the Lunar New Year include US GDP and global PMI, with NVIDIA's earnings report on February 26 being the biggest focus. The five major market trends include emerging markets outperforming US stocks, small and mid-cap stocks leading blue chips, AI hardware outperforming software, and more. Risk tracking includes four assets: IGV, MOVE, silver, and Bitcoin.

In 2026, Chinese meme coins have continued from the end of 2025, with BNB Chain DEX trading volume peaking at over $6 billion. Binance leads the way, with Hachimi, DORA, Wo Tma Lai Le, and Snowball closely behind. Unlike Western meme coins, Chinese meme coins emphasize language-specific humor. Four.meme's daily Twitter posts exceed 20,000 coins, dominated by BNB Chain, with Solana and Base playing secondary roles.

Bitcoin faces a crash storm before the 2026 Spring Festival, dropping to $60,000 at one point, sparking retail investor concerns. BlackRock ETF surpassing $10 billion in trading volume is a sign of leverage unwinding rather than long-term withdrawal. Despite a 16,590% return over 10 years, Motley Fool's analysis team did not include BTC in their buy list. Cleese chose BTC over gold due to the 21 million cap. Franklin recommends pairing bonds with non-single-asset investments.

Gold vs Bitcoin diverged in 2026: gold hit $5,600 then crashed 3%, while Bitcoin opened at $87,508 down 7.3% from 2025. Short-term favors gold, but 12-year data shows Bitcoin delivered 213X returns versus gold's 3.3X. Central banks bought 1,000+ tons gold annually while Bitcoin's 0.8 tech stock correlation positions it as growth asset, not safe-haven.

2026 Bing Wu Fire Horse Year, metaphysics and feng shui indicate innovative wealth growth but with crises looming. In the first half of the year, fiery energy pushes Bitcoin to break 100,000; in the second half, earth generates metal, and regulations tighten. Zi Wei forecasts three critical crisis points: March to May regulatory flash crashes, August geopolitical fluctuations, and November DeFi hacker double hits with Tuo Luo Sha.

The 2026 Horse Year brings viral sensation: a $3.60 crying horse plushie with upside-down frown symbolizing Chinese corporate burnout. Made by Happy Sisters in Yiwu, the toy resulted from manufacturing error when a worker accidentally sewed the smile upside-down. The shop capitalized on social media popularity, mass-producing the morose toy resonating with exhausted 996 workers as "national-level emo doll."

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee stated at the Consensus 2026 Conference that if Ethereum reaches $1890 again, it will form a perfect bottom. He pointed out that since 2018, Ethereum has experienced 8 declines of over 52%, and all 8 previous declines resulted in V-shaped bottom reversals. Last year, Ethereum dropped 64% from January to March and recovered at the same speed.

CFTC Chicago Enforcement Team, consisting of 20 people, has completely left. It was once the top enforcement force in the cryptocurrency market, and is currently expanding its regulation of the crypto and prediction markets. A former lawyer said this move was targeted layoffs because they have experience with FTX settlements. The fines collected by the agency's enforcement have dropped sharply from $17.1 billion in 2024 to $9.2 million in 2025.

Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced three new initiatives to establish a comprehensive virtual asset regulatory ecosystem. In terms of guaranteed financing, brokers will be allowed to provide financing to creditworthy clients, with collateral including securities and virtual assets. Regarding perpetual contracts, a high-level regulatory framework will be announced to permit licensed platforms to offer perpetual contract products. Concerning associated market makers, regulations are expected to be relaxed to allow licensed platforms to provide liquidity through subsidiary market-making units.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Chair Beth Hammack stated that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) may pause further rate cuts as inflation remains too high. She warned that inflation this year could stay around 3% and that interest rates will not be adjusted again until the 2% target is reached. Crypto traders have lowered their expectations for rate cuts, with Polymarket data showing a decrease from 3 expected cuts to 2.

The tokenized commodity market has increased by 53% in six weeks, reaching $6.1 billion, as gold transfer onto the blockchain makes it the fastest-growing vertical in the real-world asset tokenization market. By early 2026, the tokenized commodity market is valued at just over $4 billion, with gold products dominating the market. Tether Gold and PAX Gold listed by Paxos account for over 95% of the share, with growth outpacing tokenized stocks and funds.

Ethereum has fallen over 30% since the beginning of the year, with the price dropping below $2,000 and trading prices below the average entry price of accumulated addresses and ETF holders. BitMine's unrealized losses have surged from $6 billion to $7 billion, but on Tuesday, they still bought 40,000 ETH and staked 140,400 tokens, with total staked amount reaching 2.97 million. Despite the losses, the net holdings of exchanges have turned negative, indicating withdrawals exceeding deposits, and Ethereum whales continue to increase their holdings.

OpenAI Advertising and Business Operations Director Asad Awan explains for the first time that the ChatGPT advertising mechanism is only displayed to free users and Go plan users, while Plus, Pro, and enterprise versions are unaffected. He emphasizes, "User trust takes precedence over user value, user value takes precedence over advertiser value, and finally revenue," even if short-term revenue is higher but trust is harmed, it will not be adopted. Model training and responses will not be altered by advertisements.

Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said on X that the White House meeting on Tuesday was "productive," with a strong atmosphere of compromise, and both parties still maintain consensus on legislation for the crypto market. Reports indicate that both sides made concessions, with banks willing to discuss stablecoin reward exemptions for the first time. The White House urges all parties to reach an agreement by March 1. However, Polymarket data shows that the probability of the bill passing this year has dropped from 70% to 56%.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the delayed January non-farm payroll data later on Wednesday evening. Investors expect an increase of 70,000 jobs in January, following a gain of 50,000 in December. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.4%, and the year-over-year growth rate of average hourly earnings is forecasted to slow from 3.8% to 3.6%. TD Securities analysts are more cautious, predicting only a 45,000 increase in employment for January.

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) options trading volume surges, becoming the ninth-largest options trading platform in the U.S. As of February 10, there are 7.33 million IBIT contracts active or open interest, ranking ninth among options linked to U.S. listed stocks, ETFs, and indices. The open interest of options linked to the SPDR Gold ETF is 6.44 million contracts, lower than IBIT.

Polymarket partners with Kaito AI to launch the "Attention Market," allowing users to bet on trend popularity and public opinion. Based on two main indicators—public sentiment share and emotional tone—the platform quantifies attention using social data. The project was launched in March and reached thousands of markets by the end of the year, with the initial focus on AI topics. Massachusetts and other states have banned prediction markets, leading Polymarket to sue the state, asserting federal regulation.

The Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM) announced that it will test the practical applications of Ringgit stablecoins and tokenized deposits in 2026, evaluating their impact on monetary and financial stability. The Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH) has launched three initiatives: Standard Chartered Bank and Capital A are exploring inter-company stablecoin settlements, Malayan Banking and CIMB are testing tokenized deposit payments. The tests will cover domestic and cross-border payment scenarios, with some use cases considering Islamic law.

Galaxy Founder and CEO Mike Novogratz said at the CNBC Digital Finance Forum in New York on Tuesday that the era of speculation where investors expect outsized returns may be coming to an end as more risk-averse participants enter the crypto space. Bitcoin has fallen over 21% this year, dropping to $60,062 last week, a near 16-month low.