Equities Near Record Highs

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Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

Daily Updates:

• BTC is currently consolidating around $70K, while Ether briefly slipped below $2,000 earlier today before slightly recovering back above that level. 
• Both tokens appear to be supported by some near-term modest institutional demand. Yesterday, Spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds purchased $144.9M worth of bitcoins, continuing Friday’s inflows of $371.1M. That’s the first time since January 15, 2026, that the Spot ETFs have seen back-to-back inflows. 
• Additionally, In a filing reported yesterday, Michael Saylor’s Strategy added to its bitcoin stockpile, purchasing 1,142 bitcoin for $90M and at an average price of $78,815 per bitcoin. The purchases were made between Feb 2, and Feb 8, 2026 — and seemingly took place before Thursday’s crash below $60K. 
• We also see tentative signs of institutional support for ETH. Spot ETF funds that track the token ended three days of outflows and purchased $57M worth of the token yesterday, while BitMine, the largest DAT holder of the token, made another purchase, betting on a V-shaped recovery. 
• In a press release yesterday the firm announced it had acquired 40,613 ETH last week, bringing the company’s total holdings 4.325M.
• Tom Lee, Executive Chairman of Bitmine said that “Crypto prices are highly volatile, and in fact, this is the 8th time since 2018 that ETH prices have fallen 50% or more from a recent high, meaning declines like this are seen annually. In 2025, from January to March, ETH prices fell -64% and yet still surged from $1,600 to $5,000 later in the year."

• During a conference yesterday, Fed Governor Christopher Waller argued that the current drawdown in crypto prices is “part of the game”. 
• “These kind of ups and downs in the crypto world have become so common, they actually have a name for them, Winters. So when you start saying something as season, you know it’s going to be a regular phenomenon. It’s part of the game, you get in, you make some money, you might lose some money.”
• Waller added that “Some of the euphoria that came into the crypto world with the current administration, some of that’s kind of fading”, while the “lack of passing of the CLARITY Act has put people off”. 
• He also said “I think there was a lot of selloff just because firms that got into it from the mainstream finance had to adjust their risk positions – sell lots of other things”.

• US equities continued to march higher yesterday, pushing the S&P 500 up 0.47% and towards a new all-time high, while the Dow Jones held above 50,000. 
• Markets are awaiting two important macro data releases that are both due this week following a delay from the federal government’s partial shutdown. 
• Nonfarm payrolls for January are expected tomorrow — with market expectations suggesting payrolls growth of 68,000 in January and a flat unemployment rate of 4.4%.
• On the other hand, precious metals prices have moved sideways over the last two sessions, with gold consolidating just above $5,000 per ounce, and silver above $80 per ounce. 
• Crypto trading fund Jump Trading, is reportedly entering an agreement to acquire small equity stakes in Kalshi and Polymarket in return for providing liquidity to their prediction markets, according to people familiar with the matter. 
• Its stake in Kalshi would be fixed, while its ownership in Polymarket would scale with the traded liquidity it supplies.

• CoinDesk BNB Futures have officially launched on TradFi institutional exchange ICE Futures US. 
• The CoinDesk BNB Futures contracts are sized at 50 times the CoinDesk BNB Benchmark Rate, with monthly expiries listed for six consecutive months.

• Ledger is bringing OKX DEX into Ledger Wallet, a hardware-secured, self-custody wallet, which will soon allow users to swap tokens onchain while retaining full control of their assets.
• Each transaction is signed directly on a Ledger device, combining decentralised exchange access with hardware-level security. 
• The integration supports major networks including Ethereum and leading L2s, with OKX DEX aggregating liquidity across hundreds of venues to deliver competitive pricing.

• Backpack, a crypto exchange founded by former FTX employees, is seeking to prevent dilution for retail holders of its forthcoming utility token through a tokenomics structure that progressively unlocks supply as key metrics and milestones are met, according to a plan disclosed on Monday.
• At the token generation event, 25% of the 1B supply will be distributed – including a 240M token airdrop to Backpack Points users and 1M tokens earmarked for Mad Lads NFT holders.
• The remaining supply is split into two equal 37.5% tranches labelled pre- and post-IPO, with the pre-IPO allocation set to unlock progressively as the exchange hits “growth triggers” such as regulatory approvals, new region launches, and product rollouts. 

This Week’s Calendar:

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