OSL Research Daily Brief | February 5,2026

1. Market Crash: BTC continues its decline, hitting a new low near $72,000, while ETH has dropped nearly 50% in a week, approaching $2,000; conversely, gold and silver are staging a counter-trend rally.

2. Prediction Markets: CFTC Chairman Mike Selig announced the withdrawal of a Biden-era rule proposal banning political event contracts and cancelled previous advisory opinions that confused the industry, signalling a re-examination of prediction markets.

3. Treasury Stance: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the government will retain seized Bitcoin but will not instruct private banks to accumulate BTC during market downturns, nor does it have the authority to bail out Bitcoin.

4. Banking Compromise: The crypto industry has proposed a new compromise to banks, including depositing a portion of stablecoin reserves in community banks and paving the way for them to issue their own stablecoins to alleviate concerns over deposit flight.

5. Euro Stablecoin: BBVA, Spain's second-largest bank, has joined the Qivalis group—comprising 12 major EU banks—aiming to launch a regulated Euro stablecoin to challenge the dominance of USD stablecoins.

6. CME Coin: CME Group CEO Terry Duffy revealed the company is evaluating the launch of its own token, "CME Coin," potentially on a decentralized network, while partnering with Google to develop a tokenized cash solution.

7. Tether Valuation: Tether has lowered its planned fundraising target from $15–20 billion to potentially as low as $5 billion following investor skepticism regarding its $500 billion valuation; however, CEO Paolo Ardoino stated the company is comfortable proceeding without raising capital.

8. Liquidity Warning: Michael Burry warned that Bitcoin's crash could trigger a $1 billion sell-off in gold and silver due to liquidity linkages between the assets, leading to a collateral death spiral and forced liquidations.

9. Sovereign Fund: Norway's $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund indirectly holds 9,573 BTC through stakes in companies like Strategy, MARA, and Metaplanet, marking a 149% increase in 2025.

10. Polygon Growth: Messari data shows Polygon became the leading settlement layer for payments in Q4, with payment app transfer volume growing 97% QoQ to $3.57 billion, and DeFi TVL increasing 34% YoY to $1.16 billion.