Gold prices jumped to a record near $5,600 per ounce on Wednesday as investors sought safety amid geopolitical strain and a weaker dollar, while major cryptocurrencies slid and market participants shifted capital. Bitcoin traded around $87,800 and broader crypto indexes fell after a neutral Federal Reserve meeting, with safe-haven flows cited as a key driver (Ed. note: gold’s one-day gain roughly matched Bitcoin’s full market-cap increase).
Tether has accumulated about 140 tonnes of physical gold, valued at roughly $23 billion, and says it will keep adding to reserves; “We are soon becoming basically one of the biggest, let’s say, gold central banks in the world,.” The price swing lifted tokenized and metal-linked assets.
Crypto majors were down on market data, according to market data, while Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 saw its first $2 billion volume day (data shows). The White House set a meeting with banks and crypto firms to discuss stalled legislation related to stablecoins and deposit competition (according to).
Fidelity announced plans for a dollar stablecoin on Ethereum. BTC ETFs recorded about $19 million in outflows, while ETH ETFs logged roughly $28 million of inflows (ETF flows). Moonbirds saw its BIRB token debut surge then retrace, per DEX data.
Coinbase launched a prediction market product (stated) and said it will list HYPE (announced). MegaETH teased a Feb. 9 mainnet launch (teased). Open NFT collections showed broad weakness (open collections).
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