Crypto1com

US Congress passes spending bill, avoiding disruption to US economy
Government to reopen, US shoots down Iranian drone – US Congress passed a budget bill, which was later signed by president Donald Trump on Tuesday, ending the partial government shutdown. This time, the closure lasted just three days, as Democrats and Republicans joined forces to restore government funding.  Meanwhile, investors keep an eye on US-Iran news, after a US aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian drone flying close to the ship.    
Gold and Oil rise on US-Iran tensions – The conflict between the two countries has raised tensions and weakened risk appetite, pushing safe-haven Gold to higher levels – the precious metal tends to rise when geopolitical risks increase. Oil prices are also moving higher this week, as fears of an escalation are putting upward pressure on Crude.
Diplomatic talks next – Washington and Tehran representatives are scheduled to hold negotiations in Oman this weekend. Will the sides agree on a deal over Iran’s nuclear program? If the talks fail, a US strike against Iran appears likely, which would trigger turmoil in the financial markets. If tensions subside, Gold and Oil could decline.
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#US

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has taken action for its $1 billion move as Bitcoin (BTC) experiences successive sharp declines.
At this point, Binance also completed a second round of purchases to convert its $1 billion stablecoin reserves in the SAFU fund into Bitcoin.
According to Arkham Intelligence data, Binance’s SAFU fund purchased an additional 1,315 BTC, worth $100.42 million.
With its latest purchase, the Binance SAFU fund has increased its total purchases over the past two days to 2,630 BTC, worth $201.12 million.

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday (February 3, 2026) night that India has agreed to buy more oil from Venezuela, Indian refiners in the recent past have spoken about difficulties in refining the oil received from the South American nation. This is primarily to do with the fact that Venezuelan crude is comparatively difficult to process, and its properties are not very similar to any other crude, they said.
Notably, the Indian authorities have not yet confirmed or denied Mr. Trump’s assertions regarding India’s oil purchases. Earlier this month in an analyst call, state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum’s Director for Refineries S. Bharathan had stated, “Venezuelan crude apart from being bottom-heavy, also has high viscosity and high acid number.”
In other words, the heavy crude oil is thicker, thus, the higher viscosity is indicative of its resistance to flow while the higher acid number indicates the chemical mix existing naturally in the oil.
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#Oil

Gold and silver have been the kinds of trade you could set and forget lately up day after day, headlines screaming new highs, and the usual “hard assets are back” chatter getting louder.
Then Friday hit, and the mood flipped. The same metals that looked unstoppable suddenly looked crowded, leveraged and vulnerable to a sharp unwind.
And when the “can’t-lose” corner of the market starts wobbling, traders inevitably scan for the next place capital might try to rotate.
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The world's largest private gold holder is quietly assembling a balance sheet that would not look out of place at a major financial institution, spanning both hard assets and U.S. government debt.
Tether is best known as the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT. But now sits at the intersection of two traditional safe havens, gold and U.S. Treasuries, that too at a scale which is starting to register in global capital markets.
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China's 2025 trade surplus hit a record $1.2 trillion, despite US tariffs. This suggests China adapted by finding new markets in ASEAN, the Middle East, Africa & Latin America. Experts say this reliance on exports signals economic imbalance as domestic demand lags.
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The U.S. government has taken full legal ownership of more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrency, cash, and real estate tied to Helix, once one of the most widely used bitcoin mixing services on the darknet.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., entered a final order of forfeiture on Jan. 21, transferring the assets to the government following the conviction of Helix operator Larry Dean Harmon. The forfeiture includes thousands of bitcoin, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and an Ohio mansion purchased during the peak of Helix’s operation.
Helix functioned as a cryptocurrency mixer, pooling and rerouting bitcoin transactions to obscure their origins and destinations. 
Prosecutors say the service was built to serve darknet drug markets and was directly integrated into their withdrawal systems through an application programming interface.
Court records show Helix processed roughly 354,468 bitcoin between 2014 and 2017, worth about $300 million at the time. Investigators traced tens of millions of dollars from major darknet marketplaces through the service. Harmon took a cut of each transaction as operating fees.
Harmon pleaded guilty in August 2021 to conspiracy to commit money laundering. After years of delays, he was sentenced in November 2024 to three years in prison, followed by supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit seized assets and pay a forfeiture money judgment.
Authorities say Helix worked alongside Grams, a darknet search engine Harmon also operated, which helped users locate illicit marketplaces. Together, the services formed part of the financial infrastructure underpinning darknet drug trade during that period.
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#TrumpProCrypto

BitMine Immersion chairman Tom Lee defended the company's more than $6 billion in unrealized ether losses as an expected outcome of its long-term ethereum treasury strategy rather than a failure of execution.Lee said BitMine is structured to track and ultimately outperform ether over a full market cycle, comparing it to an index-style product and arguing that paper losses are a feature of its approach during crypto downturns.The company has continued to accumulate ETH, now holding about 4.24 million coins and earning staking revenue, even as Lee warns that a broader crypto deleveraging phase could pressure markets into early 2026.
BitMine Immersion chairman Tom Lee pushed back against criticism of its growing paper losses this week, saying the drawdown reflected the design of its ethereum treasury strategy rather than a flaw in execution.
In a series of posts on X, Lee said BitMine is built to track the price of ether and outperform it over a full market cycle, likening its structure to an index-style product rather than a tactical trading vehicle.
With crypto markets in a downturn, however, the firm said unrealized losses on its ETH holdings are inevitable.
“Crypto is in a downturn, so naturally ETH is down,” Lee wrote, adding that paper losses are “not a bug — it’s a feature,” and questioning whether similar scrutiny is applied to index funds during market declines.
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#USIranStandoff

Ukraine consumes 59,357,189 Tons (short tons, "st") of Coal per year as of the year 2016.
Ukraine ranks #15 in the world for coal consumption, accounting for about 0.69% of the world's total consumption of 8,561,852,178.
Ukraine consumes 1,301,212 cubic feet of Coal per capita every year (based on the 2016 population of 45,616,832 people), or 3,565 cubic feet per capita per day.
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Ukraine holds 37,892 million tons (MMst) of proven coal reserves as of 2016, ranking #7 in the world and accounting for about 3.33% of the world's total coal reserves of 1,139,471 million tons (MMst).
Ukraine has proven reserves equivalent to 638.4 times its annual consumption levels. This means tit has about 638 years of coal left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).
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#Coal