Aster has been conducting buybacks for 19 days, with a daily average buyback amount ranging from approximately $1.25 million to $1.4 million.

As of February 9th, alternative data shows the cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index has risen to 14 today—up from 7 yesterday—meaning the market remains in the "extreme fear" zone. Note: The Fear & Greed Index ranges from 0 to 100, with components including: Volatility (25%), Market Trading Volume (25%), Social Media Hype (15%), Market Surveys (15%), Bitcoin Dominance (10%), and Google Trends Analysis (10%).

On February 9, Cointelegraph reported that an anonymous crypto address sent 2.565 BTC (roughly $18,100) to Satoshi Nakamoto’s genesis address two days prior.

February 9 — Per Bitget data, Asia-Pacific markets opened with broad gains today: - Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged over 5%, topping 57,000 points to notch an all-time high. - South Korea’s KOSPI rose more than 4%, approaching a record peak. Bitcoin reclaimed the $70,000 level after dipping to $60,000 last week; it last traded at $70,418, up 2.1% in 24 hours. Spot precious metals extended their rebound: - Gold climbed back above $2,000 an ounce, hitting an intraday high of $5,044.07 (up 1.28%+ on the day). - Silver rose 2.65%, briefly topping $80 an ounce.

February 9 – Per market institutions, spot gold has once again broken above the key $5,000/oz level as bargain hunters returned to markets after a week of unusual volatility. Supported by Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto’s decisive election victory, gold rose 1.6% in early trading. This outcome reinforces market expectations for loose fiscal policy, keeps the yen under pressure, and in turn supports gold prices. Through last Friday’s close, gold was down ~11% from its Jan. 29 all-time high but still up 15% year-to-date. Traders are closely eyeing upcoming U.S. data to gauge the Fed’s policy path: the January nonfarm payrolls report (due Wednesday) is expected to signal a stabilizing labor market, while inflation data will be released Friday. (Source: FXStreet)

Earlier, on February 8, Kyle Samani—former co-founder of Multicoin Capital and board chairman of Forward Industries (FORD)—posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “Hyperliquid embodies many of the worst aspects of the crypto industry. Its founder fled his home country to build the project; it openly facilitates crime and terrorism; and its code is closed-source and permissioned.” On February 9, in response to Samani’s critique, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes fired back with a bet: “Since you say HYPE isn’t good, let’s make a wager. I bet that from 00:00 UTC on February 10, 2026, to 00:00 UTC on July 31, 2026, the price of HYPE will outperform any billion-dollar market-cap ‘shitcoin’ listed on CoinGecko (measured in USD). You can pick any coin you support as the opponent. The loser will donate $100,000 to a charity of the winner’s choice.”

On February 9, Vitalik Buterin posted on X that: “USDC savings interest isn’t actually DeFi. I believe algorithmic stablecoins are the real DeFi. If we have a high-quality ETH-backed algorithmic stablecoin—even if 99% of its liquidity comes from CDP holders—shifting counterparty risk on the dollar side to liquidity providers is in itself a key feature. Even if an algorithmic stablecoin is backed by RWAs (real-world assets), as long as it’s overcollateralized and its collateral is sufficiently diversified (so the overall collateral remains fully backed even if any single RWA fails), it still represents a meaningful improvement in holders’ risk profile compared to standard structures. I think this design is the direction we should aim for. Building on that, the next step could be gradually moving away from the U.S. dollar as the unit of account and toward a more universal, diversified index-based pricing system. Of course, the current practice of ‘depositing USDC into Aave to ear