Analyst: Despite Silver's Plunge, Retail Investors Double Down
**February 8th (Financial Times):**
Silver prices dropped sharply last week, nearly wiping out this year’s strong gains—but retail investors still poured nearly $500 million into the silver market to bet on a rebound.
Data from Vanda Research shows that over the six trading days ending Thursday, investors put $430 million into SLV, the largest U.S. silver ETF. Notably, on January 30th—when silver plunged 27% (its biggest single-day drop on record)—they poured more than $100 million into the fund.
StoneX analyst Rhona O’Connell said: “People are drawn to silver’s appeal.” She added the metal’s attractiveness has been further boosted by the “massive sell-off,” with some investors seeing the dip as a chance to buy at lower prices. (FX678)
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CoinShares: Bitcoin's Quantum Risk Manageable, Market Concerns Overblown
On February 8, CoinShares said in a post that the chance of practical quantum computers emerging in the future is not zero, sparking intense debate over their potential impact on Bitcoin’s security. The quantum threat to Bitcoin is not an imminent crisis but a foreseeable engineering challenge, leaving ample time for adjustments.
Technically speaking, quantum risks mainly stem from the Shor algorithm’s potential to crack ECDSA or Schnorr signatures (which could expose private keys) and the Grover algorithm’s theoretical ability to undermine SHA-256’s security. The primary potential impact is on around 1.7 million BTC held in early-era P2PK addresses—roughly 8% of Bitcoin’s total supply—mitigating the risk of near-term systemic market disruption. The market’s oft-cited claim that ~25% of Bitcoin’s supply is at risk is significantly exaggerated; much of that risk has already been mitigated via address migration.
Long-term attacks could theoretically become feasible within the next
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Bitcoin Surpasses $71,000
On February 8, per HTX market data, Bitcoin surged past $71,000, posting a 4.2% gain over the past 24 hours.
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The amount of ETH queued for entry into the Ethereum PoS network remains high, now exceeding 4 million.
February 8
Per data from validatorqueue, a Validator Queue tracking site, the amount of ETH queued to join Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network has been on a steady rise since December 26, 2025. It now totals 4,009,053 ETH—valued at roughly $8.455 billion—with a projected activation wait time of about 69 days and 14 hours.
This signals strong, sustained staking demand, fueled primarily by Ethereum custody firms and institutions (including BitMine) staking large volumes of their held ETH.
Meanwhile, the Ethereum PoS network’s staking exit queue is empty. Currently, few users are opting to unstake their ETH, meaning stakers can withdraw their funds nearly instantly.
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Binance SAFU Fund BTC Holding Unrealized Loss Narrows to 2.7%, Still $550 Million to be Bought
February 8: On-chain data shows that as Bitcoin rebounded above $70,000, Binance’s SAFU Fund spent $450 million to purchase 6,230 BTC. The holding is now valued at $437.7 million, narrowing the fund’s unrealized loss to 2.7%.
Currently, the fund has $550 million remaining in its USDC reserves and will continue buying more Bitcoin. Per the fund’s initial commitment, if Bitcoin continues to decline, the SAFU Fund will keep purchasing to maintain its position value above $1 billion.
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