CZ: $863K Scam Blogger 'Weiwei' Possibly Operated by Binance Competitor

On February 4th, Coinglass data shows Bitcoin fell below $73,000 this morning and has since rebounded to above $76,000. Funding rate data indicates the market is recovering, with BTC, ETH and altcoin funding rates turning positive in batches—suggesting neutrality is gradually returning even amid bearish sentiment. BlockBeats Note: Funding rates are fees set by crypto exchanges to align contract prices with underlying asset prices, primarily for perpetual contracts. It’s a fund transfer mechanism between long and short traders; exchanges do not charge this fee. Instead, it adjusts the cost or profit of traders holding contracts to keep contract prices close to the underlying asset’s price. A 0.01% funding rate is the baseline. Rates above 0.01% signal a generally bullish market, while rates below 0.005% indicate a bearish trend.

February 4th — DefiLlama data shows open interest across perpetual decentralized exchanges (Perp DEXs) has continued to decline over the past seven days. Hyperliquid’s open interest is down roughly 36.2% week-over-week, while its trading volume has rebounded. This may be driven by frequent position adjustments from existing traders in response to market volatility over the past 24 hours, leading to "passive unwinding." Below are current 24-hour trading volumes, total value locked (TVL), and open interest for major Perp DEXs: - Hyperliquid (https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/join/NTOD): ~$13.08B (24h volume) | ~$4.36B (TVL) | ~$5.82B (open interest) - Aster (https://www.asterdex.com/en/referral/aboter): ~$5.66B (24h volume) | ~$1.14B (TVL) | ~$2.00B (open interest) - EdgeX: ~$5.20B (24h volume) | ~$195M (TVL) | ~$869M (open interest) - Lighter (https://app.lighter.xyz/?referral=70045843): ~$4.46B (24h volume) | ~$974M (TVL) | ~$1.05B (open interest) - Extended: ~$2.43B (24h volume) | ~$218M

February 4 A South Korean court has sentenced Lee Jong-hwan, CEO of a cryptocurrency management firm, to three years in prison for price manipulation that yielded illegal profits—marking the first ruling under the *Virtual Assets User Protection Act* (effective July 2024), per the Korean Economic Daily. The court also imposed a 500 million South Korean won ($343,900) fine and ordered forfeiture of roughly 846 million won ($582,000) in illicit gains. Lee will not be detained pending final judgment due to good behavior during the trial. Between July 22 and October 25, 2024, Lee used an automated trading program to inflate trading volume and executed multiple wash trades to manipulate the ACE cryptocurrency’s price. His illegal profits totaled ~7.1 billion won ($488,000). Before using the program, the coin’s average daily trading volume was ~160,000 units; it surged to 2.45 million units the next day.

**Key Update: Off Chain Labs Co-Founder Clarifies Arbitrum-Ethereum Relationship Amid Vitalik’s Recent Comments** On February 4th, Steven Goldfeder—co-founder of Off Chain Labs (the team behind layer-2 network Arbitrum)—took to social media to outline core points about Arbitrum’s ties to Ethereum: 1. **Arbitrum ≠ Ethereum**: He stressed Arbitrum and Ethereum are close allies with a five-year symbiotic relationship, not the same entity. 2. **L1-L2 Alignment**: Goldfeder pushed back on the idea that a scaled layer-1 (L1) conflicts with a thriving layer-2 (L2) ecosystem, noting no L2 team he’s aware of opposes L1 scaling. Off Chain Labs actively supports Ethereum’s L1 development, he added, by acquiring and continuously funding Prysm to ensure it has sufficient resources for ongoing work. 3. **L2’s Institutional Edge**: While agreeing with Vitalik’s take that “The Rollup story evolves with time,” Goldfeder argued Ethereum’s best bet for winning large institutions remains L2s. “E

February 4 — Per GMGN monitoring, Solana meme coin WhiteWhale has seen a continuous surge in market value, with a short-term spike pushing its market cap past $100 million. The token is currently trading at around $0.105, up 25% over the past 24 hours. The rally may stem from recent personal purchases by the token’s associated figure, The White Whale (linked address: ECyvt...). Today, The White Whale has bought over 2.39 million tokens (valued at ~$200,000) and transferred them to their primary address (EBxg...). The primary address now holds a position worth ~$56 million, accounting for 56% of the meme coin’s total supply. Unrealized profits total $17.7 million (30%), with an average purchase price of ~$0.0213 — no sales have been recorded to date. **Background**: The meme coin was initially launched on October 13, 2025, on pump.fun by fans using the avatar of prominent trader The White Whale (X handle: @TheWhiteWhaleV2), who is active on X and Hyperliquid. Later, due to conc

February 4 — Per Fortune — crypto-focused anti-crime startup TRM Labs has closed a $70 million Series C funding round, securing a $1 billion valuation. The round was led by early backer Blockchain Capital, with participation from top traditional firms including Goldman Sachs, Bessemer, Brevan Howard, Thoma Bravo, and Citi Ventures. The raise values TRM at $1 billion, catapulting the firm into the "crypto unicorn" club. Leveraging its blockchain analysis platform, TRM has emerged as a go-to name for global law enforcement and a growing number of private firms that use crypto for fund transfers. Per TRM co-founder Casta?o, roughly 40% of the firm’s clients are in the private sector — a share that’s growing as financial institutions test tokenized deposits, equities, and other assets.