Vitalik: ETH is both a Store of Value and one of the most important applications on Ethereum

On February 8, per HTX market data, Bitcoin surged past $71,000, posting a 4.2% gain over the past 24 hours.

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.

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.

**Bitcoin Tops $70k Again, But Funding Rates Signal Broad Bearishness** February 8 — Per Coinglass data, Bitcoin has rebounded above $70,000, but funding rate metrics point to an overall bearish market. Several exchanges report negative BTC funding rates, meaning short traders are paying longs to maintain their positions. Most platforms show positive ETH funding rates, but they remain below the 0.005% threshold—signaling more bearish sentiment than Bitcoin. **BlockBeats Note** Funding rates are a fee mechanism (not charged by exchanges) for perpetual contracts, designed to keep contract prices aligned with underlying assets. Long and short traders exchange funds to adjust holding costs or profits, with no exchange fee involved. **Funding Rate Benchmarks** - 0.01% = Baseline - Above 0.01% = Bullish - Below 0.005% = Bearish

On February 8, on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) noted that Binance account SMXKX has been shorting silver (XAG) since late January, with a peak unrealized loss exceeding $1 million. The account also shorted gold at a short-term high on January 29, ultimately hitting a peak profit of $12.38 million by February 5. This performance from shorting gold and silver secured it the top spot on Binance’s Contract Smart Money 30-day leaderboard.

On February 8th, trader Eugene Ng Ah Sio shared in his personal channel: Taking a step back to review the past week’s action through the high-timeframe (HTF) market structure lens, it’s clear the market has hit a rough patch. While $60k still holds as a fairly solid support level, one lesson from the last cycle sticks with me: never go all-in on a long position without an invalidation level. Bull markets tend to get crazier than you anticipate—bear markets always end up worse than you imagine. I don’t know where this bear market’s bottom lies, nor am I certain we’ve bottomed at $60k—but survival always comes first. Treat every trading opportunity as an independent call, and use stop-loss orders to guard against further downside.