TL;DR

• US job report: While below-than-expected number of jobs were added in January, unemployment rate turned out lower.
• Scott Bessent is planning on bypassing the Fed to lower the interest rates, through actions on deregulation, tax bill and energy.
• Last week, the market showed no significant overall movement.
• On February 4th, ETH ETF saw single-day inflows of 100,000 ETH, marking the second-highest inflow day in history.
• Berachain went live, and a large number of retail investors shorted VC tokens, driving the price down from $14 to $5.
• Berachain launched mainnet, Ondo turned from dApp on Ethereum to Layer1, Pumpfun rumor release token. This week raised $135,84M (-107% from previous week), NFT projects were the largest share of funding

Macro Overview

US job report: While below-than-expected number of jobs were added in January, unemployment rate turned out lower.

Last Friday’s job market data showed a contradictory situation: the US employers added 143,000 jobs, which is well below the 170,000 market consensus, but still the unemployment rate rose by 0.1% to 4.0%. As two data were calculated based on different survey, such deviations could be explained, but still this time the data hinted on the structural threat the US economy is facing: the average hourly earnings were rising for both MoM and YoY, plus the declining unemployment rate, the data overall shed shadows on the US economy’s future growth. The market has immediately reacted to such complexity: the 10-year bond yield rose after the job market data was released, and it is sitting in a relevant high position compared with the data in the past year.

While the job market data shows contradictory, the Fed will also pay attention to the new data to come this week, to further address the economic situations and to determine the rate cut pace. This week the CPI, core CPI, PPI and retail sales data will be released, and the market is also waiting for Powell’s testimony on Feb 11th to see whether or not there could be some hints on the future policy paths of the Fed.

In recent TV interviews with Fox and Bloomberg, Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, talked about how he and the Trump administration plans on dropping the interest rates without the monetary policies from the Fed. Besssent addressed that “If we deregulate the economy, if we get this tax bill done, if we get energy down, then rates will take care of themselves and the dollar will take care of itself”. While it is unusual for the Treasury Department to diverge from the Fed and takes actions on the interest rate along, it is indicating that the current government is pushing harder on sectors that they truly pay attention to — and will do their bast to make their target come true.

The dollar index has experienced significant adjustment last week, fluctuating due to tariff threats on Mexico/Canada/China, job report data and potential “reciprocal” tariffs on multiple countries. The dollar index ended at $108.096 last Friday.

The total asset level reduced by $8bn last week, reaching the level of $6.811tn. Given the Fed’s determination to reach an ample reserve level before stopping QT, the asset reduction actions will be continued.

Gold price has been on its straight way up last week, approaching the $2,900 line and ended at $2,860.28 last Friday. Given the escalating trade tensions among US and other nations, the safe-haven effect of gold is only getting stronger. However, it is also worth noticing that the trade volume of gold in early 2025 has been half of that of Nov 2024, so some slight price adjustment could also be possible.

Crypto Markets Overview

1. Main Assets

As of this Monday, BTC is trading at around $97,000 and ETH at $2,600, up by 2.2% and 1.2% respectively. Altcoins overall continue to perform weakly. Last week, during Berachain’s TGE, there was an almost unanimous move to short it, and its price fell from $14 to $5.

2. Total Market Cap

The total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market stands at $3.13 trillion this Monday. Excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, the market cap amounts to $878.6 billion, both reflecting decreases of 0%. It was mainly characterized by a choppy market last week.

3. Net Inflows

Last week, the total market value of stablecoins reached $224.1 billion, setting a new high for this cycle, with an increase of $0.7 billion compared to the previous week. The issuance was mainly concentrated in USDC, amounting to $1 billion.

4. Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance

Last week, the market trended towards a sideways consolidation phase with no clear overall movement. Berachain went live, prompting a large number of retail investors to short VC tokens. At the same time, Binance listed the spot TST Memecoin, which reached a peak market cap of $500 million.

The Key Crypto Highlights

1.Berachain Mainnet Launch

Berachain’s mainnet launch on February 6, 2025, was met with a mixed response from the market. The project’s nearly $5B fully diluted valuation (FDV) was overshadowed by concerns over token distribution, with critics arguing that KOL allocations were prioritized and LP provisions for CEX perpetual hedging and NFT issues were unclear. On-chain activities on Bera have declined by 80% compared to the testnet. In an effort to cool these concerns, Bera team has provided clarification on by their Head of DeFi strategy. In addition, Bera also has announced a 2nd airdrop phase on February 10,. However, the price action of $BGT is expected to remain volatile, with a negative bias.

2. Ondo Unveils Layer 1 Network for Tokenized RWA

Ondo’s transition to a Layer 1 platform was announced at the Ondo Summit, which featured a keynote by Donald Trump Jr. appearance. The project aims to address five critical gaps in existing blockchains for institutional RWA adoption: including DeFi compatibility, cross-chain liquidity fragmentation, volatile gas fees, security models, and regulatory barriers. Key features of Ondo’s platform include RWA-staking for security, permissioned validators to prevent MEV and front-running, reliable on-chain data feeds oracle, native omnichain bridging via Ondo Bridge integration, and on-chain proof of reserves for RWAs. The first trigger for App-chain is Unichain, and these developments are expected to increase in the near future.

3. Pumpfun Rumored to Release Token

Pumpfun is reportedly planning to issue a token via a Dutch auction model to reduce market manipulation. However, the exact timing of the token issuance has not been determined. According to an internal document from December 2024, the total number of PumpFun tokens is 420M, with an initial circulation of 210 million for public sale. The team share accounts for 25%, and early investors account for 22.05%. However, Pumpfun’s team is facing a lawsuit in the USA, which may impact the token issuance. The Pumpfun founder has not confirmed the news or related information but has hinted at “committing to rewarding users properly.”

Key Ventures Deals

1.Reservoir Secures $14M in Series A Funding

Reservoir has announced that it has raised $14M in Series A funding, led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Variant, Archetype, and Square Peg Capital. Although previous funding rounds were not publicly disclosed, they have secured key leaders participating in such as Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Digital, Framework, and other notable investors have backed the project. Reservoir aims to provide infrastructure for integrating NFT trading into apps, as well as developing tools to power token trading for apps on every chain. The project’s suite of products includes Relay (cross-chain swap), Reservoir Swap (DEX infrastructure), and Reservoir NFT (NFT infrastructure).

2. Prodigy Raises $5M in Seed Funding

Prodigy, a DeFi protocol, has secured $5M in seed funding co-led by Quanstamp and Republic, with participation from Arbelos, Panogy, and Samara Alpha Management. The project is focused on Berachain and has received a grant from the Bera Foundation. Prodigy aims to simplify on-chain dual investment, which can be utilized on its own or as an addition to mixed investment strategies.

3. Superlogic Secures $13.7M in Series A Funding

Superlogic, a platform that leverages AI-driven insights to connect customers with experiences tailored to their interests, has announced that it has secured $13.7M in Series A funding at a valuation of $200M. The round was led by PowerLedger, with participation from Galaxy Interactive, Nima Capital, Sanctor Capital, and others. This funding round brings the total amount raised by Superlogic to $21.3M, including a strategic round of $7.6M in April 2024. The project aims to enhance world-class experiential inventory at scale for some of the world’s top loyalty programs via seamless API integration or a turn-key white-labeled platform, enabling brands to deliver personalized programs that increase loyalty and drive deeper engagement.

The number of deals closed in the previous week was 25, with Infra leading the way with 11 deals, representing 44% of the total number of deals. Meanwhile, Social had 3 deals, Gamefi had 3 deals, DeFi had 5 deals

The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $135.84 million, 28% deals (7/25) in previous didn’t public the raised amount. The top funding came from Social sector from with $47 million and mostly by NFT projects: Taproot Wizard and Reservoir.

Total weekly fundraising rose to $135.84 million for the 2nd week of February, a decrease of -107% compared to the week prior. Weekly fundraising in the previous week was up 24% year over year for the same period.