Harvard’s endowment has quietly made Bitcoin ETFs a top public holding, surpassing Google and joining other elite universities in rotating long‑term capital into digital assets.

Harvard University’s endowment is now leaning harder into Bitcoin (BTC) than into Silicon Valley’s most iconic search giant—and markets are taking note

Harvard’s Quiet Portfolio Pivot

“FUN FACT: Harvard University holds more in Bitcoin ETFs than it holds shares in Google,” Bitcoin Magazine posted on X on February 10, distilling a shift years in the making.

TLDR

• YouTuber MrBeast’s company Beast Industries purchased Step, a banking app with 7 million teen and young adult users
• Deal follows $200 million investment from Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies in January 2025
• Step provides FDIC-insured banking through Evolve Bank & Trust with features for credit building and money management
• MrBeast filed trademark for “MrBeast Financial” in October 2024 mentioning cryptocurrency exchange services
• Acquisition price not disclosed; Step previously raised $500 million from celebrity investors including Steph Curry

Jimmy Donaldson, known online as MrBeast, is expanding his business empire into financial services. His company Beast Industries completed an acquisition of Step, a mobile banking platform targeting teenagers and young adults.

Donaldson shared the news Monday on social media. He told his audience the purchase aims to give young people financial education he lacked growing up. “Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up,” the YouTuber explained.

Beast Industries did not reveal how much it paid for Step. The company declined to comment on financial terms of the transaction.

Step currently serves between 6.5 and 7 million users. The app launched in 2018 to help Gen Z manage finances, build credit scores, and access banking tools.

Banking Features and FDIC Insurance

Step partners with Evolve Bank & Trust to offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured accounts. Users receive a Step Visa Card and can open accounts for spending, saving, and investing.

The platform charges no monthly fees. Step’s founders CJ MacDonald and Alexey Kalinichenko designed the app to improve financial literacy among younger users.

Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold said the acquisition allows the company to provide practical financial solutions. He stated financial health is fundamental to overall wellbeing.

$200 Million Crypto Investment Preceded Deal

BitMine Immersion Technologies invested $200 million in Beast Industries during January 2025. The firm holds the largest corporate position in Ethereum cryptocurrency.

BitMine chair Tom Lee called the investment a long-term bet on the creator economy. He praised MrBeast’s reach among Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and Millennial demographics.

The investment came after Beast Industries filed a trademark application for “MrBeast Financial” in October 2024. That filing referenced cryptocurrency exchange services, payment processing, and decentralized exchanges.

Whether the trademark connects to the Step acquisition remains unknown. Beast Industries has not confirmed plans to add cryptocurrency features to Step’s platform.

Step’s Investor Base and Growth

Step raised roughly $500 million from various investors since launching. Celebrity backers include NBA player Steph Curry, singers Justin Timberlake and Charli D’Amelio, and actor Will Smith.

Payment processor Stripe invested in Step alongside venture firms Coatue, Collaborative Fund, Crosslink Capital, and General Catalyst. The company scaled its user base to 7 million over eight years.

MrBeast runs the largest YouTube channel globally with 466 million subscribers. His channels generate about 5 billion monthly views.

Beast Industries operates multiple businesses beyond YouTube. These include Feastables snack brand, Beast Philanthropy nonprofit, and Beast Games reality show on Amazon Prime Video.

Housenbold said Step’s technology platform and fintech team complement Beast Industries’ digital audience. The acquisition brings Step’s entire operation under the Beast Industries umbrella.

Bitcoin BTC$68,632.97 is struggling to regain a foothold above $70,000 as altcoins outperform.

The largest cryptocurrency is little changed over 24 hours, while the broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index rose 0.40% even as ether ETH$2,009.89 declined. Memecoins are leading gains, with the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) adding 1.5% as PIPPIN climbed 46%.

Tokens linked to artificial intelligence (AI) also fared well. WLD$0.3936, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, rose more than 3% in the past day, while Virtuals’ VIRTUAL token rose 2.4%. That’s as the “agentic AI,” where AI tools now also execute tasks, narrative grows.

Still, the crypto Fear and Greed Index still points to “extreme fear” in the market after last week’s selloff.

Meanwhile, traditional markets steadied, buoyed in part by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide election victory in Japan. While Japanese bond yields rose after the result, they have since fallen near to pre-election levels. That reduces the risk of trillions of dollars invested overseas moving back to Japan in search of higher yields.

Derivatives Positioning

• Bearish momentum in BTC futures is intensifying as open interest (OI) continues its descent to $15.9 bo;;opm, signaling a deep and prolonged deleveraging phase.
• This shift is most evident in funding rates on Binance (-7%) and Bybit (-8%), which have collapsed into aggressive negative territory. That’s a sign short sellers are paying a heavy premium to maintain their dominance. With the three-month basis stagnant at 3%, institutional appetite remains sidelined.
• The BTC options market is showing a cooling of extreme defensive sentiment. The one-week 25-delta skew is at 16%, while call dominance has rebounded to 56%, indicating a shift toward bottom-fishing.
• The implied volatility (IV) term structure is transitioning from extreme backwardation toward a hybrid position that suggests that while near-term protection remains pricey, long-term volatility expectations are stabilizing.
• Coinglass data shows $290 million in 24-hour liquidations, with a 53-47 split between longs and shorts. BTC ($114 million), ETH ($89 million) and others ($16 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations. Binance’s liquidation heatmap indicates $68,160 as a core liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price drop.

Token Talk

• Merkle Trade, the largest perpetual futures decentralized exchange on the Aptos blockchain, is in the throes of shutting down. The exchange disabled new trading positions on Friday and will forcibly close all open positions today.
• Merkle’s native token, MKL, has added 9% in the past 24 hours. It remains redeemable without withdrawal fees, with a final staking rewards payout scheduled for Feb. 12. The token has lost 77% in the past 12 months.
• The move comes less than two years after Merkle raised $2.1 million in a seed round backed by Aptos Labs, Hashed and Arrington Capital.
• Despite processing $30 billion in trading volume since its 2023 debut, the team gave no clear reason for the closure in a post on X last week, noting only that the decision followed “careful consideration.”

Hyperscale Data lifts its Bitcoin treasury to 589 BTC and targets $100m, using a strict dollar‑cost‑averaging plan as crypto remains a macro risk barometer.

Hyperscale Data, Inc. said in a press release published today its Bitcoin treasury reached 589.4502 BTC as of February 8, 2026, with an implied value of roughly $41.4m at a closing Bitcoin price of $70,264. The company reiterated that its goal is to accumulate $100m worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet over time.

Executive chairman Milton “Todd” Ault III framed the move as deliberate and incremental, stressing discipline over bravado. “We continue to demonstrate our dedication to our dollar‑cost average strategy,” he said, arguing that this approach “has allowed us to continually lower our average cost per Bitcoin and further strengthen the balance sheet and long‑term future of the Company.”

How Hyperscale is accumulating BTC

Through its subsidiaries Sentinum, Inc. and Ault Capital Group, Inc. (ACG), Hyperscale now holds 589.4502 BTC, with Sentinum controlling about 548.5903 BTC and ACG approximately 40.8994 BTC. Sentinum’s stack includes 108.3562 BTC mined in‑house and 440.2341 BTC bought in the open market, while ACG added 8.9000 BTC during the week ended February 8.

The firm plans to “fully deploy the cash allocated to its digital asset treasury (‘DAT’) strategy into Bitcoin purchases over time,” typically targeting at least 5% of allocated cash each week via daily buys, though actual deployment will flex with “market conditions and strategic considerations.” Management told investors to judge accumulation using multi‑week averages, consistent with first‑principles DCA practice common among institutional allocators.

Macro backdrop: crypto as risk gauge

This parabolic move comes as digital assets continue to trade as the purest expression of macro risk appetite. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering around $69,095, with a recent 24‑hour range between roughly $69,319 and $70,123 and turnover anchored in deep, multi‑billion‑dollar spot and derivatives flows. Ethereum (ETH) changes hands near $2,060, down just over 2% on the session, after trading between about $2,000 and $2,150 over the last day. Solana (SOL) trades close to $83.9, slipping around 0.4% in the past 24 hours as volumes consolidate after a sharp multi‑week advance.

For readers tracking the broader context of Bitcoin’s pullback and volatility, recent analyses from outlets such as Phemex on BTC’s drawdown from its October 2025 highs, Journal du Coin’s coverage of the latest 50% correction, and XTB’s breakdown of the latest slide toward the high‑$60,000 region provide additional color on the forces shaping Hyperscale’s high‑conviction treasury strategy.

As the USD/JPY chart shows, the pair has been exhibiting bearish momentum since the beginning of the week. This move has been driven by a combination of factors:

→ Yen strength on political news. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a decisive victory in Sunday’s snap election (8 February), winning a parliamentary majority. Although Takaichi has pledged large-scale fiscal stimulus of around ¥21 trillion, the prospect of increased money printing has not weakened the currency, as the market may (a) welcome political stability and (b) believe that the Bank of Japan will be forced to respond to inflation by raising interest rates.

→ US dollar weakness ahead of economic data releases. This reflects market sentiment ahead of labour market data due on Wednesday and the CPI report scheduled for Friday. In addition, the dollar’s status has come under pressure after Chinese regulators reportedly recommended limiting investments in US Treasuries.

On 26 January, when analysing fluctuations in the dollar–yen exchange rate, we:

→ noted that the long-term ascending channel had been broken near the 157.700 level;
→ constructed a parallel channel below and suggested that, following the sharp drop in USD/JPY (triggered by the possibility of coordinated currency intervention by the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve), a rebound could occur.

Indeed, since then (as indicated by the arrow):

→ on 28 January, the market formed a low slightly below the lower boundary of the parallel channel;
→ the pair subsequently rebounded towards the 157.700 level.

Technical Analysis of the USD/JPY Chart

The bearish tone of the current week allows us to highlight the following:

→ local support levels of the parallel channel (shown by thick blue lines) have been broken, and bulls may now have to rely on its lower boundary;
→ lower highs A–B–D have formed on the USD/JPY chart, with a bearish trend line drawn through them.

In this context, it is reasonable to assume that:

→ the sharp B→C impulse has disrupted the market’s multi-month bullish structure;
→ the C→D recovery (towards the 78.6% Fibonacci level) was an interim move within a broader bearish reversal.

The ability of the red A–B–D trend line to remain relevant over time would further support this hypothesis.

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Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov says the current market cycle is offering a clearer view of where crypto is headed next – not through price action, but through structural changes taking place beneath the surface.

In a post on X, Nazarov argued that the most important signals this cycle are emerging from infrastructure resilience and real-world adoption rather than speculation.

This suggests the industry is entering a more durable phase.

1. Crypto is surviving volatility with fewer systemic failures

Nazarov’s first signal of progress is the absence of large, cascading institutional collapses during recent market drawdowns. He noted that despite sharp volatility, the industry has avoided the kind of failures that defined the previous cycle.

“This cycle so far has not had the same types of cascading institutional blowups,” Nazarov wrote, pointing to improved risk management and capital discipline across crypto firms.

According to Nazarov, this resilience is a critical prerequisite for long-term institutional participation and signals a maturing market structure.

2. Real-world assets are moving on-chain regardless of prices

The second trend shaping crypto’s next era is the steady migration of real-world assets (RWAs) onto blockchains. Nazarov emphasized that tokenization activity is continuing even as broader crypto markets fluctuate.

“The adoption of RWAs is continuing independent of crypto market cycles,” he said, highlighting on-chain issuance and the growth of perpetual markets tied to traditional assets such as commodities.

He added that features like 24/7 trading, transparent collateral, and global access are driving demand beyond speculative use cases.

3. Infrastructure is becoming the core value proposition

Nazarov’s final trend centers on infrastructure. As RWAs scale, he said the need for reliable data, interoperability, and secure coordination between on-chain and off-chain systems is increasing rapidly.

“In the long run, RWAs can become larger than crypto-native assets,” Nazarov wrote, suggesting blockchains are evolving into foundational financial infrastructure rather than niche markets.

President Donald Trump sparked a viral debate on social media after a February 9 interview on Fox Business’s Kudlow show, where he discussed his decision-making around Kevin Warsh, his nominee for Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair.

Short clips circulating on X (Twitter) show Trump saying he “made a big mistake,” fueling confusion over whether he now regrets nominating Warsh.

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Trump Admits a “Big Mistake”—But Is It About Kevin Warsh or Powell?

In full context, Trump was reflecting on 2017, when he chose Jerome Powell over Warsh, who had been the “runner-up” at the time.

Trump said the decision was influenced by advice from then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, calling it a “really big mistake.”

Far from expressing current regret, Trump praised Warsh, describing him as a “high-quality person” capable of delivering extraordinary results if confirmed.

Trump’s comments included an eye-catching claim: if Warsh “does the job that he’s capable of,” the US economy could grow as much as 15%. Notably, this projection is far beyond historical peaks of 4–7% growth in strong years.

This bold statement has sparked widespread debate, with speculation that Warsh will be set up as a “fall guy” if such ambitious expectations are not met.

“…drive economic growth to 15%—a highly optimistic claim that highlights the pressure Warsh would face if confirmed…signal Trump’s push for aggressive stimulus ahead of midterm elections and suggest a challenging path for Warsh,” remarked Walter Bloomberg, a popular market commentator.

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Meanwhile, the remarks also have clear market implications. Analysts and crypto commentators have interpreted Trump’s enthusiasm for Warsh as a signal that the next Fed leadership could favor lower interest rates, stronger liquidity, and pro-growth policies.

“Trump is directly signaling lower rates and stronger liquidity support…This is the clearest signal yet that the next Fed direction could be more growth-focused and liquidity-friendly,” analyst Bull Theory commented.

With a Fed chair who will cut rates and dismiss concerns about inflation, such growth would normally push prices sharply higher.

Posts on X highlight potential implications for Bitcoin, gold, and other risk assets. The general sentiment is that Warsh’s policy approach could lead to easier monetary conditions, reminiscent of “yield curve control” or coordinated Treasury-Fed operations.

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However, misleading captions and out-of-context clips have driven a spike in engagement, with some speculating about alternative nominees like Judy Shelton or questioning whether Warsh could be withdrawn.

However, data on Polymarket shows a modest 3% probability of Trump nominating Shelton, against 95% odds in favor of Warsh.

Fact-check threads and full-clip posts are attempting to clarify that Trump’s “mistake” comment referred to the past, not the present nomination.

Memes, commentary, and speculation about inflation, debt levels, and Fed independence have made the discussion one of the most viral economic topics on X in recent days.

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Warsh himself has a history that blends traditional central banking experience with a measured openness to financial innovation.

A former Fed Governor (2006–2011) and Hoover Institution senior fellow, he is known as an inflation hawk who favors fiscal restraint and a smaller Fed balance sheet.

He has personal exposure to crypto, investing in projects such as Basis and Bitwise, though he views Bitcoin primarily as a store of value rather than a transactional medium.

Sentiment suggests his tenure could indirectly support risk assets by providing macro stability and eventual clarity on rate policies. However, any direct crypto rally is unlikely until he assumes office in May 2026 and policy actions materialize.

Bitcoin has attempted to recover in recent sessions, but upward momentum has stalled as the market waits for a clearer direction. Price remains range-bound after a sharp correction, frustrating short-term traders. 

Despite this pause, historical indicators suggest a bottom may be forming. Past cycles show similar conditions often precede renewed recovery phases.

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Bitcoin Profitable Supply Hits 2022 Level

Bitcoin’s recent decline triggered a signal last seen during the 2022 bear market. The percentage of supply in profit fell to around 50%, meaning half of all circulating BTC is now underwater. This threshold has historically coincided with market bottoms rather than prolonged sell-offs.

When profitable supply compresses to these levels, selling incentives weaken. Holders become less willing to realize losses, reducing sell-side pressure. In previous cycles, this dynamic encouraged investors to hold through volatility, allowing the price to stabilize before recovery resumed.

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Lower prices also attract fresh capital. Value-oriented buyers tend to enter when downside risk appears limited relative to upside potential. This influx of new demand has historically helped revive Bitcoin recoveries once profitable supply falls to or below the 50% mark.

Why Is Bitcoin Likely To Bounce Back?

Macro indicators reinforce the bottoming narrative. The Pi Cycle Top Indicator, which compares the 111-day moving average to a doubled 350-day moving average, remains far from signaling BTC overheating. This indicator historically flags major tops when the shorter average crosses the higher threshold.

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Currently, the opposite setup is unfolding. The shorter moving average is diverging below the longer one, signaling cooling conditions rather than excess speculation. In past cycles, such divergence often preceded sustained rebounds as Bitcoin reset from overheated levels.

This cycle differs from prior ones. Since March 2023, Bitcoin has maintained a macro uptrend without excessive overheating. Gradual price appreciation limited speculative excess, making this the first clear bottom signal in nearly three years rather than a sharp capitulation-driven low.

BTC Price Levels To Watch

In the short term, Bitcoin is holding above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement near $63,007. At the time of writing, BTC trades around $68,905, maintaining support despite repeated tests. However, price remains capped below the $71,672 resistance, limiting immediate upside.

If on-chain signals continue holding and inflows strengthen, Bitcoin could break above $71,672. Such a move would open the path toward $78,676. Stronger confirmation of recovery would come only if BTC reclaims $85,680 as a sustained support level.

Risks remain on the downside due to the shifting market structure. The short-term holder to long-term holder supply ratio has moved above its upper band. This reflects growing short-term participation, often linked to higher volatility. 

This would hurt Bitcoin’s price chances of crossing the $71,672 barrier, continuing its consolidation. Even if BTC does push past said resistance, the selling will pull it back down towards $63,000, invalidating the bullish thesis.

As the Nvidia (NVDA) share chart shows, during yesterday’s trading session the price advanced towards a key resistance area around $192.50, where notable peaks were formed in December 2025 and January 2026. The move was supported by several factors that boosted optimism:

→ Comments from company management. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated that rising spending on AI is justified and reflects a long-term growth phase for the industry.

→ Goldman Sachs analyst Jim Schneider expects Nvidia’s fourth-quarter revenue to exceed forecasts and surpass $67 billion, and also anticipates strong sales and profit figures in the first quarter of the 2026 financial year.

Technical Analysis of the Nvidia (NVDA) Chart

On the morning of 4 February, when analysing NVDA price movements, we:

→ updated the long-term ascending channel, which remains intact;
→ noted the proximity of its lower boundary, which had acted as a key support level for many months;
→ suggested that NVDA’s price could stabilise in the lower quarter of the channel.

Since then:

→ between 4 and 6 February, the price moved sideways near the lower boundary of the channel, reflecting a balance between supply and demand;
→ following a false break below the December low, the share price staged a sharp rebound, signalling the dominance of buying pressure.

It is reasonable to assume that:

→ the initiative is currently on the side of the bulls, who appear determined to resume the long-term upward trend;
→ if another attempt is made to break through the aforementioned resistance level, it is likely to succeed, opening the way for NVDA shares to move towards the psychological $200 mark.

The realisation of this scenario could be supported by positive sentiment ahead of Nvidia’s earnings release on 25 February and the GTC 2025 conference in mid-March, when new product announcements may be made.

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A federal judge in California sentenced in absentia a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis to 20 years in prison for his role in a $73 million international crypto scam.

Daren Li, who is a fugitive after removing an ankle electronic monitoring device in December, was also handed three years of supervised release for his role in an international cryptocurrency investment conspiracy carried out from scam centers in Cambodia, according to a court statement on Monday.

Cambodia has become a hub for “pig butchering” crypto scams, generating over $30 million daily via forced labor compounds, according to a TRM Labs report. A separate TRM report revealed how over $96 billion in crypto has flowed to Cambodia-linked companies since 2021, used heavily for money laundering and fraud.

“As part of an international cryptocurrency investment scam, Daren Li and his co-conspirators laundered over $73 million dollars stolen from American victims,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the statement.

Duva said the court’s criminal division is working with global law enforcement officials to find, detain and return Li to the U.S. to serve his entire sentence.

Li pleaded guilty on Nov. 12, 2024, in the Central District of California to conspiring with others to launder funds obtained from victims through crypto scams and related fraud. As part of his plea agreement, Li said he and his cronies would contact victims directly through unsolicited social-media interactions, telephone calls and messages and online dating services. Their tactics entailed gaining victims’ trust by establishing professional or romantic relationships with them, then luring them into using spoof platforms to appear to invest in crypto.

In other instances, the group posed as tech-support staff and induced victims to send funds via wire transfer or cryptocurrency trading platforms to purportedly remediate a non-existent virus or other false computer-related problem.

Social engineering scams, such as fake investment offers and impersonation tactics, were the leading threat to crypto users, accounting for losses in the billions of dollars and representing nearly 41% of all crypto security incidents in 2025.