Heading into early February 2026, Midnight (NIGHT), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Monero (XMR) are bucking weak altcoin sentiment with accumulation and catalyst-led strength. Midnight's Q1 2026 'Kūkolu' phase was outlined in a January update, while HYPE's CMF turned positive and open interest climbed to $793M around Jan. 26–27. Monero's MFI points to fading sell pressure near $305 after an 11-day, 30% drop.

On 6 February 2026, Santiment introduced a screener that ranks leading crypto governance tokens by GitHub development activity instead of price performance. The latest snapshot highlights Radworks, Curve Finance, API3 and other DeFi and infrastructure projects as maintaining strong developer engagement even while governance token prices remain under pressure. The ranking points to a clear gap between cautious market sentiment and continued on-chain building across major protocols.

Bitwise submitted a registration statement to the SEC for a Uniswap-focused ETF on Thursday, according to the filing. The proposed fund would track UNI and launch without staking, with the option to add it later if approved, and lists Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC as custodian. Around the same time, UNI fell about 15% over 24 hours, while bitcoin dropped nearly 15% on Thursday.

Crypto firms have floated giving community banks a bigger role in stablecoins, including holding part of issuers' reserves, to salvage a market‑structure bill. An analyst warned stablecoins may drain up to $500 billion of deposits by 2028, while supply has grown about 40% over the past year. Talks reportedly remain unresolved.

On Thursday, Tether said it will invest a total of $150 million in Gold.com, initially buying about $125 million in common shares and adding $25 million after regulatory approval. The stablecoin issuer, which already directly holds roughly 140 tons of gold and dominates over half of the gold stablecoin market through Tether Gold, will also gain the right to nominate a Gold.com board member as the firms pursue a vertically integrated gold ecosystem.

A large Aave loan backed by roughly 355,093 AAVE — about 2.3% of supply — began cascading liquidations on Thursday during a market pullback. Roughly $2 million of collateral was seized across four transactions to repay nearly $2 million in USDC, after AAVE dipped near $104–$103; it later traded around $105.60, down 15% on the day.

Between February 3 and February 5, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued that the 2020 rollup-centric scaling roadmap is outdated and urged Layer-2 networks to move beyond generic EVM chains with multisig bridges. Shiba Inu's Shibarium and its Shib Alpha Layer, developed with ElderLabs and progressing into 2026, emphasize privacy, app-specific efficiency, and modular RollApps as differentiated infrastructure. These features, including FHE-focused development and multi-token gas support, aim to meet the higher technical and transparency standards Buterin described.

Hyperliquid's HYPE token stayed under selling pressure on Thursday even after Coinbase confirmed a spot listing with HYPE-USD trading set to begin on 5 February. The token changed hands near $32.9, more than 40% below its $58–60 peak, as a bearish market structure and fragile altcoin sentiment limited the impact of the listing news.