Jinse Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Jinse Finance, covering key news of the week, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This is the news weekly, taking you through the major events in the blockchain industry this week.

Headline

▌SBF changes political stance to support Trump in first prison interview, suspected of seeking pardon

Former CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has taken a pro-Trump stance in his first interview since being incarcerated. SBF claimed in the interview that he is also a "victim of the politicization of the Department of Justice", and that his support for the Republican cause is more than people know. According to an interview by The New York Sun reporter, SBF provided $40 million to the US Democratic Party and $5.2 million to the Biden campaign in 2020. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, on charges including fraud. Civil groups in the US previously reported that the possibility of SBF being pardoned is very small, although he appears to be seeking a pardon from the current US President.

▌eXch refuses to intercept stolen funds for Bybit

eXch (a centralized mixer) refused to intercept the funds stolen in the hack of Bybit.

▌Musk plans to discuss with Trump about giving $5,000 DOGE dividend to Americans

Musk will inquire with President Donald Trump about a DOGE dividend proposal that would provide $5,000 refund checks to taxpayers, funded by savings from his government efficiency department.

▌Musk's DOGE to audit the US SEC, investigate potential fraud, abuse and waste

According to an official announcement, Elon Musk's government efficiency department DOGE will audit the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate its potential waste, fraud and abuse.

▌Trump's newly appointed FBI director Kash Patel holds $115,000 worth of Bitcoin

According to a post on X platform by BecauseBitcoin, Kash Patel, the newly appointed FBI director by Trump, holds $115,000 worth of Bitcoin.

Policy

▌FOX reporter: More bipartisan support for Republican senator's stablecoin regulatory framework bill

FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on social media that "the stablecoin regulatory framework bill introduced by Republican Senator Bill Hagerty is gaining more bipartisan support. Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland has just signed on as a co-sponsor, and another Democratic co-sponsor is Kirsten Gillibrand."

▌Coinbase co-founder: Reached agreement with US SEC, related litigation expected to be formally approved for dismissal next week

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brain Armstrong posted on X platform that after years of litigation, costing millions of taxpayer dollars and causing irreparable harm to the country, Coinbase has reached an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission staff to dismiss the litigation against Coinbase. Once approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (expected next week), this will be a complete dismissal with zero fines, and the business will not change at all. 1. The SEC was legally wrong. 2. Succumbing to the SEC's demands could lead to the demise of the US crypto industry. 3. The dismissal of the litigation is the right choice for Coinbase's customers and the industry. Brain Armstrong expressed hope for reform at the SEC under the leadership of Paul Atkins, Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce and DOGE, and looks forward to new, wiser leadership.

▌US senators urge SEC to reconsider crypto ETF staking

A bipartisan group of US senators wrote to SEC Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, urging a re-evaluation of crypto ETF staking, arguing that it plays an important role in blockchain security and investor interests. The letter was led by Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and supported by Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Ron Wyden.

▌Bloomberg: SEC has concluded its investigation into OpenSea

According to Bloomberg, OpenSea has stated that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded its investigation into the NFT marketplace. Recently, the SEC has delayed litigation processes against multiple crypto companies and stated that the newly formed Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit may resolve a series of litigations to conserve judicial resources. Yesterday, the SEC agreed to dismiss the case against Coinbase.

▌Bernstein: Political and regulatory environment creating ideal conditions for stablecoin legislation this year

A Bernstein report released on Wednesday suggests that a 'perfect storm' of political and regulatory forces is creating ideal conditions for US stablecoin legislation this year. Analysts added that potential US legislation may prompt major financial institutions to assess how to integrate stablecoin issuance or settlement into their business models. Additionally, regulators are expected to intensify scrutiny of past 'de-banking' practices, further bringing stablecoin issuers, exchanges and intermediaries into the traditional financial system.

Blockchain Applications

▌CZ: Used DEX's AMM, LP functions for the first time this morning, a lot of room for UX improvement for beginners

CZ posted on his social platform that "this is my first time using AMM, liquidity pools, etc. I've never used a DEX before, I've only used CEX. I wanted to put some BNB in the TST LP as a test, I've seen demos of Pancake before. It looks simple. So I didn't refer to any tutorial videos. I wanted to see what the first-time experience would be like. As a beginner, I have to say the DEX experience can be improved a lot, there may be bots trying to front-run my public address trades (or any large trades), everyone can monitor what I'm doing in real-time, well, there's still a lot to be done." Earlier, it was reported that CZ used his donation address to swap 1 BNB for 5,387.79 TST and added liquidity for TST at 00:29:20 today.

▌CZ appears to have suggested to Musk to use blockchain technology to replace traditional paper checks

CZ (Changpeng Zhao) seems to have suggested to Elon Musk to use blockchain technology to replace traditional paper checks. The context of this discussion is that the US Treasury processed 116 million paper checks in fiscal year 2024, and in fiscal year 2023, $25 billion in tax refunds were delayed or lost due to check loss or expiration. The Treasury also maintains a physical lockbox network to collect checks related to taxes (e.g. IRS), passports (e.g. State Department), etc., with a processing cost of about $2.4 per check. Eliminating paper checks could save at least $750 million per year.

▌Tether co-founder developing interest-bearing stablecoin

According to Bloomberg, Tether co-founder Reeve Collins is developing an interest-bearing stablecoin project, planning to compete with Tether and launch on Ethereum and Solana blockchains later this year. The project will mint stablecoins through smart contracts, with asset backing including yield-generating real-world assets like bonds. Unlike Tether's profit from investing reserves, the new project will distribute profits to participants promoting the stablecoin, and will also issue governance tokens allowing token holders to participate in platform decisions and share platform revenue.

▌Curve founder developing new project Yield Basis, completed $5 million funding

Curve founder Michael Egorov is developing a new project called Yield Basis and has raised $5 million at a $50 million valuation. According to the January 11, 2025 financing information, the project is selling 10% of its total 'YB' token supply - 100 million out of 1 billion tokens - to investors. The investor vesting plan includes a 6-month lock-up period, followed by a 2-year linear unlock. 30% of the total supply will be used for community incentives, distributed through liquidity mining. Other allocations include 25% to the team, 15% for development reserves, 10% for Curve technology licensing, and 10% for partnerships. Yield Basis aims to help users holding tokenized Bitcoin and Ethereum earn yield from market making while mitigating Impermanent Loss, a risk in decentralized finance (DeFi) where liquidity providers may end up with lower asset value than holding the assets directly, even after earning trading fees or token rewards.

▌CZ: Heard that the BNB Chain team is creating a video tutorial on how to create AI agents on the chain

Binance founder CZ posted on social media that "according to Defillama data, BNB Chain's trading volume has increased 66.63% week-over-week, and it all started with a video tutorial. Heard the team is working on a new video tutorial to teach people how to create AI agents on the BNB Chain."

Cryptocurrencies

▌CZ: Inclined to use the funds in the donation address to provide liquidity

CZ updated on his social platform about his considerations for using the remaining funds in his donation address: "I may pool the funds. Let's see which combination works best. Many have suggested donating to charities, and I support that. I like doing charity with crypto. My requirement for charities is that they must enable crypto and allow tracing to the final beneficiaries. Transparency. Welcome suggestions. Some 'other project' suggestions are to burn the received tokens. I understand the rationale. Airdrops involve the most effort from the wallet operators, and choosing who to airdrop to also leads to more 'debate'. Some suggest adding to LPs. I did some testing yesterday. I think I may have finally figured out the trick. The MEV experience from this address is quite accurate. Good learning experience. And an interesting weekend exercise. I know I'm just a few years late. For now, I'm inclined to do more to support liquidity. I don't care if this address makes money or loses money. I think this is also an indirect way to give back to our community."

▌Bybit CEO responds to eXch rejecting its interception request: Hopes eXch will reconsider, this is not just helping Bybit

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou stated on the X platform, "At this moment, it's actually not about Bybit or any entity, but the general attitude we as an industry have towards hackers. I sincerely hope eXch will reconsider and help us stop the funds from flowing out of there. We've also got the help of Interpol and international regulators to stop these funds, and it's not just helping Bybit." Previously reported, eXch has rejected Bybit's request to intercept the funds, and a relatively large amount of ETH has been washed out through eXch and converted to BTC, XMR, etc.

▌Slow Mist Cosine: Suggest all platforms raise risk control levels for funds from eXch

According to Slow Mist Cosine, given that a relatively large amount of ETH has been washed out through eXch and converted to BTC, XMR, etc., all platforms should raise their risk control levels for funds originating from eXch. Previously reported, eXch refused to intercept the stolen funds for Bybit.

▌Kanye West's X account has deleted previous crypto-related tweets

The X account of the famous fashion artist Kanye West has now deleted his previous crypto-related tweets. Previously reported, according to crypto KOL Loki The Bird's analysis, "Kanye West may have transferred (or custodied) his X account to BarkMeta Doginals for $17 million."

▌CZ: Binance has always restricted employees from trading coins, plans to personally try a few "on-chain meme" projects

Binance co-founder CZ posted on the X platform that Binance (the CEX) has always restricted employees from trading coins. This is of course to protect users. But the side effect is that product managers don't really understand user needs. CZ said: "I can't control that anymore, let their management decide. On-chain, I should really go experience the products. Let me go try a few on-chain memes later."

Important Economic Dynamics

▌Important macroeconomic events and data next week: Fed officials' speeches, PCE, Nvidia earnings

Next week, several key Federal Reserve officials will deliver speeches, specifically: Tuesday 17:20, 2026 FOMC voter and Dallas Fed President Logan; Wednesday 00:45, Fed Governor Barr; Thursday, 2025 FOMC voter and Kansas City Fed President George on economic issues; Friday 02:15, 2026 FOMC voter and Cleveland Fed President Mester on financial stability; Friday 04:15, 2026 FOMC voter and Philadelphia Fed President Harker on the economic outlook. In addition, major US macroeconomic data such as PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index) will also be released next week, specifically: Tuesday 23:00, US February Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, February Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index; after US market close on Wednesday, Nvidia will report earnings; Thursday 21:30, US Q4 real GDP annualized QoQ revision, Q4 GDP Price Index revision, January Durable Goods Orders MoM, US Initial Jobless Claims as of February 22; Friday 21:30, US January PCE data, January Personal Spending MoM. (Jinshi)

▌Fed Governor Kocherlakota: Expects January PCE inflation rate to be 2.4%

Fed Governor Kocherlakota: Expects the January PCE inflation rate to be 2.4% and the core PCE inflation rate to be 2.6%; still some distance from the 2% target.

▌Fed's Bostic: Expects the Fed to cut rates twice this year

Fed's Bostic said he expects the Fed to cut rates twice this year. Many things could happen in the future that could lead to more or less rate cuts. The current benchmark rate is in a moderately restrictive range, compared to a 3%-3.5% neutral rate. With policy changes on the horizon, a slowdown in the economy is a major concern, but businesses expect 2025 to be a healthy year, and the economy has shown resilience so far.

▌Fed minutes: If the economy is strong, policy can be kept at a restrictive level

The minutes of the Fed's January monetary policy meeting show that all participants felt that keeping the target rate unchanged was appropriate. If the economy is strong, policy can be kept at a restrictive level. Some participants noted that potential changes in trade and immigration policies could hinder the process of inflation coming down; a few participants said the risks to achieving the inflation target seem greater than the risks to the employment target; the overall risks to inflation are tilted to the upside. The vast majority of participants judged that the risks to the dual mandate goals are broadly balanced.

▌Fed's Bostic: Confidence in the 2025 economic outlook has declined

Fed's Bostic said confidence in the 2025 economic outlook has declined. It is difficult to incorporate all potential policy changes into the economic outlook; did not expect inflation progress to be linear. The Fed did not cut rates significantly last year, and policy remains restrictive; satisfied with pausing rate cuts to observe economic developments. The Fed is nearing the threshold level of its balance sheet, with the debt ceiling being one factor determining this; hopes to monitor the balance sheet daily to ensure asset runoff does not become excessive.