Cathie Wood stands by $1.5M BTC price, CZ’s dog, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Feb. 9 – 15

Top Stories of The Week

SEC Crypto Task Force met with firms to discuss staking, litigation review

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force met with several representatives from the cryptocurrency and traditional finance sectors to discuss regulatory issues impacting digital assets in early February. Key themes included staking, clear guidelines for exchange-traded products (ETPs) and a new framework for policing the emerging asset class. 

According to memoranda available on the SEC’s website, the Crypto Task Force met with the Blockchain Association, an industry lobby group, on Feb. 4. The lobby group suggested six priority areas the task force should focus on to “tackle issues that impact the digital asset industry.” 

In addition to establishing regulatory principles and clearer guidelines, the lobby group requested that the SEC adopt a pro-innovation approach to broker-dealers, custodians and exchanges; establish uniform ETP standards; and ensure protocol staking is not classified as a security.

Elizabeth Warren calls Elon Musk ’bank robber’ for dismantling CFPB 

US Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing back against Elon Musk and President Donald Trump over efforts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency she helped create in 2007.

The CFPB — a US government agency focused on consumer protection — was hit with another wave of layoffs on Feb. 13, receiving termination notices for up to 100 employees, NPR reported.

The layoffs came shortly after Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting head of the CFPB recently appointed by US President Donald Trump, cut off the agency from new funding in line with the agenda of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s Workforce Optimization Initiative.

“The CFPB was created by Congress, and Congress — not Elon Musk, not Donald Trump — is the only one that can shut it down,” Warren said in an interview with progressive publication Mother Jones on Feb. 12.

SEC acknowledges Grayscale’s XRP and DOGE ETF filings 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has acknowledged filings from crypto asset manager Grayscale seeking to list spot XRP and Dogecoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The SEC’s Feb. 13 acknowledgments of Grayscale’s Form 19b-4 filings for the Grayscale XRP Trust and the Grayscale Dogecoin Trust means the clock will soon start for the agency to review and decide on the applications within a mandated 240-day deadline.

The 240-day timer will start when Grayscale’s filings are submitted to the SEC’s federal register, which typically happens within days. If entered now, it would mean the SEC’s decision deadline would be in mid-October.

Coinbase CEO predicts 10% of global GDP to be on crypto rails by 2030

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says it’s the “dawn of a new era for crypto” in the US and predicted that as much as 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP) will be crypto-based by 2030. 

“Up to 10% of global GDP could be running on crypto rails by the end of this decade,” Armstrong said during Coinbase’s Feb. 13 fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call.

Armstrong compared the current movement of companies trying to integrate crypto to the early 2000s, when every company had to figure out how to adapt to the internet.

“Onchain is the new online,” he said.

If Armstrong’s prediction plays out, it would mean over $10 trillion in value would be tokenized or onchain, based on today’s global GDP of over $100 trillion, according to the World Bank.

CZ’s dog’s name sparks ‘Broccoli’ memecoin frenzy 

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder and former CEO of Binance, revealed his dog’s name, Broccoli, in an X post on Feb. 13, sparking a wave of memecoins named after the Belgian Malinois canine.

Broccoli memecoins have quickly taken up residence on popular memecoin launching platforms, including Solana’s Pump.fun, where there are at least 480 Broccoli-themed coins, and BNB Smart Chain’s Four.Meme, with at least 300 coins at the time of writing. Some have gained traction, with one Solana Broccoli memecoin reaching a $1.5 billion market capitalization on Feb. 13.

CZ stressed that he was not launching a memecoin of his own, adding that it’s “up to the community to do that (or not).”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $97,351, Ether (ETH) at $2,727 and XRP at $2.73. The total market cap is at $3.24 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are PancakeSwap (CAKE) at 75.99%, Sonic (prev. FTM) (S) at 41.67% and SPX6900 (SPX) at 35.51%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Onyxcoin (XCN) at 19.09%, Bitget Token (BGB) at 16.21% and DeXe (DEXE) at 12.10%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“We actually think the odds have gone up that our bull case will be the right number, because of what is becoming the institutionalization of this new asset class.”

Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest

“Crypto received the worst possible news of 2025 today, yet Alts hardly sold off, and some are in the green.”

Matthew Hyland, independent crypto analyst

“We assume that sometime soon, if Chairman Atkins is confirmed as chairman, he’ll come in and want to set his agenda.”

Hester Peirce, head of US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force

“Given the increasing abundance and diversity of crypto ventures and projects, the selection process is becoming tougher.”

Jeffrey Hu, head of investment research at HashKey Capital

“Even during the biggest bubbles, Bitcoin has never gone more than five years ahead of the trendline. Right now, we’re near the one-year-ahead level, suggesting further upside.”

apsk32, pseudonymous Bitcoin trader

“After that, a top goal for us is to unify o-series models and GPT-series models by creating systems that can use all our tools, know when to think for a long time or not, and generally be useful for a very wide range of tasks.”

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

Prediction of The Week

Cathie Wood stands by $1.5M Bitcoin prediction despite ETF outflows: Finance Redefined

Bitcoin’s chances of reaching $1.5 million are improving as institutional investors increase their exposure to digital assets, according to ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood.

Bitcoin has been trading under the key $100,000 level since Feb. 4, as investor sentiment has been pressured by global trade war concerns following import tariffs announced by the US and China.

Despite the temporary market slump, Bitcoin’s odds of surpassing $1.5 million a coin have increased, according to Wood. 

“We actually think the odds have gone up that our bull case will be the right number, because of what is becoming the institutionalization of this new asset class,” she said.

FUD of The Week

Near Protocol ex-manager livestreams nudes, apologizes to girlfriend

A former employee of layer-1 blockchain platform Near Protocol accidentally showed nude images while sharing his screen on a public call, coinciding with a tidy price bump for native token NEAR.

Ex-business development manager Andrew Krynin was on a livestream with Near core contributor Cameron Dennis when two titillating images appeared on the screen, providing viewers with a look at the files saved on his laptop.

“The only thing that I wanted to say next was, uh… God damn it,” Krynin said. After two seconds of silence, his screensharing stopped.

CluCoin founder asks to be spared prison for $1.1M fraud scheme

The founder of the crypto scheme CluCoin, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year for stealing $1.1 million in investor funds to gamble in online casinos, has asked a judge to spare him from a prison sentence.

Austin Michael Taylor asked a Miami federal court in a Feb. 11 sentencing memo to sentence him to probation, which would allow him to serve any sentence outside of prison. A memo from prosecutors filed the same day asked for him to be imprisoned for around two-and-a-half years.

“Mr. Taylor understands that he had a lapse in judgment and has accepted responsibility for his actions,” his lawyer wrote. The memo added he completed an in-hospital mental health treatment program before his guilty plea and continues to receive treatment while attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings. 

6 men kidnapped Chicago family, forcing $15M crypto transfer: Report

Six men have reportedly been charged over allegedly kidnapping a family of three and a nanny in Chicago before forcing them to transfer $15 million worth of cryptocurrencies. 

According to a Feb. 12 report from the Chicago Tribune, which cited a recently unsealed FBI affidavit, the kidnappers knocked on the family’s townhouse door, pretending that they accidentally damaged their garage door, and then forced their way inside with guns.

The kidnappers allegedly forced the family into a van before taking them to an Airbnb about an hour away for one night and then to another house the next day.

The kidnappers allegedly demanded ransom payments in Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies, threatening to kill them otherwise, the victims claimed.

Top Magazine Stories of The Week

Korea to lift corporate crypto ban, beware crypto mining HDs: Asia Express

New Seagate hard drives are recycled from Chia crypto farms, Coinbase wants to return to India, Japanese company buys a load of Bitcoin.

Train AI Agents to make better predictions… for token rewards

Olas runs the largest autonomous agent prediction market, with users incentivized to train agents with Proof of Active Agent token rewards.

Coinbase and Base: Is crypto just becoming traditional finance 2.0?

Crypto is fast becoming traditional finance with a trendy haircut — and it’s a long way from Satoshi’s vision of removing trusted third parties.