Is Moltbook Really a Step Forward, Coinbase's Face-off with Wall Street, What's the Overseas Crypto Community Talking About Today?

Publication Date: February 2, 2025
Author: BlockBeats Editorial Team

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has exhibited structural changes across multiple dimensions. The mainstream discourse has focused on the convergence of prediction markets with DeFi and AI oracles. Meanwhile, top exchanges and fund flows have continued to influence market sentiment. In terms of ecosystem development, Solana has advanced application integration through Jupiter with Polymarket, Ethereum has embarked on new experiments around agentic DeFi and privacy tools, and the Perp DEX sector has seen accelerated competition driven by projects like Hyperliquid and Lighter.

I. Mainstream Discourse

1. Coinbase's Positive Clash with Wall Street

The Wall Street Journal published an article describing Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong as the "top enemy of Wall Street." The report recounted his fierce clashes with traditional bank executives, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, during the World Economic Forum in Davos. The core of the controversy lies in the stalled progress of the crypto-friendly Clarity Act and the banking sector's strong concerns over interest-bearing stablecoins leading to capital outflows.

Dimon privately accused Armstrong of "talking nonsense," to which Armstrong responded by alleging that traditional banks were using lobbying to impede competition, damaging consumer choice and market vibrancy. The article pointed out that this conflict has become a microcosm of the power play between the crypto industry and the traditional financial system.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison commented that Armstrong's stance was not based on short-term business interests but an attempt to promote a more competitive financial market structure.

The overall sentiment in the crypto community is mostly positive, with Armstrong being widely seen as a "symbol of Wall Street opposition," popularizing the phrase, "If Wall Street hates you, you're doing something right." Many opinions emphasize the structural impact of the crypto system on traditional bank deposits and payment systems, but there are also concerns that further tightening stablecoin regulations could put short-term liquidity under pressure.

Overall, the community views this event as a crucial moment in the institutionalization of the crypto industry, although a few question whether Coinbase is gradually evolving into "just another bank."

2. CZ's Remarks Spark Community Doubt Again

Binance founder CZ (Changpeng Zhao) posted on Binance Square stating that due to ongoing FUD in the community regarding his "1011" incident, the "supercycle has been called off." This statement has been widely interpreted as emotional or even retaliatory, sparking a new round of controversy.

Later, CZ clarified that his original intention was that geopolitical uncertainty and a decrease in market risk appetite are not conducive to the formation of a supercycle, but the related discussion did not die down. Some edited clips circulated in the community, reinforcing the perception that "he still has an impact on the market."

Negative sentiment prevails. Many users described the remarks as "like a parent punishing a child" and called for reducing reliance on centralized exchanges and individual authority, turning to more transparent trading platforms (such as Hyperliquid). Some views depicted CZ as a "manipulator still influencing market expectations," emphasizing the systemic risk of centralized platforms; while a few supporters believed that the market's interpretation of him was exaggerated. The overall consensus tends to reduce the reliance on a single individual's narrative and return to decentralized principles.

3. Epstein Documents Involve Controversy Among Bitcoin Developers

The latest exposure of Epstein-related documents shows that there were discussions via email in 2015-2016: Israeli-related forces might influence Bitcoin core developers through funding to modify the code or block transactions. The documents also involve Epstein's interactions with MIT and discussions on Bitcoin governance structure.

One 2016 Armstrong email mentioned promoting a 2MB hard fork to avoid "early idealists" obstructing the scaling process; another Epstein email expressed concerns about "pump and dump ethical issues," seemingly involving Coinbase investment.

The timing of this disclosure coincides highly with the political maneuvering of the Clarity Act, attracting additional attention.

Bitcoin minimalists are generally shocked, concerned about whether there has been potential intervention in the code or governance in history; however, many voices consider it a conspiracy theory or targeted FUD, calling for a return to a long-term view. The discussion further extends to Bitcoin governance vulnerabilities, large institutional influence, and other issues. The overall tone still emphasizes Bitcoin's censorship resistance and decentralized resilience, interspersed with some dark humor (such as "Epstein unwilling to pump coin").

4. Vitalik Explores a New Design Path for Creator Tokens

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new concept for creator tokens: a non-speculative DAO; through member selection and scale limitations, to prevent monopolization by high-status users; tokens used for predicting and screening potential high-quality creators, rather than purely financial incentives.

Vitalik criticized existing projects (such as Zora) for being easily dominated by a few and used the success of Substack as an example to illustrate that high-quality content incentives do not equate to token speculation.

Overall feedback is mostly positive. Many views believe that this approach is more restrained than the current creator economy model and is closer to the intrinsic value creation of content itself. Some discussions focus on the implementation aspects, such as DAO scale control, and integration with platforms like Substack; a few questioned the governance complexity, but overall, they believe that the proposal provides a new design direction for the content economy.

5. DeepMind AGI Policy Lead's Assessment of Moltbook

DeepMind's AGI Policy Lead, Séb Krier, assessed Moltbook as not a new concept, closer to existing experiments like the Infinite Backrooms. He emphasized that risk research in multi-agent systems is of practical significance, should incorporate more of an economic and game theory perspective, build positive-sum coordination mechanisms, rather than create panic-inducing narratives.

Discussions were polarized: some viewed Moltbook as just old concepts repackaged, with the real focus being AI risk governance; while others saw it as a social experiment in AI, discussing emergent behavior within it (such as spontaneous language). The overall discussion was lively, but rationality prevailed.

6. Columbia University Professor's Empirical Analysis of Moltbook

Columbia University Professor David Holtz released a draft analysis of Moltbook, noting:

The system has a large number of agents (6000+), but limited interaction depth;

93.5% of comments went unanswered, with dialogue levels not exceeding 5 layers;

It is more like "robotic soliloquy" rather than a true social structure.
Related code and tools have been open-sourced for real-time data analysis.

Most viewpoints agree that "true emergence has not yet occurred," viewing Moltbook as an early experiment rather than an AGI signal; there is also discussion comparing it to human social data to analyze the technical reasons for AI interaction constraints. Overall feedback is mostly positive, believing that this type of empirical research helps temper overheated narratives.

7. Balaji's Strong Critique of Moltbook

Balaji Srinivasan bluntly stated that Moltbook is just "AI slop's back-and-forth," highly controlled by human cues, not a self-governing society. He believes that if AI lacks constraints and grounding in the physical world, it could be shut down at any time, making it difficult to achieve genuine social autonomy.

The controversy was intense. One side supports Balaji's assessment, seeing this as an engineering demo rather than AGI; while the other side believes that even under constrained conditions, system-level interactions have shown potential value and can serve as a "laboratory" for studying AI socialization.
Discussions focus on AI autonomy, controllability, and risk boundaries, with high ongoing intensity.

II. Mainstream Ecosystem Dynamics

1. Solana

Jupiter Integrates Polymarket

Jupiter Exchange has announced the integration of Polymarket into the Solana ecosystem, achieving a native integration of prediction markets through the Jupiter platform. Users can execute trades in a single interface without the need for cross-chain transactions or additional hops, emphasizing a "seamless experience." Polymarket has since confirmed the collaboration, highlighting the synergy between its liquidity aggregation capability and Solana's high-performance network.

Relevant screenshots indicate that Polymarket's Super Bowl 2026 Champion prediction market is now live: the Seattle Seahawks currently have a winning probability of around 39%, with a total trading volume of 8.84 billion USD and a settlement date of February 8, 2026.

The community reaction has been highly positive, with many users describing it as "Huge / Yuuuuuuge" and joking that they can finally farm Polymarket on Jupiter or directly put their wages into it. Some discussions have focused on the importance of low friction and near-zero fees, believing that this will significantly increase participation in prediction markets; there have also been a few voices concerned about integration details and risk control mechanisms. The overall sentiment is optimistic, viewing this as a key step for Solana in the prediction market space.

2. Ethereum

DeFi, ERC-8004, x402, and AI Agent Integration

binji, a member of the Ethereum Foundation, has proposed a "Native Agent Credit Network" concept: combining DeFi (on-chain credit and liquidity), ERC-8004 (portable reputation mechanism), x402 (outcome-based lending execution), and AI agents.

In this framework, AI agents use "reputation" as collateral to access computing resources or funds from DeFi lending pools without human intervention, thereby forming a sustainable agent-based economic system. This solution emphasizes Ethereum as a neutral infrastructure that supports "non-human borrowers" and avoids the re-centralization of computing power and credit.

The overall feedback has been extremely positive, with many seeing it as one of the largest potential opportunities at the intersection of FinTech and AI, often mentioning similar explorations like $TIBBIR.

Discussions have expanded to agent credit risks, reputation decay mechanisms, and liquidation logic, and some users have shared related experiments such as Masumi Network and Credshields. A few doubts have focused on scalability and governance complexity, but the general consensus is that it is "worth entering the experimental phase as soon as possible."

Ethereum Member Deposits Funds to The DAO via Tornado Cash

The DAO member pcaversaccio deposited 69,420 ETH to the Ethereum Beacon deposit contract via a Tornado Cash address, emphasizing the privacy and security features of this transaction.
This action has rendered the related future withdrawals and allocations on-chain as "tainted" in a positive context, seen as a real-world use case for Tornado Cash's legitimate purpose. Previously, a 1 ETH test was conducted, with activation of a validator expected approximately 70 days later.

Privacy advocates widely supported this move, with the community rallying behind the slogan "Long Live Tornado Cash," considering it a direct rebuttal to the single narrative of "only used for illicit activities." Jokes about the amount being a "nice number (69,420)" were abundant, and there were technical discussions suggesting future expansion to a 32 ETH pool. The overall sentiment was positive, highlighting the legitimacy of privacy tools in the Ethereum ecosystem.

MegaETH Mainnet to Launch on February 9

MegaETH announced that its mainnet will launch on February 9, along with the simultaneous release of the first batch of ecosystem projects, including:

Consumer and Gamified DeFi: Euphoria, Hit.one

DeFi: Kumbaya Launchpad, Brix Money (carry trade)

Gaming: Showdown (Poker + TCG), TopStrike (Soccer Trading)

GambolFi: OffshoreOnMega

Upcoming: Rocket (Prediction Markets), HelloTrade (Equity-like Perps)

The project emphasized the diversity of the ecosystem direction and its positioning as "real-time blockchain."

The community acknowledged the breadth of the ecosystem, with projects like Ubitel (DePIN) and Hit.one Beta receiving significant attention; users also mentioned NFT projects (such as WCNetizens, 404bunnies). Discussions focused on the potential of gaming and AI agent economies (like Mirra), with an overall optimistic sentiment, although some rational voices cautioned thorough research before participation.

3.Perp DEX

Suspected Multicoin Purchase of ~$40M in HYPE

On-chain monitoring indicates that a suspected Multicoin Capital-related address acquired 1.355M HYPE tokens in the past week, totaling approximately $40.8M.
The related transactions were tracked via Hypurrscan, sparking speculation in the market about whether Multicoin is increasing its exposure to the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Community reactions have been polarized: some mocked it as a "pussy amount" or Kyle Samani's "emotional surrender," cautioning about a potential top signal; while others saw it as a positive signal of heavyweight capital entering. The controversy still revolves around the authenticity of wallet ownership and investment motives.

Lighter Launches LighterEVM

Lighter.xyz has introduced LighterEVM, an Ethereum-based L2 solution utilizing custom ZK circuits to achieve low-cost, low-latency transactions, with a focus on optimizing write latency and exploring synchronous execution schemes, targeting digital asset trading infrastructure. The token ticker is LIT.

Technically inclined users acknowledge its potential in composability and atomic execution; however, some are wary of EVM forks and "scam farming."
The overall sentiment is cautiously optimistic, with a general consensus that ongoing observation of actual performance and potential insider behavior is needed.

Hyperliquid Launches Unified Margin Account

Hyperliquid has rolled out a unified account under Portfolio Margin mode:
Stablecoins can be directly used for Perps and Spot trading without manual transfers.
Currently in the pre-alpha stage with a $1,000 limit, it will support HIP-3 cross-margin in the future.

Users widely regard it as a "game changer," believing it significantly enhances the trading experience and reduces operational friction.
Some discussions focus on the limit and deployment pace, but overall, this is seen as a significant enhancement to Hyperliquid's competitiveness.

HIP-3 + Prediction Market Perps

Outcome deployed HIP-3-based prediction market perpetuals on Hyperliquid, settling in USDT, starting from a 500,000 HYPE self-collateralization.
Supporting real-world and digital asset predictions, up to 10x leverage, and collaborating with USDT0 and Luganodes for collateralization, targeting real traders and launching the ANYTHING/USDT market.

The market has responded positively to the "Prediction Market Perps," seeing it as a key part of the prediction market supercycle.
Discussions have focused on self-custody commitments and potential profit structures, with a few holding a wait-and-see stance on long-term viability.

4. Others

Circle CEO Advocates for Agentic DeFi

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire publicly promotes the concept of agentic DeFi:

Clawnch: AI agents leverage USDC + Morpho lending to acquire funds instead of selling tokens;

Purch.xyz: Agents use USDC to directly purchase Amazon goods.

The core narrative is to build an agent-run economy based on public infrastructure and custom oracles, without the need for VC.

While the innovation is recognized, concerns about security and risk management have significantly increased. Some users warn that "vibe-coded slop" could trigger liquidation risks. Others compare it to Treasure DAO's Halo Finance, highlighting low liquidity issues. The overall sentiment is polarized: some are optimistic about the potential of agent-human collaboration, while others call for a return to "Ethereum itself" and risk assessment.