The Daily: Dogecoin draws further public company interest, bitcoin lingers below $100,000 as China plans retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump and

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Tuesday! We're so back — well, sort of! The crypto market is still hedging its bets amid Trump's trade war, despite a strong recovery across the board on Monday.

In today's newsletter, Dogecoin attracts further public company interest, bitcoin drops back below $100,000 amid China's plans for retaliatory tariffs, Ethereum raises its gas limit for the first time under PoS and more.

Meanwhile, Berachain's Layer 1 mainnet and token generation event is set to launch on Feb. 6. Plus, Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty reportedly plans to introduce a stablecoin bill.

Let's get started.

Dogecoin draws more public company interest

Neptune Digital Assets, a publicly traded Canadian blockchain company, bought 1 million DOGE tokens , valued at approximately $270,000, through a "strategic derivative purchase" on Dec. 27, according to a disclosure on Tuesday.

• Between Jan. 26 and Feb. 3, the firm also acquired an additional 20 bitcoin for approximately $2 million, bringing its total holdings to 376 BTC ($37.4 million).
• "Neptune will be acquiring additional assets, leveraging our enhanced purchasing power through the Sygnum credit line. With a strong focus on BTC, these initial acquisitions show Neptune's commitment to its growth strategy while meticulously managing leverage risk and debt levels," Neptune CEO Cale Moodie said.
• The memecoin purchase marks Neptune as the second publicly traded company to buy Dogecoin, following another digital assets firm, Spirit Blockchain.
• Adoption and interest in DOGE from larger institutional and enterprise investors could be poised to grow as investment firms seek to list spot ETFs that track the price of the token.
• Bitwise, Osprey Funds and Rex Shares are among the firms looking to launch a spot Dogecoin ETF in the U.S.
• DOGE is currently trading for $0.27, with a market cap of around $40 billion, according to The Block's Dogecoin Price Page .

Bitcoin lingers below $100,000 as China plans retaliatory tariffs

Following President Trump's recently enacted tariffs on Chinese goods, China announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports , including 15% on coal and LNG and 10% on crude oil and agricultural machinery.

• The crypto market had staged a strong recovery on Monday following reports that new U.S. tariffs on Mexico and Canada will be paused for a month after an agreement between the respective governments.
• However, bitcoin fell back below $100,000 as the market slipped once again in response to China's tariff plans, set to start on Feb. 10.
• "While bitcoin is often discussed as a digital alternative to gold, it is still largely perceived as a risk asset by many investors," Presto Research analyst Min Jung told The Block. "As such, China's retaliatory 10% tariff on the U.S. is likely to put pressure on risk assets, including crypto, much like equities."

Ethereum increases gas limit for the first time under PoS

Ethereum increased its gas limit to over 31 million , with more than 50% of validators signaling to approve the change without requiring a hard fork.

• The gas limit adjustment, which controls the maximum amount of gas all transactions can consume within a single block, occurred automatically once the validator support threshold was reached.
• This is the first gas limit increase under Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, following its 2021 adjustment from 15 million to 30 million gas units.
• The change was necessary to further scale the network despite improvements from the Dencun upgrade and proto-danksharding.

US Ethereum ETFs post record daily trading volume

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs hit a record $1.5 billion in trading volume on Feb. 3 amid the market turmoil following President Trump's weekend trade tariff announcements.

• BlackRock's ETHA product led with trading volumes of $736 million, followed by Grayscale's converted ETHE fund with $415 million and Fidelity's FETH with $155 million, reflecting their respective market shares by the metric.
• Ether was one of the hardest-hit assets following Trump's tariff announcements, witnessing a sharp 36% drop to around $2,100 from its Saturday high on Monday before recovering.
• Despite the price decline, the Ethereum ETFs still managed to attract $83.6 million in daily net inflows, led by Fidelity's FETH with $49.7 million.

Taproot Wizards raises $30 million

Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards has raised $30 million in a post-seed round led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Cyberfund and Collider Ventures, among others.

• The fresh capital will be used to advance the OP_CAT ecosystem that is hoping to bring smart contract functionality to Bitcoin, co-founder Udi Wertheimer told The Block.
• Known for popular projects like Quantum Cats, Taproot Wizards gets its name from the "Bitcoin Wizard" meme created in MS Paint as an early independent advertisement for "magic internet money" as well as the Taproot upgrade that expanded Bitcoin's functionality.

In the next 24 hours

• Eurozone PPI figures are due at 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday. U.S. mortgage data follow at 7 a.m.
• U.S. FOMC members Thomas Barkin and Michelle Bowman are scheduled to speak at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., respectively. U.S. Fed Governor Philip Jefferson will speak at 7:30 p.m.
• Kaspa is set to unlock 172 million KAS tokens worth $17.4 million, representing 0.67% of the circulating supply. Ethena will release 7.9 million ENA tokens worth $5.1 million, 0.25% of its circulating supply.

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