BizwavemediaPersonal Finance and Crypto Updates

Google parent Alphabet reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street expectations, posting record full-year revenue above $400 billion for the first time.

Despite the strong results, shares slipped in after-hours trading as investors assessed plans for a sharp increase in AI-related capital spending.

Alphabet said fourth-quarter revenue rose 18% year over year to nearly $114 billion, beating analyst forecasts. Net income climbed 30% to $34.5 billion, while earnings per share increased 31% to $2.82, also ahead of estimates.

For full-year 2025, the company reported revenue of $403 billion and profit of about $132 billion, driven by continued growth in advertising, cloud services, and subscriptions.

Google Cloud reached a $70 billion annual run rate, with fourth-quarter revenue nearing $18 billion, up 48% from a year earlier. YouTube revenue exceeded $60 billion across advertising and subscriptions.

Alphabet highlighted momentum in artificial intelligence, noting its Gemini AI app surpassed 750 million users following the November launch of Gemini 3, adding roughly 100 million users.

Investor attention shifted to spending plans. Alphabet said it expects capital expenditures of $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026, nearly double the $91 billion to $93 billion spent in 2025, reflecting aggressive investment in AI models and data center infrastructure.

Shares initially jumped more than 4% in after-hours trading before reversing course, falling about 1.2% to trade near $328 after hours after closing around $333 in the regular session.

CME Group is exploring the possibility of issuing its own digital token as part of a broader review of tokenized collateral, CEO Terry Duffy revealed during the company’s latest earnings call.

Duffy said CME is exploring the launch of its own coin that could run on a decentralized network and be used by other industry participants, signaling a potential expansion beyond tokenized cash.

The comments came in response to a question from Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys about CME’s approach to tokenized collateral and whether assets such as stablecoins, tokenized deposits, or tokenized money market funds could be accepted for margin.

Duffy said the exchange is reviewing multiple forms of margin but stressed that acceptance would depend on the issuer and the risk profile of the asset, noting that tokens from systemically important institutions would be viewed more favorably.

He added that CME plans to roll out a tokenized cash initiative with Google later this year, with a depository bank facilitating transactions, positioning the product as a regulated settlement and collateral tool rather than a speculative crypto asset.

The effort comes as CME Group continues to expand its crypto footprint. The exchange is preparing to introduce near 24-hour trading for crypto futures, aligning its products more closely with around-the-clock digital asset markets.

It has also announced plans to add futures contracts tied to Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar. The expansion builds on a crypto derivatives business that averaged about $12 billion in daily volume last year, led by micro bitcoin and micro ether futures.

Fidelity Investments has launched its first stablecoin, Fidelity Digital Dollar, marking a major step by a traditional asset manager into onchain payments and settlement. The token, branded FIDD, is issued by Fidelity Digital Assets and is now available to both retail and institutional investors.

The stablecoin is designed to combine blockchain-based utility with the stability of the US dollar, positioning FIDD as a regulated alternative in the stablecoin market, which has grown to a total value of over $316 billion.

Mike O’Reilly, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, said the firm “sees stablecoins as a foundational component of the digital assets ecosystem” and believes Fidelity is “uniquely positioned to offer a digital dollar backed by institutional grade infrastructure and risk controls.”

FIDD is fully backed by cash, US Treasuries, and other highly liquid assets held in custody accounts at Bank of New York Mellon. The stablecoin will be redeemable one-to-one for US dollars across Fidelity’s digital asset platforms, with transfers supported on the Ethereum mainnet.

Circulating supply and reserve net asset value will be disclosed daily on Fidelity’s website, with monthly reserve reports examined by PricewaterhouseCoopers in line with AICPA attestation standards.

Fidelity said the recent passage of the GENIUS Act provided clear regulatory guardrails for payment stablecoins, creating conditions for a US-based asset manager to issue its own digital dollar.

The firm has been building digital asset infrastructure since 2014, spanning custody, trading, research, and investment products.

Binance has completed the second batch of its Bitcoin conversion for the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), acquiring an additional $100 million in BTC.

The crypto exchange announced the transaction via its official X account, providing the public wallet address and transaction ID for verification.

#Binance SAFU Fund Asset Conversion progress update.

Binance has completed the second batch of Bitcoin conversion for the SAFU Fund, amounting to 100M USD stablecoins.

Our SAFU BTC address:
1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD

TXID: https://t.co/xm87A7Zd9T

We’re continuing to… pic.twitter.com/i3H2cCYYB2

— Binance (@binance) February 4, 2026

Binance launched the conversion initiative in late January 2026, pledging to shift its entire $1 billion SAFU fund from stablecoins to Bitcoin within 30 days.

The first batch, completed on February 2, transferred approximately 1,315 BTC valued at around $100 million.

SAFU was established in 2018 as an emergency reserve funded by a portion of trading fees. The fund includes a rebalancing mechanism to maintain a minimum value of $800 million during Bitcoin price fluctuations.

Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, is reconsidering the scale of its planned funding round amid skepticism over its $500 billion valuation, according to a report from the Financial Times.

The El Salvador-registered company initially explored raising as much as $20 billion, a move that would have placed it among the world’s most valuable private firms like SpaceX or OpenAI. However, it is now considering a far smaller amount, possibly as little as $5B, following pushback from investors.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino dismissed the original figure as a misunderstanding, saying it represented the upper limit of what Tether was prepared to offer and that the company would be satisfied even if it chose not to sell any equity.

Ardoino emphasized that Tether does not urgently need new capital given its strong profitability.

Tether reported a standout Q4 and full-year 2025, delivering more than $10 billion in net profits and growing excess reserves to $6.3 billion. Total assets reached nearly $193 billion, continuing to exceed liabilities, while USDT circulation climbed to a record $186 billion following nearly $50 billion in new issuance during the year.

Ondo Finance, a tokenized real-world asset protocol, unveiled a major expansion of its product suite at Ondo Summit 2026, launching equity perpetual futures, day-one IPO access, and a distribution partnership with MetaMask.

The rollout gives MetaMask users access to more than 200 tokenized stocks and ETFs directly inside the self-custodial wallet. The integration allows users to mint, redeem, and transfer tokenized securities with DeFi composability and peer-to-peer transferability.

Ondo also debuted Ondo Perps, a platform for perpetual futures trading on tokenized equities, ETFs, and commodities. Non-US users will be able to trade perpetual futures on US stocks and ETFs around the clock with leverage up to 20x.

The platform introduces a capital-efficient model allowing traders to use tokenized securities as collateral rather than stablecoins alone. Ondo said the approach improves execution, liquidity, and portfolio efficiency by eliminating double collateralization.

Another product unveiled was Ondo Global Listing, designed to bring US IPOs onchain the moment they begin trading. The system aims to give global investors tokenized IPO exposure on day one through permissionless, transferable listings compatible across major blockchains.

The announcements position Ondo to build a full-stack onchain capital markets platform spanning spot tokenized securities, perpetual futures, and primary market access.

Grayscale’s CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF (GDLC) has added BNB to its holdings as part of a scheduled quarterly rebalance, replacing Cardano’s ADA token in the fund’s composition.

$BNB is being added to the Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF (Ticker: $GDLC) as part of its scheduled rebalance, reflecting the evolving crypto market landscape and GDLC’s rules-based methodology. pic.twitter.com/o1x5xgoRJE

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) February 3, 2026

Originally launched in 2018 as the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund for accredited investors, GDLC converted to an ETF structure in late 2025, opening access to retail investors through standard brokerage accounts.

GDLC provides exposure to the five largest and most liquid digital assets by market capitalization. The fund is listed on NYSE Arca and undergoes automatic quarterly rebalancing to stay aligned with dominant assets in the crypto market.

The ETF remains heavily weighted toward Bitcoin, which accounts for over 74% of the portfolio as of now. Ethereum represented over 13%, followed by BNB, XRP, and Solana.