Ether crashes, Gold and silver drop and UAE buys World Liberty Financial

Typically, the smaller altcoins that fall faster than Bitcoin, but since the beginning of this year, it’s mainly been Ether which is dropping quite fast. Meanwhile, gold and silver continue to fall (are these buying opportunities now?), and the Wall Street Journal reports that the United Arab Emirates now owns around 49% of all shares in World Liberty Financial.

Ether crashes

While Bitcoin has lost around 20% since the beginning of the year, Ether has already seen a decline of some 35%.

This also means that BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest of all Ether corporate holders, is in dire straits. BitMine purchased its Ether at an average price of $3,300 per coin, and is already facing a loss of around $7 billion. BitMine’s share price has completely collapsed.

Bitmine is sitting on over $6B in unrealized ETH losses after the market downturn.
Thin liquidity and leverage drove Ether down toward $2,300.
Analysts expect a slow reset before confidence returns to crypto markets. pic.twitter.com/JUSxCXf6tz

— T-8W2AETH (@8W2__) February 1, 2026

Gold and silver

Prices of the most commonly traded precious metals, gold and silver, came under severe pressure late last week after US President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as his pick for the new Federal Reserve chairman. After a 9 percent drop in gold on Friday, it fell another 5 percent on Monday.

Please do not FOMO
but I need to tell you all that I very much like Gold under $4,500
Might get more bought under $4,000 (even $3,700) but not holding my breath
This is a long-term wealth HODL position
Is there a chance to buy at sub $4k. Maybe, but doubtful $XAUUSD pic.twitter.com/XRNTSESZWs

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) February 2, 2026

Silver also fell sharply after Kevin was nominated.

On Friday, the silver price plummeted 27 percent, the biggest drop ever.