The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

South Korean and Japanese stock markets have officially wrapped up the first half of the year. Looking back, AI investment has been the undisputed hot theme. Memory chip stocks represented by Samsung and SK Hynix rose 180% and 310% respectively in H1; their large weight in South Korea’s stock market drove the KOSPI to a cumulative gain of around 100% in the first half, hitting multiple new periodic highs. On the other hand, driven by multiple factors including corporate reforms, AI and semiconductor industry chain prosperity, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index has gained roughly 40% year-to-date, while the TOPIX (Tokyo Stock Price Index) rose about 17%. Tech stocks served as the main driving force: Advantest, a chip test equipment manufacturer, climbed around 65% year-to-date, and Tokyo Electron, a chip manufacturing equipment firm, surged over 120%. Notably, recent stock performance has seen AI upstream infrastructure equipment and raw materials—boosted by news of South Korea’s 800 trillion won production expansion—emerge strongly. Looking ahead to H2, “AI infrastructure” may become the direction of stock rotation within the broader AI theme.

According to an official announcement, OKX will list TAO/USDT (Bittensor) spot trading. The spot trading will officially open at 20:00 (UTC+8) on June 30, 2026. Deposits are now open, and pre-order placement is allowed within one hour prior to the trading start. Bittensor is an open-source protocol that powers blockchain-based machine learning networks.

Independent semiconductor and AI research firm SemiAnalysis has released a report projecting significant growth for Nvidia in the second half of this year. According to its SemiAnalysis Accelerator Model, Nvidia’s data center compute (DC Compute) revenue in the second half of fiscal 2027 (2H FY2027) will exceed the market consensus forecast by 20%. The Rubin platform, which was previously delayed due to issues related to HBM4, is now expected to see large-scale volume launches in the second half of this year as those problems are resolved and front-end wafer supply capacity improves. Unlike some sell-side analysts who tend to set conservative earnings forecasts to make it easier for companies to "beat expectations", SemiAnalysis’ projections are based on in-depth research covering the entire supply chain, including materials, wafer manufacturing, components, server OEMs, as well as the latest developments from hyperscalers and leading AI labs. Insights related to Nvidia, as well as AI chip firms including Broadcom, AMD, MediaTek, and Marvell, are integrated into its Accelerator Model and HBM Model.

Meet a smart trader (0x1342) on @Aster_DEX. 6 days ago, trader 0x1342 fearlessly went 4x long on 1.8M $SYN($951K) at $0.28. The position is now up $447K(+188%) in unrealized profit.

According to data from Alternative, today's cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index stands at 15, up from 12 yesterday, with the market's "extreme fear" sentiment easing slightly. Note: The index ranges from 0 to 100, and its weighted components are as follows: volatility (25%), market trading volume (25%), social media buzz (15%), market surveys (15%), Bitcoin's dominance in the overall crypto market (10%), and Google Trends analysis (10%).

Deutsche Bank interest rate strategists have revised their year-end forecasts for 2-year and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields. Their latest projections show the 2-year U.S. Treasury yield will hit 4.30% by year-end, 35 basis points higher than the previous forecast. They also raised their 10-year U.S. Treasury yield forecast to 4.80%, an upward adjustment of 10 basis points from the prior estimate. The revision reflects Deutsche Bank economists’ latest outlook that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates twice this year, each by 25 basis points.