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

Michael Burry, the real-life inspiration behind *The Big Short*, disclosed his latest holdings: he shorted Oracle at $144.63 and Nebius at $211.77.

According to MLM monitoring, Trade.xyz’s fee-receiving wallet has transferred $3.25 million from its perpetual contract fee wallet to its spot account, and has begun purchasing approximately 59,000 HYPE tokens worth around $3 million via a TWAP strategy. Earlier, on August 5, Trade.xyz transferred 250,000 USDC from its perpetual contract fee wallet to its spot account, using roughly $110,000 of that sum to buy 2,000 HYPE tokens, which were subsequently used to acquire a HIP-3 Ticker. This marks the first time Trade.xyz has used perpetual contract fee revenue to purchase HYPE; prior to this, all HYPE used for buying new HIP-3 Tickers was funded by spot fee revenue.

OpenAI announced that ChatGPT will update GPT-5.6 Sol for Plus and Pro users, making responses more focused, factually reliable, and cutting unnecessary formatting and details. The model will support both instant answers and deep reasoning, with users able to adjust the level of thinking allocated to each response via a new slider. In internal evaluations of financial, medical, and legal queries, OpenAI found that compared to GPT-5.5 Instant, GPT-5.6 Luna reduced responses with at least one factual error by roughly 62%, while GPT-5.6 Sol saw a 68% drop. GPT-5.6 Luna will become the default model for Free and Go users this week. Starting next week, free users will get unlimited text chats and can handle queries requiring deeper reasoning via a new "Think" button, though they will remain subject to anti-abuse rules; file uploads, image tools, and other features will stay restricted. This update only applies to ChatGPT’s daily conversation experience—GPT-5.6 Sol used in Work and Codex will not be adjusted in this rollout.

According to a Reuters report, four industry sources stated that a proposed agreement between Iran and Oman would grant Tehran control over vessels entering the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, but the deal faces implementation hurdles due to U.S. sanctions and restrictive insurance provisions governing any payments. Any toll measures would trigger significant compliance risks, as the U.S. has sanctioned Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Administration, the entity operating the waterway. The U.S. Treasury also bans U.S. individuals and entities from accepting services related to "safe passage" offered by the Iranian government. Industry sources added that any such payment could result in asset freezes. Another complicating factor is a clause introduced by the Lloyd’s Market Association at the end of July for war risk underwriters: under this clause, insurance coverage would be terminated if a vessel pays transit fees, passage charges, or other fees to traverse the Strait of Hormuz. An insurance industry source noted that shipping companies are caught in a dilemma: the Lloyd’s Market Association clause prohibits insurers from providing coverage to shipowners making such payments, while Iran seeks to collect passage fees. (Jinshi)

According to TradingBeats (formerly Hyperinsight) monitoring, the whale address 0x9bb — which profited from all 5 prior storage trades and twice transferred approximately $7.537 million back to its spot account — deposited 2.393 million USDC into Hyperliquid last night. Less than a minute after the funds arrived, the address began going long on SNDK, purchasing a total of 3,800.84 contracts within 4 minutes for a transaction value of around $4.783 million, with an average entry price of $1,258.5. As of press time, the whale holds a $4.853 million long position in SNDK with 2x isolated margin, the only position in its account. SNDK is currently trading at $1,276.8, with the position showing an unrealized profit of roughly $69,600, a return of ~2.9%, a liquidation price of $662.1, and no open orders set. Last night, SNDK hit a low of $1,168.3 before rebounding to $1,276.8, a ~9.3% rise from the low, but still down ~10.5% from the previous day’s benchmark price. The whale did not enter at the lowest point, but re-opened its position after the rebound had already started. Since starting trading in late July, this address has only traded storage assets, with all 5 completed directional trades turning profitable: - SNDK long: ~$1.374 million profit; - SKHX long: ~$785,000 profit; - SNDK short: ~$662,000 profit; - MU short: ~$309,000 profit; - SKHY short: ~$184,000 profit. SNDK’s 24-hour trading volume is approximately $936 million, open interest stands at ~$161 million, and its hourly funding rate is about +0.000625%.

MetaMask has officially launched Agent Wallet, a self-custody AI agent wallet for traders and developers. Users can connect to agent frameworks including Claude Code, Codex, and OpenClaw, allowing agents to execute on-chain operations within preset rules. Agent Wallet supports Hyperliquid, as well as EVM-compatible chains such as Robinhood Chain and Monad. Agents can also perform ERC-7821 batch swaps and one-off transactions, eliminating the need to hold native on-chain tokens for gas fees, with MetaMask settling network costs from transferred assets. Before executing supported EVM transactions, MetaMask provides transaction simulation, threat scanning, and MEV protection. Eligible transactions that incur losses despite passing security checks are covered by up to $10,000 in monthly transaction protection. MetaMask stated that Agent Wallet’s core is to enable AI agents to execute transactions within permission boundaries set by users, rather than granting them unrestricted wallet access.