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

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it has filed a lawsuit against Florida resident Zan Shaikh and his firm Mining Automatic, accusing them of raising roughly $22 million from more than 380 investors via a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining investment scheme and misappropriating investor funds. The SEC noted that between June 2023 and May 2025, the defendants promised investors guaranteed monthly returns from crypto mining, but in practice only deployed about 13% of the raised capital to the purported mining operations, with the remainder largely used for marketing, attracting new investors, and covering personal and other unrelated business costs. The SEC added that the total funds raised by the defendants are at least $20 million higher than the amount returned to investors. The SEC has charged them with violating anti-fraud and securities issuance provisions under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Both parties have agreed to accept a permanent injunction once court-approved; the court will determine the amount of subsequent illegal proceeds to be repaid, interest, and civil penalties.

Nansen founder Alex Svanevik has published a post stating he is once again bullish on Apple. He notes that Siri and search functions in the iOS 27 Beta version have seen notable improvements, and while there remains room for further enhancement, the development direction is correct. Additionally, Svanevik points out that the advancement of small models will significantly benefit Apple, with high-quality on-device AI inference set to become a reality soon. The new CEO Ternus, who has a hardware background, is expected to further strengthen Apple’s hardware advantages. Meanwhile, Apple still boasts robust free cash flow and retains the most influential brand position in the tech industry—these factors collectively underpin his long-term optimism toward the company.

According to market sources, the head of the artificial intelligence security agency under the U.S. Trump administration has resigned. (Jinshi)

SpaceXAI is integrating Grok into Microsoft Excel. Grok is now available for Word and PowerPoint. (Jinshi)

According to HTX market data, ETH has broken through the $1900 mark, currently trading at $1900.01, with a 1.53% gain in the past 24 hours.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Alphabet’s stock rose approximately 2.8% on Monday, driving a combined $150 billion increase in the wealth of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Alphabet is developing a new AI chip with the internal code name "Frozen v2". Google engineers expect the chip to deliver up to a 10x improvement in energy efficiency compared to its predecessor. Market participants believe the chip could ease Alphabet’s AI computing power shortage and boost the performance of its Gemini model. Boosted by the news, Alphabet’s stock climbed above $356, reversing a cumulative 6.5% drop over the previous two trading sessions. According to Forbes, Page and Brin saw their fortunes rise by roughly $80 billion and $74 billion respectively from the increase in their shareholdings. Page’s current net worth stands at around $292.4 billion, making him the world’s second-richest person, behind only Elon Musk; Brin’s net worth is approximately $269.7 billion. Reports note that Alphabet plans to deploy the "Frozen v2" chip as early as 2028 to ease internal AI computing resource constraints. Previously, Google Cloud was even forced to turn away some client requests due to insufficient computing power. Alphabet is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results this Wednesday. The market expects the company’s Q2 revenue to reach $117.1 billion, up 21% year-over-year; earnings per share are projected at $2.90, a 25% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s investment in AI infrastructure continues to rise, with quarterly capital expenditures expected to reach around $450 billion. Over the past year, Alphabet’s stock has risen approximately 87.5%, and has gained around 13% since the start of 2026. As competition in AI infrastructure intensifies, Google is continuing to ramp up investments in self-developed chips, cloud computing, and the Gemini ecosystem.