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

Due to the withdrawal of the original GANA Foundation, Eiden Liu announced he has left the foundation and will launch a compensation plan in his personal capacity, voluntarily taking on relevant liability with the goal of achieving 100% compensation. The first phase of the plan is expected to involve around 20,000 addresses; subsequent verifications will be conducted gradually based on on-chain real data, with compensation disbursed in batches. The overall compensation period is tentatively set at 2 to 3 years. Eiden Liu noted that while the foundation has withdrawn, the responsibility remains, and he will continue to fulfill relevant obligations through concrete actions.

Federal Reserve’s Kashkari downplayed market concerns over rising U.S. Treasury yields, saying the market is functioning well and the recent surge is unlikely to impact monetary policy discussions. Kashkari stated on Sunday: “All signs show the U.S. Treasury market is operating normally, trading is proceeding smoothly, and market liquidity is sufficient, so we can use the federal funds rate as the primary policy tool to curb inflation.” U.S. Treasury yields across all maturities rose last week, with the benchmark 10-year yield closing around 4.73%. The 30-year yield held near its highest level since 2007. Kashkari added that while current Treasury yields are high compared to recent historical levels, yields were much higher in the 1990s. “We need more data, but I don’t want to prejudge the outcome of the next meeting. However, I currently don’t think inflation will fall back to the target level in the short term.”

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, Hassan Kashkavi, spokesperson for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's parliament, announced on Sunday that the commission has adopted Article 3 of the Strategic Action Plan for Ensuring Security and Development of the Strait of Hormuz. Kashkavi stated: "Under this clause, we will charge fees for provided maritime services, environmental services, fuel supply in special circumstances, insurance, security, and other related services." These fees will be levied on vessels of countries granted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, payable in Iranian rials or other currencies designated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Kashkavi emphasized that the rights of countries along the Strait of Hormuz must be prioritized, noting that international laws and regulations not only recognize freedom of navigation but also stress respect for the security and sovereignty of coastal states and the prevention of infringements on these rights.

Wang Xiaogang, chairman of Chinese embodied intelligence startup ACE Robotics (Daxiao Robotics), told Reuters in an interview: "We expect that by the end of next year, driven by world models and environmental data capture, embodied intelligence will usher in its ChatGPT moment." ACE Robotics, backed by Ant Group and SenseTime, raised over $100 million in the first half of 2026 and plans to launch an IPO "as soon as regulatory approval is obtained." Wang noted that current robots still struggle to reliably perform a wide range of tasks in unfamiliar environments, with the core constraint not being algorithms but a severe shortage of training data. "The entire industry has accumulated only around 100,000 hours of data over the past few years, which is far insufficient to train embodied foundation models." ACE Robotics plans to collect tens of millions of hours of real-world environmental data within two years and deploy its technology to 1,000 stores over the next year. At the industry level, Boston Dynamics released the mass-produced version of its Atlas robot in January, claiming AI has brought it closer to commercial deployment; Alibaba launched the Qwen-Robot Suite robot model kit in June, while researchers are also testing data collection schemes such as the HumanoidExo exoskeleton. The competition in embodied intelligence is shifting from hardware prototypes to a dual race in data scale and model capabilities.

During the weekend when traditional financial markets are closed, Trade.xyz—dubbed the "on-chain Nasdaq"—enables continuous trading and real-time price discovery via perpetual contracts, capabilities unavailable in traditional finance, to price in advance the performance of U.S. and South Korean stocks on Monday. Popular U.S. stock assets on Trade.xyz saw limited volatility compared to Friday’s after-hours trading, and are expected to open roughly flat on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: SpaceX: $135.35 (vs. $136.75 in U.S. after-hours trading Friday); Micron (MU): $964.68 (vs. $963.2 Friday after-hours); SanDisk (SNDK): $1597.4 (vs. $1593.2); NVIDIA: $218.6 (vs. $215.38); Marvell Technology (MRVL): $235.85 (vs. $236.1); Intel: $89.426 (vs. $89.86); Google: $344.76 (vs. $342.15); AMD: $471.66 (vs. $472.45). Popular South Korean stocks on Trade.xyz have mixed performance relative to Friday’s closing prices. Samsung Electronics is expected to open roughly 3% lower on Monday, while SK Hynix is seeing a slight gain. Their weekend performance is as follows: Samsung Electronics: $195.64 (vs. $203 Friday close); SK Hynix: $1262 (vs. $1248 Friday close).

According to HTX market data, US presidential-themed meme coins continue to surge. Specifically: TRUMP rose over 22.4% in 24 hours, breaking through $2.9; MELANIA gained more than 10.53% in the same period, with its market cap exceeding $117 million. BlockBeats reminds users that most meme coins lack practical use cases, are highly volatile, and investors should exercise caution.