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

June 20 — Accenture PLC’s stock tumbled 18% on Thursday, closing at its lowest level since 2017, according to a Financial Times report. The consulting firm had cut its revenue outlook earlier, sparking investor anxiety that fast-advancing artificial intelligence (AI) is eroding its traditional IT consulting and outsourcing core business model. For the three months ended late May, Accenture booked $19.3 billion in new work, down 3% year-over-year. It now projects full-year revenue growth of no more than 4%, a reduction from its prior guidance range of 3% to 5%. The company’s market capitalization has collapsed from over $200 billion during the post-pandemic consulting boom to under $80 billion. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said the firm is still winning enterprise AI adoption consulting contracts, but investors worry AI could lead clients to reduce reliance on human consultants or face new competition from AI startups. Sweet also noted the Middle East conflict hit the latest quarter’

June 20: According to HTX market data, Bitcoin is currently trading at $63,671.32, with a 1.60% increase over the past 24 hours. Ethereum is priced at $1,723.81, marking a 1.64% 24-hour gain. The crypto market has seen a minor rebound, but funding rates signal both BTC and ETH remain in bearish territory. For Bitcoin, funding rates across all platforms are fully below the threshold, with half now turning negative—meaning the recent price uptick hasn’t driven a corresponding boost in bullish sentiment. Ethereum’s overall funding rate is also stuck in bearish levels, though most of its rates stay positive, with sentiment slightly stronger than BTC’s. BlockBeats Note: Funding rates are fees set by cryptocurrency exchanges to keep perpetual contract prices aligned with their underlying asset prices. This is a fund swap mechanism between long and short traders; platforms do not collect these fees directly. The rate adjusts the costs or profits for traders holding contracts to ensure contra

June 20 – Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine (Ethereum’s largest treasury), told CNBC in an interview that investors overreacted to the recent Federal Reserve policy meeting. The new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, has a distinct communication style and plans to monitor economic data in a more modern, real-time-focused manner, Lee explained. The market interpreted the Fed’s removal of forward guidance and adjustments to its dot plot as a hawkish pivot, but Lee argues this is Warsh signaling reliance on modern alternative data to assess inflation—not a clear, fixed policy stance right now. Lee called the meeting’s outcome actually market-friendly, noting investors should understand the dot plot will shift quickly as economic data evolves. Overall, he views the meeting as “quite dovish.” On the S&P 500’s outlook, Fundstrat expects a sudden market swing later this year that would feel like a bear market. Still, Lee stopped short of naming an official market top, pointing to the current favorab

Bitwise analysts said in a June 20 update that despite lingering hawkish risks from the Federal Reserve, Bitcoin’s valuation remains in a historically undervalued range. The Bitcoin Mayer Multiple has dropped below 1.0—a level that has historically correlated with long-term accumulation phases—indicating BTC carries "deep value" characteristics, per the firm. That said, investor participation in crypto stays low. CryptoQuant’s Realized Cap HODL Waves indicator has been in bear market territory since late October 2025, signaling a steady slowdown in new capital flowing into the Bitcoin network. As of June 17, the indicator’s 7-day and 59-day moving averages have fallen from roughly 70 in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 13.9 and 19.1, respectively. Bitwise also highlighted that Bitcoin’s valuation is significantly discounted compared to AI-focused stocks like NVIDIA, while those AI stocks boast notable premiums over their long-term trend levels. Meanwhile, potential funding or IPO deals

June 20: Aave founder Stani Kulechov revealed that Aave V4 has the potential to overhaul the on-chain securities financing market, labeling this space as one of Wall Street’s largest but most under-the-radar sectors. Securities-backed lending is already a multi-trillion-dollar industry, per Kulechov: the U.S. repo market boasts an average daily outstanding of around $12.6 trillion, margin lending hits $1.3 trillion, wealth management securities-backed lending exceeds $400 billion, and the securities lending market holds roughly $46 trillion in lendable assets—with projected revenue set to hit a record $15 billion by 2025. Aave V4 operates on a "Liquidity Hub + Modular Market" framework: base-layer liquidity is shared across the system, while top-layer markets are segmented by distinct risk parameters, asset sets, and governing rules. The platform supports three core securities financing use cases: securities-backed lending (where tokenized securities serve as collateral to borrow GHO

June 20: Venus Protocol has rolled out tokenized stocks (branded bStocks) collateralized lending on the BNB Chain. The new functionality lets users deposit on-chain U.S. equities—including TSLAB, NVDAB, and SPCXB—into the Venus Core Pool as collateral to borrow assets such as USDT and USDC, all while retaining exposure to stock price movements without selling their holdings. This marks Venus’s first support for tokenized stocks as collateral assets. With bStocks now part of its on-chain liquidity market, tokenized stocks join existing offerings like BTC, ETH, BNB, and stablecoins. Following prior additions such as XAUm, Venus is expanding its on-chain collateral range to include stock assets, driving deeper integration between real-world assets (RWA) and decentralized finance (DeFi).