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

On May 8: The UAE National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority stated that its air defense system is currently responding to a missile threat. (FXS)

**May 8** — Per GMGN monitoring, Solana-based meme coin **HANTA** (launched yesterday) notched another sharp rally at 6 a.m. ET this morning. Its market cap surged **more than 450% in one hour**, topping out at over $18 million. The coin then saw a steep drop, now trading at roughly $9 million—nearly half its peak value. Its 24-hour gain still stands at ~650%, with on-chain trading volume over the same span topping $40 million. Per reports, the meme’s narrative stems from a recent **HANTA virus outbreak** on an overseas cruise ship. Given the virus’s high fatality rate, associated panic has grown steadily across social media. **BlockBeats Note**: Meme coins are extremely volatile, relying heavily on market sentiment and hype-driven speculation. They hold no tangible value or practical use case. Investors should exercise caution due to inherent risks.

**BlockBeats News (May 8)** — Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, issued a pessimistic warning about the U.S.’s future economic and social outlook during an interview on *The New York Times*’ podcast *The Ezra Klein Show*. He flagged multiple structural challenges facing the country: widening fiscal deficits, worsening wealth inequality, and deepening partisan political polarization. These, he said, could push the U.S. into an “era of disorder” in coming years, marked by financial crises, stagflation, and escalating social conflict. Dalio noted the U.S. government has long relied on borrowing and money printing to cover fiscal gaps—a practice risking currency devaluation and rising inflation, ultimately creating a “high inflation + low growth” stagflation environment (one of the worst scenarios for financial markets). Data shows U.S. fiscal spending hit $7 trillion in the last fiscal year, while revenue totaled just $5.2 trillion. “Over the next five years, with all the

On May 8, the Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs announced an investment of over $50 million, covering first-party products, research, protocol infrastructure, and a strategic fund for transactional and AI partners. Aptos noted that Decibel has launched on its mainnet, with total trading volume exceeding $1 billion. The network’s stablecoin market capitalization has reached $1.93 billion, while its real-world asset (RWA) scale stands at $1.2 billion. Asset management firms including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global have deployed on the Aptos network. Going forward, Aptos will roll out features such as an encrypted memory pool, FIX/CCXT integrations, multi-leader consensus, and confidential perpetual swaps.

On May 8th, on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) reported that the address 0xf09...2Bd0b received 3.66 million LAB tokens—valued at $14.07 million—from the multi-sig address 0x36F...0C291 nine hours prior. The funds trace back to LAB’s token deployment address. Subsequently, 2.125 million LAB tokens were transferred to two contract addresses, with their purpose currently unclear. Meanwhile, LAB has nearly recovered from its plummet following ZachXBT’s reward investigation tweet, rebounding to $4.54.

On May 8, per Coinbob Popular Address Monitoring, Hyperliquid’s well-known trader “Loracle” fully closed out all long positions in WTI and Brent crude oil near recent lows overnight. The total position size was roughly $20 million, with a realized profit of around $3.1 million. WTI crude settled at ~$90/barrel and Brent at ~$98/barrel at closing—both in the low end of their recent ranges. Minutes after locking in profits, tensions flared again in the Strait of Hormuz overnight, triggering a quick rebound in oil prices. Trader address: 0x8def9f50456c6c4e37fa5d3d57f108ed23992dae