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

On January 12, Alphabet (GOOG.O)—Google’s parent company—became the first to see its market value top $4 trillion, per Bitget market data.

On January 12, per GMGN market data (via https://t.me/gmgnaibot?start=i_m4TE56o8), the market cap of Chinese meme coin "Life K Line" on the BSC ecosystem briefly fell below $7 million. It’s currently at $8.92 million, with a 24-hour decline of 41.4% and 24-hour trading volume of $19.9 million.

Jan. 12 — Market sources report Apple (AAPL.O) has selected Google (GOOG.O)’s Gemini to power this year’s AI version of Siri.

Jan 12: Former Fed Chairs Yellen, Bernanke and Greenspan released a statement backing current Chair Powell, calling the criminal probe into Powell an "unprecedented" attack on the Fed’s independence. (FXStreet)

A Bitcoin Core maintainer has for the first time expanded the number of trusted key holders with main commit access to the Bitcoin Core software, per a Protos report dated January 12. On January 8, 2026, pseudonymous developer TheCharlatan (also known as “sedited”) officially joined as the sixth member of the group, joining existing key holders Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow. Of the 25 members in Bitcoin Core’s GitHub development community, only these six PGP keys currently hold recognized commit access. At least 20 core contributors endorsed TheCharlatan’s promotion during group discussions. The nomination cited: “He’s a reliable code reviewer, has made substantial contributions to critical codebase areas, handles user and developer code releases carefully, and deeply understands the technical consensus process” — with no objections raised. TheCharlatan holds a Computer Science degree from the University of Zurich, is a South African dev

Jan. 12 – Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the removal of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is “deeply concerning,” and noted markets should focus on the Fed’s independence. (Oriental Fortune Network)