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

May 30: Fueled by optimistic expectations of a potential U.S.-Iran ceasefire extension, U.S. stocks and oil markets rallied this week. The S&P 500 notched its ninth straight weekly gain, marking the longest weekly winning streak since 2023, while Brent crude held steady around $92 a barrel. Crypto markets, however, failed to track broader risk asset gains. Bitcoin dipped 2.6% to $73,445 over the past week, Ethereum dropped 2.5% to $2,011, Solana fell 2.2%, and TRX plummeted 5.6%—making it one of the weakest-performing top-10 tokens by market capitalization. Analysts cite cooling inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs as a key headwind pressuring Bitcoin’s price. By contrast, some small and mid-cap tokens stood out. Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE surged 19.4% to roughly $65 this week, emerging as the market’s standout performer. The rally got a lift after Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) CEO Jeffrey Sprecher called Hyperliquid a “bigger opportunity than Nasdaq” at the Bernstein Conference

May 30 — Andrew Gault, founding partner of deep-tech investment firm 7percent Ventures and CEO of networking company ZeroTier, says the market is far too focused on quantum computing’s threat to Bitcoin wallet private keys, while overlooking a more imminent risk: encrypted communications data currently being transmitted between financial institutions. Gault points out attackers are employing a “collect now, decrypt later” strategy, mass-storing encrypted data such as interbank communications, payment authentication records, and digital signatures — waiting for future quantum computers with sufficient power to decode them. He argues the real danger lies not in static stored data, but in the daily authentication and signature info flowing between crypto exchanges, custodians, cross-chain bridges, and financial firms. In March, Google’s Quantum AI team released a study stating a fully capable future quantum computer could derive Bitcoin private keys from public keys in roughly 9 minutes

Dateline: May 30 — Tensions between the U.S. and Iran over a proposed ceasefire memorandum continue to escalate. On May 29 local time, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would make a "final decision" on the Iran issue during a meeting at the White House Situation Room. However, U.S. media citing senior administration officials reported the two-hour meeting failed to grant final approval for the relevant agreement. Trump reiterated his demands that Iran permanently abandon nuclear weapons, fully open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic without charging tolls, and destroy its enriched uranium stockpile. Iran quickly pushed back, dismissing Trump’s remarks as "half-truths" that did not align with the agreement’s actual text. In related military moves, U.S. Central Command warned it would conduct military operations near the Strait of Hormuz and enforce a maritime blockade against Iran, forcing 115 commercial vessels to reroute. Iran, for its part, said ongoing communicatio

May 30: Per HTX market data, Stellar’s native token XLM has surged over 32% in the last 24 hours, now trading at $0.27 with a market capitalization of $13.56 billion. On the development front: The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to roll out tokenized assets on the Stellar (XLM) network as part of its latest Wall Street blockchain initiative.

**Micron Joins U.S. Top 10 Largest Public Companies Driven by AI Boom** On May 30, Micron Technology’s market cap crossed $1.1 trillion, pushing it into the top 10 of the U.S. stock market—surpassing Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly in the process. The group now ruling the U.S. large-cap rankings is entirely made up of tech and AI-focused firms: NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, TSMC, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Tesla, and the newly added Micron. Industry analysts credit AI as the core force reshaping how the capital market values companies. Micron’s market cap has surged more than 8-fold in the past year, shifting it from a traditional memory storage maker to a key AI infrastructure beneficiary, fueled by explosive demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). Its latest quarterly results underline this transformation: revenue jumped 196% year-over-year, net profit nearly tripled? No, original says nearly 9 times—adjusted to natural U.S. financial tone: net profit rose nearly

On May 30, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming stated that the next major window for digital asset legislation could be as far off as 2030. Until then, crypto developers will continue to face a lack of legal protection, while law enforcement agencies will lack the effective tools needed to hold bad actors accountable. Lummis emphasized that the *Clarity Act* is designed to fix both of these issues: it would deliver a clearer regulatory framework for the digital asset industry and give law enforcement the necessary tools for proper regulation and enforcement in the space.