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

**U.S. January PCE Inflation Data (Fed’s Preferred Gauge) Due Friday** The U.S. will release its **January Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index**—the Federal Reserve’s go-to inflation measure—on Friday, March 13 (8:30 PM Beijing time). ### Key Market Expectations: - **Headline PCE**: +2.9% year-over-year (matches the prior reading); +0.3% month-over-month (slower than the prior 0.4% gain). - **Core PCE (excluding food/energy)**: +3.1% year-over-year (a slight acceleration, marking the largest increase since April 2024); +0.4% month-over-month (unchanged from the prior month). ### Context & Forward Risks: PCE, compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), links to several CPI price categories. After the latest CPI report, economists raised forecasts for **February core PCE** (due April 9): most expect a 0.4% month-over-month gain (second straight month), with some bracing for a bigger jump. The CPI-PCE gap stems from **weighting differences**: - *

On March 13th, on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) noted that whale wallet 0x709…Cad6e—after four months of dormancy—opened an on-chain ETH position with 20.58 million sUSDS. The whale purchased 10,557.14 ETH at an average price of $2,072.

March 13 — MetaComp, a Singapore-licensed stablecoin cross-border payment and asset management provider, has closed a $13 million Pre-A+ funding round. The round was led by Alibaba, Spark Venture and other institutional investors, with 100Summit Partners serving as exclusive financial advisor. Proceeds will be used to speed up expansion of the StableX Network across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and advance its AI strategy built on the Agent-Skills-MCP (Model Context Protocol) architecture.

March 13 — U.S. storage concept stocks closed lower collectively, with SanDisk (SNDK) leading the declines, per Hyperinsight monitoring. On the Hyperliquid platform, SNDK has dropped 3.5% over the past 24 hours, currently trading at $621. In this context, the "Silver Iron Head Air Force" address (0x61c) — previously active in shorting silver — initiated a short position on SNDK early Wednesday morning. The position totals $2.3 million, with an average entry price of $632, a liquidation price of $700, and an unrealized profit of 9% to date. From the news front: On February 24, Citron Capital announced a short position on SanDisk, pushing its price to a low of $483 on March 9. The stock rebounded above $650 over the past three days but resumed declines today alongside the broader sector.

March 13th: Etherscan shared on social media that Ethereum saw roughly 17 million rug pull attempts between 2022 and 2024, impacting 1.3 million users with confirmed losses of at least $79.3 million. Since the Fusaka upgrade on December 3, 2025, transaction fees have dropped significantly, and dust transfers jumped by a massive 612%. Etherscan advised users to take the following steps: - Before sending funds, manually confirm the full destination address (top priority) - Add private name tags to frequently used addresses + use ENS domains - Turn on the Etherscan Address Highlight feature - Watch for pop-up reminders when copying addresses

**March 13: US Market Volatility Hits 9-Month High Amid Iran Escalation, Inflation Fears, Fed Policy Shifts** The ICE BofA MOVE Index — widely known as the bond market’s “fear gauge” — climbed to its highest level since June 2023 on Wednesday. Rising oil prices stoked inflation concerns, eroding real returns on US Treasuries and dimming their traditional safe-haven appeal. Both former US President Donald Trump and Iran have taken provocative stances in the ongoing conflict, casting uncertainty over the duration of tensions. The 30-year US Treasury yield, sensitive to inflation and government spending dynamics, rose to a one-month high. Traders, meanwhile, pared bets on any Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026. Jack McIntyre, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, said: “As bond investors, we have to start thinking through a stagflation lens — which always brings meaningful uncertainty. That means, from a volatility standpoint, I need to be compensated.”