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

June 21: U.S. Representative Bryan Steil introduced the "Prohibition of Congressional Insider Trading Act," which would bar members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from placing bets on prediction markets linked to government policies or official actions. Violators would face a civil penalty equal to the greater of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction amount, plus forfeiture of all profits from the trades. Government oversight group Project On Government Oversight (POGO) praised the bill but noted its scope is too limited. POGO is calling for the ban to be expanded to all federal officials and staff across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The watchdog pointed out that existing rules impose almost no conflict-of-interest restrictions on federal employees, and the rise of prediction markets has amplified risks of insider information misuse—fueling unfair competition and potential distortions to public policy decisions. U.S. Congress currently holds just

June 21 — Per monitoring from OnchainLens, the crypto whale address "pension-usdt.eth" has opened a new short position on Ethereum using 3x leverage, totaling around 26,499 ETH and valued at roughly $46 million. The address has also placed additional limit orders to further scale up its short position.

JPMorgan Chase has updated its research report, lifting its 2030 forecast for global AI total capital expenditure (capex) from $51 trillion to $55 trillion, with corresponding debt financing scaled to $41 trillion. The report attributes this accelerated spending to surging AI demand and persistent computing power scarcity: Google processes 3.2 trillion AI tokens monthly, while firms like Microsoft and Uber have burned through their full-year AI budgets in just a few months. For the U.S.’ four leading hyperscale cloud providers (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta), their combined 2026 capex guidance is roughly $700 billion to $725 billion, marking a ~75% year-over-year increase and projected to exceed $1.1 trillion by 2027. JPMorgan forecasts these firms will generate over $900 billion in combined operating cash flow in 2027, but that will still fall short of their massive planned spending — making debt and equity financing standard practice. On the chip beneficiary front, JPMorgan e

June 21 – S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Wednesday that AI infrastructure company Marvell Technology (MRVL.US) and leading electronics manufacturing services giant Flex (FLEX.US) will be added to the S&P 500 Index ahead of the market open on Thursday, June 22. The two firms will replace Pool Corp. (POOL.US), a pool equipment manufacturer, and Campbell Soup (CPB.US), a food producer. This index adjustment is part of S&P Dow Jones Indices’ latest routine quarterly rebalancing. Changes to index components typically trigger short-term inflows from passive funds into newly included stocks, so market participants will closely track the opening performance of Marvell Technology and Flex on Thursday.