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

June 20th: Tether co-founder Reeve Collins stated that Tether holds its users’ U.S. dollar deposits and invests those funds in U.S. Treasury bonds, which currently yield approximately 3%–4%. Tether retains all earnings from these investments, giving users instant global U.S. dollar liquidity while they earn no interest on their assets. This straightforward model has cemented Tether’s position as a market leader but has also built an inherent structure of platform-centric earnings. Collins believes this is the core dynamic that needs to change in the Stablecoin 2.0 era. Additionally, Collins emphasized the necessity of distinguishing between investment and speculation, the importance of entering the AI infrastructure layer early rather than focusing on external application-layer development, and the strategy of holding Bitcoin long-term as a core asset allocation.

**Next Week’s Key Market Catalysts: Middle East Geopolitics, Fed Policy Events, and U.S. PCE Data** (As of June 20; all times below are Beijing Standard Time) Market participants will center their focus on two core themes next week: persistent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and critical U.S. economic updates, led by the Federal Reserve’s most closely watched inflation gauge—the Core PCE Price Index. Below are high-impact events to watch: - Thursday, June 20, 4:00 AM: The Federal Reserve will release its annual bank stress test results. - Thursday, June 20, 20:30 PM: A slate of key U.S. economic data will be published, including weekly initial jobless claims (for the week ending June 20), May Core PCE Price Index (YoY), May personal spending (MoM), final Q1 real GDP (annualized), revised Q1 real personal consumption expenditures (QoQ), revised Q1 Core PCE Price Index (QoQ), May Core PCE Price Index (MoM), and May durable goods orders (MoM). - Friday, June 21, 3:40 A

June 20th, President Donald Trump posted the following on social media: “The Radical Left Democrats and the lamestream media know how great a job we did with the strike on Iran. Their country was a total sitting duck, and the Iranian government now holds military control over things. Obama didn’t have a clue. He gave Iran $150 billion, never used our exhausted military to stop a completely one-sided deal that benefited terrorists heavily. The Iranian people have little respect for him, and he would’ve never succeeded anyway. Iran has been terrorizing its people for the past 47 years—until I took office. Then everything changed.”

Osaka Prefectural Police arrested three men on June 20 on suspicion of violating Japan’s Organized Crime Punishment Law, according to Kyodo News. The trio is accused of laundering criminal proceeds for an investment fraud group. Authorities say the men converted approximately 14 million yen stolen from 10 victims across six prefectures into stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies to obscure the funds’ original source. The suspects work as over-the-counter cryptocurrency traders, facilitating peer-to-peer transactions outside formal, regulated exchanges. Investigators believe they participated in a money-laundering scheme totaling billions of yen in total.

June 20th: MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor posted on social media this week, reflecting on a speech he gave back in October 2022—when Bitcoin was hovering around $20,000. At the time, the firm held 130,000 BTC valued at roughly $26 billion, and its split-adjusted MSTR stock was trading at about $24. Just weeks later, Bitcoin dropped below $16,000, leaving Strategy’s total debt temporarily larger than its combined Bitcoin and cash reserves (a roughly $3 billion shortfall). By the end of the year, MSTR stock had fallen to around $13. Since then, the team has stayed focused, doubled down on strengthening its fundamentals, and stuck strictly to its core strategy. Over that stretch, they’ve raised more than $60 billion—every dollar put entirely toward accumulating more Bitcoin, adding over 716,000 BTC to their holdings. Today, MicroStrategy’s total Bitcoin and cash reserves sit roughly $48 billion above its total debt. Saylor also thanked everyone who’s believed in the company, stuck

On June 20, monitoring by LookOnChain shows that the exploiters of the Humanity Protocol have exchanged a portion of the stolen funds into USDC and deposited the funds into a centralized exchange (CEX).