ME News

The network needs a completely new 'technology-economic' model to enable value to flow automatically.

Article by: a16z crypto

Article compiled and sourced by: Ken, Chaincatcher

1. This year, AI will take on more substantive research tasks

As a quantitative economist, in January 2025, I even struggled to get consumer-grade AI models to understand my workflow; but by November, I could issue abstract instructions to the models as if guiding PhD students... and sometimes they would produce novel and correct answers. Beyond my personal experience, AI is being more widely applied in research—especially in reasoning, where models are directly assisting in discovery (innovative insights) and even autonomously solving problems from the Putnam Mathematical Competition (one of the most challenging university-level math exams in the world).

ME News, January 12 (UTC+8): The RWA blockchain Plume has submitted a 40-page policy response to the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), addressing its (Discussion Paper on Asset Tokenization). The submission systematically outlines recommendations on compliance architecture, cross-border applicability, and technical design, helping Bermuda take a leading position in shaping the global RWA regulatory framework.

Plume's mainnet is set to launch in June 2025, positioning it as an RWAfi blockchain with built-in anti-money laundering and sanctions screening mechanisms. The current on-chain locked value exceeds $330 million, with over 280,000 RWA wallet addresses—accounting for more than 50% of global comparable wallets.

ME News, January 12 (UTC+8): In a statement released on Monday, Thomas "Tom" Lee, Chairman of Bitmine, said whether BitMine can continue increasing its Ethereum (ETH) holdings depends on whether shareholders approve the company's authorization to issue new shares. If approval is not granted, the company may be forced to slow down its purchasing pace in the coming weeks. Lee stated: "We must immediately move forward with the share issuance, as BitMine's current authorization of 500 million shares is about to be exhausted. Once the quota is used up, our ETH accumulation pace will slow down." Shareholder voting will take place on Thursday. According to regulations, the share issuance proposal requires support from 50.1% of the outstanding shares to pass. "This is an extremely high threshold, making it very difficult to obtain authorization for share issuance," Lee emphasized in the statement. (Source: ME)

ME News, January 12 (UTC+8): European credit rating agency Scope Ratings stated that the Trump administration's latest legal challenge against the Federal Reserve further threatens the central bank's independence and makes it more difficult for the next Federal Reserve chair to fulfill their duties. The agency noted in a statement on Monday that the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Powell is another example of the policy considerations that led it to downgrade the U.S. sovereign credit rating to the fourth-highest level—on par with France—in October last year. Eiko Sievert, Executive Director of Scope's Sovereign and Public Sector division, said: 'This is one of the primary negative factors behind the downgrade of the U.S. sovereign rating to AA-. The ongoing legal actions against the Federal Reserve further intensify the political and legal pressure on the independence and credibility of this key pillar of the U.S. governance system.' Among major rating agencies, Scope holds a notably more pessimistic view of the U.S. Its downgrade last year left the U.S. rating two levels below those of mainstream agencies like Moody's. (Source: ME)

ME News, January 12 (UTC+8): The Bitcoin Core development team elevated anonymous developer TheCharlatan (sedited) to Trusted Keys maintainer on January 8, 2026, joining Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow as the sixth trusted key holder. This marks the first expansion of core team members with commit access to the main branch since May 2023. TheCharlatan graduated from the University of Zurich with a degree in computer science, focusing primarily on reproducible builds and verification logic. The appointment received unanimous support during core contributor discussions. (Source: ME)

ME News, January 12 (UTC+8): The launch briefing for the Cyberport x Draper Dragon Joint Accelerator Programme (CDD-JAP) was successfully held on January 8 at Cyberport in Hong Kong. Mr. Ir Eric Chan, Chief Public Mission Officer of Cyberport Management Limited, Mr. Henry Li, Director of Industry Collaboration, Mr. Billy Chung, Senior Manager of Industry Collaboration, and Ms. Aidaa Wong, together with guest speakers including Mr. Richard Wang, Partner at Draper Dragon, and Mr. Guo Dazhi, Operations Partner of CDD-JAP, attended the event and engaged in in-depth discussions and interactions on relevant topics. (Source: ME)