加密城市 Crypto City

SK Hynix’s Choi Tae-won makes a move, entering the market to buy the dip and help stabilize the market during the steep drop
Taking advantage of the sharp plunge in South Korean semiconductor stocks, SK Group chairman (president) Choi Tae-won yesterday (7/30) bought SK Hynix (000660.KS) shares in his personal name, marking the first time he has directly held shares of SK Hynix.
However, just a day later, US stocks in the AI chip sector surged across the board, lifting the South Korean market to rebound today. SK Hynix’s share price jumped nearly 30% in the morning session, and its parent company SK Square’s stock also briefly hit the daily limit up, giving Choi Tae-won’s dip-buying trade noticeable paper gains within just one day.

U.S. fintech company SoFi continues to expand its digital asset footprint. The latest financial report shows that SoFi’s second-quarter cryptocurrency trading revenue grew 10% quarter over quarter. Its stablecoin, SoFiUSD, has also begun providing real-time payment services to business customers through its own corporate banking platform.
Cryptocurrency trading revenue increased 10% quarter over quarter as the digital asset business continued to expand
In SoFi’s second quarter, cryptocurrency trading revenue reached $134.3 million. After deducting $133.1 million in trading costs, net income totaled $1.2 million—still higher than the first quarter’s $0.85 million.
SoFi’s second-quarter “Adjusted Net Revenue” reached as much as $1.2 billion. The contribution from cryptocurrencies remains relatively low, but since SoFi reintroduced crypto trading and investment services at the end of 2025, its pace in expanding its digital asset infrastructure has never slowed.

In the (International Market Intelligence Morning Report) released on July 29, JPMorgan noted that while selling pressure is currently concentrated in crowded stocks such as AI, technology, and momentum names, if the market has not fully absorbed the crowdedness risk, the next leg of the selloff may spill over to hyperscalers of massive scale and even broad market indexes. Among these signals, the widening of the credit default swap (CDS) spread for Nvidia (NVDA) has become the biggest warning sign for hyperscalers.
Deleveraging in the South Korean stock market has spread globally and is now nearing the end
JPMorgan highlighted in today’s morning report that the current market decline is not due to international geopolitical conflicts, but rather a deleveraging process that started in South Korea and spread to the global AI semiconductor and technology sectors. In a report released the same day ((Korea Stock Strategy)), the firm further disclosed the scale of this move: in late June, the assets under management of leveraged ETFs in South Korea surged to $50 billion at one point, which is four times the size of similar offerings in the United States.

After three straight days of plunge-style selloffs, Korean stocks saw a revenge rebound today! The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) surged intraday by more than 17% at one point, and the KOSDAQ index triggered “buying-order trading halts” at the same time, recovering all the losses from the past three days in one move.
U.S. stock semiconductor giants delivered impressive earnings, boosting South Korean semiconductor champions Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which surged together. At the same time, South Korean regulators have begun evaluating restarting market-stabilizing measures such as a “temporary ban on short selling,” sparking widespread debate in the market.
Korean stocks rebounded sharply, soaring 17%; SK hynix jumped nearly 30%
Since the KOSPI index fell from its July peak, the downturn has been intense: from 7/28 to 7/30 it suffered three consecutive days of sharp declines and repeatedly triggered sell-side trading halts. However, after a surge in U.S. stocks—Micron jumped 18.36% and super Micro jumped 13%—today’s pessimism quickly vanished, and funds rushed into large-cap stocks.

Q2 turns to a loss of $8.32 billion, mainly due to unrealized losses on Bitcoin holdings
Bitcoin ($BTC) treasury company Strategy released its 2026 second-quarter financial report. The company posted a net loss of $8.32 billion, representing a sharp reversal from the roughly $10 billion net profit in the same period last year. The company said the loss was mainly driven by unrealized mark-to-market losses on its Bitcoin holdings, not by actual trading losses resulting from large-scale selling of Bitcoin.
Image source: Strategy Strategy released its 2026 second-quarter financial results; net loss for the quarter reached $8.32 billion
The financial report shows that in the second quarter, Strategy recognized approximately $8.32 billion in unrealized losses due to the decline in the price of Bitcoin. In the second quarter, Bitcoin fell from about $68,000 in early April to about $58,600 by the end of June, a drop of roughly 14%. This put significant accounting pressure on Strategy’s large Bitcoin holdings. It also highlights that under the new accounting standards, when companies hold Bitcoin, gains from price increases can be amplified, but losses from price declines are also reflected directly in the income statement.

Taiwan stocks surged to nearly 3,000 points, setting a record for the largest single-day gain
Microsoft and Amazon’s earnings releases came in above expectations, restoring market confidence in AI infrastructure! Not only did all four major U.S. stock indexes rise across the board, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also skyrocketed 8.19%.
This morning (7/31), Taiwan stocks also opened strongly with a gap-up and rallied higher. During the session, they surged to nearly 3,000 points at one point, setting a record for the largest single-day gain in Taiwan stock history. The market quickly regained the 5-day moving average and moved toward the quarterly moving average.
TSMC contributed the most points; the value of the nation’s iconic ‘shield’ company surpassed 62 trillion
Taiwan stocks surged immediately after the market opened, jumping 1,677.11 points. Then, driven by TSMC (2330) breaking into the open at highs and pushing to the 2,400-yuan level, bulls’ momentum surged strongly, at one point rocketing to nearly 3,000 points.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 (Moment Magnitude) struck Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, on the afternoon of the 28th, severely damaging this major Kyushu semiconductor hub. The quake hit major semiconductor companies including TSMC’s Kumamoto plant, the JASM, as well as Renesas Electronics, Sony, and Mitsubishi Electric. News of shutdowns also came in succession from Kyushu bases of automakers such as Toyota and Honda, raising market concerns that supply-chain disruptions may spread outward.
The TSMC JASM plant’s building structures are stable, while the calibration and adjustment of equipment still need further observation
The TSMC Kumamoto plant’s JASM, which the public is most focused on, is located in Kikuyō Town within the disaster area. The site recorded a maximum seismic intensity of 5. According to a report by Central News Agency (CNA), at the time the earthquake occurred, all personnel were evacuated immediately in accordance with the company’s internal safety regulations, and all employees were safe. The structural safety of the plant buildings after the quake has been confirmed; however, inspections and calibration of manufacturing equipment are still underway. Restoring full production capacity will still take some time.

The Bitcoin market is currently in its coldest trading environment in nearly two years. In its latest report, research and brokerage firm K33 said that with spot and derivatives markets cooling down in tandem, Bitcoin’s average daily spot trading volume in July is expected to hit the lowest level since November 2023, reflecting a heavy wait-and-see sentiment in the market as capital has been slow to return.
K33 Research Head Vetle Lunde said in a report published on Tuesday that over the past week Bitcoin fell by about 3% to around $63,300, and overall remained in a tight trading range. With trading activity in the spot and derivatives markets continuing to stay sluggish, Bitcoin’s average daily spot trading volume in July is expected to drop to $2.2 billion, the lowest level since November 2023. The recent seven-day average trading volume is also about $2.1 billion, down another 4% from the previous week.

Patrick Witt counters the banking industry, questioning whether the reasons for opposing are inconsistent
White House crypto policy adviser Patrick Witt recently publicly pushed back against the banking industry’s pressure campaign on the (CLARITY Act), aiming his remarks at 134 bank executives and industry representatives who jointly sent a letter to the Senate, calling for further tightening of stablecoin yield and reward rules.
Witt criticizes the banking industry: on the one hand, it demands a ban on paying interest in stablecoins to protect community banks’ lending capacity; on the other hand, it opposes the (CLARITY Act), which has already been included in related prohibitions, making it difficult for the public to understand its true position.

Record number of cryptocurrency hacking cases in the first half of 2026
According to Blockaid, a leading on-chain cybersecurity firm, in the first half of 2026, the cryptocurrency industry suffered 212 high-threshold vulnerability attacks, setting a record high—3.4 times the total for all of 2025.
However, since there was no massive disaster like last year's Bybit single theft of $1.5 billion, the total losses were about $1.1 billion, slightly down compared with the same period last year.
Four major hacker incidents resulted in losses of $700 million, with leaked private keys becoming the fatal weak point
In the first half of 2026, the four major hacker incidents were KelpDAO ($292 million), the Drift protocol ($285 million), and Resolv and the CoW protocol. The total losses reached $707 million, accounting for as much as 64% of total losses.

AI semiconductor stocks have been plunging for days. Share prices have failed to rebound, and earnings releases have become an opportunity for bears to step in, while investor briefings have turned into something like a “ceremony.” In a post about this, Citrini research analyst Jukan said the issue is not fundamentals, but that the market’s recognition logic has changed: “AI’s demand growth can no longer convince investors—the key question is whether it’s worth burning this much money on AI.”
In his view, only killer apps like ChatGPT—ones capable of redefining productivity—would give the AI bull market a chance to return.
Bright earnings reports turn out to be a negative, as investors’ thinking has shifted.

Taiwan stocks have recently become more volatile as global tech stocks undergo sharp corrections. Not only have retail investors been badly hurt, but several listed companies that are usually keen on “trading stocks as a side business” have also repeatedly reported stop-loss hits and being trapped. Among them are OptiTech (2323), the disc-drive maker that netizens have long nicknamed “giant leeks” for frequently issuing announcements about entering and exiting large-cap bellwether stocks, and in recent times, construction-sector stock developer TSI (2545), which has been dubbed “Huangxiang Investment Consulting.” The two have once again become hot topics on stock-market forums like PTT and the “Stock Market Rumor/Leak” community for their “masterful maneuvers.”
Central cuts losses: sells TSMC to buy Nanya Tech and WiSilicon—“Could we lose more?”

Financial Times: 24-year-old Wall Street “boy prodigy stock god” crashes in a blow-up
It was only this first half of the year that he wrote down a staggering 439% performance. The hedge fund “Situational Awareness,” founded and managed by 24-year-old Wall Street “boy prodigy stock god” Leopold Aschenbrenner, has recently been dealt a severe blow amid the global sell-off in AI tech stocks and damage from highly leveraged strategies.
The UK (Financial Times) reveals that the fund is urgently seeking lending institutions to inject fresh capital, and is offering investors the option to privately take over portfolio assets, in an attempt to get through a liquidity crisis.

A senior executive at a well-known cold wallet company was implicated in the case, and the court of first instance sentenced him to prison for money laundering under the charges.
While Chiayi County police were investigating a fraud case’s financial flow, they unexpectedly discovered that a well-known virtual-currency cold wallet brand’s senior technology executive was involved in a money-laundering case. The suspect surnamed Zhuang, who previously served as the CTO of CoolBitX, was accused by prosecutors and investigators of teaming up with his fellow classmate surnamed Huang from EMBA to package transactions under the guise of “virtual-currency lending,” thereby helping a fraud syndicate move illicit proceeds. The New Taipei District Court recently, under the general money-laundering offense, sentenced Zhuang and Huang to 5 months’ imprisonment each and imposed a fine of NT$100,000 each.
The reason this case has attracted attention is not only that the individuals involved have a background in blockchain and cold wallet technology, but also that CoolWallet has a high profile in the domestic virtual-asset evidence custody setting. In the past, multiple judicial and law-enforcement agencies used related cold wallet devices to store seized virtual-currency evidence. Now that the former CTO has been implicated in a money-laundering conviction, the case has quickly sparked discussion within law-enforcement circles and the blockchain industry.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia said today (29) that it has formally accused Telegram founder Pavel Durov of allegedly “aiding terrorist activities” and has issued an international arrest warrant. The Russian side believes that Telegram has long failed to remove channels, chats, and bots that have been used to plan terrorist attacks, sabotage activities, and cybercrime, and therefore should bear corresponding legal responsibility.
Russia: Telegram becomes a coordination tool for terrorist activities
Russia (Interfax) reports that the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia said that it has formally filed criminal charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov under provisions of the (Russian Criminal Code) involving “aiding terrorist activities.”

“Fei Fei” Guo Zhe-rong says he took the chance of the Taiwan stock market’s plunge to invest NT$100 million to buy 0050
Taiwan stocks saw a fierce recent surge followed by a dramatic correction. On the 29th during intraday trading, the market plunged by more than 2,000 points, at one point breaking below the 40,000-point level. In the end, it fell by 1,564.18 points to close at 40,039.18 points.
Facing panic-driven sell-offs, well-known investment analyst Guo Zhe-rong ("Fei Fei") carried out his promise. When the market was in panic, he dropped NT$100 million to buy Yuanta Taiwan 50 (0050). He also said that before the end of the year, Taiwan stocks still have a chance to push through the 50,000-point level. The remarks sparked heated discussion on the stock forum section of PTT.
Guo Zhe-rong: AI absolutely is not subject to a bubble

Interest rates maintained at 3.50% to 3.75%, with three officials advocating for a rate hike
On July 29, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.50% to 3.75%, continuing the pause in rate hikes. This decision was not entirely calm: the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted 9–3 to hold steady. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan instead argued for an immediate 1 percentage-point rate hike.
The resolution statement said that U.S. economic activity is still expanding at a steady pace. Productivity growth and capital investment remain strong, and employment growth and labor supply are broadly in sync, with little change in the unemployment rate. However, inflation is still above the 2% target, with some of the pressure stemming from energy and supply-side shocks triggered by conflicts in the Middle East. As a result, while markets breathed a sigh of relief, they did not interpret this decision to hold rates steady as a shift toward an accommodative policy.

Robinhood Q2 earnings released: revenue of $1.31 billion beats expectations
U.S. online brokerage giant Robinhood (stock code: HOOD) announced its 2026 second-quarter financial results in the early hours of today (7/30) Taiwan time. Total revenue reached $1.31 billion (up 32% year over year), exceeding Wall Street’s expectation of $1.26 billion; net income was $573 million (up 48% year over year). Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.48, delivering an impressive performance.
The biggest business highlight this quarter is the explosive growth of “prediction markets.” Event contract revenue first surpassed revenue from cryptocurrency and stock trading, becoming the core engine driving the company’s growth.

New variables are added to U.S. cryptocurrency regulatory legislation. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that if Congress ultimately fails to pass the Digital Assets Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), the SEC is prepared to use existing statutory authority to independently set rules for the cryptocurrency market to fill the regulatory gap.
In a recent interview with (CNBC), Paul Atkins said the SEC absolutely has the authority and capability to address the current regulatory pain points through the administrative branch’s rulemaking power. However, he remains optimistic that the (CLARITY Act) will ultimately pass in Congress, repeatedly emphasizing that having Congress complete the legislation is the most “ideal route” to establish a regulatory framework.

The market is highly focused on the latest interest-rate decision the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) is set to announce. Although investors are divided on whether there should be a rate hike or a hold, analysts believe that Bitcoin has recently shown relatively strong resilience. Even in the face of policy uncertainty, it may be less affected than AI tech stocks that have been steadily falling in recent times.
More importantly, if the Fed releases any policy signals this time that lean dovish, Bitcoin is expected to continue its recent relatively strong performance.
Image source: CME FedWatch
Markets expect the Fed to hold steady—there's still a 30% chance of an unexpected rate hike