Google turns in a “nearly perfect” earnings report—so why did the stock price fall?
On the early morning of July 23 Beijing time, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) officially released its 2026 second-quarter earnings report. After the report was released, almost all of the key metrics—whether revenue, profit, earnings per share, or the growth of the Google Cloud business—exceeded market expectations previously set by Wall Street analysts. At first glance, this is undoubtedly an outstanding performance. However, unexpectedly, in after-hours trading following the earnings release, Alphabet’s stock price fell by more than 3% at one point. The capital market did not provide consistent positive feedback to what appeared to be a flawless earnings report.
137 · Market Signals✨ 7-23 Roundup of the past 24H headlines — Market Overview
1. A new version of the “CLARITY Act” is released, with the ethical provisions becoming a flashpoint for debate between the two parties;
2. The Trump administration announced an additional 50% ad valorem tariff on certain Canadian products (including goods covered by the USMCA), in response to what it calls Canada’s “discriminatory measures” in the auto trade. The new tariffs will take effect on August 19;
3. Arbitrum perpetual futures DEX Ostium will resume trading in stages. It was previously hacked on July 15, compromising the off-chain pricing system, with losses exceeding $23.75 million. The platform is working with security organizations and law enforcement agencies to investigate;
4. Movement Labs has filed for bankruptcy protection: book assets of only $100,000–$500,000, liabilities of $10 million. Co-founder Rushi Manche, who was removed, is the largest creditor. The MOVE token plunged by 99%";
5. a16z said the tokenized stock market has grown more than 5x in one year: as of the end of June, the total market cap of tokenized stocks was about $1.7 billion, up more than 5x. AI and chip categories’ share rose to 15.5%, while large-cap tech stocks accounted for 10.6%. Monthly on-chain transfer volume increased by more than 170x year over year. DTCC has completed its first batches of live transactions on the Canton Network, and Robinhood has launched its own chain;
6. Big tech earnings season: Tesla and Alphabet have released their Q2 results;
7. The crypto industry in 2026 will contribute more than $55 billion to the U.S. GDP;
8. Bitcoin ETFs saw consecutive net inflows for six straight days from July 14 to 21, the longest streak since early May. Cumulative net inflows reached $51.8 billion. In the same period, Ethereum ETFs had net inflows of $196 million, bringing cumulative net inflows up to $11.2 billion.
From an “AI bull market” to “leveraged volatility”: Why the South Korean stock market is crazier than Bitcoin
For a long time, South Korea’s KOSPI, the benchmark composite stock index, was regarded as the “canary in the coal mine” of the global economy. South Korea is highly dependent on exports. Meanwhile, companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor, and LG Chem are deeply embedded in global supply chains for semiconductors, automobiles, batteries, and consumer electronics. As a result, when global manufacturing orders increase and demand for electronic products rebounds, South Korea’s exports and stock market often improve first. Conversely, when global trade weakens, the South Korean market usually feels the chill earlier as well. But once the investment cycle for artificial intelligence begins, KOSPI’s role is undergoing a fundamental change.
137 · Market Outlook✨ 7-21 Round up the 24H buzz — Market snapshot
1. The ethical provisions of the “CLARITY Act” hit a stalemate, with the White House position shifting back and forth;
2. The Trump administration announced an additional 50% ad valorem tariff on some Canadian products (including those covered under the USMCA), in response to Canada’s “discriminatory measures” in auto trade. The new tariffs take effect on August 19;
3. Grayscale has filed a spot ETF application for Worldcoin with the SEC;
4. South Korea’s KOSPI volatility is even higher than Bitcoin’s; the main drivers are big AI chip makers and leveraged ETFs;
5. Morgan Stanley: memory shortages are worsening, and DRAM prices may rise by more than 25% quarter-over-quarter in Q3;
6. After the World Cup ended, open contracts at Kalshi and Polymarket dropped 20%—
7. Strategy sold $263 million worth of MSTR shares, with its Bitcoin holdings unchanged;
8. On Monday, SPCX closed down 3.34% to $119.85. Before the launch attempt of Falcon 9, the company called off the mission and paused Starlink launches to ensure safety;
9. The Trump administration is discussing restrictions on China’s AI models, driven by the rise of Kimi under Moonshot AI. Market predictions suggest the likelihood of a nationwide ban is relatively low.
The World Cup is over—will prediction markets stay just as wild? The next big event is already lined up.
The FIFA World Cup final has just ended—Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in extra time on July 19 to lift the championship trophy. This global sporting event is also an important stress test and growth catalyst for prediction markets. Polymarket’s World Cup-related markets have accumulated trading volume of over $5 billion, with its single Winner market surpassing $4.2 billion. The Kalshi Winner market has also contributed more than $1.0–$1.2 billion. The platform’s total trading volume in June set a new all-time record; parts of the week saw sports volumes reaching the multi-billion-dollar level, and it added millions of new users. The AI Agent project was integrated rapidly during the tournament, offering a variety of features such as automated analysis, signal generation, and autonomous betting—further amplifying trading frenzy around the event.
Kimi lacks compute capacity, while MiniMax is busy with commercialization: beyond the hype, the harder part is making money
1. Why did Kimi suddenly pause new user subscriptions? Mid-July: After the dark side of the Moon released its open-source Kimi K3 large model, it took only two days for an official announcement to quickly top tech-news hot searches. Due to sustained high load on computing resources, the company decided to pause C-end new user membership subscriptions. It would prioritize available GPU resources for already-paid member users, while also accelerating the deployment speed of a new computing cluster. Compared with earlier internet products that required urgent maintenance due to server downtime or database issues, this time the official explanation was more straightforward—and more characteristic of this era. It wasn’t that the product had a problem; it was that the model was too popular, to the point where compute power couldn’t keep up with the pace of demand growth.
Kimi K3 Shocking Release: How a 2.8T-Parameter Model Reshapes AI Business Value with Long Context and Value for Money
Against the backdrop of intensifying global AI competition, China’s homegrown large language models are accelerating their rise. The Kimi-series chatbots and underlying models under Moonshot AI have become important representatives of China’s AI applications. On July 16, 2026, the company officially released its flagship model, Kimi K3. This 280B-parameter MoE model, with million-token ultra-long context, native multimodal capabilities, and highly competitive pricing strategies, demonstrates strong capability in long-context agentic coding and practical scenarios. It not only raises the technical ceiling for China’s large models, but also provides a key engine for Moonshot AI to move from technical validation to large-scale commercialization and profitability transformation.
Kevin Warsh’s First Congressional Hearing: What Key Signals Did the New Head of the Federal Reserve Send?
From July 14 to 15, U.S. time, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh appeared before the U.S. Congress for two consecutive days. He first testified before the House Committee on Financial Services and then before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, answering questions from lawmakers regarding the Federal Reserve’s (semiannual monetary policy report). This is also the first time since taking office that he appeared before Congress in his capacity as Federal Reserve Chair, drawing significant attention from global financial markets. For investors, this hearing is not only a comprehensive review of the state of the U.S. economy, but also an important window for observing the direction of future monetary policy. From inflation, interest rates, and the balance sheet, to the Federal Reserve’s independence, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the economy, Warsh released a series of policy signals worth watching over the course of two days.
Who’s actually making money? The sectors and trends of DefiLlama’s top 30 profitable protocols
Today, the revenue model of the crypto market’s protocols is quietly diverging: some still rely on high token incentives to sustain TVL, while others are beginning to depend on real business revenues to achieve self-sustaining “blood regeneration.” According to DefiLlama data, total DeFi TVL across the network has remained stable at around $75 billion, while the total market value of stablecoins has surpassed $310 billion. Perpetual contracts, prediction markets, and the Memecoin ecosystem continue to contribute substantial trading volume. This article is based on DefiLlama’s latest top-30 most profitable protocols list (ranked by 30d Revenue). It systematically maps the income structures, sector characteristics, and value-capture efficiency of these leading protocols.
AI wave still accelerating: In-depth interpretation of TSMC’s Q2 2026 earnings report
On July 16, 2026, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the leading global foundry in the semiconductor industry, released its second-quarter financial report. The report has attracted widespread attention from global capital markets, the semiconductor industry supply chain, and top management at technology companies—not only because TSMC itself has a massive revenue scale and an important position in the industry, but also because, against the backdrop of the continued expansion of investments in AI infrastructure, intensifying competition in advanced process technologies, and the accelerating reshuffle of the global semiconductor supply chain, TSMC has become a critical window for observing genuine AI industry demand, the production bottlenecks for advanced chips, and the cycle of global technology capital expenditures.
U.S. June CPI cools more than expected: Has the inflation turning point arrived, or is it just a temporary pullback?
On July 14 local time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) officially released the June 2026 Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. As one of the most closely watched macroeconomic indicators each month for global financial markets, this report not only directly reflects changes in U.S. residents’ consumer prices, but is also viewed by the market as an important basis for judging the Federal Reserve’s future monetary policy direction. Therefore, before the data was released, whether for investment institutions, economists, or capital markets, there was intense attention on this CPI. And the final results show that overall inflation in the U.S. in June clearly fell compared with the previous period. Both the headline CPI and core CPI were below market expectations. This outcome quickly boosted market risk appetite: major U.S. stock indexes rose, Treasury yields fell, and the U.S. dollar index weakened. Investors’ concerns about the Fed further tightening monetary policy were therefore somewhat alleviated. However, while market sentiment warmed rapidly, a more thought-provoking question also emerged: does this improvement in inflation data mean the United States has successfully brought inflation under control, or is it merely a temporary easing driven by certain short-term factors?
South Korea’s stock market: “ice and fire” in one— from AI frenzy to a leverage bloodbath, who will be the next opportunity?
During this period, South Korean stocks are staging a “roller-coaster” market. The KOSPI index surged by more than 85% in the first half of the year, reaching a record high of 9,385 points in June. However, in mid-July, due to leveraged liquidations and foreign capital pulling out, it quickly slid into a technical bear market. From the peak, it has cumulatively fallen by about 27% (as of July 14, around 6,857 points). SK Hynix (000660.KS) has dropped more than 30% from its recent high (with the single-day maximum decline at 15.4%). Margin financing balances once hit a record high of 386 trillion KRW. This article systematically analyzes the turning points and opportunities in the Korean market across four dimensions: recent performance versus historical data, trading rules and leverage mechanisms, screening high-quality targets in non-semiconductor sectors, and investment strategies along with risk warnings.
Goldman Sachs Report Interpretation: $500 Billion in AI Capex—Is It the Start of a New Cycle or the Eve of a Bubble?
Introduction: Over the past two years, discussions in the market about artificial intelligence have mainly focused on whether model capabilities can continue to improve, whether generative AI will become a general-purpose technology similar to the internet and smartphones, and how large models will change industries such as search, software, advertising, and enterprise services. Meanwhile, as model capabilities continue to strengthen, the user base expands rapidly, and global compute infrastructure enters an intensive construction phase, the market’s focus has clearly shifted toward commercial returns—specifically, whether the massive capital that large technology companies invest in AI can ultimately be converted into steady revenue, profits, and free cash flow.
From Korean Stocks to Nasdaq: A Recap of SK Hynix’s U.S. Stock Debut Amid the AI Infrastructure Wave
It has been three days since South Korean memory giant SK Hynix listed in the U.S. This leading HBM manufacturer raised $2.65 billion, setting a new record for the largest overseas company IPO to the U.S. The first day’s ADR rose by about 13%, and its market capitalization surpassed $120 billion. The debut quickly became a market focus, allowing investors to closely observe the core players in the AI infrastructure supply chain. SK Hynix priced this issuance at $149. After listing, the trading code was first SKHYV, and later changed to SKHY. The funds raised are mainly intended to expand Korea-based wafer fabs and purchase advanced EUV equipment, with the goal of accelerating HBM capacity building. As an important supplier of high-end AI accelerators such as NVIDIA, its products have secured a key position in global data center supply chains.
Hashnote Growth Breakdown: Why an RWA project with no airdrop ultimately became Circle’s most important acquisition target?
Chapter 1 A new track spawned by an interest-rate cycle: Why Hashnote emerged If you rewind time to 2021, RWA (Real World Assets) was still a relatively abstract concept. It described mapping real-world assets onto a blockchain and using tokens to issue, hold, and trade them. But in the market environment at the time, this direction hadn’t yet gained real commercial appeal. On one hand, the U.S. Federal Reserve had long kept interest rates near zero, and the yields on U.S. short-term Treasury bills were below 1%. In traditional financial markets, there was almost no risk-free yield worth migrating onto the chain. On the other hand, the crypto industry was in a period of rapid expansion, with sectors such as DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi continually generating new wealth effects. Investors were more willing to chase high-risk returns of tens of times—or even hundreds of times—rather than fixed income of just a few percentage points. Therefore, RWA at that stage was more like a technical vision than a financial product capable of supporting large-scale capital.
From a Trading Tool to Global Money: Binance’s Latest Report Reveals the Astonishing Transformation of Stablecoins
On July 8, 2026, Binance Research released this in-depth report (Stablecoins: Transforming The Financial Landscape), systematically analyzing how stablecoins have evolved from being trading bridges within the crypto ecosystem into core infrastructure reshaping the global financial landscape. This article focuses on unpacking the report’s key viewpoints, critical data, and trend insights to help readers understand the structural changes taking place in stablecoins—and the far-reaching impact of this evolution on individuals, institutions, and the entire financial system. Stablecoins are no longer merely a substitute for the US dollar or a tool for pairing in crypto trading. Using massive on-chain data, internal platform analysis, and observations of cross-regional behavior, the report clearly shows that stablecoins have come to perform all three of the classic functions of money—store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account. Their growth momentum comes from real-world pain points: depreciation of emerging-market currencies and capital controls, high barriers to and low yields from traditional finance, global 24/7 trading demand, and the micro-payments revolution brought about by AI agent economies. These forces together have driven stablecoins to become independent of crypto market cycles, demonstrating strong resilience and stickiness.
Robinhood Chain TVL Breaks $100M in a Week: Meme Coins Roar 13x—A Signal That TradFi Is Embracing the Speculation Craze?
Just a week after the mainnet went live on July 1, Robinhood Chain’s TVL (total value locked) surpassed the $100 million mark, peaking at nearly $106 million. Within 24 hours, the increase reached as high as 159%. Driven by a DeFi lending protocol and amplified by liquidity spillover from meme trading, this explosive growth quickly pushed the new chain into the industry spotlight. On July 8, the on-chain meme coin market cap briefly broke through $110 million and has since pulled back to about $104 million. The 24-hour gain exceeded 13.9x (at times even higher), and daily trading volumes reached the hundreds of millions of dollars. Robinhood Chain’s total 24-hour DEX trading volume once surged past $500 million, making it the hottest topic in the market.
Fed meeting minutes release new signals: AI investment, energy prices, and tariffs are reshaping the logic behind U.S. inflation
The Federal Reserve’s latest release of the June FOMC meeting minutes has once again drawn global markets’ attention to U.S. monetary policy. Unlike the widely held market expectation of “when will rate cuts happen” before, these meeting minutes reveal a more worrying new development: more and more Federal Reserve officials are starting to worry that U.S. inflation pressures are no longer coming solely from the labor market, but are entering a new phase driven jointly by AI investment, energy prices, and tariffs. Of particular note is that AI investment became an important variable mentioned multiple times in the minutes for the first time. This suggests that the Fed’s framework for assessing future inflation is undergoing a new shift.