Traders and market forecasters expect the Nasdaq 100 to likely face volatility in the second half of the year, with AI trading momentum slowing.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Trevor Vernon and his company Argent Capital Management, accusing them of operating a commodity pool involving stock index futures, options, and crypto assets from March 2022 to February 2026. They raised approximately $14.8 million from at least 60 investors while falsely advertising investment performance, allegedly committing investment fraud. The CFTC stated that the related trades caused investors to lose over $8.6 million. Vernon not only concealed the losses but is also suspected of misappropriating around $3 million to pay returns to investors, with the operation being "similar to a Ponzi scheme", and embezzled $136,000 for private air travel. The regulator also noted that the trades involved commodities such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and requested the court to order them to cease relevant trading and registration activities, as well as recover illegal proceeds, impose civil penalties, and compensate investors.

SK Hynix’s roughly $28 billion American Depositary Receipt (ADR) offering was oversubscribed several times ahead of pricing, with around 1,000 institutional investors taking part in roadshows, drawing strong subscriptions from global long-term funds and tech investors. If completed smoothly, the offering will rank among the largest U.S. listings by a foreign company, with the chipmaker set to debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market this Friday. Despite recent sharp volatility in the global semiconductor sector, SK Hynix’s stock has declined around 17% this month, yet institutional subscription enthusiasm has not been materially impacted. Market observers note that U.S. investors have relatively limited investment access to the South Korean memory chip leader, and the scarcity premium plus long-term growth prospects tied to AI remain key supports for the offering. Jung In-yoon, CEO of Fibonacci Asset Management Global, said market volatility “may affect short-term investor sentiment or execution timelines, but I would be surprised if it materially disrupts the transaction itself. Unless market conditions deteriorate significantly from here, the pricing impact should be manageable.”

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, whale address 0x77ee recently opened a 40x leveraged short position on Hyperliquid for 493 BTC (valued at approximately $31.08 million), with an entry price of $63,240.9 and a liquidation price of $73,962.2. The position currently has an unrealized profit of around $112,400, delivering a return on equity (ROE) of 14.47%. Data shows the address holds a total of 15 positions, with a total position size of roughly $79.79 million, 92% of which are short positions. That said, the address’s cumulative historical trading losses still amount to $5.66 million.

South Korea’s Ministry of Finance stated that its finance minister held an emergency meeting with officials from the Bank of Korea and financial regulatory bodies, vowing to closely monitor stock market volatility risks, and warned that the semiconductor sector’s excessive weighting has become a core factor amplifying market fluctuations. Recently, driven by factors including cooling expectations for the AI sector, profit-taking, and portfolio rebalancing, the KOSPI has seen sharp swings, triggering its sixth circuit breaker this year, with a cumulative decline of 15.6% from its June peak. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it will focus on single-stock leveraged ETFs linked to chip stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, noting that these products could amplify market volatility and liquidity risks. While South Korean chip stocks rebounded on Wednesday, regulators cautioned that the market must remain vigilant against risks related to AI industry chain valuations and the semiconductor sector’s concentration.

Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm has led the seed round financing of sovereign debt tokenization platform M1X Global, supporting its expansion of on-chain sovereign debt issuance and management capabilities. M1X Global’s core product, USDM1, is launched in partnership with the government of the Marshall Islands. It is a U.S. dollar-denominated sovereign debt instrument issued directly on public blockchains, backed by U.S. short-term Treasury securities at a 1:1 ratio, and governed by New York State’s legal framework to protect investors. The proceeds from this round will primarily be used to drive institutional adoption of USDM1, including its use as compliant collateral in scenarios such as repo, margin, and collateralized financing, as well as to deepen integrations with banks, custodians, and trading platforms. Earlier, M1X Global closed an oversubscribed $3 million angel round in March 2026, with investors including Balaji Srinivasan and others.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, the Trump administration recently directly pressured major U.S. supermarket chains including Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons to cut beef prices during the Independence Day shopping peak, in an effort to ease food inflation. Walmart subsequently announced price cuts on thousands of items, with ground beef prices reduced by up to 12%. Trump then posted that Walmart had lowered prices "at the government's request" and called on other retailers to follow suit. This move is part of the Trump administration's measures to control inflation. In addition to pushing for food price cuts, Trump has previously called for lower gasoline prices, limits on credit card interest rates, and lower drug prices, aiming to ease voters' dissatisfaction with high prices ahead of the midterm elections. However, U.S. cattle herds are at their lowest level in 75 years, and tight supply continues to drive up beef prices. U.S. ground beef prices rose 12% year-on-year in May, indicating that food inflationary pressures have not been fully alleviated.