Bank of Korea Governor: Interest rates need to be raised at an appropriate time

The White House is preparing for potential days- or even weeks-long clashes with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. A US official revealed that the current escalation could last a day or two, a week, or a month, depending on whether Iran continues attacking merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. “We need to teach them a lesson to show them we are not to be trifled with,” the official said. Diplomacy is currently at a standstill, and military pressure has once again become the core of Trump’s strategy. The White House believes there is room for further escalation, as hundreds of oil tankers have passed through the strait and departed the Gulf in recent weeks, easing internal government concerns that renewed conflict would immediately trigger a sharp spike in oil prices. (Axios)

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a crypto whale deposited 4.51 million USDC into Hyperliquid 12 hours ago. The address holds a 2x leveraged long position of 21,200 SKHX (SK Hynix), valued at $30.9 million. Over the past month, the whale has accumulated $3.62 million in profits with a 60% win rate, and only trades XYZ stock perpetual contracts.

According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index turned negative after surging more than 4%. Samsung Electronics dropped 0.54%, while SK Hynix gained 3.9%.

Crypto projects face a fresh wave of shutdowns. Crypto trading platform AscendEX announced yesterday it will cease operations, citing the current market environment and the impact of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. DeFi data dashboard and portfolio tracking tool Zapper announced it will fully shut down its website, mobile app, and APIs on August 3. Web3 gaming guild YGG’s game publishing arm YGG Play will also cease operations on August 1, cutting 35 jobs. While crypto prices have rebounded from their recent lows, the broader industry remains mired in a bear market, with persistent pressure on capital, financing, and user growth. Many projects are struggling to sustain operations amid operational costs and commercialization pressures. In recent years, a large number of projects across sectors including trading platforms, DeFi infrastructure, NFTs, wallets, and Web3 games have announced shutdowns or scaled back operations, as the crypto industry continues its phase of consolidation. For users, it is advised to closely monitor official project announcements, withdraw platform assets as soon as possible to avoid capital risks caused by service terminations or insufficient liquidity. Additionally, users should prioritize platforms and protocols with transparent finances, sufficient reserves, and compliant operations, and diversify asset custody to mitigate potential losses from the shutdown or operational risks of a single platform.

NVIDIA (NVDA.O) has significantly underperformed the broader chip sector so far this year. Bank of America views this as a "more attractive buying opportunity" rather than a risk warning. Analyst Vivek Arya acknowledges there are factors worrying investors but argues the market has overreacted. Concerns over gross margins due to rising HBM component costs are overstated by investors, Arya says, who notes they underestimate NVIDIA’s pricing power, scale advantages, and roughly $119 billion in supply chain commitments. He expects NVIDIA will offset higher HBM costs, as its next-generation Rubin platform will likely be priced much higher than the current Blackwell product line, allowing it to maintain gross margins in the mid-70% range. The second major investor concern is competition from custom chips, such as the TPU jointly designed by Google and Broadcom. Arya says this worry is also overblown: Google’s TPU has existed for over a decade, during which NVIDIA’s GPU revenue has grown 700 times. Long-term, NVIDIA will still capture 65% to 70% of hyperscalers’ AI infrastructure spending. Additionally, NVIDIA’s current forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is around 18.69, nearly half its 10-year average and close to an 11-year low.

Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Timiraos said the Federal Reserve’s June meeting minutes reveal that disagreements among officials stem mainly from differing assessments of future economic trends, rather than fundamental conflicts over interest rate hike or cut strategies. Two potential scenarios have taken shape within the Fed: If inflation stays persistently high, nearly all officials believe higher interest rates will need to be maintained, or even further policy tightening; if inflation quickly falls back to the 2% target, nearly all officials also agree that current rates can be held steady, or even future rate cuts are possible. He noted that the phrase “quickly falls back to 2%” is key, as it preserves policy adjustment room for the Fed. Currently, officials’ core concern is whether inflation will rebound continuously or resume its downward trajectory. Timiraos concluded that the Fed’s next move will still hinge on economic data, especially inflation performance. Markets had previously priced in rate cuts, but the latest minutes show significant uncertainty remains over the policy outlook.