Lawson will test Japanese yen stablecoin payments in August, while Netstars launches multi-stablecoin merchant services.

Meta Platforms has pledged an additional $40 billion investment into its large data center campus in Louisiana, U.S., as it scales up its artificial intelligence (AI) computing operations, bringing the project’s total projected investment to over $250 billion. The company announced Monday that it will expand the rural Louisiana data center project to at least 5 gigawatts (GW) of computing capacity, with a total investment of $50 billion. Previously, Meta had committed $10 billion to build the data center and its surrounding community. In May this year, reports emerged that Meta planned to invest an additional $200 billion into the project, primarily to purchase high-cost computing chips for installation on the nearly 4,000-acre campus. According to a source familiar with the matter, this will push the project’s total projected investment to at least $250 billion. To date, Meta has not disclosed any specific expenditures for the project beyond the $50 billion.

QCP analysis notes that crypto markets got off to an indecisive start this week, with focus turning to Tuesday’s U.S. CPI data and Federal Reserve Chair Warsh’s congressional testimony to assess the interest rate path. Meanwhile, the U.S. Q2 earnings season will kick off with major banks. Institutional adoption and ETF demand continue to underpin crypto markets, but BTC is likely to remain range-bound until a clear macro catalyst emerges.

Hyperliquid’s real-world asset (RWA) market open interest (OI) has hit $3.6 billion, marking an all-time high. The platform’s total OI has also climbed to a 2026 peak of roughly $11 billion. According to DeFiLlama data, Hyperliquid’s total OI stands at $10.88 billion, with the HIP-3 market contributing around $3.69 billion.

According to Reuters' sources familiar with internal government discussions, Japan has no current plans to revise the target asset allocation of its national pension fund, but may increase domestic asset investments within the current floating range. Affected by this news, the yen and Japanese government bonds weakened again; the yen depreciated by as much as 0.4% to 1 USD = 162.36 JPY, with the decline only slightly eased after Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara made additional remarks. At a Monday press conference, Kihara said the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) reviews its portfolio annually and will launch a formal adjustment process if there are material changes to market conditions. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which oversees the fund, declined to comment on the matter. Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato stated last Friday that the government will introduce supporting measures to encourage pension institutions including the GPIF to significantly increase their holdings of Japanese domestic financial assets. This comment quickly lifted the yen and Japanese government bonds, as markets bet that the GPIF – the world's largest pension fund by assets – would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the domestic market. As of March this year, the GPIF's assets under management reached 293.6 trillion yen, equivalent to 1.81 trillion U.S. dollars.

On-chain all-asset trading platform Vanta has surpassed $100 million in cumulative trading volume just two weeks into its public beta. In response to community demands, the Vanta team has officially scrapped its exclusive invite code mechanism. Effective immediately, all users can log in and start trading without an invite code. Users participating in Vanta’s public beta will earn double points through July 15. After the beta concludes, the platform will launch weekly point rewards, distributed based on metrics including valid trading volume, fee contributions, liquidity provision, net deposits, and referral trades. Founded by core members from leading exchanges such as Binance, OKX, and Bitget, Vanta is a one-stop all-asset trading platform that combines CEX-grade trading experience, self-custody, and on-chain transparency. It covers asset classes including crypto, stocks, gold, forex, commodities, and indices, and has launched Smart Trading and AI trading assistant features.

Against the backdrop of the recent sharp decline in South Korea’s stock market, domestic independent global macro research firm Tantu Macro recently released a report stating that South Korea’s current financial risks share structural similarities with those before the 1996 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC): semiconductor exports account for 41% (compared to 16% in 1996), foreign holdings in the stock market hit a historical peak of 40%, and external debt-to-GDP rose to 39.6%. However, key differences exist: 1) the foreign exchange reserve adequacy ratio (ARA) stands at 92% (only 54% before the AFC), while the share of short-term external debt has dropped to 9.4% (from 11.5% pre-AFC); 2) the free-floating exchange rate has replaced the soft peg, reducing the risk of bank runs; 3) corporate leverage growth has slowed, and banks’ non-performing loan ratio is lower than during the AFC. Currently, risks are concentrated in the stock market: the KOSPI’s price-to-book ratio of 2x and price-to-earnings ratio of 30x are both record highs, and margin balance has doubled to 38.6 trillion won in a year and a half. The financial stability index shows overall risk is at the 62nd percentile historically (amber light zone), while the valuation dimension hits the 91st percentile. The report’s model estimates a 5% probability of South Korea falling into negative growth in the next year, but the risk of a vicious cycle is significantly lower than during the AFC, mainly due to enhanced foreign exchange reserve buffers and increased exchange rate flexibility—only three recessions of this magnitude have occurred in the past three decades. The core warning: If a semiconductor cycle reversal or Fed tightening triggers foreign capital outflows, the stock market could become a hub for risk transmission.