HSBC: It is too early to worry that the storage cycle has peaked.

BlackRock’s U.S. institutional digital liquidity fund BUIDL has reached an on-chain assets under management (AUM) of approximately $2.93 billion, continuously hitting new all-time highs, reflecting sustained growing demand among institutional investors for tokenized U.S. Treasury products. Currently, BUIDL is deployed across multiple public blockchains including Ethereum, Avalanche, and Solana, with Securitize handling its tokenized issuance and BNY Mellon providing custody services. Data shows Ethereum remains BUIDL’s largest deployed network, holding over $1 billion in locked assets; Avalanche has seen the fastest recent growth, with its asset size doubling in a single week of July to roughly $900 million, while Solana’s on-chain assets exceed $550 million. Reports note that BUIDL primarily invests in U.S. Treasuries, repurchase agreements, and cash equivalents, maintaining a $1 net asset value (NAV) per share and offering an annualized yield of around 3% to 5%. As more DeFi protocols adopt BUIDL as collateral and liquidity assets, its use cases are expanding beyond institutional cash management to on-chain financial infrastructure. Market analysts view BUIDL’s rapid expansion as a key case of convergence between traditional finance (TradFi) and blockchain, driving continued growth in the global tokenized Real World Asset (RWA) market.

Gold prices have fallen roughly 25% from their year-to-date all-time high, weighed down by elevated interest rates, a strong U.S. dollar, and higher energy prices that have lifted holding costs, leaving the metal under notable short-term pressure. However, multiple market participants argue that this correction has not altered gold’s long-term investment thesis. Paul Wong, a market strategist at Sprott, attributes the recent gold decline to a stronger U.S. dollar, rising expectations of Federal Reserve rate hikes, and concentrated liquidations by quantitative funds. He notes that the current gold price drop has significantly outpaced the actual rise in the dollar and short-term interest rates, indicating that the headwinds from high rates and a strong greenback have been largely priced in. Wong points out that while a stronger dollar tends to weigh on gold in the short term, over the long run, the stronger the U.S. currency, the greater the global incentive to seek alternative reserve assets to the dollar, which in turn boosts gold’s strategic standing as a neutral reserve asset. Against a backdrop of widening global fiscal deficits, central banks’ continued gold purchases, and rising geopolitical fragmentation, gold is gradually evolving from a mere inflation hedge into a currency hedge, reserve asset, and even a potential international financial collateral. He believes that gold and the U.S. dollar could strengthen in tandem over the long term for different reasons: the dollar benefits from its core role in the global financial system, while gold benefits from the trend toward diversification of global reserve assets. However, at the cyclical level, gold prices still tend to maintain an inverse correlation with the U.S. Dollar Index.

The US will release June CPI data at 20:30 Beijing time tonight. Market consensus expects that driven by falling gasoline prices, the overall June CPI may decline by 0.1% to 0.2% month-on-month, with its year-on-year growth rate projected to drop from 4.2% in May to 3.8%. Core CPI is forecast to rise around 0.2% month-on-month, with its year-on-year figure falling to approximately 2.8%. However, multiple Wall Street institutions argue that this inflation slowdown stems more from the pullback in energy prices, and does not mean US inflationary pressures have faded. Housing, auto insurance, travel services, and the pass-through of tariffs on goods prices may still keep core inflation sticky. Meanwhile, the bond market is further pricing in a Federal Reserve rate hike. Interest rate options data shows the implied probability of the Fed raising rates by 25 basis points in July has risen from less than 10% to around 50%, with the two-year US Treasury yield staying above 4.25%. Earlier, Fed Governor Waller stated that if core inflation rises again, a rate hike should be considered in the near term. Institutions generally believe that even if the overall CPI declines due to lower energy prices, the performance of core CPI and its sub-components will remain key to judging whether US inflation has truly peaked and the Fed’s subsequent policy path.

On the Hyperliquid platform, the combined 24-hour trading volume of SK Hynix-related contracts SKHX and SKHY has reached $1.836 billion, surpassing BTC to become the platform’s top active asset by trading volume. Specifically, SKHX posted a 24-hour trading volume of $1.63 billion, with open interest (OI) of $635 million; SKHY recorded a 24-hour trading volume of $206 million, and its open interest stood at $101 million. As of now, SKHY still carries a roughly 26% premium over SKHX.

US President Donald Trump said the U.S. should control and operate the Strait of Hormuz, and is considering charging passing vessels a fee equivalent to 20% of the value of their cargo to compensate for the cost of maintaining security in the strait. Separately, Trump noted that the U.S. may continue military operations against Iran, with U.S. forces carrying out airstrikes on Iran for the third consecutive night. Analysts pointed out that against the backdrop of the Strait of Hormuz’s navigation not returning to normal and the U.S. being in its summer peak travel season, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and commercial crude oil inventories will likely continue to decline, further supporting rises in international oil prices. In the week ending July 3, the U.S. SPR fell to 319.5 million barrels, the lowest level since 1983, and only slightly above the recommended safety floor of around 250 million barrels. Market players believe that if the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted for a long time, even with relatively sufficient domestic crude oil supply in the U.S., global benchmark crude oil prices may continue to rise, further pushing up inflationary pressure and increasing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will maintain high interest rate policies. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded that any party ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated, but deemed the 20% fee rate too high.

According to Bitget market data, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed up 500.77 points today, rising 0.74% to 67,743.50 points. Individual stocks: Kioxia gained 5.3%, SoftBank rose 2.2%. South Korea’s KOSPI index closed up 49.9 points, or 0.73%, at 6,856.83 points, after falling more than 5% intraday. South Korea’s KOSDAQ index closed down 1.92%, having dropped over 5% during intraday trading and triggering the program trading suspension mechanism. On the individual stock front, SK Hynix closed up 3.6%, Samsung Electronics rose 3.3%.