Bitcoin drops below $63,000, posting a 2.98% decline in 24 hours.

South Korea’s Meritz Securities researcher Kim Sunwoo noted that the market has overreacted to misunderstandings about the fundamentals of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, advising against short-sighted and pessimistic judgments on the semiconductor sector based solely on fragmented information. Regarding rumors that SK Hynix secured orders by cutting prices when signing long-term supply agreements with major tech firms, Kim stated that these arrangements are not mere price sacrifices but strategic investments to pre-emptively lock in demand in the generative AI and AI data center markets. The company is expanding its medium- and long-term customer base through joint ventures and partnerships. He projected that DRAM demand fulfillment rates will reach only 75% to 80% in the second half of this year, potentially dropping further to around 60% next year; even when considering only actual end-user demand, the fulfillment rate remains at roughly 70%, meaning supply shortages will continue to deepen. Kim added that share repurchases, cancellations, and dividends from Samsung Electronics, as well as a potential special dividend from SK Hynix, will help ease market concerns. He also noted that both companies are currently in a stage of severe undervaluation and overcorrection.

On Friday, global stock markets posted sharp declines as investors fled AI tech stocks. Japan’s tech-heavy Nikkei 225 index fell more than 5% intraday at one point. A Tokyo-based brokerage executive said: “This is one of the worst trading days for the Tokyo market in a long time. Many investors had placed extremely aggressive bets on tech and AI via Japanese tech stocks, and now they are rushing to exit.” U.S. stock index futures signal the U.S. market is likely to open lower. In Europe, Euro Stoxx 600 futures point to a 0.6% drop at the open. Richard Yetsenga, chief economist and head of research at ANZ, noted that the sell-off has exposed an alarming level of reliance on the AI boom across many current markets and a large portion of economic activity. (Jinshi)

According to Bitget data, the Nikkei 225 index closed 4.03% lower on Friday, July 17, at 64,141.12 points, having plunged as much as 6% intraday to fall below the 63,000 threshold. Individual stocks saw Kioxia drop 16% and SoftBank decline 8.5%. South Korean stock markets are closed today.

According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, as of press time, HYPE has dipped to a low of $58.781, a 10% pullback from its intraday high, and is now trading at $59.2—down 11.2% from the previous day’s price. A whale wallet (0x4e2) placed 60 limit buy orders for HYPE in the early hours of today, with a price range of $20 to $40, planning to acquire 666,700 HYPE tokens for a nominal value of approximately $20 million at a weighted average price of $30. The highest buy price in these orders remains 32.5% below the current market price. The whale wallet holds total funds of $40.2 million, and currently only has 4,218 HYPE short positions valued at around $250,000. If the buy orders are filled, it will close its existing short positions and then hold roughly 662,400 HYPE long positions.

According to Hyperinsight monitoring, an execution address reportedly linked to a16z has continuously sold 105,400 HYPE spot tokens today, generating approximately $6.4812 million in trading volume at an average price of around $61.49 across roughly 11,400 transactions. On-chain records indicate the entity’s main address transferred a total of 120,000 HYPE to the aforementioned execution address in two separate trades today. Meanwhile, the main address routed 100,000 HYPE to Bybit via an intermediate address, and another 90,000 HYPE was quickly transferred to a trading platform’s aggregation wallet via a different address. It is only confirmed that these 190,000 HYPE have entered trading platform-related paths; it cannot be concluded that all of them have been sold. The main address has transferred out a total of 315,000 HYPE today, and currently holds around 45,100 HYPE on HyperEVM. Earlier monitoring shows this entity executed TWAP buy orders via more than a dozen associated addresses during HYPE’s all-time high in early June, purchasing 687,000 HYPE over four days and amassing a total of 6.617 million HYPE. Previous update: "HYPE spot major player adds another $20.35 million, single-handedly sustaining three-day TWAP buy orders" Main address: 0xb5E4d21240e9356caFc3a1261d10383f62DFc24e Execution address: 0xc745044ae202b60d3ef5ee89a5f6738011651464

Programmer Stefan Thomas currently has only two remaining password attempts left to unlock an IronKey encrypted USB drive holding the private keys to 7,002 Bitcoin. The device will permanently lock and erase its data after 10 consecutive incorrect password entries, and Thomas has already used up 8 of his allotted attempts. The Bitcoin dates back to 2011, when Thomas created an educational video titled "What is Bitcoin?" and was compensated with 7,002 BTC. At the current Bitcoin price of roughly $111,000, the asset is valued at approximately $777 million. Thomas previously stored his wallet’s private keys on the encrypted USB drive and wrote down the password on paper, but later lost the password. While the Bitcoin remains in its on-chain address, the funds are currently inaccessible and cannot be transferred due to the inability to access the private key. The IronKey USB drive is built with high-strength encryption, triggering a permanent lock after 10 consecutive wrong password entries. Its manufacturer, Kingston, confirms there are no backup passwords or alternative recovery methods beyond the original password set by the user. As Bitcoin’s price has surged, the value of this locked asset has continued to rise. Thomas has sought assistance from multiple parties, including digital forensics firm Naxo and security researcher Chris Tarnovsky, but no successful recovery has been announced to date.