In U.S. pre-market trading, declines in semiconductor, optical communication and storage stocks narrowed, with SK Hynix ADR rising over 3% and Micron and SanDisk turning positive.

Local time on July 17, the UK’s ruling Labour Party announced at a special conference that Andy Burnham has been elected its leader. After formal appointment by King Charles III, Burnham will succeed Keir Starmer as UK Prime Minister. Per the procedure, Starmer will submit his resignation to King Charles III on July 20, following which Burnham will accept the monarch’s appointment and officially take office as Prime Minister. The 56-year-old Burnham is a former Mayor of Greater Manchester. In the earlier Labour leadership election, he won the support of a majority of Labour MPs, becoming the sole official candidate. (CCTV)

Renowned AI analyst Chubby (@kimmonismus) commented on the newly launched Kimi K3 model, noting that the K3 outperformed Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 in benchmark tests. This is expected to push leading U.S. AI labs to accelerate the rollout of Opus 5 and GPT-6 to counter competitive pressure from the East. Anthropic’s Opus 5 is projected to launch imminently. For OpenAI, while GPT-5.6 Sol still maintains an overall lead over Kimi K3, the gap is so small that it is barely tolerable. Consequently, the planned GPT-6 will be released ahead of schedule.

Taiwan, China's largest virtual currency firm Bixiang Technology was accused of colluding with fraud groups to launder over NT$2.3 billion. The Shilin District Court of Taiwan, China, handed down a first-instance ruling on the 16th, sentencing mastermind Shi Qiren to 22 years in prison. According to reports, Bixiang Technology is suspected of conspiring with fraud groups to sell Tether (USDT) via 45 stores across Taiwan. The firm guided victims to buy USDT with cash, then converted the funds to U.S. dollars and transferred them overseas to obscure the capital flow. Between January 2024 and April 2025, the group laundered more than NT$2.3 billion, with 1,539 victims and total fraud losses exceeding NT$1.27 billion. The case was concluded in August last year. The Shilin District Prosecutors Office indicted Shi Qiren and 14 others on charges including aggravated fraud, money laundering, and illegal provision of virtual asset services. Shi Qiren faced a requested 25-year sentence due to his poor attitude after committing the offenses.

Citrini analyst Zephyr shared his views on the newly launched Kimi K3 model, stating that the model will compress the profit margins of leading AI model firms. OpenAI’s Sol remains price-competitive, while Anthropic’s Opus faces considerable pressure. Zephyr also noted that the K3 model is beneficial for cloud service providers, Token-as-a-Service (TaaS) providers, and AI infrastructure players. Moonshot will procure large amounts of computing power amid surging demand, directly benefiting A-share listed enterprises related to AI infrastructure.

According to the latest compiled data on flexible savings and earning products at mainstream centralized exchanges (CEXs), stablecoin current yields on platforms like HTX, Binance, OKX, and Bitget show certain differences, with most products adopting a tiered interest structure: high returns for small amounts, reduced rates for excess sums. For USDT products: HTX’s 0–200 USDT tier offers the highest annualized percentage yield (APY) at 10%; Bitget’s 0–300 USDT tier yields 6.24%; Binance’s 0–200 USDT tier is 4.55%; OKX’s stands at 1.62%. Above the respective thresholds, HTX, Binance, and Bitget’s APYs drop to 1.95%, 1.55%, and 1.58% respectively. For USDC products: HTX’s 0–200 USDC tier has an APY of 8%; Bitget’s 0–300 USDC tier is 6.66%; Binance’s 0–200 USDC tier is 6.69%; OKX’s is 1.78%. Exceeding the thresholds, HTX, Binance, and Bitget’s rates fall to 2.75%, 1.69%, and 1.36% respectively. Additionally, for USDE current products: HTX offers APYs of 5% for the 0–1000 tier and 3% for amounts above 1000; Binance’s rate is 3.75%; Bitget’s is 3.70%. As for USDD current products, only HTX currently offers them, with a listed APY of 4.00%. For other U-based products, Binance’s 0–10,000 tier yields 8.54% APY, while HTX’s is 3.00%. Overall, current high yields on CEX stablecoin current products are mostly concentrated in small tiers, with yields dropping significantly for large sums. When comparing products, users should not only consider the nominal APY but also tier limits, supported currencies, platform rules, and product availability. Note: This data is compiled from official public pages of various CEX platforms for informational purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice.

According to an official announcement, Binance has announced that the launch of Aerodrome (AERO), originally scheduled for July 17, 2026 at 19:00 (UTC+8), has been postponed to July 18, 2026 at 00:00 (UTC+8).