SK Hynix holds negotiations with the South Korean union over bonus issues.

CNN published an analysis stating that U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet taken the biggest risk in the Iran conflict: escalating the war to an uncontrollable scale. But as the diplomatic deadlock drags on, Trump is facing three options: further escalation, expanding military operations, or withdrawing from the conflict. The report notes that after Iran refused to hold further talks, Trump recently issued another stern warning, saying Iran’s leadership faces a "last chance." However, analysts argue that simply expanding airstrikes will not necessarily force Iran to back down; instead, it could prompt Iran to target infrastructure of U.S. allies in the Gulf region, escalating regional conflict. Currently, the U.S. is still limiting the scope of its military operations, targeting primarily military sites. Further strikes on civilian infrastructure such as energy facilities and power grids, or even ground operations, could push the conflict into a higher-risk phase. CNN points out that history—including the Vietnam War, Iraq War, and Afghanistan War—shows that leaders often escalate conflicts to avoid defeat or protect their reputation, ultimately falling into a "no-win, no-exit" trap. Analysts note that Trump won the 2016 election by campaigning against "endless wars," and the Iran conflict will now be a key test of his political legacy. With the U.S. midterm elections approaching, further escalation could carry higher political costs. Trump is currently balancing diplomatic and military pressure, and the ultimate trajectory of the Iran conflict will impact his presidential tenure evaluation and the U.S. Middle East strategy.

Whale 0x2e80 withdrew another 19,000 $ETH ($35.44M) from #Gemini and staked it. Over the past 3 weeks, the whale has withdrawn a total of 112,000 $ETH ($208M) from #Gemini and staked it.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, whale address 0x2e80 has once again withdrawn 19,000 ETH (valued at approximately $35.44 million) from Gemini, and subsequently staked the entire amount. Over the past three weeks, the address has cumulatively withdrawn 112,000 ETH from Gemini, totaling around $208 million, all of which has been allocated to staking.

According to Serenity, citing Digitimes industry chain sources, SK Hynix, Micron (MU), and Samsung Electronics have fully sold out their 2027 DRAM and HBM production capacities, with customers currently able to secure only about 60% to 70% of their initial demand. Serenity stated that current storage supply tightness exceeds market expectations, and 2027 may enter the "most severe storage shortage phase." Meanwhile, SanDisk (SNDK), Samsung Electronics, and Micron’s annual NAND production capacities have also been booked, while Kioxia and SK Hynix are expected to complete capacity allocation by August 2026. Serenity pointed out that although some market views previously predicted a storage oversupply around mid-2027, based on current industry chain conditions, major storage manufacturers have sold out their capacities in advance, keeping supply-demand relations tight. It is learned that capacity allocation quotas between manufacturers and customers have now been basically finalized, but final product prices will still be determined based on market conditions near delivery. The continuous development of AI infrastructure is driving demand for HBM and high-end DRAM, which is likely to remain a key factor in future storage supply tightness.

After South Korean regulators took measures to curb demand for leveraged ETFs that had recently driven sharp market volatility, trading volumes of leveraged ETFs linked to South Korea’s two major chip giants have shrunk significantly. The KODEX single-stock ETF tracking SK Hynix, one of South Korea’s largest single-stock leveraged ETFs, saw its trading volume drop to 59 million shares on Monday, the lowest level since June 4. A similar ETF tied to Samsung Electronics also recorded its lowest trading volume since its launch in late May. Peter Park, a Korean equities sales assistant at NH Investment & Securities, said: “The speculative leverage bubble in major tech stocks has been curbed on both the upside and downside. Since investors can sell existing positions without restrictions, but new purchases face a high cash threshold, speculative leveraged trading by retail investors has effectively come to an end.” Earlier, South Korean regulators raised the minimum cash margin requirement for single-stock leveraged ETF investors from 10 million won to 30 million won. Compared with the 12.4485 trillion won in trading volume on the last trading day before the measure (July 30), the current trading size of these products has fallen to roughly one-tenth.

A research team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) recently launched an OnlyFans account named "OnlyMarms" to raise funds for its long-running wildlife study, unexpectedly drawing attention from the crypto community and leading to the emergence of multiple related Solana meme coins. The project, which has tracked yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado since 1962, is one of the longest-running wildlife studies globally. Facing declining traditional research funding, the team created the OnlyMarms account, using humorous angles like "uncensored marmot content" to attract subscribers to support the research. To date, OnlyMarms has raised around $4,000, but the project still requires $75,000 to $100,000 annually to fund graduate student support and fieldwork. Meanwhile, multiple OnlyMarms-inspired meme coins have popped up in the Solana ecosystem. However, these tokens were all created spontaneously by the community, their issuers are unidentified, and they have no official connection to the UCLA research team. The lead researcher confirmed the team did not create any related tokens. The incident is regarded as an example of the intersection of internet culture, science communication, and the crypto community. Earlier, Solana has seen meme coins driven by internet-famous animals, such as the token based on viral baby hippo Moo Deng, which once reached a market cap of around $680 million in 2024.