Ansem: Institutional funds are turning bullish on the crypto market, and the current market environment may be conducive to forming a bottom.

Citigroup maintains a "Buy" rating on SK Hynix, setting a target price of 3.1 million South Korean won. The U.S. bank stated that the chipmaker’s enhanced shareholder return plan reflects management’s confidence in medium- and long-term growth, and is expected to provide substantial downside support for its share price. SK Hynix plans to implement a 40 trillion won (approximately $287.7 billion) share repurchase program, covering 24.07 million shares, accounting for about 3.3% of its outstanding capital stock, with 100% of the repurchased shares to be canceled. The program is scheduled to run from August 20 to November 19, and the cancellation will be completed within 1 to 2 weeks after its conclusion. Additionally, the company has adjusted its shareholder return criteria for 2025 to 2027 from the previous "within 50% of cumulative free cash flow (FCF) over three years" to "more than 50%". It also clarified that FCF is calculated as cash flow from operating activities minus capital expenditures, with merger and acquisition (M&A) expenses not deducted from FCF. Citigroup noted that SK Hynix plans to disclose the specific scale and method of its further shareholder return program when announcing third-quarter results in October. Analysts believe that the 40 trillion won repurchase and cancellation plan is expected to form valuation downside support, while raising the shareholder return floor to over 50% of FCF also enhances the certainty of medium- and long-term returns.

Data from SEIBro, a subsidiary of the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), shows that as of August 18, the A-share stock with the highest buying volume from South Korean investors over the past month is an unnamed security. South Korean investors made a net purchase of $45.322233 million (equivalent to approximately 307.53 million yuan) of the stock during that period. Over the past three months, the security still tops the ranking of A-shares with the highest net purchases by South Korean investors. South Korean securities firms, acting as Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs), are required to submit settlement instructions to KSD when trading securities. ISIN codes are mandatory for such submissions, so relevant South Korean securities firms have opted to use a temporary virtual code for the time being, with the security's name displayed based on this virtual ISIN. A search of SEIBro reveals that as of July 28, Changxin Technology had appeared on the list of stocks with the highest net purchases by South Korean investors in the preceding week. However, as of July 27, Changxin Technology was not among the top 50 A-shares by net purchases from South Korean investors in the prior week (it is also possible that South Korean investors had already bought the stock, but Changxin Technology failed to enter the top 50 A-share net purchase ranking). This suggests that by July 28 at the latest — the second trading day after Changxin Technology's listing — South Korean investors had already begun buying the stock. (China Fund News)

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Marvell Technology (MRVL) saw its pre-market gain in US equities widen to 12% after the company struck a custom chip deal with Google. Marvell issued a warrant to Google, allowing the latter to purchase up to 58.97 million Marvell shares at $206.58 apiece, equivalent to roughly 6.7% of its outstanding shares. Most of the warrant will vest gradually as Google generates custom chip-related revenue for Marvell through fiscal 2033, covering products including AI accelerators, networking products and storage products.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Marvell Technology (MRVL) is up 7.76% in pre-market trading, currently trading at $232.77. In related news, Marvell Technology has issued a warrant to Google, allowing Google to purchase up to 58.97 million Marvell shares at $206.58 per share, equivalent to around 6.7% of Marvell’s outstanding shares. Most of the warrant will vest gradually as Google generates custom chip-related revenue for Marvell through the period ending in fiscal 2033, covering products including AI accelerators, networking products and storage products.

According to market reports, the U.S. Treasury Department has announced an increase in the issuance volume of nominal long-term Treasury bonds.

Arthur Hayes posted that FLOP has not yet released its whitepaper, as the team is still communicating with relevant stakeholders to ensure the final plan is sufficiently robust in technical design and tokenomics. The team chose to announce FLOP early to gather more feedback, and simple yet informative charts detailing FLOP’s tokenomics design will be rolled out starting next week. Earlier reports noted that Arthur Hayes announced he would end his retirement to return to lead Flop Labs and launch the FLOP token. He explained that FLOP will serve as "the fuel for AI Agents", with the project eschewing pre-sales and VC involvement, adopting a 100% fair launch model to build the currency for the Agentic Economy. A large-scale airdrop is scheduled for Q4 2026, with the genesis block set to launch in Q1 2027.