BREAKING: $435 million has been liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the past 12 hours.

June 18 update: Per Hyperinsight monitoring, as of press time, only one whale on the Hyperliquid platform has opened a position and is currently holding a multi-million-dollar BTC position. This particular whale had previously gone long on crude oil during the U.S.-Iran conflict, took a substantial loss, exited the trade, and remained inactive for roughly half a month. Last night, this wallet address deposited $465,000 back into Hyperliquid and shorted 237.6 BTC with 30x leverage, resulting in a position worth approximately $15.5 million, with an average entry price of $65,207. The short position now carries unrealized gains of around $320,000, marking a 63% return. The whale plans to trigger a market stop-loss if BTC rises to roughly $71,604. Wallet Address: 0xf35aad55c9941333bfdc69175eba123d8b01338a

June 18 – According to Bitget’s market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index extended its gains, with an intraday rise of 2% to hit a new high.

Federal Reserve officials signaled Wednesday local time on June 18 that a dramatic policy shift is taking shape: amid persistent rapid inflation, they may soon need to raise interest rates instead of cutting them. Evercore ISI analyst Krishna Guha pointed out that declining energy prices could bring some economic relief in the coming months, but he warned the interest rate outlook has decoupled from oil trends—leaving deep uncertainty about whether inflation will cool enough to avoid further rate hikes. Beyond energy, two key inflation pressures remain: ongoing pass-through effects from tariffs, and cost spillovers driven by the boom in AI infrastructure investment. Claudia Sam, chief economist at New Century Advisors and a former Fed economist, noted that the standard conditions for the Fed to act on supply-side inflation—an overheated labor market or unanchored inflation expectations—have not yet materialized. Still, she said the case for action is building. “I understand the view

June 18 (Caixin) — Andrew Left, founder of short-selling firm Citron Research, has a sentencing hearing scheduled for August 31, 2026. The theoretical maximum sentence he could face is 265 years, though the final penalty will be determined by the court based on the specific facts of his case. Left has previously targeted over 20 Chinese concept stocks, including New Oriental, Qihoo 360, Evergrande Group, Southeastern Asset Management, and China High Speed Transmission. Early in his career, his short-selling reports were largely accurate, but unlike peers such as Muddy Waters Research, Citron’s work has long been criticized for being riddled with flaws. He was also banned from Hong Kong’s stock market for five years by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Prosecutors claim Left regularly used short-dated options expiring between 0 and 5 trading days to bet on stock price movements right after publishing reports or sending out tweets. He placed pre-set limit orders, and the

June 18 – Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital and widely known as the “New Bond King,” told CNBC in a recent appearance that new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s hawkish signal came in stronger than many investors had expected. Gundlach highlighted that Warsh’s repeated emphasis on the Fed’s price stability target reduces the risk of overly loose monetary policy that could reignite inflation, which he said strengthens the case for holding long-term U.S. Treasuries. He added that Warsh has effectively staked his professional reputation on controlling inflation, making a significant interest rate cut far less likely. Currently, U.S. short-term interest rate futures reflect a higher probability of the Federal Reserve raising rates before September than keeping rates unchanged.

On June 18, U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to announce his plan to bring the semiconductor industry back to America, stating, “It is now clear that America needs to bring the semiconductor industry back to the U.S. We have designed everything, and we need to manufacture in the U.S. now. So I have decided to help Intel, because we need to design and manufacture our chips in America.” To carry out this goal, a series of key partnerships have been finalized: NVIDIA has agreed to collaborate with Intel to produce its top-tier chips; Musk will build TerraFab—the world’s largest chip factory—in partnership with Intel’s technical team; and Apple has signed on to work with Intel to design and manufacture its chips within the U.S. As part of the U.S. government’s support for Intel, the government secured a 10% equity stake in the company. When the government’s offer was extended, Intel was valued at roughly $100 billion. Today, Intel’s valuation has surged to over $600 billi