Tom Lee: Traditional finance and cryptocurrency will eventually converge into a single market, and he holds a long-term bullish stance.

According to VandaTrack data, retail investors net purchased $130 billion worth of U.S. stocks over the past month, marking the lowest level since 2020. Since the start of 2026, monthly net purchases by retail investors have dropped by $180 billion, a 58% decline. Meanwhile, net purchases of individual stocks fell by $80 billion, a 71% drop to $32 billion, also the lowest level since the first quarter of 2020. That said, retail investors’ total holdings still hit a record high of $500 billion, doubling from mid-2024. Currently, retail investors are selling stocks almost as aggressively as they are buying, which has compressed net purchases. Retail trading activity in the market is cooling down.

According to Iran's Fars News Agency, sources close to Iran's negotiation team said reports by some media outlets close to the Israeli regime claiming Iran has requested negotiations with the U.S. are false. Iran has not made any request for talks with the U.S., and will not engage in any negotiations until the U.S. withdraws its stance.

Since the resumption of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran this week, transit volumes through the Strait of Hormuz have dropped significantly. According to Kpler data, Thursday’s transit volume fell to 22 vessels from 30 the previous day. Local time on Tuesday, Iran targeted vessels in the strait (including a damaged Qatari LNG carrier), sparking renewed clashes between the two sides. Since the reciprocal attacks on Tuesday, only two LNG carriers have entered the strait, while one has exited. After the U.S. and Iran signed an agreement on June 17 to launch negotiations to end the conflict, transit volumes had risen briefly, peaking a few days later before the ceasefire was broken. Shipping brokerage Braemar LNG said in a client report on Friday that shipowners, acting with caution, have withdrawn available capacity from the region "until the geopolitical situation becomes clearer". This move has reduced the number of available vessels and pushed up transportation costs.

Robinhood has officially announced that its AI agent feature is expanding into the cryptocurrency trading space. Eligible U.S. users will be able to connect third-party AI agents to execute crypto asset trades, co-develop trading strategies with the AI agents, and set specific risk limits, eliminating the need for continuous account monitoring. The platform also disclosed that since launching the beta version of its AI agent feature for stock and options trading, more than 70,000 "agentic accounts" have been created to date, though it has not yet revealed an official launch timeline for the crypto-focused AI agent trading function.

Recent reports say Tencent is in discussions to become the largest shareholder of Manus, a general-purpose AI agent company. According to the reports, a Chinese capital group led by Tencent will repurchase all of Manus’ equity from Meta at a valuation of around $2 billion. Reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily reached out to Tencent for confirmation, but the company had no response as of press time. Another insider familiar with the matter revealed that after the transaction, Tencent will remain a minority shareholder and will not hold a controlling stake.

According to on-chain detective Specter’s monitoring, Hedera Network is suspected of having suffered a hack. Attackers have bridged over $3.7 million from Hedera Network to Ethereum via LayerZero, and the stolen funds are currently being converted from WBTC to ETH.