US pre-market news roundup: Intel plans to invest €5 billion to expand its Irish factory; storage and semiconductor equipment sectors fall across the board in pre-market trading.

Cross-border payment infrastructure platform Borderless.xyz released its Q2 2026 Benchmark Report, showing that stablecoin cross-border payments throughout the quarter had actual exchange rates better than the Interbank FX Rate, achieving a rare negative premium in the traditional cross-border payment system. Data shows the median "Parity Gap" for stablecoin payments in Q2 was -3.2 basis points, further widening to -5.9 basis points in June, meaning users’ final transaction rates were more favorable than the interbank mid-rate. Meanwhile, the average cost of sending a $10,000 cross-border payment remained around $27, staying largely stable for five consecutive months. The report notes that as stablecoin cross-border payment costs converge, payment routing has become the largest area for enterprises to optimize costs. If enterprises rely long-term on a single payment provider instead of dynamically selecting the best quote, they will pay an average of ~$2,330 extra per $1 million transferred, a phenomenon Borderless terms the "Routing Tax." Additionally, price differences between stablecoins across payment corridors remain significant. For example, in Peru’s payment corridor, USDC has long maintained a ~99 basis point price advantage over USDT; in the Brazilian real corridor, the lowest-quote provider changed 34 times in 88 days, an average of every 2.6 days. Regionally, payment costs in Latin America and Asia remained stable, while Africa saw the most volatility. Notably, the Malawi payment corridor’s spread once widened to 1,975 basis points, and the spread for Ghana’s USDC payment corridor rose 596% quarter-over-quarter. Borderless states that stablecoin cross-border payments have entered a competition-driven phase, and payment providers’ smart routing capabilities will be a key competitive advantage for enterprises to reduce costs going forward.

Jito Network announced it will allocate 100% of its JTX platform revenue sharing proceeds to repurchase and burn JTO tokens for at least the next year. Per the announcement, all gains from JTX revenue sharing will be continuously used to buy back JTO on the secondary market, with the repurchased tokens permanently burned to reduce circulating supply.

According to HTX market data, JTO has surged over 10% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at $0.6714, with its market capitalization rising to $609 million. On the news front, Jito Network announced that it will use 100% of the revenue from JTX platform revenue sharing to repurchase and burn JTO tokens for at least one year.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has begun using data analysis tools to screen for anomalous large-value transactions in the stablecoin market, focusing on Tether-issued USDT, to crack down on illegal fund flows and "gray economy" activities. BOT Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said initial screening has found some transactions suspected of deliberately evading disclosure requirements or transferring funds by bypassing the traditional banking system. As regulatory authority over digital assets falls under Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the BOT will refer relevant leads to the SEC for further investigation. The stablecoin probe is part of Thailand’s campaign to combat the "gray economy". Since April this year, Thailand has required banks to verify the purpose of cash withdrawals exceeding 5 million baht (about $150,000) per transaction, leading to a roughly 35% drop in large cash withdrawals. Starting in the fourth quarter, large cash deposits will also be required to declare their source of funds. Regulators have also tightened oversight over gold trading, large cash exchanges, and "money mule accounts" linked to online gambling, with monthly gold withdrawals falling from around 4,000 kg to roughly 700 kg. In recent years, Thailand has stepped up its crackdown on crypto-related crimes. Police recently dismantled a cross-chain money laundering network, where the involved wallets transferred over $122.5 million in funds within 10 months, and are still investigating a $300 million cross-border money laundering case and illegal crypto mining operations. Meanwhile, Thailand is advancing the development of a compliant crypto market: the Thai SEC has proposed a three-year development plan covering tokenized assets and crypto ETFs, while the BOT is pushing forward research and development of a baht-pegged stablecoin as part of financial infrastructure upgrades.

According to Bit.com market data, the US semiconductor equipment sector saw broad declines, with individual stocks performing as follows: Applied Materials (AMAT) fell 3.34%, Onto Innovation (ONTO) dropped 4.00%, Lam Research (LRCX) declined 4.64%, KLA (KLAC) fell 3.38%, Teradyne (TER) dropped 3.28%, and Entegris (ENTG) declined 4.95%.

According to Bit.com's market data, the U.S. optical communications sector saw broad declines, with individual stocks as follows: MRVL down 7.01%, LITE down 4.59%, Nokia down 5.99%, Corning down 3.76%, and AXTI down 11.85%.