Whale Alert: Smart Money Places 41x Leveraged Short Position on S&P 500 Ahead of FOMC, Worth $24 Million

South Korea’s stock market extended its decline today, with retail investors appearing to be in extreme panic. Retail investors on Daum, South Korea’s leading stock forum, are voicing widespread distress, with their main sentiments focused on “regret over buying the dip” and “criticism of inadequate regulation”. Separately, Yonhap News Agency reported that a public opinion survey released on the 27th shows South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s approval rating has fallen for two consecutive weeks, staying around 40%. Research firm Realmeter analyzed: “The downward trend is likely to persist this week. Negative economic factors such as the stock market crash, coupled with public strong opposition to real estate issues—including the Bundang mortgage sales dispute and remarks on strengthening property taxes—as well as policy conflicts over leveraged ETFs and expanded investigative authority.”

According to Bitget's market data, WTI crude oil gained 5% intraday, trading at $83.25 per barrel.

Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), which oversees over $59 trillion in assets under custody and management, is set to launch a digital transfer agency business. The initiative will migrate fund transaction processing and holder records to blockchain while retaining the firm’s traditional transfer agency system. BNY’s transfer agency business currently services approximately $8.6 trillion in assets and 7.6 million accounts. Baillie Gifford will be the first to use this system for the UK’s first fully native regulated tokenized fund, with BlackRock and BNY subsidiary Dreyfus also expected to adopt it in upcoming funds.

K33 Research stated in a report that Bitcoin has stayed in a narrow consolidation range of $60,000 to $66,000 over the past week. In July, the average daily spot trading volume was only around $2.2 billion, CME’s open interest is near multi-year lows, and open interest in perpetual contracts has stalled at roughly 300,000 Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s trading volume in July hit its lowest level since November 2023.

Circle’s Senior Director of EU Strategy and Policy Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) published an article noting that since the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation took effect, roughly 35 electronic money tokens (EMTs) from 21 institutions have secured compliance certifications. Banks and e-money institutions are entering the space, with strong local issuance momentum. However, among the world’s top 50 stablecoins, only three—USDC, USDG, and EURC—currently meet MiCA requirements, while the rest operate outside the regulatory framework, leaving EU users facing a dual dilemma: either insufficient protection or forced access restrictions. Hansen argues that for MiCA to truly serve as a global regulatory benchmark, two goals must be achieved in parallel: first, drive local EMTs to go global via a competitive regulatory regime; second, establish a recognition mechanism for overseas compliant stablecoins to attract global issuers to join the MiCA framework, rather than making local issuance the sole entry path.

Grayscale Research’s latest report notes that Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE remains undervalued relative to publicly listed fintech companies. Research head Zach Pandl applied a valuation metric analogous to stocks’ earnings per share (EPS) — earnings per token — projecting Hyperliquid’s protocol profit will reach approximately $1 billion in 2027, a roughly 20% increase from 2025. The report forecasts HYPE’s circulating supply will rise to 270 million to 310 million tokens by the end of 2027, corresponding to earnings per token of $3.25 to $3.75. At its current price of around $54, HYPE’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio stands at 15 to 18 times, a valuation Grayscale says is still lower than most fintech firms. However, the report flags key risks including underperforming protocol revenue growth and overly rapid token supply expansion. Meanwhile, HYPE has fallen roughly 29% from its June all-time high, with recent institutional unstaking and capital outflows continuing to weigh on market sentiment.