Executives of two leading South Korean storage giants accused of breach of trust; police launch investigation.

According to Reuters, three people familiar with the matter said Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are evaluating etching equipment from China's Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) for use at their factories in China, to mitigate risks from further U.S. tightening of chip equipment export restrictions. The two firms began related tests around two years ago but have not yet decided to expand deployment. The sources added that Samsung and SK Hynix fear future restrictions could extend beyond new equipment to the maintenance, repair and replacement of existing Western-made equipment at their Chinese facilities, so they are eyeing Chinese suppliers as a backup option for maintaining and upgrading existing production lines, not for expanding production capacity in China. Samsung Electronics denied testing or considering using AMEC's equipment at its Chinese factories, while SK Hynix declined to comment. The U.S. revoked the "Verified End User" (VEU) status of the two companies' Chinese factories in 2025, and later issued annual licenses for them to import chip manufacturing equipment in 2026. Samsung operates a NAND flash factory in Xi'an, while SK Hynix runs a NAND plant in Dalian and a DRAM plant in Wuxi; these production lines currently rely heavily on etching equipment from U.S. firms such as Applied Materials and Lam Research. If AMEC's equipment is ultimately certified by Samsung or SK Hynix, it would represent a major commercial endorsement for Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Data from TechInsights shows Chinese equipment is typically priced 20% to 30% lower than comparable overseas products, but still faces barriers including longer certification cycles, smaller service networks, intellectual property concerns and political pressure.

Uniswap has released a teaser tweet for pools.trade. The page’s countdown indicates that pools.trade will officially launch in roughly 13 hours, corresponding to 0:00 Beijing time on August 6. Earlier reports noted that crypto KOL 0xSLK disclosed Uniswap is developing a token launch platform named “Pools” on Robinhood Chain; its official website is already online, though the product is not yet accessible. The pools.trade page displays the text “Coming soon from Uniswap” and plays a video of a frog jumping into a pond.

According to previous announcements, August 5 marks the preliminary inquiry date for Unitree Technology’s IPO on the STAR Market. Following the inquiry, subscriptions will open on August 10, with both online and offline subscriptions scheduled for that same day, and the payment deadline set for August 12. The preliminary inquiry period on August 5 runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., during which the sponsor (lead underwriter) verifies offline investors, and investors participating in strategic placement pay their subscription funds. On August 6, the offering price will be finalized, valid bidders and their tradable share quotas will be determined, and strategic placement investors will confirm their final allocated share amount and proportion. Unitree Technology’s IPO aims to raise 4.202 billion yuan, with 40.4464 million new shares offered publicly, accounting for 10% of the post-issuance total share capital, bringing the post-issuance total to 404 million shares. Market estimates value Unitree Technology’s IPO at over 40 billion yuan. Based on the STAR Market’s new share subscription unit of 500 shares and the estimated offering valuation, the IPO price is approximately 104 yuan per share, with one lot of new shares requiring a payment of around 52,000 yuan. However, the exact deviation in IPO inquiry results remains to be confirmed by market participants. (Jinshi)

Renowned trader Ouyang Zhuai Bai stated in a post that SpaceX shares will hit a lock-up peak between August and November, with its floating share capital projected to jump from 640 million to 5.2 billion shares. The unlocked portion mainly comes from employee stock holdings. He argues that this influx of large amounts of individual-held shares into circulation could create significant selling pressure. Regardless of SpaceX’s long-term prospects, he notes, its share price is unlikely to rally sharply over the next six months. Shares held by institutional investors will unlock gradually from January to June next year, but on a smaller scale. The 52% stake held by Elon Musk is set to unlock in June 2027, though he believes the founder has no strong incentive to sell in the short term.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), a trader specializing in ETH short positions with 10x leverage has earned $600,000 over 10 days, boasting an 80% win rate. Since July 27, address 0xd9a…8bbf3 has completed 20 ETH short trades in total, with roughly half of the positions held for only around one hour. Ten minutes ago, this address opened another short position of 14,519.62 ETH, valued at approximately $27.21 million, at an average entry price of $1,874.2.

China's A-share communication equipment sector opened lower today, with Zhongji Innolink down over 13%, United Optoelectronics down more than 11%, Accelink Technologies down over 10%, and TFC Optical Communication down more than 6%. The declines narrowed collectively shortly after opening. Market sources reported that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is drafting a ban targeting U.S. imports of new models of Chinese data center components, including optical modules. On the same day, a staff member from Zhongji Innolink's investor relations office said the company has noticed the relevant market information. After verification, the FCC has not yet issued restrictive documents in this area. The official stated, "Since the FCC has not issued relevant restrictive documents, the company will not comment on the related rumors." A staff member from Accelink Technologies' investor relations office said the company has also noted the above news and will closely monitor its potential impacts. "Currently, this news has no authoritative source. If it meets information disclosure standards, the company will respond via announcements or other means." A staff member from TFC Optical Communication's investor relations office said the impact of the relevant news on the company is mainly reflected in market sentiment. The specific extent of the impact depends on whether the market rumor is true. "The company manufactures optical devices, and optical modules are our downstream clients." (China News Service, Jingwei)