U.S. stocks closed higher, with Nvidia ending its seven-day losing streak to rise more than 2%, while storage, optical communications, and crypto-related concept stocks rallied across the board.

According to HTX market data, the crypto market has seen a minor downturn. Bitcoin briefly dipped below $78,000 this morning, and is now trading at $78,500. Ethereum stands at $2,443. SOL is priced at $96, after a pullback of over 3% following its break above $100. BNB fell below $700, now at $693. ZEC is at $774, having dropped below the $800 mark, with a nearly 7% decline over the past 24 hours. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is down 0.4% in 24 hours, reaching $2.739 trillion. Leading altcoin movers: Gainers include BMT, which surged 54% in 24 hours to $0.023; ONG rose 17% to $0.1; PROM gained 14.6% to $4.12; FF, STX, TLM and others climbed over 10%. Losers: PEOPLE, STORJ, MUBARAK and others fell nearly 20% in 24 hours; PORTAL, JTO, ETHFI, DASH, MET and others dropped nearly 10%.

Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said the cryptocurrency exchange has submitted a response to the joint request for comments issued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the definition of perpetual contract products and their compliance framework. The response puts forward three proposals: establishing a flexible compliance framework to boost customer choice, competition and innovation; categorizing equity perpetual derivatives under securities and futures regulation; and allowing trading platforms regulated by either agency to list event contracts related to securities. Coinbase noted that perpetual derivatives and prediction markets provide investors with new tools for investment and risk management, but the complex jurisdictional boundaries between the U.S. CFTC and SEC impose inconsistent requirements on economically related products, hindering market participants’ ability to offer and integrate products via a single U.S.-regulated tech stack.

According to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s DRAM export prices continue to surge, as AI-driven HBM production squeezes supplies of standard memory. Data shows that from the 1st to the 20th of this month, South Korea’s DRAM export unit price reached $92,183 per kilogram, up 401% year-on-year, and roughly 12.5 times higher than the low point in January 2023. Goldman Sachs forecasts that the DRAM supply gap will widen from 5.0% this year to 5.9% next year, noting that HBM for AI servers and high-capacity server DRAM are absorbing limited production capacity, further tightening supplies of standard DRAM, with shortages potentially lasting until 2028. TrendForce projects that by the end of next year, the wafer input for HBM production by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron will account for 30% of total DRAM wafer input, though HBM will only make up around 13% of actual DRAM bit supply. Memory manufacturers warn that tight DRAM and NAND supplies driven by AI demand could persist beyond 2027. SK Hynix stated that from the supply side, 2027 could become “the most severe shortage year in the memory industry’s history.”

According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index opened 0.53% higher. Samsung Electronics rose 1.36%, and SK Hynix gained 1.32%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index opened down 342.29 points, a 0.52% decline.

Sources from Pakistan’s military and Iran’s security services told Russia’s Sputnik News that the United States and Iran have reached a consensus on ceasefire agreement terms, including freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The sources stated: “A consensus has been reached on the ceasefire agreement, which includes a clause on freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.” The two sides are expected to make relevant announcements in the coming days. Per the Islamabad Memorandum, negotiations and a round of technical meetings will be initiated.

According to Nikkei News, Japan is preparing to build a blockchain-based payment infrastructure to enable instant settlement for stock and Japanese government bond transactions. The Financial Services Agency (FSA), Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan, and relevant financial institutions will launch a research group this summer, with the development plan to be finalized as early as early 2027. The plan will cover blockchain design, division of responsibilities among institutions, and a future roadmap. If formally approved, the system is expected to be built within a few years, go operational as early as the early 2030s, and may further expand to cross-border remittance services. Currently, cash settlement for Japanese stock transactions takes two days after execution, while government bond transactions settle the next day. The real-time settlement system will eliminate the time gap between transactions and fund settlement, allowing investors to reinvest proceeds almost immediately after selling their assets.