Circle minted 250 million USDC on the Solana network 6 hours ago

Driven by concerns over NVIDIA's major AI supply deal and intensifying market competition, investor sentiment soured, leading to sharp declines in Japanese and South Korean stock markets. The Nikkei 225 index fell as much as 4% at one point, hitting its lowest level since May 22; the Topix index saw a maximum drop of 2.7%. South Korea's KOSPI index plunged 7.6% at one point, marking its lowest since April 20. Semiconductor and equipment stocks including Tokyo Electron, Kioxia, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix led the declines, all falling by over 9%. Among them, SK Hynix's stock price plummeted 30% at one point, hitting its largest single-day drop in history; Kioxia's price fell 18% at one point, marking its biggest decline since November last year. Amid an AI-related trading wave worth over $750 billion, NVIDIA's credit default insurance costs surged, dragging tech stocks lower. Hideyuki Ishiguro, chief strategist at Nomura Asset Management, said that following reports of NVIDIA's major investment deal, its credit risk has risen, which investors view as a bearish signal. In addition, Ishiguro noted that China's advances in semiconductor manufacturing equipment pose a threat to Japanese suppliers, a sector where Japan has long held a competitive edge. (Jinshi)

According to data from Bitget, a South Korean crypto exchange triggered its circuit breaker mechanism after the KOSPI index fell by 8%, suspending trading for 20 minutes.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), SK Hynix American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) once plunged 10% intraday to $139.01, far below their IPO price of $149, and closed at $143.02, marking a new low since listing. Alongside stocks such as SpaceX, SK Hynix is among the first companies to trade below their IPO price from this year’s largest U.S. IPOs. SK Hynix ADRs debuted on the U.S. stock market earlier this month with a $265 billion fundraising, but its share price has tumbled sharply as investors continue to exit the overvalued semiconductor sector. The semiconductor sector is under broad pressure, and the closely watched semiconductor index extended its recent decline, closing at its lowest level since May 19.

Citrini analyst Jukan said in a social media post that news of China’s progress in DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography technology is not particularly surprising, as the market had already priced in relevant expectations. He noted that The Information’s related report only cited remarks made by a professor from a Chinese communications university at an internal meeting in June, without disclosing additional substantive details. Jukan argued that the sell-off of semiconductor equipment stocks, including those of Dutch giant ASML, triggered by the news is an overreaction. Earlier, The Information cited people familiar with the matter as saying that a company backed by Chinese state capital has begun mass-producing independently developed DUV lithography equipment, marking a key milestone in China’s semiconductor industry localization. The sources added that the company plans to produce around 5 domestic DUV lithography machines in 2026, and scale up to roughly 20 units in 2027. While this lags behind ASML’s delivery of 131 immersion DUV lithography systems last year, the mass production of domestic equipment is viewed by the market as a major breakthrough in China’s chip supply chain autonomy.

According to data from Bitget, South Korea's KOSPI index has extended its decline to 8%, with SK Hynix falling 11% and Samsung Electronics dropping over 9%.

According to Bloomberg, the $12.55 billion investment-grade bonds issued by BlackRock for Meta’s data center project in El Paso, Texas, rose in early Monday trading. The bonds were priced with a yield of 7.534%, 287.5 basis points higher than U.S. Treasuries—a yield level more typical of junk bonds. During the issuance phase, the deal drew around $20 billion in orders, equivalent to just 1.6 times the amount offered, well below the average subscription level of roughly 4 times for bond deals this year. Still, the high yield ultimately attracted investors, with the bonds’ secondary market yield spread narrowing to around 260 basis points above U.S. Treasuries at one point, down from the 287.5 basis points at issuance. Tech firms have been rushing to raise large sums via bond offerings recently, squeezing investors’ capacity to absorb new AI-related debt. Tech bonds have faced sell-offs lately, and companies like Alphabet continuing to expand capital expenditure and potentially issuing more debt have also weakened demand for new bond issues. The early performance of BlackRock’s bonds stands in contrast to recent issuances by firms like SpaceX. After SpaceX completed its first investment-grade bond offering in June, the bonds fell in the secondary market, with investors facing significant unrealized losses at one point.