Tether Freezes Approximately 344 Million USDT Held in Two Addresses

JPMorgan said in a morning research note that the sharp deleveraging process in South Korea’s market since mid-June indicates that liquidations of leveraged ETFs are largely complete, with hedge funds having completed roughly 90% of their operations and related ratios returning to more acceptable levels. JPMorgan strategists including Mixo Das wrote in the report that overall, current positioning in South Korea’s stock market is quite attractive, with low valuations and strong earnings growth momentum. "Amid the market pullback, the size of this capital has now fallen to $170 billion," the report noted, adding that the previous rapid inflow of large amounts of capital into leveraged ETFs has slowed significantly in recent days. However, the recent sharp stock plunge could still trigger further deleveraging in the coming days. Meanwhile, given the risk of interest rate hikes at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and market expectations for upcoming earnings reports from mega-cap tech companies, many investors remain cautious.

Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC mining pool BTC.TOP, stated in a post that with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s FOMC interest rate decision meeting just 5 hours away, there remains a massive divergence in market pricing on rate hikes: 65% expect no hike, while 35% predict a hike. Typically, futures market pricing aligns closely on the eve of such meetings, making this level of disagreement extremely rare in recent years—an "outlier" level of divergence. Jiang’s personal forecast scenario is: the Fed will hold interest rates steady, but Fed Governor Waller will adopt a hawkish stance to balance the market. The crypto price will first surge to liquidate short positions, then plunge to liquidate long positions. Additionally, Jiang warned to watch out for the "FOMC curse" effect in the crypto market, noting that Bitcoin has fallen following all 8 past FOMC meetings.

After convening an emergency meeting, South Korea’s Ministry of Finance announced that the country will roll out additional measures to stabilize its stock market, including restrictions on leveraged ETF trading. South Korea will maintain a 24-hour stock market monitoring system and establish a legal framework for implementing market stabilization measures during emergencies. Meanwhile, South Korea will step up regulation of leveraged ETF transactions, limit retail investors’ exposure to these products, immediately introduce additional regulatory measures targeting single-stock leveraged ETFs, and raise relevant transaction costs to curb ETF speculation.

US President Trump said today that the United States will launch strikes against Iran in response to attacks on American targets in Jordan. According to Bitget market data, impacted by this news, S&P 500 and Nasdaq index futures turned negative, while both major crude oil benchmarks rallied sharply in the short term; Brent crude oil broke above $87, surging 2.06% in the past hour.

South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance stated that the country will take additional measures to stabilize its stock market, including restrictions on leveraged ETF trading. Specifically, regulators will limit retail investors' exposure to leveraged ETF investments, while maintaining 24-hour monitoring of the stock market.

According to Bloomberg Terminal, South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Koo Yun-cheol apologized at a hearing, acknowledging authorities should have conducted more rigorous reviews of leveraged ETFs prior to their launch. Despite the apology, Koo maintained that leveraged ETFs were merely one of several factors behind recent market turmoil. “We have already implemented a set of measures, but if necessary, we will take additional steps to help the market return to normal,” he said. Separately, People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jong-wook (transliterated) rebuked Koo during the hearing, stating, “This country has turned into a casino; these products should never have been allowed on the market. I view this as a policy failure.”