Japanese and South Korean Stock Markets Open Lower and Rise Later, with Nikkei 225 Index Hitting a New Record High

June 17 — In response to community concerns including the claim that "CZ is breaking his commitment to participate in Binance operations," He Yi stated that CZ has not been involved in Binance’s operations at all since 2023. Additionally, Aster is a BNBchain project invested in by Labs (YZi Labs), where CZ serves as an advisor.

On June 17, the High Court of Hebei Province in China released a typical case from its crackdown on illegal fundraising activities. A man promoted an investment project tied to the Metaverse through the Newmateworks platform, which is affiliated with the Yishang Community. He induced members of the public to invest, personally bringing in 19 total investors who put a combined 15.3936 million yuan into the scheme. Of that sum, 1.1014 million yuan has been refunded, leaving 14.2922 million yuan unrecovered. The court ruled the defendant used the emerging Metaverse technology concept as a cover for fraudulent marketing, violating China’s financial management laws. Given the huge amount of funds involved, his actions constituted the crime of illegal absorption of public deposits. He was sentenced to five years and four months in prison and ordered to pay a fine.

On June 17, Bitget officially announced it has adjusted key parameters for the SPCXUSDT U perpetual contract trading pair, including tweaks to leverage, position tiers, and maintenance margin ratios. The maximum leverage has been lifted to 100x, which varies depending on a user’s position size. Note that existing positions held by users before the update will be impacted. Traders can adjust related settings to suit their own asset allocation needs. For full details, refer to Bitget’s official platform.

June 17th, Binance Co-CEO He Yi posted on social media: “Jealousy wears many disguises. When we were in school, many of us likely encountered people who fixated on top students’ grades, ripped peers’ books, tried to bully or spread rumors about those who outperformed them, and were utterly hypocritical. These people live in others’ shadows, so they’ll never actually surpass their “targets.” Your boss’s mindset defines your limit—choose your boss wisely.” Today, OKX Founder and CEO Star responded on social media to CZ’s recent interview comments, saying: “Hyperliquid’s innovation is truly excellent, but I would never follow their lead due to compliance concerns.” Star further remarked: “CZ is fully aware of the legal and regulatory risks involved, yet he still established a shell company to replicate Hyperliquid’s business model, promoted this entity, and shared resources extensively. Maybe creating such an independent shell firm is their way to address compliance requirements. But i

June 17. Wintermute released its weekly market update. For the week ending June 15, the market has seen a rebound in risk-on sentiment driven by the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and CPI data. Wintermute notes Bitcoin looks fairly attractive above $60,000 from a risk-reward perspective. Every sell-off weeds out weak hands, leaving behind a group of higher-quality holders with stronger conviction. That said, this doesn’t mean the bottom is locked in firmly yet. Until conditions improve materially, a pullback to the $50,000 range remains possible. The key thing to watch is fund flows—not just price movements or news headlines. In the last cycle, the real turning point came from consistent inflows into ETFs and stablecoins, a trend that hasn’t materialized here. That means blindly chasing any upward uptrend right now is pointless. In the short term, Powell’s speech this Wednesday is make-or-break. If his remarks lean dovish—hinting at a potential softening of core interest rates plus falling oil

June 17 — CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost reports that following Bitcoin’s recent price rebound, miner selling pressure has returned, a shift marked by a substantial increase in Bitcoin miners’ inflows to Binance. Darkfost adds that Bitcoin’s hash rate has dropped approximately 28% since the end of last October, alongside a 20% network difficulty adjustment. Currently, Bitcoin’s production cost hovers around $76,000, while the cryptocurrency trades at roughly $65,000. This pricing gap means most Bitcoin miners are operating at a loss, forcing them to sell their holdings.