SoftBank's Masayoshi Son: AI boom will require $5 trillion in annual investment.

Hyperliquid platform’s SK Hynix-linked contracts SKHX and SKHY have seen extremely robust trading activity, with a combined 24-hour trading volume of $1.836 billion, surpassing Bitcoin (BTC) to become the platform’s most active asset by trading volume. SKHX alone notched a 24-hour volume of $1.63 billion and open interest (OI) of $635 million, while SKHY posted a 24-hour volume of $206 million and OI of $101 million. SKHY still trades at a roughly 26% premium to SKHX. Notably, SKHX’s funding rate surged sharply in just one hour: it jumped from +0.0064% to +0.0151%, a rise of over 130%. Concurrently, the contract’s trading volume dipped slightly from $1.663 billion to $1.604 billion, and its open interest fell from $638.6 million to $627.1 million. A sharp spike in funding rates typically signals a rapid rise in bullish sentiment, as long positions flood the market—traders holding long positions face higher costs to maintain their bets, reflecting intensifying long-short battles in SKHX contracts and growing speculative enthusiasm for SK Hynix’s US-listed assets.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had launched ballistic missiles at a U.S. military air base in Jordan and called on Jordanian citizens to resist the U.S. military presence there. Jordanian authorities said its air defense systems successfully intercepted four Iranian missiles that entered its airspace, and the incident caused no casualties or property damage. In response, U.S. Central Command, with authorization from President Donald Trump, carried out approximately five hours of continuous airstrikes on targets inside Iran. This marked the third consecutive night of large-scale U.S. military strikes against Iran. According to Iranian media reports, multiple targets including the port of Bandar Abbas were struck, with some naval maintenance facilities damaged. Meanwhile, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz remain high. Trump recently proposed that the U.S. would take responsibility for securing the Strait of Hormuz and planned to impose a 20% fee on goods transiting the waterway, sparking widespread international controversy. Affected by the escalating situation in the Middle East, international oil prices rose nearly 3% at one point, as markets worry that shipping risks in the strait will further exacerbate global energy supply tensions.

According to a study cited by Fortune, the rapid expansion of AI data centers in the United States has driven a sharp rise in public power costs. PJM Market Monitor, the entity overseeing power grids across 14 U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, projects that the additional power demand from data centers will lead to power users bearing roughly $230 billion in extra costs, an impact that will persist through at least the end of 2028. The report notes that while multiple major tech companies have committed to covering the costs of new power infrastructure, since public utility expenses such as transmission lines, substations and grid upgrades are typically shared uniformly by regulators, some costs may still be passed on to residential and general commercial users. The study also points out that some data centers can reduce their power usage during grid peak periods by flexibly adjusting their load, thereby cutting their share of grid costs allocated based on peak load. However, they still consume large volumes of electricity, meaning their actual cost burden may be lower than the strain they exert on the grid. Analysts believe that as AI infrastructure construction continues to accelerate, issues such as power cost allocation mechanisms, data center power pricing and rising residential electricity rates are emerging as key challenges facing U.S. energy regulators.

According to an official announcement, Binance will delist and halt trading for four spot trading pairs—GLM/BTC, KNC/BTC, ONT/BTC, and XAI/USDC—at 03:00 UTC on July 17. The exchange stated that this adjustment is based on results of its regular reviews, with key factors including trading pair liquidity and trading volume. Corresponding spot trading bot services will also be terminated at the same time; users are required to update or cancel their related strategies in advance to avoid potential losses. Binance emphasized that only the above-mentioned spot trading pairs are being delisted, and the move does not affect trading of the relevant tokens on other spot trading pairs available on Binance.

Goldman Sachs’ latest research report points out that the recent sharp volatility in global tech stocks is mainly driven by liquidity deleveraging triggered by highly leveraged transactions, rather than a deterioration in the semiconductor industry’s fundamentals. The U.S. investment bank noted that newly launched single-stock 2x leveraged ETFs in South Korea have amplified market volatility, with multiple leveraged ETFs tracking Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix once posting single-day declines of over 30% recently. To maintain their leverage ratios, the funds were forced to offload underlying stocks, creating a liquidity stampede feedback loop of "price drops → forced selling → deeper declines." Goldman Sachs estimates that around 62% of recent net selling by South Korean institutional investors comes from the liquidation of these ETFs. Meanwhile, the Leuthold Group pointed out that the U.S. margin balance has risen by roughly 54% over the past 12 months, entering a historically high range. Leveraged funds are heavily concentrated in the AI and semiconductor sectors, making the market structure more fragile. However, Goldman Sachs believes the semiconductor industry has not yet reached its cycle peak. The firm noted that earnings expectations for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have not been revised down. Limited expansion of memory chip production capacity means supply tightness is expected to persist until the second half of 2028, and the current pullback is more a position adjustment than a fundamental reversal of the industry.

According to on-chain data platform Arkham’s monitoring, U.S. government-associated wallets transferred approximately $288 million in seized crypto assets to Coinbase Prime on Monday. The sum includes 2,875 BTC (valued at around $178 million) from the seized address linked to Ryan Farace’s "xanaxman" case, and 925.512 BTC (about $57 million) from the closed BTC-e exchange case—both were routed through newly created intermediate addresses before reaching Coinbase Prime. Separately, a wallet tied to the Brian Krewson money laundering case directly sent 30,007 ETH (worth roughly $53.09 million) to the platform. The transfer follows a March 2025 executive order signed by Trump, which mandates that seized Bitcoin for the strategic Bitcoin reserve should not be sold in principle. Notably, the funds’ transfer to Coinbase Prime does not signal a sale, as the platform provides services including custody, financing, and asset management. As of press time, U.S. government-related wallets hold approximately $20.65 billion in crypto assets, comprising 324,552 BTC, 28,394 ETH, and 145.5 million USDT. The latest transfer represents only a small fraction of their total holdings.