Japanese and South Korean stock markets closed higher, with chip stocks rallying.

According to market data from BIT (Bit.com), SK Hynix ADR (SKHY.O) fell 4.6% in pre-market trading of US stocks.

According to CryptoRank data, the total market capitalization of the DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) sector has dropped from its all-time high of $20.2 billion in March 2024 to the current $3.46 billion, a total drawdown of approximately 83%. Additionally, since the start of 2024, the DePIN sector has fallen by around 23%, making it one of the worst-performing major narrative sectors in the crypto market.

On-chain analytics platform Glassnode said in a report that top traders on the Hyperliquid exchange are aggressively going long on BTC. Their long positions are currently at a high level in Glassnode’s historical records, exceeding the level hit when Bitcoin previously rallied to roughly $83,000, signaling that speculative long demand remains robust in the market at current price levels.

According to data from Farside Investors, on July 14, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total net inflow of $181.1 million the previous day. Among them, BlackRock’s IBIT saw a net inflow of $138.9 million, Fidelity’s FBTC $21.1 million, Bitwise’s BITB $3.5 million, ARK’s ARKB $3.6 million, Morgan Stanley’s MSBT $7.4 million, and BTC ETFs $6.6 million; flows for the remaining products were largely flat. U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs posted a total net inflow of $58.3 million, all from BlackRock’s ETHA, with all other ETFs registering zero net inflows that day.

Japan’s House of Councillors plenary session passed amendments to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and Payment Services Act on July 15, redefining crypto assets from payment instruments to financial products. Key revisions include: raising the maximum prison term for unregistered financial operations from under 3 years to under 10 years, and increasing the corresponding fine cap from under ￥3 million to under ￥10 million; introducing for the first time regulations on crypto asset insider trading, which ban transactions using non-public material information; and mandating annual information disclosure by specific crypto asset issuers. On the tax front, the system will shift from a maximum 55% comprehensive tax to separate declaration taxation (at a rate of around 20%), with loss carryforward allowed for up to three years. The reforms are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2028. Additionally, the proposed amendments will establish a regulatory framework to support the launch of crypto asset ETFs.

Binance will add 10 bStocks tokenized securities as eligible collateral assets for cross-margin, unified account mode, and unified account pro at 21:30 (UTC+8) on July 15. The assets include Applied Optoelectronics (AAOIB), Arm (ARMB), Broadcom (AVGOB), Alibaba (BABAB), Robinhood (HOODB), IBM (IBMB), Marvell Technology (MRVLB), Nokia (NOKB), Rocket Lab (RKLBB), and TSMC (TSMB). Meanwhile, leveraged trading for these bStocks trading pairs will be enabled. Currently, these tokens are only supported as collateral assets, with borrowing functionality unavailable. This feature is exclusively open to VIP 3 and above users in approved jurisdictions, and does not apply to users in restricted regions.