Pre-Market News Roundup (US Stocks): NVIDIA further expands its AI footprint, AMD enters South Korea’s AI R&D sector, and South Korean firms strike a $950 billion deal with tech giants.

Stablecoin issuer Circle announced it has acquired nearly 1,000 licensed blockchain-related patents from IBM, a deal that will make Circle one of the largest blockchain patent holders in the U.S. The acquisition covers over 680 patent families spanning blockchain technology, banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and cloud security. Details including the transaction value and whether IBM retains related patent licenses have not been disclosed. Circle said the intellectual property assets will support the development of USDC, Circle Payments Network, the Arc blockchain, and financial tools for AI agents. The two parties also plan to further explore business collaboration opportunities. Sarah Wilson, Circle’s general counsel, noted that intellectual property is critical to advancing on-chain infrastructure development and scaling its applications. IBM has long ranked among the top blockchain patent holders in the U.S. Data from patent analytics firm PatSnap shows that as of the end of 2025, IBM held around 790 blockchain patents. Circle obtained its first blockchain patent in December 2023 and had previously joined the LOT Network to mitigate patent litigation risks. Following this acquisition, Circle has further strengthened its technical reserves in the blockchain infrastructure sector.

Futu Clearing, the U.S. clearing arm of Futu Securities, and TradeUP, the U.S. brokerage entity under Interactive Brokers, have provided information on over 310 accounts suspected of option insider trading to the lawsuit’s plaintiffs. The number of involved accounts was previously around 100, and has now risen to 310. While the account count is high, illegal gains are highly concentrated: preliminary analysis shows just 8 traders made more than $80 million from the trades, accounting for nearly 60% of the plaintiffs’ estimated total illegal gains of $137 million. These traders are accused of purchasing large volumes of short-term options linked to Futu and Tiger Securities before regulators issued rectification notices for the brokerages, after which the relevant accounts were frozen. Not all account holders have been formally named as defendants, and involvement in the trades does not equal a finding of insider trading. The case remains under ongoing investigation and litigation.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor announced that the company has repurchased 288,930 STRC preferred shares, with a total transaction value of approximately $25 million, at an average repurchase price of $86.52 per share. Saylor stated that Strategy plans to remain a "regular and disciplined buyer" of STRC, continuing repurchases when the security trades below $100. The company will increase its buying volume when STRC’s price is far from $100, while reducing repurchase size as it approaches the $100 threshold. Currently, Strategy still has about $975 million available for preferred share repurchases. Saylor added that funds for STRC repurchases will not be sourced from USD reserves, but will be raised via methods including selling MSTR stock and Bitcoin (BTC) based on market conditions. The company aims to keep STRC’s price stable around $100, while maintaining high liquidity, low volatility, and healthy, sustainable independent market demand. He emphasized that Strategy will not issue new STRC shares when the price is below $100.

According to EmberCN’s monitoring, Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy now holds a total of 843,775 BTC, valued at $54.63 billion, with an average cost of $75,476 per BTC, resulting in an unrealized loss of $8.85 billion (-13.9%). Strategy did not add to its Bitcoin holdings last week, and its U.S. dollar reserves rose to $3.75 billion, enough to cover 25 months of interest expenses. Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine purchased 9,946 ETH at an average price of approximately $1,897 last week, totaling $18.87 million. It now holds a total of 5,787,414 ETH, worth $11.274 billion, with an average cost of $3,373 per ETH, leading to an unrealized loss of $8.247 billion (-42.2%).

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), US stocks opened higher across the board. The three major indices rose: the Dow Jones gained 0.9%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.7%, and the Nasdaq advanced 1%. Storage-related concept stocks moved up, with SK Hynix (SKHY.O) surging over 2% and SanDisk (SNDK.O) rising 1%.

Southern Asset Management announced that, in response to recent revisions to relevant circulars by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and market changes, multiple of its leveraged and inverse products will be optimized and adjusted starting August 3, 2026, adopting a flexible leverage structure. After the adjustment, product leverage multiples will be dynamically adjusted daily based on market conditions, with a maximum cap of 2x or -2x. Products that previously had fixed 2x leverage will switch to a "maximum 2x leverage" model, meaning the actual leverage multiple may drop to around 1.1x during extreme market conditions. Meanwhile, some product names will be adjusted; for example, the "Southern Asset Management Berkshire Daily Leverage (2x) Product" will be renamed "Southern Asset Management Berkshire Daily Maximum Leverage (2x) Product". Southern Asset Management stated that fund managers will announce the target leverage multiple for the next trading day after the daily market close, and investors should note the product structure changes and related risks. Industry insiders pointed out that the adjustment is primarily in response to regulatory requirements, aiming to reduce the risk exposure of highly leveraged products during extreme market conditions. For investors, the return elasticity of leveraged ETFs in the future may be lower than during the period of fixed 2x leverage.