Morgan Stanley has surpassed Goldman Sachs to rank among the top three equity underwriters in Asia excluding Japan.

According to South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo, Kim Yong-beom, head of the Policy Office at the South Korean President’s Office, has been accused of abuse of power, coercion, and obstruction of business over allegations he pushed for the listing of leveraged ETFs tied to individual semiconductor stocks. A formal criminal complaint has been filed against him. These single-stock leveraged ETFs are blamed for exacerbating market volatility and causing investors billions of dollars in losses. Lee Jong-bae, a conservative former Seoul City lawmaker backed by the main opposition People Power Party, said he submitted a criminal lawsuit against Kim to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Monday via the government’s online petition system. Lee claimed Kim effectively instructed financial regulators to consider launching leveraged ETF products linked to individual chip stocks. Lee also alleged that South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has been internally reviewing a plan since January: to establish the necessary regulatory framework and systems in the second quarter, then roll out these products in the second half of the year. Lee stated: “Without Kim’s instruction, financial regulators would not have rushed to launch leveraged ETFs tied to individual semiconductor stocks amid the election season, despite severe warnings about market risks.”

According to an official announcement, Gate has released its latest reserve fund update. As of July 27, 2026, the platform’s overall reserve coverage ratio stands at 117%, remaining above the 100% industry safety benchmark, covering nearly 500 types of user assets. For core assets: user-held BTC assets increased to 21,557 coins, with the platform holding 26,775 coins in reserve, for a reserve ratio of 124.2%; user-held ETH assets rose to 374,348 coins, while the platform’s reserve amount is 456,798 coins, giving a reserve ratio of 122.02%. Additionally, the reserve ratios for GT and XRP are 131.13% and 116.5% respectively. For stablecoins, total user-held assets of USDT, USDC, USD1, and GUSD amount to approximately 1.336 billion coins, with the platform holding around 1.59 billion coins in reserve, resulting in a combined reserve ratio of 118.97%.

According to an official announcement, Huobi HTX launched GRVT/USDT, GILD/USDT, and UNH/USDT perpetual contracts on August 3, with a maximum leverage of 10x for all.

According to Bitget market data, the Nikkei 225 index closed down 607.12 points, or 0.94%, at 63754.90 points on Monday, August 3. South Korea’s KOSPI index fell 338.04 points, or 5.13%, to end at 6257.41 points on the same day, while the KOSDAQ (South Korea’s secondary board index) rose 2.44%. In individual stock moves, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both dropped nearly 9%.

Research firm SemiAnalysis released a report stating that NVIDIA’s Rubin Ultra, previewed to key clients, has specs lower than previously market expectations. The report notes that the Rubin Ultra’s core SKU will still use HBM4, with its theoretical peak FLOPs unchanged, but its HBM configuration has been reduced to 8-Hi and 192GB, down from the prior Rubin’s 12-Hi and 288GB. The chip-level power consumption is approximately 1800W, similar to the initial Rubin shipment version. The report points out that the main upgrade focus of Rubin Ultra’s current roadmap is on NVL576-level large-scale interconnection. One system configuration involves 8 racks each with 72 GPUs interconnected, using NPO to enable cross-rack connections between switches. SemiAnalysis considers this configuration one of the more viable candidate schemes at present. SemiAnalysis adds that NVIDIA may still offer a high-power Max-P version ranging from 2600W to 2800W, as well as a 1200W version for lower compute loads such as token decoding. The 1800W Max-Q version is more aligned with current data centers’ power-constrained environments, offering better deployment efficiency in terms of FLOPs per watt. SemiAnalysis believes that the core reasons for NVIDIA’s adjustment of Rubin Ultra’s specs are tight HBM supply and data center power constraints. Reducing HBM capacity and power specifications helps improve customer deployment feasibility, lower material costs, and mitigate the pressure of HBM price hikes next year.

JPMorgan Chase released a report stating that Japanese storage stock Kioxia posted record first-quarter results, with net sales reaching 1.7671 trillion yen, up 415% year-over-year (YoY) and 76% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). Non-GAAP operating profit hit 1.3262 trillion yen, surging 2833% YoY and 121% QoQ, pushing its operating margin to 75%. The report noted that Kioxia’s Q1 performance was mainly driven by price increases: its average selling price (ASP) rose around 70% QoQ, while bit shipment volume saw low single-digit QoQ growth. By business segment, SSD and storage sales reached 1.1747 trillion yen, up 440% YoY and 96% QoQ, accounting for 66% of total revenue, with data center and enterprise-level business making up over 60% of this segment’s revenue. For Q2 outlook, Kioxia guided revenue of 2.39 trillion yen and Non-GAAP operating profit of 1.9 trillion yen, with operating margin expected to rise to 79.5%. The company projects Q2 revenue to grow 35% QoQ, continuing to be led by ASP increases, while demand from data centers and enterprise-level clients remains strong. JPMorgan emphasized that the upward trend in Kioxia’s enterprise SSD sales remains a key watch point. The company also announced a share buyback of up to 800 billion yen, which is expected to support its stock sentiment. JPMorgan maintained an "Overweight" rating on Kioxia, with a target price of 155,000 yen.