Crypto Morning Brief: Moonshot AI Completes $3.5 Billion Financing, South Korea's Financial Services Commission Plans to Further Raise Threshold for Single-Stock Leveraged Products

Author: TechFlow

Yesterday's Market Dynamics

Wall Street Giants Support "Clarity Act" Crypto Regulation Bill

According to CoinDesk, Wall Street giants such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, and SoFi recently publicly supported the "Clarity Act" digital asset regulation bill, calling on Congress to pass the legislation to establish a clear regulatory framework for the crypto industry. The aforementioned institutions stated that clear rules will protect investors, provide regulatory certainty for businesses, and help the United States maintain competitiveness in the process of digital asset mainstreaming.

The bill aims to reshape the regulatory authority of the SEC and CFTC over digital assets, but there are divisions within Wall Street. JPMorgan supports imposing stricter limits on stablecoin yields, which contradicts the stance of crypto firms like Coinbase, who worry that relevant amendments would weaken the legislative effectiveness. The Senate will recess on August 8, and the current legislative agenda focuses on judicial nominations and Russia sanction cases, so the time window for advancing this bill is narrowing.

"The Big Short" Michael Burry's Short Position on Semiconductors Shows Maximum Unrealized Gain of Approximately 34.7%

According to public market data, "The Big Short" Michael Burry established short positions in the semiconductor sector sequentially from late June to early July, with targets including Nvidia, Applied Materials, iShares Semiconductor ETF, and Micron Technology. Among them, he started shorting Nvidia around $198.09, Applied Materials around $729.40, and iShares Semiconductor ETF around $642.80 around June 30, and established direct short positions in Micron Technology around $1,051.87 in early July. Around July 24, he further increased short positions on Micron Technology, Nvidia, and iShares Semiconductor ETF.

As of the close of the US stock market on July 28, looking at the first batch of short positions established from late June to early July, the unrealized gain from shorting Applied Materials was approximately 34.7%, the highest among related targets; iShares Semiconductor ETF short unrealized gain was about 23.3%, Micron Technology about 22.0%, and Nvidia about 0.5%. If calculated using a simple average method without considering specific position weights, the unrealized gain of this semiconductor short portfolio for this period was approximately 20.1%.

In addition, if approximating the subsequent added short positions based on the closing price on July 24, as of the close of the US stock market on July 28, the unrealized gains from added shorts on Micron Technology, Nvidia, and iShares Semiconductor ETF were approximately 10.9%, 4.8%, and 6.4% respectively, corresponding to a simple average unrealized gain of about 7.4%.

Due to the current lack of information on specific shorting scale, option structure, position increase ratio, and whether positions have been closed, it is temporarily impossible to calculate his actual profit amount.

South Korea's FSC Plans to Raise Threshold for Single-Stock Leveraged Products Again, Retail Investors May Be Prohibited from Participating

According to Seoul Economic Daily, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) Lee Yiyuan stated that regulatory authorities are studying a plan to raise the investment threshold for single-stock leveraged products again. In the future, restrictions on investment qualifications cannot be ruled out, retail investors may be prohibited from participating, and only professional investors will be allowed to participate.

According to South Korea's "Financial Consumer Protection Act," investors are currently divided into retail investors and professional investors. Among them, professional investors usually need to meet conditions such as assets, income, and investment experience, for example, having an average month-end balance of financial investment products of at least 50 million Korean won or more for at least 1 year within the past 5 years, and meeting relevant qualification requirements.

a16z-Related Address Suspected of Increasing HYPE Holdings Again, Withdraws Over 132,000 Tokens from Exchanges Within 8 Hours

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, after suspected multiple sales of HYPE, the a16z-related entity may have started building positions again. In the past 8 hours, the relevant address cumulatively withdrew 132,056.65 HYPE tokens from multiple exchanges, worth approximately $7.335 million, with an average withdrawal price of about $55.54.

Data shows that the same address has cumulatively transferred 398,000 HYPE tokens to exchanges since July 15, equivalent to approximately $24.89 million.

Moonshot AI Completes $3.5 Billion Financing, Valuation Reaches $35 Billion

According to Bloomberg, Moonshot AI raised an unexpected $3.5 billion in a financing round just completed, reaching a valuation of $35 billion.

Ethereum Institutional Completes Initial Fundraising, Led by BitMine, SharpLink, and Ethereum Co-Founders

Ethereum Institutional announced the completion of the initial ecosystem financing round, gaining support from over 100 ecosystem participants. Anchor investors include BitMNR, Sharplink, and Ethereum co-founders Joseph Lubin and Mihai Alisie. Participants cover crypto-native institutions and individual investors.

Subsequently, the organization will accelerate direct contact with banks, asset management companies, custodians, fintech, and sovereign institutions, and jointly promote the institutionalization process of Ethereum with L2s, application teams, infrastructure, and custodian service providers. The organization is currently open for recruitment.

Macquarie: Fed Statement Wording May Adjust Towards Hawkish Direction, Most Likely Rate Hike Timing is December

David Doyle, Head of Economic Research at Macquarie Group, stated that the Fed will not adjust interest rates at this meeting, but this is the first time this year that the decision seems less clear, with the market pricing implying a rate hike probability of about 35%. Walsh's wording and the voting situation of committee members will be key. In addition to the interest rate decision itself, the market may also focus on whether any voting members dissent, whether there are changes in the statement wording, and how Chair Walsh communicates at the press conference.

If interest rates remain unchanged, dissenting votes are likely to occur, and the number of dissenting votes will depend on the extent of the adjustment in the statement wording towards a hawkish direction. It is still expected that the next policy action is likely to be a rate hike, with the most likely timing being December. The description of the unemployment rate in this statement may become more optimistic. The wording in June was "little change," but data released since then shows that the unemployment rate has decreased slightly again. In addition, the risk of further adjustment in the statement wording leans towards a hawkish direction, and a sentence implying a tendency for future policy tightening may be added.

Multicoin Capital Unstakes 1.97 Million HYPE, Equivalent to Approximately $108 Million

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, after transferring 395,000 HYPE to Coinbase a week ago, Multicoin Capital continued to apply to redeem more HYPE from staking. Early this morning, 1.97 million HYPE successfully unstaked after a 7-day waiting period, equivalent to approximately $108 million at the price at that time.

Among them, 86,000 HYPE were transferred to Coinbase Prime about 3 hours ago, worth approximately $4.78 million. In addition, HYPE has cumulatively fallen by about 10% in the past week, with the price dropping from $61 to $55.

Trade.xyz: Will Compensate Liquidation Losses Caused by SKHYNIX Abnormal Price Event

Trade.xyz stated that on July 27 at 23:01 (UTC), the SKHYNIX mark price fell from $1,127.9 to $917.25. This price came from a executed trade and was forwarded by multiple independent data providers. The platform stated that its oracle was accessing external prices and tracking this trading venue at the time, and this venue is the main market for South Korean pre-market trading, so the oracle system operated according to established norms.

Trade.xyz stated that although the system operation met design expectations, it understands users' dissatisfaction with liquidations triggered by this. Based on the principle of market integrity, the platform decided to bear the liquidation losses caused by this abnormal situation. Relevant eligibility criteria will be announced soon, and compensation is expected to be completed within the next few days. The platform also emphasized that this move is a one-time discretionary handling and does not mean similar measures will be taken in the future.

Trade.xyz also stated that it will further improve the pricing system subsequently to better cope with tail events, and accelerate the review of the price formation mechanism, including re-evaluating the reference method of external trading venues, and taking into account the increasing depth and price signals in the platform's own order book.

Today's Market Conditions

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Morgan Stanley Report Interpretation: AI Infrastructure ROIC Can Reach Up to 40%, Self-Built Compute Providers Are the Biggest Winners

https://www.techflowpost.com/article/32890

Hyperscale vendors spend hundreds of billions of dollars building data centers every year. The market treats this money as cost. Morgan Stanley calculated a different account in its research report on July 27.

Building GPU clusters for compute leasing can achieve a return on invested capital of up to 40%. Building compute for API calls oneself can also achieve 40%. But if compute is rented, ROIC is only 25%.

The gap comes from pricing power when compute is scarce. Whoever has self-built compute holds the upstream of profit distribution. Morgan Stanley maintains an overweight rating on Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google, with target prices of $600, $330, $775, and $400 respectively.

The market sees these companies spending money. Morgan Stanley sees the money these companies are spending turning into profits. If the 40% ROIC holds, the AI businesses of these four will continue to exceed expectations, and the market has not yet calculated this in.

Virtuals Launches Hyperboost: Extends 14-Day Rewards for Each Graduated Token, Combating the "Peak on Day One" Curse

https://www.techflowpost.com/article/32889

Virtuals Protocol launched the "Hyperboost" mechanism on July 27, converting part of the supply idle at token graduation into 14-day daily released trading and content rewards, automatically covering all new graduated tokens. Official data shows that over 75% of tokens on the platform reach trading volume peaks within 24 hours after graduation launch, then rapidly decay. Hyperboost attempts to extend this price discovery window, but with the mechanism online for only two days, early graduated projects still show a typical "plunge after graduation" trend, and the effect remains to be seen.

BofA and Citi Lower Target Prices Simultaneously but Both Buy, What Exactly Happened to Corning in Q2

https://www.techflowpost.com/article/32885

Corning's enterprise optical communications business grew 65% in Q2, with overall revenue exceeding expectations. Q3 revenue guidance midpoint is $4.95 billion, lower than market expectations. The stock price fell 19% in a single day.

BofA Securities lowered the target price from $243 to $200, maintaining Buy. Citi Research lowered the target price from $240 to $220, maintaining Buy. There is no disagreement in the judgment of the two institutions; both believe what fell is the valuation bubble, not the business itself. The disagreement is only in magnitude, how much fall counts as fully fallen.

Podcast Notes | OpenAI CEO Altman's Latest Interview: I Am Not Anxious About Open Source AI Competition at All, Very Confident in Upcoming Models

https://www.techflowpost.com/article/32881

This is a rare long-form personal conversation with Sam Altman on Invest Like The Best. He admitted that OpenAI "did too many things and wasn't focused enough" in the past year, but after cutting off the branches, the company re-anchored to a main line: creating the best, most abundant, and most cost-effective intelligence, and letting the world use it to create incredible things. Based on this judgment, he believes the next 12 months may be the best 12 months in OpenAI's history.

But the real tension in this conversation lies in Altman describing OpenAI's mission as "about to create a genie lamp that can grant any wish," while repeatedly emphasizing that this genie lamp cannot be monopolized by a few people or a certain company. He stated outright that he is not a "job doomsayer," nor does he believe AGI will overturn society overnight; what really makes him alert is the concentration of power in the name of "AI safety." For investors, this episode is more like a monologue from an insider's perspective: about compute, model iteration, competitive barriers, robots, personal agents, and a question that always cannot be avoided, why OpenAI's CEO does not want company equity.