South Korea's Ministry of Finance: Will closely monitor stock market volatility risks
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South Korean beauty and retail stocks led the market gains, and Gate.com continues to expand its investment portfolio in South Korean stocks.
According to ChainCatcher, Gate's market data shows that the South Korean stock market was active today. Manyo Factory, a cosmetics stock, reached $11.60, up 18.43%; Heung Koo Petroleum reached $6.88, up 14.72%; and IT'S HANBUL reached $7.25, up 13.51%, with several popular South Korean stocks leading the market gains. Gate has established a 24/7 trading service system covering the three core markets of US, Hong Kong, and South Korea, supporting over 10,000 US stocks and ETFs, over 1,500 Hong Kong stocks, and over 1,000 South Korean stocks, totaling over 12,500 stocks and ETFs globally. Users can participate in global stock investment through their Gate unified account using USDT, supporting fractional share transactions starting from as low as 0.01 shares, and enjoying stock dividend rights. The platform also supports cross-brokerage transfers for US and Hong Kong stocks, as well as corporate actions such as stock splits and consolidations, further optimizing the stock investment service experience.
South Korean stocks plunge 20%, nearing a bear market; the AI boom faces the awkward situation of "the more disastrous the earnings, the steeper the decline."
According to BlockBeats, on Wednesday afternoon, July 8th, South Korean stocks extended their losses as investors reassessed the outlook for AI demand. The KOSPI index fell by more than 6% at one point, breaking below 7200 points, and has cumulatively fallen by more than 20% from its all-time high last month, poised to enter technical bear market territory. Memory chip maker SK Hynix fell by as much as 5%, and Samsung Electronics fell by 6.9%. The Korea Exchange initiated a temporary trading halt on the KOSPI index, suspending algorithmic trading. South Korean stocks were among the strongest performing markets globally this year, but their performance is highly dependent on SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, amplifying volatility when sector sentiment weakens. Even with Samsung Electronics announcing a 19-fold surge in quarterly profits earlier this week, chip stocks continued to be under pressure. Jordan Klein, a TMT sector expert at Mizuho Securities, stated that investors overreacted to Samsung's preliminary second-quarter results. He believes this sell-off in semiconductor stocks is more a sign of waning momentum than a deterioration in fundamentals. Klein stated that excluding one-off bonus expenses, Samsung's operating profit actually significantly exceeded expectations, with its storage business implied operating margin potentially exceeding 80%. He indicated that Samsung's single-quarter operating profit has already surpassed the total of the past three years, and reacting to Samsung's stock price based solely on preliminary results is "extremely short-sighted." Meanwhile, an AI trading rotation occurred in Asian markets. Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks rose, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rising as much as 3.4%, the Hang Seng Tech Index rising over 5% intraday, Alibaba rising over 8%, and Tencent rising over 3%. Market analysts believe that funds are flowing from crowded trades focused on AI infrastructure to markets with lower valuations and more value-oriented characteristics. Reuters' report on DeepSeek's self-developed chip and The Information's report on Zhipu AI considering designing its own AI chip further fueled this rotation. (Jinshi)
Polymarket users referred to prosecutors in South Korea: Report
South Korean police reportedly referred 18 Polymarket users to prosecutors in a gambling probe involving 26 people and $12.7 million in bets.
Opinion: South Korea has not yet truly entered the stablecoin market; it needs to first answer why it is worthwhile to use it.
According to Odaily Odaily, Yoon Seung-sik, head of Tiger Research, stated that the South Korean won stablecoin market does not yet have a real place, not because it lacks potential, but because South Korea has not yet experienced enough market practice and discussion. Unlike the United States, which has undergone years of trial and error, regulation, and market evolution in the field of stablecoins, related discussions in South Korea are just beginning. South Korea's financial infrastructure is already very well-developed, and the real challenge lies in answering "why consumers need to use won stablecoins." Yin Chengzhi believes that the core keywords for the digital asset industry in the first half of this year were stablecoins, tokenization, and RWA. While AI Agents and DeFi have long-term potential, they are still far from large-scale implementation. Stablecoins and tokenization, on the other hand, have accumulated numerous global case studies, driving more institutions to accelerate their entry. It is expected that the digital asset market in the second half of the year will continue to focus on regulatory developments, the actual effectiveness of stablecoins and RWA implementation, and new retail market narratives. (Etoday)
South Korea moves to block Polymarket over gambling concerns
The Korea Media and Communications Commission said Polymarket’s structure and operations amount to illegal gambling despite its noncustodial design and smart contracts.
In pre-market trading on the US stock market, semiconductor, memory, and optical communication sectors continued their decline, with Micron and SanDisk both falling by more than 5%.
According to Mars Finance, on July 8th, based on BIT (bit.com) market data, semiconductor stocks generally fell in pre-market trading in the US. Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 4.46%, Arm (ARM) fell 3.51%, Intel (INTC) fell 3.47%, Lam Research (LRCX) fell 3.11%, and Applied Materials (AMAT) fell 2.85%. The memory sector saw the largest declines, with SanDisk (SNDK) falling 5.59%, Micron Technology (MU) falling 5.28%, Western Digital (WDC) falling 4.53%, and Seagate Technology (STX) falling 4.19%. Optical communication concept stocks also came under pressure, with Astera Labs (ALAB) down 4.57%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) down 4.47%, Credo (CRDO) down 4.42%, Corning (GLW) down 4.22%, Ciena (CIEN) down 3.69%, and Coherent (COHR) down 3.44%.