North Korea drives onchain malware surge, CoinEx shuts: Asia Express
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State hackers drive 420% surge in onchain malware, Chainalysis finds
North Korea-linked hackers used Tron, Aptos and BNB Chain to maintain malware infrastructure, while suspected Iran-linked actors embedded directions in Bitcoin transactions.
South Korean investors have bet $2.8 billion on Chinese AI stocks in just six months: A-share companies like North China Electronics and Cambricon have been snapped up.
According to data from Odaily Odaily, South Korean investors poured $2.819 billion into Chinese assets in the first half of the year through individual stocks and ETFs. A-share purchases surged 130.55% year-on-year, with North China Semiconductor and Cambricon leading the pack. In Hong Kong, SMIC and MiniMax were among the top buyers. Standard Chartered analysts stated that overseas funds' attitudes towards Chinese assets have "fundamentally changed." North China Semiconductor topped the list with approximately $33.94 million in purchases, followed by Cambricon ($27.28 million) and CATL ($12.54 million). Beyond semiconductors, South Korean investment is also spreading to a wider range of computing infrastructure, including servers, data centers, and power and network support. (Daily Economic News)
North Korea using foreign talent to help infiltrate US companies: Report
The DPRK has turned to third-country IT workers to pass job interviews, after which, the positions are usually taken over by North Korean operatives.
Stimulated by the listing of Korean exchanges, MPLX and NEX surged.
According to Mars Finance, on July 3rd, South Korea's two major CEXs, Upbit and Bithumb, launched trading pairs for MPLX and NEX respectively. Boosted by this positive news, MPLX surged over 50%, currently trading at $0.03182. NEX rose over 40%, with a current market capitalization of $155.8 million.
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)
The South Korean government is considering extending the sovereign AI core GPU guarantee project, with a budget of up to 4 trillion won next year.
According to Odaily Odaily, the South Korean government is considering extending its support project for GPUs, a core resource for AI. On July 7th, industry sources indicated that the Ministry of Science and ICT is investigating the capacity of major South Korean cloud service providers to build additional GPUs, aiming to extend the "AI Computing Resource Utilization Infrastructure Enhancement Project." The core of this project involves government-funded purchases of GPUs, deployment in cloud service provider data centers, and support for industry-academia-research collaboration. Last year, the South Korean government allocated a budget of 1 trillion won, and this year it allocated 2 trillion won, securing over 20,000 GPUs. The project was originally scheduled to end this year, but with the surge in demand for advanced resources such as NVIDIA's next-generation GPU Vera Rubin, the South Korean government is developing comprehensive countermeasures, including data center efficiency optimization and new space security plans. It is reportedly already applying to the Planning and Budget Office for a "limited additional budget" for GPU security. Industry estimates suggest that, considering this year's GPU security budget and the government's intentions, next year's budget could reach a maximum of approximately 4 trillion won. Industry experts say that compared to the GPU supply itself, "equipment installation space" will be the key to the success or failure of the project, because running thousands of high-performance GPUs simultaneously requires a large power supply and advanced cooling systems, and the equipment installation space held by South Korean companies is nearing saturation. (ETNews Electronics)