South Korea's government announced its 2026 second-half economic growth strategy, accelerating three "super projects" in semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI while planning a blockchain-based treasury bond tokenization pilot. The pilot will explore linkages with the Bank of Korea's institutional CBDC, aiming to upgrade financial infrastructure. Over the next five years, the country intends to double its memory chip production capacity, and later this year will roll out a nationwide AI chatbot and a unified AI education platform. The initiatives underscore Korea's push to integrate digital assets into mainstream finance while bolstering its competitive edge in advanced technology sectors.

Progmat, Japan's largest security token issuance and management platform, has migrated its entire platform and tokenized assets worth over 452 billion yen (approximately $2.7 billion) from a private Corda 5-based chain to the public Avalanche blockchain. The move, executed without disrupting existing projects, boosts rights transfer processing speed by three to five times and cuts transaction finality to under two seconds. Originated from Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, Progmat commands roughly 64.6% of Japan's security token market issuance by value, covering most tokenized real estate and corporate bonds. This transition marks a significant step for institutional-grade tokenization on public networks in Asia.

Japan's Lawson convenience store chain plans to test JPYC stablecoin payments at a Tokyo outlet in early August, in what would be the country's first stablecoin payment test directly integrated with a point-of-sale system. Customers will scan a digital wallet QR code at the register, with data such as item details and transaction times fed directly into Lawson's existing store management system. Hashport provides the wallet technology. If the POS integration proves reliable, Lawson may expand the program, signaling growing real-world stablecoin adoption in Japanese retail.

Liang Wenfeng, founder of Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, has seen his net worth double to $36 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, overtaking Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Greg Brockman to become the richest founder of a pure-play AI model company. The valuation of DeepSeek surged roughly fivefold since April to $50 billion after a $7.4 billion funding round in June, in which Liang personally invested $3 billion, retaining about a 78% stake. The wealth ranking excludes diversified tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, focusing solely on firms whose primary revenue comes directly from AI models.

Samsung Electronics is in early-stage discussions with investment banks about a potential American Depositary Receipt (ADR) listing in the United States, according to Bloomberg sources. The evaluation follows SK Hynix's $26.5 billion U.S. IPO — the largest-ever foreign listing — which has spurred Samsung to reconsider its options. Samsung's complex multi-division structure spanning memory, logic chips, smartphones, and consumer electronics poses greater challenges than SK Hynix's more focused business, though its market cap has surpassed $1 trillion this year with shares up about 120%.

SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son said global AI infrastructure will require $5 trillion in annual investment by 2040 to support data centers, power supply, and humanoid robots, driving a shift from human-centric to new work models. Speaking at a recent event, Son argued that the transition to "artificial super intelligence" will generate returns justifying the massive spending, and that AI will fundamentally transform daily life in a profitable way. SoftBank, a major backer of AI and tech ventures globally, has been ramping up its involvement in the sector.

Malaysia's Home Ministry is investigating Network School, a digital nomad co-living community founded by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, over allegations it hosted Israeli citizens in possible violation of immigration laws. Malaysia, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel and bans Israeli passport holders, has asked authorities in Johor to probe whether the community received Israelis traveling on non-Israeli passports, and to review its licensing and compliance. The network, located on an artificial island in Forest City, Johor, describes itself as a frontier community for "techno-optimists."

As South Korea's KOSPI index tumbled, leading crypto exchange Upbit saw its 24-hour trading volume skyrocket 1,016.4% to exceed $4.14 billion, according to Coingecko data. The surge reflects heightened crypto trading activity as equity markets faced sharp declines, with SK Hynix shares dropping as much as 9.9% earlier. The inverse relationship underscores crypto's growing role as an alternative asset class during regional equity selloffs in Asia.

Bitcoin's adjusted Net Unrealized Profit/Loss (NUPL) has stayed in negative territory for a sixth consecutive week near -0.13, signaling that average holders are still underwater, according to CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. However, the depth of losses has narrowed significantly from June lows, with readings for overall market, long-term, and short-term holders converging around -0.13, down from troughs near -0.22 to -0.27. The synchronized recovery suggests panicked selling pressure is easing, though the metrics have not yet reached breakeven, indicating a market still in stabilization mode.

Taiwanese musician and NFT collector Huang Licheng, known as Machi Big Brother, sold his Bored Ape #251 at a loss of 6.99 ETH (about $12,400) to increase his leveraged long position on Ethereum, according to Lookonchain. He currently holds a 5,264 ETH long position worth $9.38 million with a liquidation price of $1,756.76. The move highlights continued high-risk appetite among prominent Asian crypto figures even amid market downturns.