South Korea will introduce civil seizure rules for digital assets from October 1, allowing courts to directly freeze, transfer, and liquidate cryptocurrencies held on local exchanges. The Supreme Court is currently gathering feedback on the revised Civil Execution Rules, which detail enforcement procedures including transfer orders and sale through licensed exchanges. This marks a significant step in integrating crypto into the country's legal framework for debt recovery. The move follows earlier discussions on virtual asset civil enforcement, with the rules set to be implemented after the consultation period ends.

South Korea's media regulator is reviewing whether Polymarket's prediction platform constitutes illegal gambling under domestic law. The regulator will give Polymarket an opportunity to respond before deciding on corrective measures. This review aligns with global scrutiny of prediction markets, which are classified as regulated commodities under updated Chrome Web Store policies. Potential restrictions in South Korea could impact Asian user access to the platform, which has gained traction for election and event betting.

SK Hynix is poised to raise approximately $290 billion in what could be the largest US stock offering by a foreign company, seeking to capture AI-driven demand for memory chips. The Korean giant's move comes as AI computing shifts focus to cloud providers, with foreign investors pulling over 100 trillion won ($650 billion) from Korea's stock market in two months. The IPO aims to tap American investor enthusiasm for semiconductor stocks while offsetting broader market outflows. Samsung Electronics also expects record profits of around 85 trillion won in Q2, driven by a memory chip super-cycle.

A National Assembly member is pushing to delist leveraged ETFs tracking Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, calling the KOSPI a "casino" overwhelmed by speculative products. About 212 trillion won has flooded into these ETFs, which account for 60% of the main board's market cap, amplifying index volatility and triggering multiple circuit breakers this year. The Bank of Korea and financial regulators warn that leveraged instruments may fuel market concentration and retail losses. The controversy highlights growing concerns over retail investor protection in South Korea's tech-heavy equity market.

Tencent's Qianwen and ByteDance's Doubao plan to discontinue their AI agent services on July 15, following a Shanghai cyberspace administration campaign that removed over 14,000 non-compliant chatbots. The move aligns with China's upcoming Interim Measures for the Administration of AI Anthropomorphic Interactive Services, effective July 15, 2026. The shutdown targets bots involved in deepfake undressing and gambling, underscoring the tightening oversight of generative AI applications in the country.

Tencent launched HY3, an open-source AI model that matches the performance of much larger flagship models in reasoning, agents, and long-context tasks. Released under Apache 2.0 on GitHub and HuggingFace, HY3 has been optimized for cost efficiency, with API pricing set at 1 yuan per million input tokens and 4 yuan per million output tokens. The model is part of Tencent's push to democratize AI access and compete with global tech giants, while reducing cloud costs for developers.

Binance will remove TST (Test) and IOTX (IoTeX) leveraged token pairs and related lending services on July 10, 2026, at 10:00 UTC. Users must close positions and repay loans before July 7, 18:00 UTC to avoid automatic settlement. The delisting affects these token ecosystems by reducing trading liquidity and could prompt similar actions from other Asian exchanges. This move reflects Binance's periodic review of leveraged product offerings to manage risk.

More than 200 developer teams have entered the HTX Genesis Hackathon, co-hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI, with 40 advancing to online demo days on July 11-12. Finalists will compete at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on July 19. The event aims to foster innovation in blockchain and AI integration, leveraging Asia's growing developer community. It underscores Shanghai's role as a hub for tech talent and regulatory sandbox initiatives.

The Payment & Clearing Association of China issued a warning against cross-border gambling and fraud involving virtual currencies, emphasizing the illegal nature of such activities. The notice advises the public to avoid crypto-based gambling, which offers higher anonymity and risk. This alert follows a broader crackdown on telecom and internet fraud in China, where authorities have repeatedly linked digital assets to money laundering and illicit transfers. It reflects ongoing efforts to curb crypto misuse despite the country's ban on trading.

Vietnamese authorities have confiscated over 350 kilograms of gold and silver and frozen more than 300 bank accounts linked to the ONUS crypto platform fraud. Police have charged eight suspects in a scheme involving property appropriation and money laundering. The investigation, which began in March, has also halted real estate transactions worth 200 billion dong. The case highlights Southeast Asia's growing challenge with crypto-related scams targeting retail investors.