China's AI startup Moonshot released its Kimi K3 model, claiming to surpass Anthropic's Opus 4.8 on select benchmarks, shaking global markets. The open-weight model with 2.8 trillion parameters and 1 million token context sparked fears of reduced AI capex demand, dragging the Bloomberg Asia Semiconductor Index down over 6% and Nasdaq 100 futures 2%. With pricing roughly half of comparable models, Kimi K3 intensifies the global AI race, directly hitting Asian chip giants like TSMC and SK Hynix.

Weekly trading volumes across South Korea's top five exchanges plunged to around 8.06 trillion won, the lowest in three years. Upbit retained a 63.57% market share, followed by Bithumb at 29.18%, while Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX held smaller slices. The drop reflects waning retail interest amid global uncertainty and underscores challenges for the once red-hot Korean crypto market.

Japanese financial group SBI Holdings received regulatory approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to acquire Coinhako, a licensed crypto exchange and digital wallet provider. The move strengthens SBI's foothold in Southeast Asia's regulated digital asset sector, giving it access to Coinhako's compliant infrastructure and user base in Singapore's tight regulatory environment.

Tokyo-listed Japan Corporation (8105.T) allocated about $4.08 million of a $60 million convertible bond issuance to buy Bitcoin as a treasury asset. The move mirrors a growing corporate trend in Japan, where public firms increasingly adopt Bitcoin as a reserve asset amid yen depreciation and inflation concerns.

Bitcoin's nine-month bear market may be entering its final phase, according to CryptoQuant's Darkfost. A key signal — the short-term holder cost basis crossing below the long-term holder cost basis — has triggered, though it requires a three-day confirmation window. Despite institutional inflows, on-chain behavior remains cyclical, suggesting the market is approaching a bottom but not yet signaling an immediate reversal.

China's Moonshot AI, developer of the Kimi K3 model, notified investors of a corporate restructuring to pursue a Hong Kong IPO, possibly within six months. The startup's latest model boasts 2.8 trillion parameters and native multimodal capabilities, aiming to capture investor interest as China's AI sector heats up.

China's daily average token calls skyrocketed from 100 billion in early 2024 to 140 trillion by March 2026, a more than 1,000-fold increase, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. The surge, driven by AI agent applications, is shaping a new 'token economy' with implications for computing power demand and resource pricing.

Optical module maker Zhongji Innolight received approvals from China's securities regulator and Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a Hong Kong listing that could raise up to $8 billion. The IPO, potentially one of the largest in recent years, highlights the region's appeal for AI-related hardware companies amid growing demand for high-speed data transmission.

At the World AI Conference in Shanghai, 360 founder Zhou Hongyi cautioned that as AI transitions from large models to autonomous agents, security risks escalate. He emphasized the need for safe, trustworthy AI development, reflecting China's increasing focus on AI governance as domestic firms like Moonshot push technological boundaries.