The Reserve Bank of India has reaffirmed its stance that cryptocurrencies should be prohibited, while the nation's tax authorities warn that transactions on offshore exchanges are difficult to trace. Although no formal ban or regulation has been enacted, key government agencies are leaning towards stricter controls on virtual digital assets. India has operated in a regulatory gray zone since a 2018 court ruling overturned the RBI's earlier de facto ban, and a 2021 draft bill to ban private cryptocurrencies was never introduced in parliament. A long-delayed discussion paper on the matter has yet to be released.

The KOSPI index tumbled more than 6% in a single day, extending losses to over 20% from its June high, signaling a technical bear market. Heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped roughly 7% and 5% respectively as investors reassessed AI demand prospects. South Korea's market, a top global performer this year, is vulnerable due to its concentrated exposure to chipmakers, and leveraged ETFs have amplified volatility. Fidelity International portfolio manager Ian Samson attributed the turbulence to rising fundamental uncertainty.

Wallets linked to Hyperliquid development team Hyperliquid Labs transferred 452,000 HYPE tokens worth approximately $32.3 million in the early hours, coinciding with a 5% intraday drop in HYPE. On-chain data suggests the tokens are being sold via market maker Flowdesk, with flows detected to Flowdesk's wallets and deposit addresses on OKX, Bybit, and Gate. The movement highlights potential sell pressure on the token from the project's own entity.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. notes that the combined market cap of USDT and USDC has been contracting at a rate of over $3 billion per month since mid-May. The 30-day average exchange inflows of stablecoins have dropped from $3.2 billion to $2.65 billion, 31% below the annual average. Adler links Bitcoin's 21% decline since mid-May directly to this liquidity drain, warning that a sustained rebound requires both the inflow and market cap trends to reverse.

South Korean fintech company Toss has partnered with Optimism and Sunnyside Labs to explore the issuance of a Korean won-denominated stablecoin. The tripartite proof-of-concept will test the OP Stack's suitability for compliant blockchain-based digital financial infrastructure over the coming months. The initiative marks a significant step toward regulated on-chain fiat representation in one of Asia's most active crypto economies.

Chinese artificial intelligence firm MiniMax is developing a new large language model with 2.7 trillion parameters, surpassing all existing domestically produced AI models. Internally codenamed M3 Pro, the model is expected to launch as early as Q3 and will be open-sourced. It dwarfs MiniMax's current flagship M3 model, which has 428 billion parameters, and is designed to handle complex reasoning and multi-step instructions more effectively.

Former OpenAI researcher Yonglong Tian has recently joined Chinese tech giant Tencent, where he is expected to work on visual-language models (VLMs). Tian, a specialist in computer vision, previously overlapped with Tencent Hunyuan core member Yao Shunyu during his tenure at OpenAI. The move underscores Tencent's aggressive talent acquisition in the AI field amid intensifying competition in China's large model sector.

Shares of Chinese AI company Zhipu (02513.HK) jumped more than 10% with trading volume exceeding HK$6 billion following reports that the company is considering developing its own AI chips. The move is aimed at supporting the rapidly growing demand for its GLM models. The development comes as Chinese AI firms increasingly seek vertical integration to reduce reliance on external semiconductor suppliers amid geopolitical uncertainties.

Justin Sun confirmed via social media that the BitTorrent team has completed the BTTC Bridge Sunset Program, retiring the cross-chain bridge. All funds remain secure, and users can continue to access BTTC Bridge assets through partnered centralized exchanges. The team will now focus on decentralized AI and maintenance of the BitTorrent protocol, marking a strategic pivot for the legacy file-sharing network.

Chinese stocks ended lower across the board, with the Shenzhen Component and ChiNext Index dropping 1.87% and 1.7% respectively. Trading volume in Shanghai and Shenzhen reached 2.56 trillion yuan, slightly below the previous session. Over 3,700 stocks declined, with humanoid robot and lithium mining concepts among the hardest hit. Computing power rental and AI server stocks bucked the trend with notable gains, providing a rare bright spot in an otherwise dismal trading day.