A Global Tech Rout Spreads From Wall Street to Seoul

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In Today's Note

• A tech-led selloff went global as President Trump threatened a bigger Iran strike and Tehran rejected a ceasefire, with the S&P 500 down 1.21% and a Magnificent 7 ETF off nearly 5%, its worst day since April 2025. The rout extended through Asia, where South Korea's Kospi fell 5.72% and SK Hynix dropped 8.34%, while BTC briefly touched $64K before consolidating above $65K.
• A consortium including BlackRock, Coinbase and Fidelity launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium to advance post-quantum cryptography. India's parliamentary finance committee recommended an interim self-regulatory body for crypto, BitMEX faces a proposed class action days after announcing its September shutdown, and Coinbase began enabling its business clients to accept payments from AI agents.

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

Macro & Markets

• Comments from President Trump threatening to further escalate US strikes in Iran and the 13th consecutive night of military attack on Iranian targets saw Brent crude prices jump past $100 for the first time in two months.
• In an interview with Axios the US president claimed, "I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it”.
• Trump warned the new attacks would be bigger than the ones carried out during Operation Epic Fury when the Middle East conflict first began this year, adding that Israel "would join in two minutes if I ask them to," but "we don't need anybody" else.
• He made two separate announcements on Truth Social regarding developments around the ongoing conflict:
• Firstly, he said the US would inflict “major military punishment” and hold Iran accountable for any further attacks carried out by the Yemen-based Houthis on ships in the Red Sea, “Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if they [Houthis] do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran”.
• Earlier in the week the group took responsibility for an attack on two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Bab el-Mandeb strait near the Red Sea.
• Second, he claimed “any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded in a post on X that “seizing another nation’s assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent.”
• On the Iranian side, according to the New York Times, Tehran rejected a ceasefire proposal from President Trump that was carried to the country by the Iraqi prime minister Ali al-Zaidi, though the details of the proposal were not clear.
• As an offramp from the conflict appeared to move even further away, US equities and US treasury bonds both traded lower.
• The S&P 500 fell 1.21%, the most in a month, while the Nasdaq-100 declined 1.87%.
• AI-related stocks and major chipmakers also traded lower with the PHLX Semiconductor Sector index declining 0.54%.
• An ETF tracking the Magnificent 7 closed nearly 5% lower in yesterday’s session (the largest single-day loss since April 2025) as traders scrutinised Alphabet Inc.’s and Tesla’s massive CapEx plans in their recent earnings reports.
• That selloff extended through Asia too, the South Korean Kospi index dived down 5.72% today, while SK Hynix fell 8.34%. In Japan, the Nikkei-225 closed 2.73% lower.
• BTC followed US equities lower, briefly falling to $64K. However, it quickly pared back those losses in the evening and continues to consolidate above $65K once more.
• US Treasury yields rose to year-to-date highs with market expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes jumping up once more.
• The yield on two-year notes climbed around 6bps to 4.37%, its highest level since early 2025. Longer-dated 10-year yields hit their highest point this year around 4.7%, while the 30-year rate is now at a level last seen in 2007.
• Overnight interest rate swap contracts now imply a 35% chance of a hike in the July meeting, up from 10% a week ago.

DeFi / Web3 / Altcoins / Crypto

• Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, Galaxy and Strategy launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium, committing $15M over three years to fund Bitcoin developers and security research.
• The consortium's first priority is advancing post-quantum cryptography to help prepare Bitcoin for potential long-term risks posed by quantum computing, while leaving protocol development to the network's open-source community.
• India's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance recommended creating an interim Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) to oversee the country's cryptocurrency market until a formal legal framework is introduced.
• The proposed SRO would operate under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), enforcing standards for consumer protection, platform transparency, token disclosures, exchange reserve audits and the segregation of client funds.
• The committee said stronger oversight is needed to protect retail investors and mitigate risks including cross-border capital flows, stablecoin dollarization, tax evasion and violations of foreign exchange laws.
• Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, BitMEX, is facing a proposed class action from BKX Services and trader David Namdar, who allege the platform manipulated liquidations and caused combined losses of 622.66 BTC.
• The plaintiffs claim BitMEX’s internal systems let the exchange profit from forced liquidations and are seeking the return of the bitcoin plus compensatory and punitive damages, while BitMEX called the lawsuit baseless and said it would defend itself.
• The case was filed the same day BitMEX announced it will shut down on Sept. 23, stop new registrations immediately and block users from opening new positions from Aug. 26.
• LayerZero, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, partnered with Keeta, a blockchain infrastructure provider for regulated financial institutions, to make tokenized commercial bank deposits transferable across Ethereum, Solana, Base and the Keeta Network for institutional payments and treasury operations.
• The system will use bank-deposit-backed Keeta stablecoins held through Bivo, a U.S.-licensed financial technology platform, with support planned for the U.S. dollar and eight other fiat currencies later this month.
• Coinbase, a U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, is enabling all Coinbase Business clients to accept payments from AI agents through Coinbase Payments and the x402 open internet payment standard.
• The company called agentic payments one of its highest-conviction bets, saying businesses can now let AI bots discover services, fund wallets and settle purchases in USDC across Base and other blockchains.
• The Smarter Web Company, a UK-listed web design and online marketing company with a Bitcoin treasury strategy, repaid its $11.7M Smarter Convert instrument, two weeks ahead of maturity, by selling 177.89 BTC acquired through the original financing.
• The early repayment eliminates the potential issuance of 7.72M ordinary shares linked to the convertible instrument, while the company now holds 2,700 BTC following the sale.
• CEO Andrew Webley said the company no longer believes convertible instruments are the right funding solution, although it remains open to both fiat- and bitcoin-denominated financing in the future.

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