News linked to both this project and an event.
According to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association, driven by a significant downturn in the stock market, on-exchange credit leverage has entered a phase of concentrated deleveraging. The cumulative forced liquidation amount for July has already reached 344.2 billion KRW, with a single-day liquidation volume of 142.2 billion KRW on July 9 alone. Due to a two-trading-day delay in the reporting of liquidation data, the clearing pressure triggered by the sharp drop in the KOSPI on the 13th has not yet been fully reflected in the statistics, leading market forecasts to anticipate a further increase in subsequent liquidation volumes.On July 13, the Korean stock market experienced severe volatility, with the KOSPI closing down 8.95% and triggering both the Sidecar selling suspension mechanism and a Level 1 circuit breaker during the session. The semiconductor sector led the decline, with SK Hynix falling 15.37%, marking its largest single-day drop in history, while Samsung Electronics closed down 10.7%. Currently, the margin balances and credit financing balances of Korean retail investors continue to shrink, with the market entrenched in a negative deleveraging cycle of "falling stock prices → forced liquidation → further decline in stock prices." (WSJ)
According to CryptoSlate, South Korean Bitcoin treasury company Bitplanet has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Nasdaq-listed company Antalpha and related partners, planning to introduce 15 billion KRW worth of Bitcoin mining equipment and launch full operations within the month. This move signifies that Bitplanet is shifting from a reserve model of simply purchasing Bitcoin through financing to continuously generating Bitcoin revenue through mining.
According to Chosun, Korean-listed IT service provider ITCEN Global announced raising KRW 40 billion (approximately USD 3 million) through the issuance of convertible bonds. The funding round was fully subscribed by ITC Holdings, which is wholly owned by the KCGI Innovation Growth ESG Fund. The proceeds will be used to expand new businesses, including Web3 and security token offerings (STOs). The company stated that if South Korea’s digital asset regulatory framework is finalized in the second half of the year, these initiatives are expected to accelerate.
According to The Asia Business Daily, DS Investment & Securities issued a research report lowering NAVER’s target price from its previous level to 300,000 KRW, while maintaining a “Buy” rating. Analyst Choi Seung-ho noted that the downward revision is primarily driven by two factors: first, NAVER’s operating profit margin for this year is projected to decline from 18.3% to 17.6%, due to rising advertising and e-commerce marketing expenses as well as depreciation costs; second, delayed legislative progress on cryptocurrency-related regulations is directly affecting the proposed merger between NAVER Financial and Dunamu, raising the possibility of further postponement beyond the originally scheduled completion in September. Previously, DS Securities had assigned a valuation of 15 trillion KRW to NAVER’s cryptocurrency business within its Sum-of-the-Parts (SOTP) valuation; this portion has now been removed from the updated report. Choi Seung-ho added that the e-commerce business remains NAVER’s core growth engine going forward, with annual e-commerce sales expected to reach approximately 2.7 trillion KRW.