Bitcoin's rebound momentum weakened, with weak spot demand limiting further gains.

Global tech stocks continued their decline, and a reversal in AI-related trades led to a significant pullback in hedge fund strategy returns, with some funds seeing their year-to-date gains nearly wiped out. Several large funds reduced leverage and laid off investment teams. Goldman Sachs data shows that equity long-short strategy funds that primarily invest in technology stocks suffered a single-day loss of more than 4% on Thursday, bringing their year-to-date returns down to near zero. These funds had a cumulative return of 24% in June. Global fundamental equity long-short strategy funds fell an average of 1.3% on Thursday, while multi-strategy funds fell 1.4%, with selling pressure spreading to a wider range of portfolios.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued the "Regulations on the Operation of Non-Securities Virtual Assets in Nigeria," which establishes a licensing and regulatory framework for stablecoins, deposit money tokens (DMTs), and related virtual asset service providers. Security virtual assets are regulated by the Nigerian SEC. The regulations categorize stablecoins into Naira stablecoins and foreign currency stablecoins. Foreign currency stablecoins must be issued by entities registered in Nigeria and holding a Type II issuing license, and can only be offered to Nigerian users after approval from the Central Bank. The minimum paid-up capital for issuers in categories one and two is 10 billion Naira (approximately US$7.41 million) and 15 billion Naira (approximately US$11.12 million), respectively, while other service providers require 1 billion Naira (approximately US$740,000). Stablecoins must have a 1:1 reserve ratio with an additional 2% over-collateralization. Holders can redeem their coins at par value on the next business day. Issuers are prohibited from paying interest or returns. Algorithmic stablecoins and fiat-backed stablecoins primarily backed by crypto assets are prohibited. Existing operators must apply for a license within 180 days of the regulations taking effect and register with the central bank within 30 days. During the transition period, they can only maintain their existing business scale. The same applies to P2P trading platforms.

Morgan Stanley transferred 9,297 SOL to Coinbase via MSOL in the past two days, and now holds approximately 510,000 SOL, worth $45.79 million. Morgan Stanley yesterday spent $3.41 million to buy 43 BTC through MSBT, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 10,893.

Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire AI agent security startup Clutch Security for approximately $500 million in cash, with potential milestone payments. Neither company has commented, and the deal has not been announced and may not be completed. Clutch Security focuses on securing AI agents' access to enterprise systems. In January 2025, it was valued at approximately $85 million in its Series A funding round, and currently has annual recurring revenue approaching $10 million. (Source: TechCrunch, Information Daily)

US memory stocks rebounded across the board in pre-market trading today. SanDisk rose over 9%, Micron Technology rose over 7%, Western Digital and Seagate Technology rose over 6%, Rambus and Silicon Motion rose over 5%, and SK Hynix rose 4%.