leverage

According to Jinshi reports, the South Korean Ministry of Finance stated that South Korea is committed to taking more measures to stabilize the stock market, will take steps to limit leveraged ETF trading, and will restrict retail investors' exposure to leveraged ETF investments, maintaining a 24-hour stock market monitoring system.

South Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho apologized for launching a single stock leveraged ETF without careful consideration. According to Gate market data, on Wednesday, the South Korean KOSPI index experienced turbulence, dropping as much as 12% during the day, and ultimately narrowing its decline to about 8%. Choo Kyung-ho stated that the government is studying market stabilization measures and may further adjust the relevant regulations for single stock leveraged ETFs to respond to market fluctuations.

Crypto KOL Phyrex posted on platform X, stating that American investors are chasing stock market highs with increasingly high leverage. As of June, the net credit balance of U.S. brokerage accounts fell by approximately $70 billion in a single month, dropping to negative $1.061 trillion, a historic low. During the same period, margin debt increased by about $86 billion to $1.53 trillion, rising for the third consecutive month and setting a new record.He pointed out that the continued deterioration of the net credit balance means that investors have less cash buffer and are increasingly reliant on borrowing for stock positions. Currently, leverage in the U.S. market is widespread throughout the brokerage system. In an upward phase, rising stock prices can further release financing limits after boosting account net worth, creating mechanical buying pressure; however, once the market weakens, margin pressure may force investors to add cash or sell stocks, turning the leverage that previously drove the rise into mechanical selling pressure. He believes that the U.S. stock market is currently facing both high valuations and a high financing environment, and if new funds slow down, leveraged positions may further amplify market volatility.

According to the official announcement, to meet users' diverse investment needs, Bitget has launched 9 perpetual contracts for stocks and ETFs including SKDD (2x short SK Hynix ETF), SKUU (2x long SK Hynix ETF), GILD (Gilead Sciences), and TMF (3x long US Treasury ETF).The above contracts are all settled in USDT, supporting up to 20x leverage and 24/7 trading. For more details, please refer to the official Bitget platform.

According to the official announcement, Bitget has launched the U-based AEON perpetual contract, supporting up to 20x leverage. The contract trading bot will also be opened simultaneously. For more details, please refer to the official Bitget platform.

According to the official announcement, Binance will remove the following leveraged trading pairs on July 30, 2026, at 14:00: full margin trading pairs A/USDC, HIVE/USDC, ILV/USDC, NEWT/USDC, MOVE/USDC; isolated margin trading pairs A/USDC, HIVE/USDC, NEWT/USDC, MOVE/USDC.Please note that the isolated margin lending services for the relevant trading pairs will be suspended on July 28 at 14:00, and all pending orders will be canceled when they are delisted. Users are advised to close their positions in advance.

According to Tencent News "Frontline," a 26-year-old male employee of Hong Kong Central Wealth Management Services Limited misappropriated 50 million Hong Kong dollars as margin without authorization, using it to finance the purchase of a double long position in the Southern Eastern Ying Hynix ETF (07709.HK), resulting in a paper loss of up to 150 million Hong Kong dollars. The trader was arrested by the police on July 20 on suspicion of "theft," with the incident occurring from January 9 to July 20.Financial analysts in Hong Kong stated that the reason the 50 million principal turned into a 150 million loss was due to the combination of margin financing and the double leverage of the long ETF. This ETF surged to a historical high of 193.65 Hong Kong dollars at the end of June, driven by the storage chip concept, but then the semiconductor sector sharply corrected, falling to 52.58 Hong Kong dollars by July 20, a decline of over 72%. The police revealed that the relevant positions had not yet been forcibly liquidated, and the final loss would still fluctuate with the stock price. The incident was discovered during a recent audit of the company, which reported it to the police. Central Wealth Management is not a licensed company by the Securities and Futures Commission, and Central Wealth Securities stated that the involved personnel are not their employees and are unrelated to the incident, but after the event, some clients exhibited risk-averse withdrawals.

According to the Nikkei, Seiji Kihara, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party's "Next Generation AI and On-Chain Finance Project Team," stated at a financial summit held in Tokyo that Japan's current 2x leverage limit on cryptocurrency trading is "too strict." The healthy development of the market requires sufficient liquidity and a price discovery mechanism, and relaxing restrictions is an inevitable trend.The project team is promoting adjustments to relevant regulatory policies, aiming to attract more cryptocurrency funds back to the Japanese market by enhancing market liquidity.

According to the official page, Gate has launched the CXMTUSDT perpetual contract, supporting 1-50 times leverage, providing global users with trading tools related to Changxin Storage (CXMT). This contract references the price of Changxin Storage-related stock assets, allowing investors to participate in related market trading through the digital asset trading platform.It is reported that Changxin Storage has today listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Sci-Tech Innovation Board, with the opening price surging over 470% at one point. As the listing process of domestic semiconductor leading enterprises advances, market attention towards related assets continues to rise.In addition, Gate will launch the CXMT (Changxin Storage) contract hot coin airdrop event from July 27 at 11:00 to August 5 at 11:00 (UTC+8), with a total prize pool of 50,000 USDT. The event features triple benefits, with a maximum of 240 USDT available for a single participant.

According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, a certain address opened a 603.71 BTC 40x long position at 10:30 PM last night, worth 38.67 million USD, with an entry price of 64,469 USD, currently showing a floating loss of 259,000 USD.In addition, the address has also placed a limit long order of 31.44 million USD in the range of 63,500 USD to 63,674 USD. If fully executed, the total position will expand to 70.11 million USD. This address has primarily used short-term strategies in the past, with positions mostly held for only a few hours. This long position size is the sixth largest of the year, and if fully executed, it will become the largest size of the year.

The "Contract Whale" updated its position by stating "Set 10 big goals" and that its previously established 4x leveraged BTC long position has triggered the trading invalidation zone and exited with a stop loss.Previously, this address opened a position at around $64,940, holding 2,933.635 BTC, with a position value of approximately $447 million and a margin of about $47.48 million. It stated that it remains optimistic about Bitcoin in the medium to long term, believing that around $60,000 is an important support area. If there are no significant changes in market structure, Bitcoin still has a high probability of challenging $100,000 before March next year.

On the day BitMEX announced its shutdown, BKX Services Inc. and David Namdar filed a class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York Federal Court, accusing the platform of manipulating user forced liquidations and stealing Bitcoin collateral by using insider trading privileges and server freezing tactics. The plaintiffs claim a total loss of approximately 623 BTC, with BKX losing at least 305.81 BTC and Namdar losing over 316.85 BTC, seeking the return of Bitcoin and damages.The complaint states that BitMEX allowed clients to use up to 100 times leverage, while forcibly liquidating positions when the collateral value was still about twice the loss, with the remaining Bitcoin being included in the platform's insurance fund, allowing BitMEX to profit from it. This lawsuit traces back to relevant transactions starting from July 23, 2018, while a similar case from 2020 was voluntarily withdrawn on June 30, 2025.

According to the Korea Herald, the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, and the exchange have decided that starting from July 31, the minimum deposit requirement for single stock leveraged ETFs and ETNs will be raised from 10 million KRW (approximately 51,000 USD) to 30 million KRW (approximately 153,000 USD), and only cash will be accepted; stocks, bonds, and other securities will no longer be recognized as collateral. The new regulations apply to both domestic and overseas listed products, and existing investors must also meet the requirements when making additional purchases, but there are no restrictions on selling. In addition, the funds from sales can only be counted as deposits after 2 business days following settlement, and loans secured by the sale proceeds will not count as deposits.The product was launched on May 27, involving 16 underlying assets, with an initial market value of approximately 4.4 trillion KRW, which has expanded to 11.9 trillion KRW as of July 15. Daily trading volume increased from 10.4 trillion KRW on the day of listing to about 13 trillion KRW. Previously, South Korea had suspended the listing of new products and prohibited related advertisements starting from July 16, tightening the discount rate management standard from 3% to 2%. Market rumors suggest that regulators are also considering reducing the number of liquidity providers, widening the bid-ask spread, and lowering the leverage ratio from 2 times to around 1.5 times.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a certain address opened a 40x long position of 58.31 BTC, worth approximately 3.77 million USD.The account is 3 days old and has accumulated a profit of 72,100 USD.

Binance will remove the following leveraged trading pairs on July 24, 2026, at 14:00: Full margin trading pairs CYBER/USDC, DOLO/USDC, PIXEL/USDC, STEEM/USDC; Isolated margin trading pairs DOLO/USDC, PIXEL/USDC, STEEM/USDC. Users are advised that the relevant assets will be automatically liquidated and settled on the same day, and it is recommended to close positions in advance.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, two newly created wallets sold 72 BTC, worth 4.66 million dollars, and then opened a 20x leveraged long position of 12,000 ETH, worth 22.4 million dollars.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, four addresses opened 1x leverage AKE long positions on Aster DEX, with a total holding of 3.48 billion AKE, valued at 4.95 million USD, currently unrealized profit of 1.42 million USD.

According to the official announcement, Binance has announced that it will gradually launch Aerodrome (AERO) to SimpleEarn flexible products, the "Buy Crypto" page, Binance Instant Exchange, Binance Leverage (cross margin and isolated margin), and VIP lending starting from July 17, 2026, at 16:00 (UTC). Users can instantly purchase AERO through VISA, MasterCard, and other methods, and use AERO in the instant exchange, leverage, and lending features. Related services will be available within one hour after the AERO spot launch.

The Financial Services Commission of South Korea responded positively to the recent controversies surrounding single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when it released supplementary regulatory measures. Byeon Je-ho, the Director of the Capital Markets Bureau of the Financial Services Commission, clearly stated that launching leveraged ETF products targeting single stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in the domestic market has indeed had a significant effect in locking in domestic investment demand and preventing capital outflow to overseas leveraged markets like Hong Kong or the United States.In response to external accusations that single-stock leveraged ETFs are the "main culprit" behind the recent increase in volatility in the South Korean stock market, the Financial Services Commission refuted this claim. Byeon Je-ho pointed out that the recent dramatic market fluctuations cannot be solely explained by leveraged ETFs, with the core reason being the alternating expectations of the global semiconductor industry cycle. Data shows that from May 26 to July 10, the annualized daily return volatility of U.S. SanDisk (131%), Micron (123%), and Japan's Kioxia (118%) was higher than that of South Korea's SK Hynix (113%) and Samsung Electronics (96%). Additionally, some investors' contrarian operations have played a role in stabilizing stock prices to some extent.Regarding the demands from some politicians and market participants to "forcefully delist single-stock leveraged ETFs," the Financial Services Commission clearly rejected this request. The official explanation stated that delisting must meet statutory termination criteria such as a sharp decline in market value or a lack of liquidity providers (LPs), and currently, the market is showing signs of heating up due to excessive demand, which does not meet the delisting conditions. The Financial Services Commission indicated that such calls should be understood as the market's urgent expectation for strengthened compliance and robust regulatory measures.