leverage

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traces back to relevant transactions starting from July 23, 2018, while a similar case from 2020 was voluntarily withdrawn on June 30, 2025.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.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, a newly created wallet deposited 5 million USDC into Hyperliquid and went long on 194,175 shares of CXMT (worth 1.38 million USD) with 2x leverage, with a liquidation price of 4 USD.

According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the account "wjqq" that is long on ETH and short on SPCX has a floating profit of over $2.044 million. This morning, it went long on 5,000 shares of SK Hynix (SKHX) with 10x leverage at a price of $1,313.2, worth $6.14 million, and is now facing a floating loss of over $412,000.

According to a research report by NYDIG, Bitcoin fell by 13.4% in the second quarter of 2026, with the year-to-date decline expanding to 32.9%. In contrast, the Nasdaq 100 index rose by 27.7%, and tech stocks increased by 43.5%, indicating that this round of decline is not due to macro risk aversion, but rather specific supply pressures unique to Bitcoin.The core pressure comes from Strategy (MSTR) launching the "Digital Credit Capital Framework," authorizing the sale of approximately $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to cover capital structure obligations, marking a shift of the largest historical marginal buyer from continuous accumulation to active monetization, with the DAT complex overall transitioning from a demand engine to a supply risk. In terms of ETFs, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF saw a net outflow of $4.9 billion in the second quarter, but Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Trust attracted $364.8 million in inflows against the trend, showing that distribution channels remain competitive.In the derivatives market, amid weak spot demand and continued outflows from ETFs and stablecoins, the positive funding rate combined with a rebound in open interest indicates that leveraged long positions are rebuilding, posing a risk of passive liquidation triggering a new round of declines. Bitcoin has currently fallen 54.3% from its historical high of $126,000 set on October 6, 2025, referencing the cycles of 2018 and 2022 (with a gradually narrowing decline of about 70%).

Larry Fink, CEO of the world's largest asset management company BlackRock, stated that he is optimistic about the market in the next 12 months, as the technological revolution will drive improvements in the profit margins of more companies. He noted that BlackRock's profit margin has increased by 260 basis points over the past 12 months, and the company has added $1 trillion in assets without increasing its workforce.Larry Fink mentioned that the current market leverage levels are lower than those in 2008 and 2009, and the implied leverage is not high when measured against the current capital market size. He also indicated that certain assets, financial products, or international markets may still carry concentration risks. Larry Fink expressed that he had previously been concerned about leverage in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets, as there had been too many leveraged participants in the market. He believes that after the leverage has been cleared, Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market are more stable at current levels.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a trader continued to establish a long position with full margin after accumulating a profit of $863,200 on Hyperliquid, with a total position size of approximately $13.31 million.This includes 90 bitcoins (approximately $587,000, 40x leverage), 70,000 Solana (approximately $550,000, 20x leverage), and 1,000 ethers (approximately $193,000, 25x leverage).

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, a certain address currently holds 12,832 ETH in a 20x leveraged long position and 366 BTC in a 20x leveraged short position, with each coin valued at approximately 24 million USD.Among them, the ETH short position has an unrealized loss of 4.07 million USD, the BTC long position has an unrealized gain of 216,000 USD, resulting in an overall unrealized loss of 3.856 million USD.

According to on-chain analyst Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens), wallet address 0xf29 deposited 5 million USDC into Hyperliquid and placed a TWAP order to open a $CXMT short position with 1x leverage, which is currently increasing.

According to the Korea Times, South Korea's financial regulatory authorities will hold a high-level meeting on Thursday to discuss the risks and countermeasures of single-stock leveraged ETFs. This meeting is expected to take place under the framework of the South Korean government's macroeconomic and financial issue coordination mechanism, the "F4 Meeting," with officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, and the Bank of Korea in attendance.Recently, fluctuations in the South Korean stock market have intensified, and single-stock leveraged ETFs are receiving increasing attention from regulators and market participants. Various parties believe that these products have become a significant factor driving extreme stock price volatility.Informed officials stated that the regulatory authorities have been coordinating relevant plans internally in recent days, but the policy direction has not yet been finalized. Possible measures discussed in the market include raising margin requirements, limiting daily price fluctuations, and adjusting leverage ratios. However, regulatory officials believe that these measures may only provide temporary relief and are unlikely to fundamentally address the structural causes of market volatility.

According to Yicai, global chip stocks faced a Black Monday. On that day, during the Asian trading session, rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East suppressed risk appetite, with SK Hynix plunging over 15% on the Korean Exchange, marking the largest single-day drop in 18 years; the South Korean benchmark index KOSPI fell more than 9% in a single day, retreating 25% from its historical high on June 22.Data from the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea shows that the total amount of forced liquidations across the entire South Korean market reached 344.2 billion won in a single day, the largest scale of credit liquidation this year. Retail investors accounted for 92% of leveraged positions, referred to as "ant investors," who made full bets on memory chips and have very weak capacity to withstand volatility. As of Monday, over 1.2 million leveraged retail accounts in the entire South Korean market had reached the margin call line. Among them, approximately 320,000 to 360,000 accounts have been fully liquidated by brokerages, resulting in the loss of principal, with some accounts even owing debts to brokerages.Institutions believe that the short-term Gamma effect of leveraged shorts in South Korea cannot be eliminated, and the trillion-won level of leveraged selling pressure has not been fully cleared, with the risk of volatility still unresolved. However, this round of decline is not a reversal of the industry's fundamentals but rather a concentrated deleveraging event following macro shocks faced by crowded high-position leveraged trades.

According to the official announcement, to meet users' diverse investment needs, Bitget has launched 4 perpetual contracts for stocks and ETFs: BOT (RoboStrategy Robot Strategy Fund), INTW (GraniteShares Intel 2x Long Daily ETF), SNXX (Tradr SanDisk 2x Long Daily ETF), and XBI (SPDR S&P Biotech Index ETF).The above contracts are all settled in USDT, support up to 20x leverage, and allow for 24/7 trading.

Binance will remove the following leveraged trading pairs on July 17, 2026, at 14:00: cross-margin leveraged trading pairs 1INCH/USDC, LPT/USDC, MAGIC/USDC, MASK/USDC, SUSHI/USDC, and isolated-margin leveraged trading pair USDP/USDT. Users should note that positions cannot be updated during the delisting process and are advised to close positions or transfer assets before the delisting.