leveraged

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, James Wynn (0x507...edb6) opened a 20x leveraged Bitcoin short position, shorting 1.33 Bitcoins with a nominal value of $103,000, and a liquidation price of $80,483.47.

XRP has dropped 6.23% in the past 24 hours to around $1.38, making it the token with the largest decline among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Previously, XRP surged from around $1 on August 18 to $1.69, an astonishing increase within four days, briefly touching the psychological level of $1.7.The pullback is mainly due to leveraged liquidations. XRP has still risen 35.55% over the past week, second only to Hyperliquid's 38.65% weekly increase. Notably, XRP-related ETFs have recorded net inflows for nine consecutive days, indicating that institutions have not withdrawn, and the issue mainly lies in the leverage aspect rather than capital outflows.After breaking through $80,000 on Tuesday, Bitcoin has retreated to around $78,000, dragging down the overall altcoin market. The market is awaiting tonight's core PCE inflation data and Nvidia's earnings report; whether XRP can hold the $1.4 support level will determine if this rally is a healthy correction or a further decline.

As investor enthusiasm for AI trading cools and regulators strengthen measures to curb demand, leveraged ETFs linked to chip manufacturers in South Korea have seen nearly $1 billion in outflows this month. So far, leveraged products tracking Samsung Electronics have experienced outflows of $381 million in August, while related products tracking SK Hynix have seen outflows of $601 million, marking the first monthly outflow for these products since their launch at the end of May.Especially during the global AI trading sell-off in July, when the South Korean Kospi index experienced a historic plunge, with a monthly decline of 22%. Subsequently, South Korean regulators raised the minimum margin requirements for new investors purchasing such products and required investors to undergo a 5-day simulated trading period.

According to TradingBeats (formerly Hyperinsight), a whale starting with 0xf517 currently has 190 BTC sell orders in the range of $79,654 to $108,888, planning to sell 951.3 BTC, with a nominal amount of approximately $91.787 million and a weighted average sell price of about $96,488. BTC is currently reported at $77,351, with the sell order range being about 3% to 40.8% higher than the current price. Since the above orders are not "only for reducing positions," if the transaction volume exceeds its existing long position, it will directly lead to a short position.This whale currently holds 94.1 BTC long positions with a 40x leverage, valued at approximately $7.277 million, with an average entry price of $77,330.3; it has reduced its previous holding of 109.4 BTC by about 15.3 BTC. About 10% of the 951.3 BTC sell orders are used to close long positions, while the remaining approximately 857.2 BTC will be converted into new short positions. If all are executed, the theoretical size of the short position would be about $82.7 million. Meanwhile, this address still has a buy order for 133.7 BTC at $74,088, valued at approximately $99.08 million.It also has 108 open orders in other cryptocurrencies, with a total nominal amount of about $89.32 million, mainly including: HYPE replenishment orders: it currently holds 197,800 HYPE long positions, valued at approximately $15.44 million, with an average entry price of $62.52, and has placed a buy order for $5 million at $62.2, which is about 20.2% lower than the current price. LIT has 71 sell orders in the range of $3.8081 to $6, planning to add short positions of 362,200, amounting to about $1.84 million; ZEC has 29 sell orders in the range of $890.71 to $999, planning to open about 1,560 short positions, amounting to about $1.484 million. It is reported that this whale's layout spans both the US stock and cryptocurrency markets, often participating in the hottest targets, and has repeatedly become a major whale in S&P 500, AMZN, SPCX, etc., with a historical total profit of nearly $30 million.

Hyperbot data shows that Brother Maji has just opened a 40x leveraged Bitcoin long position again, currently holding 50 BTC, with an unrealized profit of about $8,237, and an entry average price of $76,712.2. Currently, Brother Maji's total position value is approximately $103 million, including 28,250 ETH long positions, 253,000 HYPE long positions, and 2,236,488,191 HYPE long positions.

Cryptoquant analyst CW8900 stated that the BTC inter-exchange flow pulse (IFP) indicator has shown a bullish signal, indicating that the inflow of BTC into derivative exchanges is increasing, and leveraged investments are becoming active again.This signal suggests that the upward pressure on derivative exchanges is rising, driven by leverage, and the rebound is resuming after the prolonged adjustment phase that has been ongoing since July.

Serenity stated that leveraged traders have shifted from AI stocks back to Hyperliquid (crypto market) and biotech targets, which they believe may help AI stocks recover more quickly. The Korean ETF EWY rose mainly due to the stock buyback of SK Hynix, while Samsung's foundry prices were raised by about 10% to 15%.Serenity mentioned that SK Hynix disclosed its CPO roadmap, which involves a photonic intermediary layer connecting memory, potentially expanding the addressable market and driving demand in the supply chain for lasers, photonic integrated circuits, and packaging. In addition, following the successful IPO of Changxin Memory (CXMT), Yangtze Memory (YMTC) is seeking to go public in the next quarter.Optoelectronic manufacturer Tyntek hit the daily limit, with its order visibility extending to 2028, reflecting an imbalance in supply and demand for optoelectronic diodes in the photonic industry. Furthermore, the shortage of high-end PCB drilling needles continues, with AI data centers, servers, and optical communications driving demand for PCBs, HDI, and packaging substrates, while tungsten prices are also rising.

According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, a certain whale opened a long position of 500,000 SOL worth $37.93 million at $76.368, using 20x leverage. Five minutes ago, the whale took profit on 246,000 SOL at $78.297, earning $475,000.The remaining position worth $20 million is still up $486,000, with a total profit of $960,000 over the past 10 days. The pending order has been canceled.

The $57,000 price level for Bitcoin is a key liquidation point for leveraged long positions. If liquidation is triggered, the weak liquidity situation may amplify the sell-off driven by liquidation.Despite the downside risks, Bitcoin's price shows resilience, and the potential head and shoulders bottom pattern keeps the bullish logic intact.

According to Cointelegraph, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has submitted an application to list a 3x leveraged ETF for Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas.The aforementioned products cover both crypto assets and traditional commodities. If approved, they will provide investors with higher leveraged trading tools, further enriching the ETF product line in the relevant markets.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reviewing the rule change application submitted by Cboe BZX Exchange, involving six leveraged commodity ETFs that track the benchmark's daily performance by three times. The initial review period set by the SEC is 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.Volatility Shares LLC is the sponsor of the relevant funds, which include 3x Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas ETFs, all intended to operate under a commodity pool and not classified as investment companies. Among them, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs will primarily invest in near-month and next-month futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), rather than directly holding Bitcoin or Ethereum, and will allocate cash and cash equivalents as collateral or margin.Before the relevant products are listed, the SEC must approve the exchange rule changes, and the trust's Form S-1 registration statement must also become effective. Each fund must have at least 100,000 shares at the time of listing, and authorized participants can subscribe or redeem cash at a rate of 1,000 shares per 10,000 shares.

Cboe BZX Exchange is seeking approval from the U.S. SEC to list a set of leveraged commodity ETFs, including daily leveraged products that provide 3x long exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to the proposed rule change document submitted on Friday, Cboe plans to launch the 3x Gold ETF, 3x Silver ETF, 3x Bitcoin ETF, 3x Ether ETF, 3x Crude Oil ETF, and 3x Natural Gas ETF.These funds will primarily achieve their objectives by holding CME or COMEX futures contracts and using cash and cash equivalents as collateral, aiming to deliver 3x returns corresponding to the daily performance of the underlying assets. Since the related products do not comply with the exchange's general listing standards regarding leveraged products, Cboe needs to apply for approval through special rules. Such highly leveraged funds are typically aimed at sophisticated investors for short-term tactical trading and are not suitable for long-term holding.The document also indicates that these funds will operate in the form of a "commodity pool," subject to CFTC regulation, rather than as an investment company under the 1940 Act regulated by the SEC, like many traditional ETFs. Commodity pools typically aggregate funds from multiple investors to trade derivatives or other commodity-related instruments.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, a certain whale (0x117...baeb) opened a 4x ASTER long position on Aster DEX, involving 7.2 million ASTER, worth 4.33 million USD.At the same time, 4.02 million ASTER were staked, worth 2.42 million USD, for a duration of 4 years.

According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, a certain address (0xb37...a66ca) is using a TWAP strategy to long XYZ100 (Nasdaq 100 Index) with 20x leverage, accumulating a total of 1006.8 XYZ100. Currently, approximately 32 million dollars worth of positions have been executed, corresponding to 1065 shares, with an opening price of 29778 dollars. The remaining portion is still being gradually executed.

According to the Nikkei News, individual investors in the Japanese stock market are accelerating their use of leverage to bet on AI trends. As of July, the amount of credit trading by individual investors in the Japanese stock market reached 123 trillion yen (approximately 1.09 trillion yuan), doubling since the beginning of the year and reaching the highest level since related statistics began in 2016.Data shows that in June, the scale of credit trading by Japanese individual investors hit a historical high, and in July it continued to maintain a high level. At the same time, the proportion of credit trading in the overall trading amount of individual investors rose to 83%, also setting a new record.AI concept stocks have become the main driving force behind the surge in credit trading, among which the credit buy balance of AI storage concept stock Kioxia reached 13.23 million shares as of August 7, making it one of the popular targets.Benefiting from the recent rise in the Japanese stock market, the overall performance of leveraged investors has been decent. The floating yield of credit trading investors briefly turned positive in June, although it fell back to a loss of 8.4% by the end of July, it is still better than the average loss level of the past 10 years (-10.2%).

CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju posted on the X platform, correcting the previous analysis of CME Bitcoin futures positions, stating that "Total Reportables (large institutional traders)" was mistakenly labeled as "Leveraged Funds," leading to the belief that CME hedge funds rarely turned into net long positions in BTC futures. However, the actual situation is that leveraged funds still maintain net short positions in BTC futures.Ki Young Ju provided CFTC futures position data as of August 4: 1. Large institutional traders overall show a slight net long position, which includes asset management institutions, market makers, dealers, etc. Ki Young Ju stated that although the net long extent is limited, the previous judgment about institutional direction being bullish still holds. 2. Leveraged funds still maintain net short positions in BTC futures, but over the past year, their standard BTC futures net short position has decreased by about 50% (measured in BTC), mainly due to the decline in basis trading returns. When the futures basis returns fell below U.S. Treasury yields, the arbitrage space narrowed. Leveraged funds currently show a net long position in Micro BTC futures, but the scale is small, only about +394 BTC, which is approximately 1% of the standard BTC futures net short position. Ki Young Ju indicated that leveraged funds overall have not yet turned into net long positions, but their long-term structural shorts are clearly weakening, which may reflect the closing of arbitrage trades and adjustments in directional positions.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, a TWAP order worth $37.93 million at a certain address has been fully executed, going long on 500,000 SOL with 20x leverage, at an opening price of $76.368, currently with an unrealized profit of $160,000.

Retail investors in South Korea are shifting their focus from the growth story of asset management companies to market stability issues in the eyes of regulators, surrounding high-leverage trading of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.Since their debut on May 27, the first batch of single-stock leveraged products in South Korea has quickly become one of the most crowded trades in the current semiconductor rally of the Korean stock market. Sixteen single-stock ETFs and two ETNs designed around Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix allow investors to make directional bets of about 2 times on a single stock. The launch of these products coincided with the warming of the AI storage cycle, leading to a surge of retail funds into the market, pushing the total assets of the Korean ETF market to a historical high at one point.Winners on the fee side quickly emerged. Estimated by net asset size and fee rates, these single-stock leveraged ETFs generated nearly 3.7 billion won in management fees after about two months of operation. Samsung Asset Management took the lion's share due to the scale advantage and higher fee rates of its KODEX products, while Future Asset offered lower fees to gain market share. Early data from Korean media has shown that Samsung and Future Asset together account for over 90% of the net assets of such products, with liquidity further concentrating on leading products.However, this fee feast has also come with significant side effects. In mid-July, the South Korean Financial Services Commission stated that the market value and trading volume of single-stock leveraged products rose rapidly after their launch, with the weight of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in KOSPI once reaching 52%. Regulators also pointed out that the volatility of global storage stocks has significantly increased, and the high volatility of individual stocks like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, combined with product rebalancing trades, could amplify market shocks.Subsequently, South Korean authorities accelerated the tightening of regulations. Starting from July 31, the minimum margin requirement for individual investors investing in such products was raised from 10 million won to 30 million won, and cash was required to meet this requirement, with alternative securities no longer accepted; regulators also suspended the launch of related new products, restricted advertising, and strengthened spread management and investor education.There are signs that trading enthusiasm has cooled. Data from the Korean Exchange shows that after the introduction of new regulations, the daily trading volume of the 16 related single-stock leveraged/inverse ETFs dropped from about 10 to 12 trillion won (peaking at 15 to 20 trillion won) to around 1 trillion won (on August 3-4), and on August 5, it fell to as low as 919.8 billion won (first time below 1 trillion). There has been a slight rebound recently, with the trading volume of the 16 related ETFs at about 7.45 trillion won on July 27.

According to Daum, after South Korea's financial regulatory authorities raised the base margin for domestic and foreign single-stock leveraged products from 10 million won in securities to 30 million won in pure cash starting July 31, South Korean retail investors began to rapidly adjust their portfolios.According to data from the Korea Securities Depository, Tesla's 2x leveraged product TSLL recorded a net purchase of 14.58 million USD on August 3, but the purchase amount on the 4th plummeted from the previous day's 15.6 million USD to 1.56 million USD, while the selling amount rose to 8.68 million USD, resulting in a net sell of 7.11 million USD for the day. During the same period, Tesla's spot net purchases reached 42.3 million USD, more than five times the net purchase amount of TSLL.Micron Technology and SanDisk also showed similar divergence—Micron's 2x leveraged product flipped from a net purchase of 10.81 million USD on the 3rd to a net sell of 15.98 million USD on the 4th, while SanDisk's 2x leveraged product changed from a net purchase of 17.74 million USD to a net sell of 33.74 million USD. Meanwhile, the spot net inflows for the two companies were 148 million USD and 145 million USD, respectively, indicating a significant trend of funds shifting from leveraged tools to the underlying stocks.The tightened regulations require that the base margin must be paid in cash, with alternative securities such as stocks, ETFs, and bonds no longer counted, and existing investors must also meet the new standards when making additional purchases; selling is unrestricted, but the funds from sales must be settled after T+2 days before they can be counted as cash margin.The new rules were originally planned to be implemented in phases in August, but due to concerns that limiting it to Korean products would lead to a capital influx into overseas leveraged products like Tesla and Nvidia, creating a balloon effect, South Korean regulators moved the implementation date up to July 31 and simultaneously covered both domestic and foreign products.South Korean investors have reacted strongly, believing that extending measures aimed at local market volatility to overseas products constitutes excessive intervention, and that only South Korean investors must meet the 30 million won cash threshold, putting them at a disadvantage in global competition.

After South Korea raised the margin requirements for single-stock leveraged ETF investors, the trading activity of related products has significantly decreased, with trading volume dropping to about one-tenth of the previous peak level.According to data from the Korea Exchange, the total trading volume of 16 single-stock leveraged and inverse ETFs related to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in the KOSPI market was 12.388 trillion won within two trading days after the new measures were implemented, a decrease of 58.6% compared to 29.907 trillion won on the day the measures were implemented (July 31).Previously, South Korean regulators raised the minimum cash margin requirement for single-stock leveraged ETF investors from 10 million won to 30 million won. Compared to the trading volume of 124.485 trillion won on the last trading day before the measures were implemented (July 30), the current trading scale of related products has dropped to about one-tenth.The enthusiasm of retail investors has cooled significantly. Data shows that the trading volume of retail investors in single-stock leveraged and inverse products has fallen to 250.7 billion won, less than a quarter of the 929.9 billion won on July 31.Analysts indicate that after raising the margin threshold, the effect of restricting speculative capital inflow has begun to show, and the trading pattern of retail investors continuously buying leveraged products during declines in the underlying stocks is changing.