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According to Bloomberg, the KOSPI index in South Korea plummeted in July, causing significant losses for many retail investors. Despite the index rebounding a record 18% on Friday, retail investors still recorded a record net sell-off of KOSPI stocks that day; the index fell a cumulative 22% in July, marking the largest monthly decline since the global financial crisis, with the total market capitalization of the South Korean stock market around $3.9 trillion.Influenced by President Lee Jae-myung's push for stock market reforms and the listing of single-stock leveraged ETFs, South Korean retail investors bought approximately 78 trillion won ($54.2 billion) worth of KOSPI stocks from May to June. After the sharp market decline in July, many investors on social media pointed fingers at the government.A 30-something investor in Seoul stated that he entered the Korean stock market for the first time in May and has now decided "not to invest in the Korean stock market anymore"; another 40-year-old investor borrowed 50 million won against his home to trade stocks and criticized the government for introducing leveraged ETFs, turning the market into a "casino."During July, the KOSPI triggered trading halts due to circuit breakers four times, setting a monthly record. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together accounted for over 50% of the KOSPI's weight, with their stock prices falling 21% and 35% respectively in July; however, since early 2025, Samsung Electronics has still risen over four times, and SK Hynix has increased nearly tenfold.Analysts say this is a typical result of crowded trading combined with leverage, and deleveraging is difficult to complete in a matter of days. In the coming months, technology and semiconductor stocks may still experience significant volatility, but this should not be seen as a complete collapse of the AI investment logic.The South Korean government suspended the listing of new single-stock leveraged ETFs in mid-July and promised to introduce more measures to stabilize the stock market and limit retail participation in high-risk products.However, the head of the Korean Shareholders Alliance stated that retail investors' anger and criticism towards the government have reached a peak, with many investors believing that the relevant measures have come too late.

On-chain detective ZachXBT posted a warning stating that "choosing to gamble on Spartans is itself an IQ test," and questioned the long-term harvesting behavior of the operators behind Spartans. ZachXBT pointed out that Gurhan Kiziloz, a figure related to Spartans, previously operated BlockDAG Network, which has not launched its mainnet or mining products for years, yet still promoted a presale with "300 times returns" and has raised at least $350 million from inexperienced retail investors.He further stated that BlockDAG has recently shifted to casino operations and suspects that the related casino platform may be used to "legitimize BlockDAG funding sources," including circulating funds by paying high fees to employees and KOLs. Previously, several community members and content creators have also publicly questioned Spartans' marketing model and operational transparency, warning users of potential "rug pull" risks.

According to Gelonghui, Buffett responded in an exclusive interview with CNBC regarding "Berkshire currently holding about $380 billion in cash, and the market is highly concerned about why it has not made large-scale acquisitions or investments": the prices are too high, and there are too few targets.Buffett stated, "Now is not our ideal environment for deploying cash for Berkshire." He emphasized that the company has the right management team to selectively choose opportunities: "Sometimes we do nothing, but sometimes we are very active."When discussing the current macro stock market environment, Buffett used the metaphor of "a church with a casino" to describe the speculative atmosphere on Wall Street. People can move between the church and the casino, with more people in the church than in the casino, but the casino has become very attractive to people.He pointed out, "If you are buying and selling single-day options, that is not investing, nor is it speculation; it is outright gambling." Referring to a recent case where a U.S. soldier used confidential information about military operations in Venezuela to profit $400,000 in the prediction market, he said: unless one knows when we will strike into Venezuela like that person, no one can explain why they would buy a one-day option; the number of such occurrences is astonishing.We have never encountered a crowd with a greater propensity for 'gambling' than now. Buffett further noted that the surge in gambling enthusiasm does not necessarily mean the market will collapse, but it will lead to a long-term high price for many assets.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has accepted a class action lawsuit in 2025, accusing the famous rapper Drake of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the process of promoting and using the cryptocurrency casino Stake.us. The complaint also names well-known streamer Adin Ross and an Australian citizen alleged to have assisted in the fraudulent activity as defendants.The plaintiffs claim that the defendants used the tipping feature of Stake.us for fund transfers and concealed the flow of funds related to music streaming manipulation, while the platform is accused of evading U.S. gambling regulations under the guise of a "social casino." The lawsuit seeks no less than $5 million in damages and requests a jury trial. This case is not the first time Drake and Ross have faced legal risks for promoting Stake.us.

ChainCatcher news, according to a message shared by crypto detective ZachXBT, WhiteRock founder Ildar Ilham (also known as @XBT_Prometheus) has been arrested by UAE law enforcement for allegedly participating in the $30 million Zkasino exit scam. He will be extradited to the Netherlands for this criminal case.

ChainCatcher news, ZachXBT posted a warning stating that at least one member of the Zkasino $30 million exit scam team seems to be related to the WhiteRock Finance project, as on-chain transactions link the two projects and a personal email address together. Zkasino raised over $30 million from the community through a presale, but the project did not develop according to the roadmap, and the funds appear to have been misappropriated, leading to the arrest of Elham Nourzai by the Dutch FIOD at the end of April 2024, with asset seizures. Co-defendants Ildar Ilham and Lior Ben Zakan were reported to be residing in the Middle East at that time.At the end of 2024, Elham was released, and Zkasino's funds began to be slowly laundered through inter-chain jumps, involving networks such as ZkSync, Starknet, EVM, and Solana. The funds were divided into two paths: 1) cashing out through OTC brokers; 2) converting cryptocurrencies to XMR through instant exchanges; 3) conducting contract trading on Hyperliquid.WhiteRock (WHITE) emerged at the end of last year and was immediately found to have multiple significant issues, including: an anonymous team with no history, allegations of fake partnerships, the team owning multiple sub-wallets funded through instant exchanges, inflated user numbers, and a lack of transparency regarding USDX support.

ChainCatcher news, according to on-chain analyst Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens), the ZkCasino scam address has closed its 20x leveraged ETH position on Hyperliquid, with a cumulative loss of 27.1 million dollars, after previously scamming over 40 million dollars.

ChainCatcher message, ZachXBT released an investigation on the X platform targeting the identity of a whale with 50x leverage on Hyperliquid. By tracking on-chain transactions, it was discovered that a person named "William Parker" is associated with the 50x leverage whale on Hyperliquid. He was arrested last year for stealing approximately $1 million from two casinos in 2023 and was sentenced in Finland. Before this, he was known as Alistair Packover (William Peckover) and later changed his name.In the early 2010s, Alistair Packover made headlines in the UK multiple times due to fraud charges related to hacking and gambling. It is clear that he did not learn his lesson after serving several years for fraud and may continue to gamble. Currently, his funds are mainly stored in:0x51d99A4022a55CAd07a3c958F0600d8bb0B39921

ChainCatcher news, Musk harshly criticized Meme coins in the latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, calling them something akin to a "casino," and warned market participants not to invest their life savings into Meme coins.Meanwhile, Musk also talked about Dogecoin, adding that Dogecoin initially started as a Meme coin but is more like a joke cryptocurrency involving memes and dogs. Joe Rogan believed that the Meme coin craze is too crazy, especially with people putting real money into it.

ChainCatcher message, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik responded to the question "Have there been moments of frustration and disappointment with the EF, the community, or the industry in the past year?" during a text AMA held on the Tako platform, stating: "Of course. Perhaps the most disappointing moment for me recently was when someone said that Ethereum is bad and intolerant because we don't respect the 'casinos' on the blockchain, while other chains are willing to accept any application, so they are better.If the blockchain community has this kind of 'inverse moral issue', I have no interest in participating in blockchain. However, I found an interesting point: many people say those things on the internet, but when I chat with the community in person, everyone's values are still the same as before. So I feel a responsibility to this community; I cannot abandon them. Ethereum needs to work together to create the world we want to see.This will require some changes, such as the foundation may not be able to be too neutral at the application layer and needs to specifically support certain things, but this project must be worth us doing so."

ChainCatcher news, according to livedoor, due to suspected gambling through overseas online casino websites, the Chiba Prefectural Police in Japan transferred 30-year-old table tennis player Takaki Niwa, the bronze medalist in the men's team event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, to the prosecution on the 29th. It is believed that during a voluntary questioning, he admitted to the relevant charges, stating that he placed bets on the outcomes of sports competitions.In an interview with Kyodo News, Niwa said, "I didn't know this was illegal, and I feel very regretful. I'm sorry to my fans."According to investigators, the Japanese police have attached a request for strict handling of the case. The charges state that in early summer 2023, Niwa accessed an online casino website through a domestic internet connection and used cryptocurrency for gambling.While the Japanese police were cracking down on online casino payment agents, they discovered users nationwide, which led to the exposure of Niwa's involvement.Niwa participated in the 2012 London Olympics at the age of 17 and won a silver medal in the men's team event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In the fall of 2022, he announced his retirement but continued to engage in athlete activities within Japan.

ChainCatcher message, according to the statistics from the security agency Slow Fog, in the Top 10 loss incidents of 2024, ZKasino, IBXtrade, and Essence Finance ranked the top 3 with involved amounts of 33 million USD, 21.8 million USD, and 20 million USD respectively.It is worth mentioning that Yuxian stated: "In the Top 10 exit incidents of 2024 (uncertain if there will be any returns later), most of them should not be domestic projects, and we do not need to completely deny domestic projects."

ChainCatcher news, according to a disclosure from the Sinopec WeChat official account, Mr. Qiu, a truck driver from Suzhou, Jiangsu, saw an advertisement on a short video platform selling fuel cards at a low price: "A fuel card worth 1000 yuan is only 880 yuan." The other party stated that the transaction must be made using the virtual currency USDT (Tether). After transferring the USDT to the "trading platform" as instructed, it was then transferred to the other party's digital account. After the first transaction was successful, Mr. Qiu felt he had found a bargain. He then transferred a total of over 70,000 yuan in digital currency to the other party multiple times, intending to continue purchasing, but found that the digital currency in his account had disappeared, and he had been blacklisted on WeChat.Sinopec reminds consumers not to be tempted by cheap fuel cards from unofficial channels, to be cautious of fuel card discount information that seems too good to be true, and to avoid falling victim to scams.