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According to a report by the Korean News Agency, the storage chip manufacturer SK Hynix completed a large-scale stock buyback on the 21st, following Samsung Electronics in completing the related operation. The company stated that it completed a stock buyback worth 40 trillion won on the Korea Exchange, which lasted for two months.Previously, SK Hynix announced that it would invest 40.0434 trillion won to buy back 24.07 million shares, all of which would be canceled after the buyback, accounting for approximately 3.3% of the total issued shares, and stated that this is the largest stock cancellation operation by a listed company in South Korea. The original buyback period was set from August 20 to November 19, but it was completed about a month ahead of schedule.

South Korean JB Financial Group announced that it has invested in the artificial intelligence company Upstage through its subsidiaries Jeonbuk Bank, Gwangju Bank, and JB Woori Capital. The three institutions collectively invested 40 billion Korean won (approximately 30 million USD) in its C-2 round of financing, acquiring about 2% equity.Previously, Upstage co-founder and CTO Hwalsuk Lee revealed that the company is considering various capital market options, including an IPO, and is also contemplating initiating a Pre-IPO round of financing.

According to FNNews, South Korea's JB Financial Group announced that it is investing in the artificial intelligence company Upstage through its subsidiaries Jeonbuk Bank, Gwangju Bank, and JB Woori Capital. The three institutions collectively invested 40 billion Korean won (approximately 30 million USD) in its C-2 round of financing, acquiring about 2% equity.Previously, Upstage co-founder and CTO Hwalsuk Lee revealed that the company is considering various capital market options, including an IPO, and is also contemplating launching a Pre-IPO round of financing.

According to a report by THE ELEC, Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced on October 19 that it has signed a supply contract for packaging substrates for memory semiconductors with a large global company, amounting to 360.5 billion Korean won. The contract period is from January 1, 2027, to December 31, which is equivalent to 3.2% of the company's consolidated revenue last year.This is the first time Samsung Electro-Mechanics has disclosed a long-term supply contract for packaging substrates. With this addition, the number of long-term supply contracts disclosed by the company this year has increased to seven, with a total amount of approximately 4.3 trillion Korean won. Previous contracts were mainly focused on components such as silicon capacitors, multilayer ceramic capacitors, and inductors, and this expansion includes the packaging solutions business, which produces products such as FC-BGA substrates and BGA substrates.Last month, Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced plans to invest 42.7 trillion Korean won in the Sejong FC-BGA production facility and 25.1 trillion Korean won in the Vietnam packaging substrate production equipment. The company also stated that as part of a large government project, it plans to invest 80 trillion Korean won in the Sejong business site and 150 trillion Korean won in the Busan business site by 2040, and will produce FC-BGA in Busan, Sejong, and Vietnam. A related person from Samsung Electro-Mechanics stated that the growth of the AI and high-performance computing market makes high-performance packaging substrates more important, and the company will strengthen customer supply cooperation and establish a stable supply system.

According to The Block, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit announced its trading data for the week ending October 18, with the platform's weekly trading volume dropping to 83.5 trillion Korean won, approximately 6.28 billion USD, a decrease of 15.5% compared to the previous period.During the same statistical period, the cryptocurrency with the highest trading volume on Upbit was XRP, followed by Bitcoin and USDT.

Upbit's official announcement states that due to BitMEX terminating the integration of the travel rule solution VerifyVASP, Upbit will suspend deposits and withdrawals of digital assets of 1 million Korean Won and above with BitMEX starting from October 16. Deposits below 1 million Korean Won will continue to be supported as usual.Manual deposits of over 1 million Korean Won from BitMEX to Upbit will cease at 14:00 on December 18, and any similar assets credited thereafter will enter the refund process, which users must follow to retrieve.

According to the Seoul Economic Daily, citing a substantial shareholding report submitted by SK on October 13, SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won had previously agreed to sell shares of SK Corporation, with the buyer being a fund related to Michael Dell's family, the founder of Dell Technologies. Choi Tae-won signed a contract on October 2 to sell 972,493 shares of SK Corporation's common stock, accounting for 1.34% of the total share capital, with the counterparty being DFO Public Investments, L.P., established in Delaware, USA, for an amount of 544 billion Korean won. The fund is managed by DFO Management, which manages the Dell family assets and was formerly known as MSD Capital, established by Dell in 1998, and was restructured into its current structure at the end of 2022.Choi Tae-won has signed a total agreement to sell 1,653,924 shares of SK Corporation, with a total consideration of 944 billion Korean won, to raise funds for property division with Nabi Art Center curator Ryu Soo-young. Among these, 681,431 shares, accounting for 0.94%, were sold to Korea Investment & Securities, while the remaining 1.34% was sold to the aforementioned strategic investor. SK had previously only disclosed that the buyer was a strategic investor and stated that it could not specify the details of the private transaction. For the shares sold to Korea Investment & Securities, Choi Tae-won signed a three-year equity return swap, which will settle the difference between the actual disposal price and the agreed benchmark price upon maturity, with both the gains from price increases and losses from price decreases borne by Choi Tae-won.Reports indicate that Dell Technologies is a company specializing in artificial intelligence servers and data center infrastructure, and has business dealings in semiconductors with SK Hynix.

Jeonbuk Bank is reportedly the first commercial bank in South Korea to start issuing Korean won loans secured by Bitcoin, according to local media. The Bitcoin is held by a third-party custodian; the effective changes to the execution rules allow the bank to sell the collateral through a court ruling for recovery without actually receiving the Bitcoin.The loan scale, interest rate, and loan-to-value ratio have not been disclosed. A representative from Jeonbuk Bank told Chosun that one loan has already been issued.

Meta Platforms has released the artificial intelligence model Muse Wonder, stating that after 14 months of intensive development, the new Muse model has reached the forefront of AI and represents a significant leap forward from its predecessor. It is claimed that this model possesses cutting-edge capabilities and can compete with leading models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude in scenarios like code writing and handling financial or legal issues.Developers can currently access Muse Wonder through the Meta model API and Muse Code interface, and the model will soon provide underlying computational support for the subscription version of Meta's personal AI assistant, Muse. According to related reports from Financial Associated Press, the Muse Wonder series leads competitors in certain agent and software engineering evaluations. Zuckerberg expects that the development cycle for larger models will be shortened in the future and plans to achieve a return on AI investment through subscriptions, revenue sharing from commercial services, APIs, and enterprise services.

Binance stated that it was awarded the "Outstanding Contribution Award of the Community Chest Timely Rain Fund - Tai Po Fire Relief" at the Community Chest Annual Award Ceremony for the 2025/2026 fiscal year in Hong Kong, in recognition of its assistance and donations following the Tai Po fire.After the fire last year, Binance Group donated 10 million Hong Kong dollars to the Community Chest of Hong Kong for disaster relief and recovery efforts. Eowyn Chen, Chief Marketing Officer of Binance and representative of Binance Charity, accepted the award on behalf of the group.Binance claimed that since its establishment in 2018, Binance Charity has donated over 47 million US dollars, covering 87 countries and regions and benefiting more than 4.2 million people.

Recently, Bitget was awarded the "Best Multi-Asset Technology Platform" by iFX EXPO Asia. This award focuses on the comprehensive performance of trading platforms in terms of technical capabilities, multi-asset product layout, and user experience, further reflecting Bitget's ongoing investment in multi-asset trading infrastructure.Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that Bitget will continue to promote the Universal Exchange (UEX) strategy, breaking down barriers between different asset classes through technological and product innovation, allowing users to connect diverse assets and global market opportunities more efficiently within a unified trading system.

According to South Korea's "Daily Economy," JB Financial Group's Jeonbuk Bank has launched the first Korean banking loan project linked to digital assets. Initially, it is aimed at corporate clients, using Bitcoin as the sole collateral, with the loan purpose limited to business operating funds.The bank does not directly hold or manage Bitcoin; instead, it is stored by qualified virtual asset service providers. In the event of default, the bank does not acquire ownership of the virtual assets but recovers its claims by liquidating the collateral through court auction and other procedures, according to the revised "Civil Execution Rules." Currently, Jeonbuk Bank has completed stress testing and established a valuation system based on the weighted average prices from multiple global exchanges.

According to official news, DeAgentAI's $AIA will be launched on the Bithumb Korean Won market, with the new AIA/KRW trading pair expected to open for trading on October 8 at 14:00 (Korean time, 13:00 Beijing time). At the same time, DeAgentAI is launching the $AIA principal protection staking plan, which allows participation with USDC, and upon maturity, the equivalent amount of USDC will be fully returned according to the rules, with additional rewards of up to 50% of the actual staked amount in AIA.The staking plan offers three pools: Ultra, Boost, and Fast, with total AIA rewards over a 12-month period being 50%, 40%, and 35% of the actual staked amount, respectively. The first rewards will be distributed uniformly after the end of the current fundraising period in the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st months, and thereafter will be automatically distributed monthly, allowing participants to choose between higher rewards and earlier receipt.The current open limit for staking is 500,000 USDC, with a minimum single transaction of 350 USDC, available in limited quantities until full. Participation requires going through the official page, using USDC on the BNB Chain to buy and stake AIA, and the originally purchased and staked AIA will not be returned upon maturity.

Kaiko and Upbit recently jointly released a report showing that the Korean won accounts for about 25% of the global fiat-denominated cryptocurrency trading volume, second only to the US dollar (approximately 48.70%). On Upbit, a market buy order of 10 million Korean won typically has slippage between 0.005% and 0.02%.The report points out that the South Korean market still primarily relies on fiat-native trading, with KRW trading pairs dominating trading activities. Stablecoins like USDT and USDC are more often used as assets traded against the Korean won rather than as the primary settlement medium. South Korean exchanges are deeply integrated with the banking system through real-name accounts and KYC, allowing users to directly withdraw and deposit in Korean won, reducing the demand for stablecoins as tools for withdrawal and deposit.The report believes that the opportunities for Korean won stablecoins lie in on-chain settlement, cross-border payments, and DeFi scenarios, and may help narrow premiums by improving the efficiency of value transfer across markets. However, adoption still depends on regulations, reserve standards, redemption rights, and exchange integration.

According to the official announcement, Upbit has launched the Numeraire (NMR) trading pairs with Korean Won and USDT.

According to the official announcement, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has announced that it will add support for Bedrock (BR) and Dolphin (POD) Korean won trading markets.Specifically, Bedrock (BR) will open for trading on October 6 at 19:00, supported by the BNB Smart Chain. Deposits and withdrawals are expected to open within 2 hours after the announcement, with a benchmark price of 590 Korean won and a required number of deposit confirmations of 15.Dolphin (POD) will open for trading on October 6 at 20:00, supported by Base. Deposits and withdrawals are expected to open within 2 hours after the announcement, with a benchmark price of 1086 Korean won and a required number of deposit confirmations of 200.Bithumb reminds users that only designated network deposits are supported, and transfers from other networks will not be supported.

According to the official announcement, Bithumb will launch the US Korean Won trading pair, with trading expected to open at 15:00 local time.

LG Electronics will invest 150 billion won in the artificial intelligence data center cooling business.