Gate Crypto Flash News and Market Updates

According to China's Maritime Safety Administration, the Qingdao Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning on August 18. Military activities will take place in parts of the Yellow Sea from August 20, 4 p.m. to August 23, 4 p.m., during which vessels are prohibited from entering the designated areas.

According to Korea Economic Daily, South Korea's stock market recovery this month has rekindled investor appetite for risk assets, with bullish index-tracking ETFs dominating trading volume rankings. ETF trading volumes have reached 18 trillion won, with products betting on index gains appearing at the top of transaction lists. Inverse ETF trading has also remained active amid expectations of further market volatility.

According to The Defiant, global prediction market search interest has fallen 83% from its World Cup peak as of August 17. Google Trends data shows the weekly index for "prediction market" dropped from 100 on June 7-13 to 17 on August 9-15, with the daily peak of 100 occurring on July 19 during the World Cup final, declining to 7 by August 16. Prediction market cash trading volume reached a five-year high of $172.7 billion in July but is estimated at $143 billion for August, down roughly 17% mon

According to Jin10, China's CNEX funding sentiment index stood at 47 as of 14:30 on August 18, up 1 point from the 10:15 reading. The index for large banks, small and mid-sized banks, and non-bank institutions each rose 1 point to 46, 48, and 46 respectively. The index ranges from 0 to 100, with 50 representing equilibrium; readings above 50 indicate tightening liquidity conditions.

According to market reports, U.S. Forces Korea Commander Bren​son visited South Korea's Defense Ministry today (August 18) to discuss scaling down joint military exercises. The talks centered on reducing the scope of the 'Combined Fire Power Exercise.'

According to Guru Club, Singapore's benchmark stock index fell 1.2% to close at 5,076.81 points on June 4.

According to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), World Liberty Financial received conditional approval on Friday to establish World Liberty Trust Company, a national trust bank that would issue and manage USD1 stablecoin. The USD1 has surpassed US$4 billion in circulation. The bank must maintain at least US$20 million in Tier 1 capital and hold at least US$10 million in eligible liquid assets before operations commence. World Liberty's approval has intensified scrutiny due to

According to Cryptopolitan citing DefiLlama, real-world asset (RWA) deposits in DeFi protocols reached $3.98 billion as of August 18, surging 6x from $651 million one year ago. Tokenized RWA issuance totals $34.55 billion but shows only 11.5% on-chain utilization, with private credit accounting for $2.13 billion of active deposits, bonds contributing $799 million, and reinsurance $406 million.

According to FMS 2026 data, DRAM, enterprise-grade SSDs, and HDDs experienced significant price increases from 2025 to 2026 as AI infrastructure expansion accelerated demand. DRAM prices rose as much as 170%-400%, with consumer-grade DRAM retail prices climbing 400%, while HBM (high-bandwidth memory) contract prices increased about 20%. Enterprise-grade SSDs faced the steepest pressure, with first-quarter 2026 contract prices up 90%, and some SSD segments gaining nearly 500% over nine months. HD

According to HyperliquidNews, HIP-3 cumulative trading volume has surpassed $525 billion.

According to Gate data, Brent crude oil (XBRUSD) surged to $92.04 per barrel on August 18, breaking the $92 mark, up 3.6% in 24 hours.

According to Taiwan Economic Daily, Taiwan's power semiconductor makers are planning a third round of price adjustments, with non-contract product prices set to rise by 10% to 15% starting in October. Industry players including Taiwan Semiconductor, Transpower, and Demax are expected to benefit from the combined volume and price gains in the second half of the year.

According to financial industry sources, Korea Investment Trust Management completed a 60 billion won capital increase on June 30, marking its first expansion in five years. The company issued 60,000 shares at 1 million won per share, with parent company Korea Investment Securities providing all funding. This capital raise precedes the planned separation of the company's passive ETF business into a standalone entity, a decision announced in May to streamline decision-making and accelerate produc

According to Financial News and the Capital Market Research Institute, South Korea's exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, valued at 500 trillion won, faces mounting pressure from outdated tax regulations as trading accelerates. Large securities firms bear approximately 150 billion won in annual education tax liabilities, while the tax rate on financial institutions' gains exceeding 1 trillion won increased from 0.5% to 1% in 2026. The issue stems from rules that prevent liquidity providers from of

According to South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service and Korea Exchange, exchanges and securities firms collected over 110 billion Korean won in fees within two months after launching single-stock leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, before regulators implemented control measures on August 17.

According to Beating surveillance, Douyin (ByteDance's AI assistant) has launched a new "computer operation" feature on Windows, enabling the AI to view software interfaces, move the mouse, click buttons, and input text directly on users' desktops. The feature operates on a separate virtual desktop without occupying the user's actual mouse and keyboard, allowing users to continue their normal workflow while Douyin works simultaneously. Users can monitor the process in real-time and pause or take

According to South Korea's Banking Union, the COFIX index—which measures the weighted average funding cost for banks' mortgages—reached 3.18% in July 2026 based on new disbursements, up 0.13 percentage points from June. The index has risen for four consecutive months, continuing its upward trend from late 2025.

According to Japan's Ministry of Finance, on August 18, the nation's 5-year government bond auction achieved a bids-to-cover ratio of 4.15x, surpassing the previous auction's 3.43x and the 12-month average of 3.34x. The tail (price difference between average and lowest accepted bids) narrowed to 0.02 yen from 0.03 yen previously. Japan's 5-year bond yield declined 1.61 basis points to 2.1480%, while the 10-year yield rose 1.02 basis points to 2.9358%, reflecting market expectations that Prime Mi

According to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck offshore areas near Sumatra on August 18.

According to BlockBeats, on August 18, NAVI Protocol officially launched NAVI Prime lending framework, becoming Sui's first curator-style lending vault. The protocol, which launched on Sui mainnet in 2023, has achieved a historical TVL peak of $1 billion and accumulated over 1.1 million users. NAVI Prime completed over 3 independent security audits during its 4-month development and will see a full launch announcement jointly issued with the Sui Foundation this week. The framework implements iso