PA Daily: CXMT surges 465.82% on debut as whale ETH buys and WEMIX exploit draw attention

PANews’ July 27 daily roundup covered regulatory moves, project updates, funding news, analyst views, and on-chain data, with CXMT’s Shanghai STAR Market debut and a series of large Ethereum purchases standing out.

Regulation and macro

Chen Zhi approved for arrest

Chen Zhi, founder of Cambodia’s Prince Group, was formally approved for arrest on July 6, about half a year after being escorted back to China. Compared with the charges cited when he was first returned, the alleged offense of concealing or disguising criminal proceeds was removed, while copyright infringement and intentional injury were added.

The report said Chen built a global telecom fraud network centered on the “Jinbei Park” over a period of years. China’s Ministry of Public Security had previously said that on Jan. 7, 2026, with support from Cambodian authorities, a working group escorted Chen, described as the head of a major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate, from Phnom Penh back to China. At that time, the ministry said the group was suspected of operating casinos, fraud, illegal business operations, and concealing criminal proceeds, and that compulsory measures had been taken in accordance with the law.

The article also said bitcoin confiscated by the United States alone was worth $15 billion, or about 103.5 billion yuan.

At least 29 crypto exchange apps blocked from new installs on Google Play in South Korea

In addition to OKX and Bybit, at least 29 overseas crypto derivatives exchange apps can no longer be newly installed through Google Play in South Korea, including MEXC, KuCoin, BingX, Gemini, BTCC, Phemex, and BitMEX.

According to the report, those apps show messages such as “unavailable” or “not available in your region” when searched in the Play Store. Of the 29, 14 had previously been identified by South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit as unreported virtual asset service providers and referred to law enforcement, while another 15 had not been referred but were also blocked by Google Play.

Since January, Google has suspended regional support for apps tied to virtual asset service providers that are not registered with the FIU, based on its own policies. Removal from Google Play does not affect access through the web or installation through Apple’s App Store.

CFTC sets out expectations for event contract self-certification

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued fresh guidance that specifically referenced Kalshi, Coinbase, Polymarket, and Crypto.com, saying prediction-market platforms had relied too heavily on batch filings built around “template” self-certifications for event contracts.

The agency said firms may not submit broad, generic certifications. Instead, they must provide specific terms, settlement methods, data sources, and compliance analysis for each category of event contract. Only closely related event contracts may be grouped into one “class” filing. The CFTC said the simplified approach now in use weakens its ability to assess whether individual event contracts meet core regulatory principles.

On the same day, the regulator also agreed to extend the registered dormant status of Kraken Derivatives Exchange, preserving the possibility that it could resume operations in the future after Kraken’s acquisition of Bitnomial.

Project updates

Binance Alpha to list AEON and offer token airdrop

Binance Alpha said AEON (AEON) trading will go live at 18:00 UTC+8 on July 27. Users holding at least 245 Binance Alpha points can claim an airdrop of 250 AEON tokens on the Alpha event page, on a first-come, first-served basis.

If the event does not end, the score threshold will automatically drop by 5 points every five minutes. Claiming the airdrop will consume 15 Binance Alpha points, and users must confirm the claim within 24 hours on the event page or forfeit the allocation.

The roundup separately noted again that Binance Alpha would be the first venue to list AEON on July 27 and that eligible users could claim the airdrop after trading starts.

Storj Labs files for Chapter 11 protection

Storj Labs, the parent company of cloud storage platform Storj, has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to address certain legacy debts.

The company said operations, services, and the network will continue as normal during restructuring, with no service disruption for customers. It also plans for ownership of the reorganized company to be shared by management, the token community, and investors.

WEMIX says contract ownership was compromised

WEMIX, the South Korean blockchain gaming platform, said an investigation into abnormal transactions found that ownership of a contract related to WEMIX had been compromised. The attacker allegedly minted about 5,225,525 WEMIX without authorization.

Those assets were later swapped into about 30,736 WEMIX and 724,198.27 USDC.e. The stolen USDC.e was bridged to Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain and exchanged into assets including ETH and USDT, with some of the funds deposited into centralized exchanges.

WEMIX said the attacker’s wallets and fund flows had been traced and that the team was asking exchanges and stablecoin issuers to freeze the assets. The exact cause is still under investigation. The team and outside experts are carrying out a broader review and checking related and similar contracts. WEMIX was down 16.65% over the past 24 hours.

BitMart withdrawals remain open, but no requests processed in the past eight hours

BitMart has announced it will shut down, but withdrawals remain available. Over the past 24 hours, only 58 wallets made withdrawals totaling about $805,000. Over the past eight hours, BitMart processed no withdrawal requests.

Another item in the roundup said BitMart’s public on-chain reserves fell sharply in the days before the shutdown announcement, dropping from about $12 million on the 12th of this month to about $2.31 million on the 26th. Its on-chain assets now total about $1.89 million, including about $815,000 on Ethereum, $660,000 on Solana, $362,000 on BNB Smart Chain, $37,000 on Starknet, and about $17,000 in Bitcoin.

WEMIX had earlier flagged a potential security issue

WEMIX had previously said it detected a potential security issue involving a WEMIX contract and was investigating. The project said it would release further details and response measures after confirming the facts, while asking users to rely only on official channels for updates.

Deals and funding

Midjourney acquires Co-Star

AI image-generation company Midjourney has acquired social astrology app Co-Star. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The report described it as Midjourney’s first acquisition since the company was founded.

Co-Star has about 4.3 million monthly active users. Its main function is generating personal natal charts and allowing users to share them with friends inside the app. The app combines artificial intelligence and human teams to provide horoscopes, compatibility analysis, and other astrology-related suggestions.

All 24 members of the Co-Star team have joined Midjourney. Founder Banu Guler is now Midjourney’s chief design officer and is rebuilding a cross-functional design, product, and front-end team. The Co-Star app will continue operating under Banu.

Views and analysis

CryptoQuant analyst says market stability reflects seller exhaustion more than renewed demand

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost wrote that Bitcoin has remained weak since the start of the year, with spot demand continuing to contract while futures speculation has provided only temporary support.

He said the ongoing pattern of rising futures demand and shrinking spot demand resembles prior bear-market conditions. For a sustainable uptrend to restart, futures and spot markets need to move back into alignment and show some form of demand consensus.

Darkfost estimated combined spot and futures demand at -127,000 BTC, a level he said remains too weak to restart an uptrend. In his view, that means the market’s current stability is due more to sellers being exhausted than to a genuine recovery in demand. He added that without panic selling accompanied by very low volume, the pullback may continue.

Axel Adler Jr says Bitcoin is undervalued, but a bottom is not confirmed

On-chain analyst Axel Adler Jr said Bitcoin’s valuation based on the MVRV Z-Score has fallen to a multi-year low, though the indicator has not moved into negative territory. At the same time, seven-day realized profit and loss has shifted from loss back to profit.

He said Bitcoin is now in an undervalued range on the MVRV Z-Score, but there has not yet been full capitulation, which would require the metric to break below zero. Realized profit-and-loss data suggests selling pressure has eased, but it still does not confirm that capitulation has marked a bottom.

His conclusion was that prices are stabilizing in the short term, but there is still no bottom confirmed by capitulation selling and no obvious demand catalyst.

Brian Armstrong says AI increases crypto’s importance rather than reducing it

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded on X to the idea that “if you’re in crypto, move to AI,” calling that framing a mistaken zero-sum mindset.

He said crypto is a general-purpose technology and a layer of infrastructure, comparable to electricity or the internet. It does not compete with the next major technology cycle, because it supports it. In his telling, the choice is not one or the other.

Armstrong argued that AI, as a major trend, will not weaken crypto’s role. It will make crypto more important. He said AI agents need their own financial infrastructure and that their daily transaction volume will eventually far exceed the total daily transaction volume of humans.

He added that AI agents cannot open bank accounts, cannot wait three days for remittances, and cannot be confined to one country, so they need real-time programmable money, which crypto provides. Agents need to hold funds and pay on their own. Armstrong said Coinbase’s x402 protocol, Base, and USDC already support the vast majority of agent payments.

He also said agents will take part in trading and serve as financial advisers, raise or borrow capital for new projects, and handle tasks such as tax planning, portfolio rebalancing, and bill payments for users.

Key data and on-chain flows

Weibo trend on Liang Wenfeng’s floating gains from CXMT subscription

The phrase about Liang Wenfeng’s 827 million yuan floating profit from subscribing to CXMT shares appeared on Weibo’s trending topics list.

Address buys 9,046.17 ETH in 50 minutes

Address 0x365…37df5 bought 9,046.17 ETH over the past 50 minutes at an average price of $1,968, with the purchase valued at more than $17.8 million. The tokens were later transferred in batches to address 0xdbf…Fe815.

CXMT closes first day up 465.82%

CXMT closed its first trading day at 49 yuan, up 465.82%. Turnover reached 141.187 billion yuan, turnover rate was 66.4%, and market capitalization hit 3.28 trillion yuan, surpassing Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to rank first among A-share companies by market value.

It also became the first A-share stock in history to record more than 100 billion yuan in single-day turnover.

Hong Kong trader accused of using HK$50 million of company funds to bet on Hynix

A 26-year-old male trader at Hong Kong-based Bright Smart Management Services Limited allegedly used HK$50 million of company money as margin without authorization and used leverage to buy the CSOP 2x Long Hynix ETF. Because the position combined margin financing with a 2x leveraged ETF, the paper loss reached about HK$150 million.

The ETF had risen to a record HK$193.65 at the end of June before pulling back with the semiconductor sector. By July 20, it had fallen more than 72% to HK$52.58. The trader has been arrested by police on suspicion of theft. Because the position has not been closed, the final loss remains subject to price moves.

CXMT sets multiple records in its first trading hour

CXMT’s debut on the STAR Market set several A-share records in its first trading hour:

the first technology stock in A-shares to open with a market capitalization above 3 trillion yuan, at about 3.31 trillion yuan;
the largest listed company on the STAR Market by market capitalization, surpassing Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.;
the first A-share stock to exceed 100 billion yuan in single-day turnover, with more than 100 billion yuan traded in its first hour alone;
the first new listing to combine more than 100 billion yuan in turnover with a turnover rate above 50%.

Top CXMT short position shows $3.062 million floating loss

The largest short on CXMT was showing a floating loss of $3.062 million on a $19.85 million position. The whale currently holds 2.6 million CXMT tokens with an entry price of $6.4083. Because the price source switched to real trading prices, the funding-rate multiplier returned to 0.5, and the position paid $45,000 in funding over two hours.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs log $33.79 million of net inflows last week

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $33.79 million during the U.S. trading week from July 20 to July 24, extending the streak to three consecutive weeks of inflows.

Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust BTC led weekly inflows with $85.78 million, bringing its cumulative historical net inflow to $2.65 billion. Ark & 21Shares ETF ARKB followed with $78.73 million in weekly net inflows and a cumulative historical total of $1.33 billion.

BlackRock’s IBIT posted the largest weekly net outflow at $95.90 million, though its cumulative historical net inflow still stands at $60.39 billion. As of publication, total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs were $77.820 billion, the ETF net asset ratio was 6.05%, and cumulative historical net inflows had reached $51.390 billion.

CXMT listing had been projected to generate more than 20,000 yuan in profit per allotment

CXMT’s issue price was 8.66 yuan per share. Based on an average gain of 278.01% for all new listings, the profit per lot was estimated at about 12,000 yuan. Based on an average gain of 466.67% for STAR Market IPOs, the figure was estimated at about 20,200 yuan.

Institutional commentary cited in the roundup said the IPO segment has recently seen a phase of intraday rebound and a moderation in panic sentiment. It said cycle-pricing and sentiment indicators have largely fallen back to neutral or slightly below neutral levels for the year, suggesting the phase of rapid risk release from elevated levels may be ending. At the same time, the note said a return to clear strength in the IPO segment may still take more time and would require both further stabilization in cycle indicators and a narrowing of differences between bulls and bears.

Three new wallets buy 25,425 ETH in two hours

Over the past two hours, three newly created wallets, likely tied to the same whale, spent 50.04 million DAI to buy 25,425 ETH at an average price of $1,968 per coin.

Wang Chun deposits $6.73 million in ETH and WBTC to Binance

F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun deposited ETH and WBTC worth $6.73 million to Binance.

Several tokens face large unlocks next week

SUI, EIGEN, FF, and other tokens are set for sizable unlocks next week:

Sui (SUI) will unlock about 13.72 million tokens at 8:00 Beijing time on Aug. 1, equal to about 0.34% of circulating supply and worth about $9.9 million;
EigenCloud (EIGEN) will unlock about 36.82 million tokens at 12:00 Beijing time on Aug. 1, equal to about 5.79% of circulating supply and worth about $7.6 million;
Falcon Finance (FF) will unlock about 102 million tokens at 21:00 Beijing time on July 29, equal to about 3.53% of circulating supply and worth about $6.2 million;
Kamino (KMNO) will unlock about 229 million tokens at 20:00 Beijing time on July 30, equal to about 2.97% of circulating supply and worth about $4.1 million;
Ethena (ENA) will unlock about 40.63 million tokens at 15:00 Beijing time on Aug. 2, equal to about 0.47% of circulating supply and worth about $3.5 million.

TRUMP team sends 13.8 million unlocked tokens to multiple CEXs

The TRUMP team transferred 13.8 million TRUMP tokens unlocked yesterday to multiple centralized exchanges.

This article was originally published by Bit.Fan. For more cryptocurrency news and market insights, visit www.bit.fan.