retail investors

3 months agoNews Editor

US Retail Investors Sold $7B in Tech Stocks Last Week, Phyrex Says

According to crypto KOL Phyrex, who shared the data in a post on X, US retail investors have shifted their trading direction. Last week, they were net sellers of stocks for four consecutive trading days, marking the longest net-selling streak this year. Tech stocks saw the heaviest selling, with weekly net sales of approximately $7 billion. Two of the three largest single-day sell-offs of tech stocks by retail investors on record also occurred last week. The sell-off was centered in semiconductor and memory chip stocks — areas that had seen concentrated retail buying in May and June. Alongside the equity moves, US tech-focused leveraged ETFs have seen their assets shrink by about $50 billion from the June peak. Leveraged ETF products tied to South Korea and Taiwan have fallen more than half from peak levels. SOXL, the 3x semiconductor ETF, is down roughly 67% from its high, while trading volume in the 2x Hynix ETF has dropped more than 90% from its peak.

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US stocks

4 months agoNews Editor

Phyrex says rising leverage in U.S. stocks could amplify market swings

Crypto KOL Phyrex said on X that U.S. investors are chasing equity market highs with increasing leverage, pointing to fresh data from June that show deeper reliance on borrowed money inside brokerage accounts. According to his post, net credit balances in U.S. brokerage accounts fell by about $70 billion in a single month to negative $1.061 trillion, the lowest level on record. Over the same period, margin debt rose by about $86 billion to $1.53 trillion, marking a third straight monthly increase and a new record high. Phyrex argued that the continued deterioration in net credit balances signals shrinking cash buffers among investors and a growing dependence on borrowing to maintain stock exposure. He said leverage is now spread broadly across the U.S. brokerage system rather than concentrated in isolated pockets. In rising markets, higher stock prices lift account equity and can unlock additional borrowing capacity, creating mechanical buying. If the market weakens, however, margin pressure may force investors to add cash or sell shares, turning the same leverage that supported the rally into mechanical selling pressure. In his view, the combination of high valuations and elevated margin usage leaves U.S. equities more vulnerable if fresh inflows slow.

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Phyrex

4 months agoNews Editor

Phyrex says BitMart and BitMex failures were business-driven, not FTX-style blowups

Crypto KOL Phyrex said on X that BitMart and BitMex did not collapse because of a blowup and should not be compared directly with FTX. In his account, the core issue at both platforms was their business operations. He also said BitMart approached people around him in 2023 to discuss a possible acquisition and prepared substantial data at the time, but the talks did not lead anywhere. Phyrex argued that part of the decline seen at many third-tier exchanges came from pressure tied to Binance Alpha. According to his post, smaller exchanges had long served as a main venue for altcoins, manipulated coins, pyramid-scheme coins, and community coins, but Alpha gave those tokens a better destination, cutting deeply into listing fees and the profits from coordinated market-making. He added that another factor was the movement of copy-trading leaders, who often shift across exchanges and quickly bring users with them when a newer platform offers better profit terms. He said several recently known exchanges that ended up running away broadly followed that pattern.

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BitMart

4 months agoNews Editor

Crypto KOL says BitMart and BitMEX were hit by business decline, not collapse events like FTX

Crypto KOL Phyrex said in a post on X that BitMart and BitMEX did not fail because of a blowup similar to FTX, arguing that their core problem was business deterioration. He said BitMart had approached people around him for acquisition talks in 2023 and that data work was carried out at the time, but the process eventually went nowhere. In his view, part of the decline among smaller, lower-tier exchanges came from pressure tied to Binance Alpha, which gave altcoins, community tokens, and other fringe assets a better venue and cut into listing fees and coordinated market-making profits once earned by those exchanges. Phyrex also pointed to the migration of copy-trading leaders, saying their numbers were limited but they often brought waves of followers with them. When a newer platform offered better profit opportunities, those traders would quickly move their users over. He added that several better-known exchanges that later ran away had broadly followed that pattern.

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Bitget

4 months agoNews Editor

Phyrex says Reality’s rToken is more than tokenized stocks, citing unified account design

Crypto KOL Phyrex has published a breakdown of rToken, a product issued by Reality under Bitget, arguing that it should not be viewed simply as a tokenized stock product. According to the analysis cited by ChainCatcher, the main value of rToken lies in asset composability after being connected to a unified trading account, which in his view addresses the liquidity-island problem often seen in real-world asset, or RWA, products. Phyrex highlighted three trading approaches he said can be implemented directly: increasing directional exposure to U.S. stocks, running delta-neutral arbitrage, and using staking and lending loops. He also outlined three features he sees as central for institutions: direct linkage to U.S. stock order books to avoid depegging risk, joint margin through a Unified Trading Account to improve capital efficiency, and weekend collateral valuation anchored to Friday’s closing prices to keep risk manageable. He said the structure allows crypto, tokenized equities, and derivatives positions to be managed within the same account while reducing the cost of rebalancing and moving capital across platforms.

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Bitget

4 months agoNews Editor

Phyrex says Bitget’s rToken value lies in composability, not just tokenized stocks

Crypto KOL Phyrex published a breakdown of rToken, issued by Reality under Bitget, arguing that the product should not be viewed simply as a tokenized stock. In his view, the main value of rToken comes from asset composability after being connected to a unified account structure, which addresses the liquidity silos that have limited real-world asset (RWA) products. Phyrex highlighted three trading strategies that he said can be put into use directly: increasing directional exposure to U.S. equities, running delta-neutral arbitrage, and using staking and lending loops. He also outlined three mechanisms that matter for institutions. These include direct routing to U.S. stock order books to avoid de-pegging risk, joint margin under a Unified Trading Account (UTA) to improve capital efficiency, and weekend collateral valuation anchored to Friday’s closing price for tighter risk control. Under that setup, users can manage crypto, tokenized equities, and derivatives positions within the same account, reducing the need to rebalance across platforms and move funds between venues.

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Bit.Fan