Memory Price Surge Slows Down, TRUMP Retail Investors Lose $3.8 Billion | Rewire News Morning Update

1｜Iran Sets Price Tag for The Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Ambassador to China, Fazli, announced at the World Peace Forum that China and other "friendly countries" will receive "special consideration" in the tolls for the Strait of Hormuz. Iran will cooperate with Oman to devise a "new arrangement." On the same day, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Medvedev declared that the Strait of Hormuz is Iran's "nuclear weapon."

Approximately 20% of global oil transportation passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. and Gulf countries insist that Iran has no right to charge tolls for an international waterway, but some European countries have accepted that tolls are inevitable. Turkish President Erdogan urged Israel not to "destroy" the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding.

As the funeral of Khamenei entered its second day, the newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mujtaba, has yet to make a public appearance. CNN reported that he was injured in the attack, with Revolutionary Guard commander Vahidi believed to be actually leading the decision-making.

(Source: Fortune / Bloomberg / Al Jazeera / CNN / Newsweek)

2｜TRUMP Coin Sees Nearly $3.8 Billion Loss in Value Across Million Wallets as Blockchain Paints Precise Wealth Flow

Nansen's blockchain data analysis shows that since its launch in January 2025, out of 1.48 million wallets that purchased TRUMP Coin, 989,000 (about two-thirds) are collectively experiencing a $3.81 billion loss. Profits are concentrated in the hands of a few early buyers, holding a $4.04 billion gain. The current price of TRUMP Coin is about $1.79, down 96% from its peak.

Financial data revealed yesterday shows that Trump personally earned $636 million from the meme coin project. When these two sets of numbers are put together, they outline a clear wealth flow: retail investors' losses and the issuer's profits are nearly symmetrical. Treasury Secretary Benson previously stated that there is "no conflict of interest."

The story of TRUMP Coin is not about the price fluctuations but about institutional loopholes. While the president advanced crypto-friendly legislation on one hand, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from the industry through transaction fees, the traditional conflict of interest mechanisms did not fail, they were never applied.

(Source: CoinDesk / Nansen / CBS News)

3｜Meta Data Center Pollutes City Water Source, AI Infrastructure's Physical Cost Begins to Spill Over

Cheyenne, Wyoming, halted the acceptance of all data center wastewater discharges as Meta's subcontractor, Goat Systems, released rare metal-tolerant bacteria Cupriavidus gilardii into the city's reclaimed water system. The pollution caused the offline status of the reclaimed water systems of two treatment facilities for months, with cleanup only completed by the end of June. The city's public utilities board stated that drinking water was unaffected, but water for parks and golf courses was completely shut off.

Simultaneously, the Financial Times reported that clean energy prices in the United States are set to soar due to a surge in AI demand and subsidy cuts. The Verge revealed that the White House Energy Department deleted about 6,000 pages of energy efficiency guidance during a historic nationwide heatwave, sparking bipartisan criticism.

Three signals point in the same direction. The cost of AI infrastructure expansion encompasses not only electricity and land, but also water resource pollution risks and strain on public infrastructure. When a data center's closed-loop cooling wastewater can disrupt a city's recycled water network for months, the governance cost of infrastructure scaling may far exceed industry expectations.

(Source: Tom's Hardware / Cowboy State Daily / Financial Times / The Verge / Cheyenne Municipal Utilities)

4｜Memory Price Surge Slows Down as Consumer Market Hits Ceiling

A new TrendForce report shows a significant narrowing of the contract price hike in Q3. DRAM is expected to rise by 13-18% QoQ, NAND by 10-15%, much lower than the approximately 60% surge in Q2. The deceleration is not due to supply improvement, but rather consumer electronics manufacturers being unable to bear even higher procurement costs. After several quarters of sharp price increases, the price tolerance of the consumer end has reached its limit.

The demand on the AI end is still sufficient to lock up capacity. Samsung and SK Hynix warned that the AI-driven memory shortage may continue beyond 2027, with a further surge in HBM demand exacerbating supply constraints. SK Hynix is considering a large-scale ADR issuance with a 0.5% rate this week. The memory industry is undergoing a round of structural demand divergence: a cooling consumer market and an overheated AI market coexist.

On the same day, India's CG Semi factory commenced production in Gujarat, with an initial annual capacity of 2 billion chips covering the automotive, industrial, and storage sectors, mostly for export to Japan, the US, and Europe. Modi stated that semiconductors are the core of the next phase of "Make in India." Once at full capacity, the annual capacity will reach 5 billion chips.

(Source: TrendForce / Tom's Hardware / Bloomberg / ANI)

5｜Three-Way Fork in Cryptocurrency Regulation: UK Opens Up, EU Tightens, German Banks Enter

This week, the UK FCA unveiled a cryptocurrency regulation framework, allowing regulated platforms to access liquidity from overseas exchanges, and enabling non-UK issued stablecoins to circulate domestically. The authorization application window is from September 2026 to February 2027, with mandatory compliance starting from October 2027, along with the introduction of market manipulation and insider trading rules.

A conflicting signal comes from the EU. ESMA has released a statement stating that many prediction market contracts fall under binary options under MiFID II, and a trading ban for retail investors is now in effect. ESMA emphasizes that the actual features of a product, not its commercial label, determine its regulatory classification. Companies like Robinhood and Plus500 are facing immediate compliance risks. Bloomberg also reports that German local banks are preparing to massively enter the crypto trading space.

In the same industry, three different regulatory paths are unfolding simultaneously. The UK is using openness to drive growth, the EU is using existing regulations to define new species, and the German banking system is leveraging trust infrastructure to lower entry barriers.

(Source: CoinDesk / FCA / ESMA / Bloomberg)

Also worth noting ↓

A Ukrainian drone attack on the St. Petersburg oil terminal has caused a fuel crisis in Russia. Almost daily remote strikes have led to fuel supply issues in two-thirds of Russia's regions. Social media shows Russian drivers engaging in physical conflicts while queuing for gas, and crowd-sourced maps indicate which gas stations still have fuel. Putin described the attack as "non-critical." (Source: Fortune / Washington Post / Reuters)

The Bitcoin community has become divided over a proposal to freeze Satoshi Nakamoto's 1.1 million BTC. The BIP-361 proposal suggests freezing all quantum-vulnerable wallets (approximately 6.7-6.9 million BTC) before the arrival of quantum computing threats, with Zhao Changpeng supporting a 6-12 month window to transfer the funds to Satoshi. Critics argue that this proposal violates a core principle of permissionlessness in Bitcoin. A Google quantum AI paper warns that a quantum computer could crack a private key in 9 minutes, with the breakthrough expected before 2029. (Source: CoinDesk / Decrypt)

Midjourney requests Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose their AI usage details. In a copyright lawsuit, Midjourney countersued the three major studios, alleging that they are also using similar AI technology and requesting the court to compel disclosure of training datasets, model weights, and AI business plans. In June, the court had previously limited the scope of discovery, but Midjourney has filed an appeal this week. (Source: TechCrunch / Variety)

A white hat hacker uncovers a vulnerability that could have jeopardized $700 billion in crypto assets using a $3,000 server. The security researcher found a significant flaw in crypto infrastructure at a very low cost, and the vulnerability has since been patched. The stark difference in cost and risk once again highlights the inadequate security audits of crypto infrastructure. (Source: CoinDesk)

A fandom fiction community is experiencing an anti-AI movement, but detection tools are mistakenly flagging human authors. Creators on platforms like AO3 are attempting to eradicate AI writing, and the Claude/ChatGPT detector being used is often mislabeling human works as AI-generated. The distrust of AI has spread from the tech industry to cultural communities, but the ability to differentiate has not kept pace with emotions. (Source: The Verge)

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