SK Hynix, CXMT Mega-IPOs Siphon $28.8B From Crypto Liquidity

SK Hynix is set to open its roughly $24.5 billion U.S. listing on July 10, a sale of 177.9 million American depositary receipts that Bloomberg reports has been more than seven times oversubscribed. Days later, China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) begins book building on July 15 for a 29.5 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) Shanghai IPO. Together the two deals total close to $28.8 billion in fresh capital earmarked for AI infrastructure rather than crypto.

The SK Hynix book has drawn global long-only funds, sovereign wealth funds and specialist technology investors, with Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners indicating interest in up to $7 billion of shares. Proceeds will fund new manufacturing capacity and advanced chipmaking equipment to meet booming AI demand. CXMT, a U.S.-blocked firm that Reuters estimates held around 7.7% of the global DRAM market last year, posted first-quarter revenue of 50.8 billion yuan, up 700% year-on-year, and will use its raise to upgrade production lines.

Why it matters

The two listings follow SpaceX and Cerebras, reinforcing a pattern of capital rotation into AI infrastructure and away from digital assets. OpenAI and Anthropic have both been discussed at potential valuations near $1 trillion, and while growing unease over AI valuations could push their listings out to 2027, the pipeline behind them is already reshaping where global allocators put fresh money.

Market impact

The pressure on crypto is already visible. Stablecoin market cap fell to $312 billion in June, its largest monthly drop since TerraUSD. Tokenized equity volumes, by contrast, surged 145% to a record $3.86 billion, a rotation pattern that mirrors the broader bid for AI-adjacent infrastructure. Until the AI IPO cycle cools, the marginal dollar appears headed anywhere but crypto.