Hello, Asia. Here’s what’s making news on the markets:
Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of the top news stories during U.S. business hours and insight into market movements and analysis. For a detailed overview of US markets, see Crypto Daybook Americas from CoinDesk.
Cryptocurrency markets in Asia are opening up to more stable BTC, but the tone is far from optimistic. The data shows a market that has stopped bleeding, but is not ready to accelerate. ETF flows, on-chain indicators, and derivatives prices all indicate a holding pattern.
U.S. ETF flows show the first stabilization in weeks, with an inflow of $56.5 million on Dec. 9 after more than $1.1 billion in weekly redemptions throughout November, according to data compiled by SoSoValue. According to Glassnode, the recovery is real but superficial. Momentum has improved, but spot CVD – which tracks cumulative buying minus selling pressure – remains deeply negative, derivatives positioning is defensive, and on-chain activity is near the bottom of its range. Short-term holders still dominate supply, which keeps the market susceptible to volatility.
As Glassnode writes, the combination of signals shows a market whose prices are stabilizing but remain structurally weak. The 14-day RSI, a momentum indicator that measures whether an asset is overbought or oversold, returned to its mid-range, signaling that bitcoin has recovered from last week’s tighter conditions.
Futures open interest has declined, the volatility spread is sharply reduced, and options bias shows traders are still paying for downside protection rather than upside.
On-chain activity offers little confirmation of a stronger trend, with the number of active addresses near cycle lows and capitalization growth achieved at just 0.7%, a sign of weak capital inflows. The supply mix is equally fragile as short-term holders continue to dominate.
Overall, the data suggests that BTC’s rebound is more due to a lack of sell-offs than strong demand.
Until ETF flows become consistently positive and on-chain activity strengthens, the market is likely to drift rather than follow a trend. A clearer directional shift will require a change in behavior from long-term holders and institutional allocators, neither of which is yet visible.
Market movement
BTC: Bitcoin is trading near $92,214 after a sharp reversal in the U.S. session, a move driven by spot demand rather than leverage and seen as a sign of seller exhaustion.
ETFs: Ether is hovering around $3,296 after a 6% daily gain, extending its outperformance as short-selling coverage and improving sentiment lift large-cap tokens.
Gold: Gold is trading comfortably above $4,200, supported by improving US jobs data and expectations of a Fed rate cut, although momentum remains limited ahead of Wednesday’s policy decision.
Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher as investors awaited Chinese inflation data and a widely expected Fed rate cut of 0.25%, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 0.82%.
Elsewhere in crypto
- Judge Do Kwon Demands Answers Before Sentencing on ‘Assurance’ He Will Serve Time (CoinDesk)
- Securitize Hires Former PayPal Executive as General Counsel Before Taking Company Public via SPAC (The Block)
