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 look at US markets, check out CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas.
Bitcoin’s fall below $90,000 looks like the start of a broad risk-off move, but the market did not behave as it usually does during a deep correction in BTC. The crossover pairs remained firm and the alternate rankings barely moved.
In a note to CoinDesk, Enflux, a Singapore-based market maker, said the lack of price action that typically occurs during a deep correction in BTC is the clearest sign that crypto is moving from a liquidity-driven market to a fundamentals-driven market.
“Majors without clear revenue, utility or institutional relevance are down 60 to 80 percent,” the company wrote. “Traditional alternative seasons, 2017-style vertical rotations or 2021 reflexive leverage cycles, depended on narratives, excess liquidity and retail mania. Most of these elements do not exist at scale in this bull market.”
Enflux also noted that tokens tied to staking, ETFs, or real-world usage are holding up.
Bizantine Capital’s March Zheng said he sees the same dynamic.
“Rather, we look at the relative ranking of the top twenty coins and how they move relative to the bitcoin market cap,” he said. “So far, the range has been fairly balanced as Bitcoin’s generally heavy corrections lead to significant price degradation for alts.”
Zheng believes the stability suggests the market is not entering a classic alternate season and is instead showing signs of a more orderly structure.
Signals point to a market that gradually separates sustainable assets from speculative beta.
Tokens with identifiable users, revenue, or institutional demand continue to hold strong, while weaker majors absorb most of the stress.
The question is: will this thesis of fundamentals on large speculative rotations be valid?
Market movement
BTC: Bitcoin is trading around $92,234 after recovering from its fall below $90,000 earlier this week.
ETFs: Ether is holding near $3,099 as it stabilizes alongside the broader market.
Gold: Gold fell for a fourth straight day to $4,064.60 an ounce, remaining below last month’s record as traders cut the odds of a U.S. rate cut in December to around 50%, down from nearly 94% a month ago.
Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday, tracking tech-related Wall Street declines on AI valuation concerns, although Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.5%.
Elsewhere in crypto
- Pump’s New ‘Mayhem Mode’ Fails to Increase Token Launches or Revenue in First Week (The Block)
- “Permissionless Assets”: Robinhood’s 3-Phase Tokenization Plan to Disrupt TradFi (CoinDesk)
- Coinbase explains donation to Trump’s ballroom (Axios)
