Good morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the markets:
Welcome to the Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of the top stories in the US hour and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of US markets, see The Americans.
Bitcoin’s slide below $90,000 looked like the start of a broad risk move, but the market did not behave as it usually does in a deep BTC correction. The cross pairs remained stable, and the alt ranks blossomed slightly.
In a note to Coindesk, Enflux, a Singapore-based market maker, said the lack of price action that usually occurs during a deep BTC correction is the clearest sign that the crypto is moving from a liquidity-driven market to a fundamentals-driven one.
“Nobles without clear income, utility, or institutional affiliation declined by 60 to 80 percent,” the firm wrote. “Traditional ALT periods, the 2017 style vertical rotations or the 2021 reflexive leverage cycle, depend on narratives, excessive liquidity, and retail frenzy. Most of these do not exist at scale in this bull market.”
Enflux also noted that tokens tied to staking, ETFs, or real-world use are holding up.
Byzantine Capital’s March Zheng said he sees the same dynamic.
“We watch instead the relative ranking positions of the top twenty coins, and how they move in relation to Bitcoin’s market cap,” he said. “So far, the range has been fairly balanced, as generally heavy bitcoin corrections have seen significant price declines in alts.”
Zheng believes the stability suggests the market is not entering a classic ALT period and is instead showing signs of a more stable structure.
The signals point to a market that is gradually separating solid assets from speculative beta.
Tokens with identifiable users, revenue, or institutional demand continue to hold their ground, while weaker nobles absorb most of the strain.
The question is, does the thesis of the grounds on the extensive speculative circulation hold?
Market movement
BTC: Bitcoin is trading around $92,234 after recovering from its slide below $90,000 earlier this week.
Eth: 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/oz, staying below last month’s record as traders cut odds of a US rate cut by nearly 50% from nearly 94% a month ago.
Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Wednesday, tracking tech-led Wall Street on AI valuation concerns, though Japan’s Nikkei 225 returned 0.5% higher.
