Asia Morning Briefing: Bitcoin Holds Steady as Traders Turn to Ethereum for September Upside

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets:

Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.

Bitcoin is stuck in a holding pattern near $112,000, according to CoinDesk market data, but the bigger story onchain might be the divide emerging between how investors treat BTC and ETH heading into September. BTC is acting more like a macro hedge, while ETH is being positioned as the real vehicle for upside.

That split reflects a mix of policy uncertainty and shifting trader flows. In a recent note, QCP Capital wrote that doubts about the Fed’s independence are keeping term premiums elevated, a setup that weakens the dollar and supports hedges like BTC and gold.

But options desks and prediction markets show momentum gathering in ETH instead, where traders see the most potential for a breakout.

Flowdesk reported muted implied volatility in BTC despite pullbacks, suggesting positioning rather than speculative bets. Skew remains negative, meaning puts are expensive, but that creates relative value in call structures. ETH risk reversals, meanwhile, have recovered from their recent selloff, indicating renewed demand for upside exposure.

SOL options also saw increased activity, with flows skewed to the upside on growing sentiment around its ecosystem and corporate Digital Asset Treasury initiatives. Spot activity rotated into ETH beta names like AAVE and AERO, as well as SOL betas like RAY and DRIFT, showing breadth widening beyond majors.

Prediction markets back this rotation theme. Polymarket sentiment reinforces the rotation. Traders expect BTC to stay capped near $120k, while ETH is given a strong chance of breaking $5,000 — a view consistent with its 20% monthly rally and recovering risk reversals.

Traders are increasingly treating BTC as a steady macro hedge, while ETH is emerging as the market’s high-conviction upside play into September.

Europe-based market maker Flowdesk wrote in a recent Telegram update that activity on the desk remains high, with clients broadly positioned for upside even as macro risks linger and seasonal volatility tends to pick up.

The macro backdrop sets the hedge case, trading flows show how positioning is shifting, and prediction markets validate it with real-money bets. Together, they sketch a market where BTC anchors as a governance and inflation hedge, ETH leads on performance, and SOL builds momentum as breadth improves.

Market Movements

BTC: Bitcoin remains in a consolidation phase around the $110K–112K range, marked by waning short‑term volatility.

ETH: ETH is trading near $4400. Its rally is being fuelled by surging institutional interest, especially via ETF inflows, and anticipation surrounding the upcoming Fusaka network upgrade. Price action is supported by strong structural demand as ETH continues to solidify its role in DeFi and smart contracts.

Gold: Gold is trading around record highs propelled by expectations of an imminent Federal Reserve rate cut (markets now price in about a 92% chance), weakening confidence in Fed independence, and increased demand from ETFs and central banks acting as conviction buyers.

Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific stocks climbed Thursday, led by a 0.57% gain in Japan’s Nikkei 225, as Wall Street’s tech rally lifted sentiment despite lingering economic worries.

S&P 500: U.S. stocks rose Wednesday as Alphabet gained after avoiding a breakup in an antitrust ruling and investors boosted September Fed rate-cut bets despite fresh labor market concerns.

Elsewhere in Crypto:

• U.S. CFTC Gives Go-Ahead For Polymarket's New Exchange, QCX (CoinDesk)
• Pump.fun’s New Fee Model Hands Out $2M to Creators in First 24 Hours (Decrypt)
• AI Agents Will Become Biggest Stablecoin User, Says Novogratz (Bloomberg)

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/04/asia-morning-briefing-bitcoin-holds-steady-as-traders-turn-to-ethereum-for-september-upside

Solana Outperforms Bitcoin; Possibly Poised to Follow Ether's Recent 200% Rally, Says Analyst

With bitcoin (BTC) stuck just above $110,000 and ether (ETH) consolidating after hitting fresh records, Solana (SOL) has emerged as a standout performer in the crypto market recently.

The token traded around $211 on Monday, up 33% from early August lows, making it one of the best performers in the CoinDesk 20 Index in the past month. Against bitcoin, SOL has gained 34% over the past month, and it has strengthened 14% versus ETH since mid-August.

The rally reflects a broader rotation into altcoins, analysts said.

"The season of profit redistribution among holders of cryptocurrencies continues,” Sergei Gorev, head of risk at YouHodler, said in a market note shared with CoinDesk. He said liquidity has been moving out of BTC into second-tier tokens, with "a noticeable increase in the positive dynamics in capital flows to SOL."

Such flows could be long-term as corporate investors look for large, liquid projects to hold, Gorev added, naming SOL alongside with XRP (XRP) as the "next interesting market ideas."

Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, tipped SOL to replicate ether’s turnaround earlier this year. He pointed to Ethereum’s resurgence after stablecoin adoption, strong ETF inflows and the relentless bid from digital asset treasuries, or DATs, helped ETH rally nearly 200% since April.

"SOL appears poised to repeat the exact same playbook that ETH just executed in the coming months," Dorman wrote in a fresh report.

The first U.S.-listed Solana ETF launched in July, but it was futures-based. Several asset managers, including VanEck and Fidelity, have filed for spot products with decisions due later this year, Dorman said.

Meanwhile, at least three Solana-focused DATs are raising funds that could channel up to $2.65 billion into SOL over the next month, he added.

At only one-fifth of ETH's market capitalization, SOL's price could be even more reactive to the flows if they materialize.

"SOL might be the most obvious long right now," Dorman said. "If the price of ETH rose almost 200% on roughly $20 billion of new demand, what do you think happens to SOL on $2.5 billion or more of new demand?"

Recent news could also add to the momentum. Nasdaq-listed digital asset conglomerate Galaxy Digital tokenized its shares on Solana, while the approval of the Alpenglow upgrade promises to improve transaction speed and finality.

Read more: TRUMP, XRP, and SOL Options Signal a Potential Year-End Altcoin Season: PowerTrade

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/03/solana-outperforms-bitcoin-possibly-poised-to-follow-ether-s-recent-200-rally-says-analyst

The CLARITY Act Defined “Mature” Blockchains. Here’s What It Missed.

As the digital asset industry evolves, so does the language we use to describe it. A promising new term —“mature blockchain” — has entered the regulatory discourse via the CLARITY Act, a bipartisan legislative proposal aimed at providing much-needed regulatory certainty around digital assets in the U.S. Among other things, it defines a “mature blockchain” as one that is sufficiently decentralized and not reliant on any single person or entity to operate.

This makes decentralization a critical legal distinction, and may also determine whether an asset on a given network should be treated as a security.

However, fitting the definition of decentralized doesn’t mean a blockchain is ready for global scale or real-world adoption. To bring blockchain technology into mainstream, real-world use, maturity must mean more than just decentralization: it must also mean operational readiness, i.e. the ability of a network to deliver performance, reliability, and scalability under these conditions. Decentralization is and must remain a foundational pillar of blockchain. It ensures resilience, neutrality, and censorship resistance. But decentralization alone is not enough. A blockchain that is highly decentralized but cannot reliably scale, or routinely suffers downtime, or finalizes transactions only after minutes of uncertainty, will struggle to support the kinds of applications (payments, identity verification, tokenized assets) that the world is ready for.

Some blockchains today, like Ethereum and Cardano, are still working through what could be called growing pains. Their engineering teams are focused on solving base-layer challenges: scaling past double-digit transactions per second, reducing finality times from minutes to seconds, stabilizing consensus mechanisms, or addressing uptime reliability. These challenges are real, and the work is important. But they also signal that the network is still in its developmental phase, not yet ready to support high-stakes, production-grade use.

By contrast, a handful of blockchains, like Solana and Algorand, have already moved past these foundational hurdles. They’ve demonstrated the ability to deliver high throughput, low latency, sub-three-second finality, and virtually zero downtime. These networks aren’t scrambling to stabilize. They’re focused on simplifying the user experience, onboarding non-Web3 developers, integrating with decentralized identity frameworks, and supporting regulated use cases like payments, tokenization, and even AI-agent transactions.

This shift (from survival to usability) is the true marker of a mature blockchain. It’s what signals readiness not just to regulators, but to developers, enterprises, and end users.

So how do we recognize blockchain maturity in practice? One clue is the roadmap. If a blockchain’s roadmap is dominated by protocol-level upgrades, core infrastructure rework, or fundamental scalability improvements, often expressed in years, it’s likely still working to stabilize. That doesn’t mean it won’t mature, but it’s not there yet.

On the other hand, if the roadmap is centered around new features and expanding usability, integrations, and new use cases, that is a strong signal that the chain is content with its technical foundation and is capable of scaling.

Decentralization is important, and the focus the CLARITY Act gives it is a good thing. By introducing the concept of blockchain maturity, the proposed legislation invites us to move beyond one-size-fits-all thinking and begin differentiating between networks not just by ideology, but by architecture, performance, and purpose. It also lays the foundation for institutional adoption, where chains that meet both decentralization and operational maturity thresholds can be treated as truly public infrastructure.

In a world where blockchains are expected to settle billions in value, host critical identity credentials, and power automated machine-to-machine payments, both its trustlessness and trustworthiness are essential. We must keep decentralization as a non-negotiable principle, but we must also insist on real-world reliability.

Maturity, in this expanded sense, is about balance. It’s about chains that have preserved decentralization while delivering enterprise-grade performance. Chains that don’t just resist capture, but resist failure. Chains that are ready not just for crypto-native experimentation, but for meaningful adoption in industries like finance, energy, mobility, and beyond.

The future of blockchain won’t be shaped by ideology alone. It will be shaped by networks that are ready to integrate, to scale, to settle instantly, and to disappear quietly into the infrastructure of daily life. That’s the kind of maturity that will move this industry from speculation to significance.

source https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2025/09/03/the-clarity-act-defined-mature-blockchains-here-s-what-it-missed

XRP Set for Higher Prices as MACD Nears Potential Bullish Crossover

News Background

• XRP rose 3% in the 24-hour window from Sept. 1 at 03:00 to Sept. 2 at 02:00, moving between $2.70–$2.83 on 5% intraday volatility.
• Institutional activity dominated early hours, with 164.9M XRP traded at 07:00–08:00 GMT, almost double the 24-hour average of 86M.
• Whales accumulated 340M tokens (~$960M) over the past two weeks, signaling conviction despite broader market weakness.
• Seasonal September softness and regulatory uncertainty remain key headwinds. Spot XRP ETF applications from Grayscale, Bitwise, and others are pending with U.S. regulators.
• Analysts are split: some flag downside risks toward $1.00 after the July $3.65 peak, while others point to long-term breakout setups with $7–$8 targets.

Price Action Summary

• XRP opened near $2.74 and advanced to a morning high of $2.83 on heavy volume before fading to $2.77 by session close.
• Support repeatedly held at $2.70–$2.74, while $2.83 was rejected as short-term resistance.
• Late session (23:18–00:17 GMT) saw a 0.68% move from $2.74 to $2.77, with 2M+ tokens per minute traded during peak bursts, confirming institutional flows.

Technical Analysis

• Support: $2.70–$2.74 established as the near-term floor.
• Resistance: $2.83 is the immediate ceiling; $3.00–$3.30 remains the broader breakout band.
• Momentum: RSI stable in mid-50s, indicating neutral-to-bullish bias.
• MACD: Histogram converging toward bullish crossover as accumulation builds.
• Patterns: Symmetrical triangle with consolidation under $3.00; break above $3.30 could target $4.00+.
• Volume: Early-session spike to 164.9M signaled whale participation, later fading to 21.7M as retail dominated.

What Traders Are Watching

• Institutional accumulation vs. analyst calls for a cycle top — which side defines September’s trajectory.
• Pending ETF rulings as potential catalysts for inflows.
• Breakout scenario: reclaim $2.83, then test $3.00–$3.30.
• Breakdown scenario: lose $2.70 floor, exposing $2.50.

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/02/xrp-set-for-higher-prices-as-macd-nears-potential-bullish-crossover

Dogecoin Price Analysis: $0.21–$0.22 Range Forms as Institutional Flows Spike

News Background

• Dogecoin traded through a volatile 24-hour session from Sept. 1 at 03:00 to Sept. 2 at 02:00, in line with broader crypto choppiness as markets absorbed macro headlines on trade policy and Fed signaling.
• Institutional desks remain active in memecoins, with 809M DOGE traded at the 07:00 rally and 806M DOGE during the 20:00 pullback, far above normal averages.
• Analysts suggest CFOs and corporate treasuries are probing allocations into liquid digital assets like DOGE as diversification against traditional hedging strategies.
• Macro backdrop: G7 trade tensions, U.S. inflation monitoring, and central bank policy divergence continue to elevate volatility across both equities and digital assets.

Price Action Summary

• DOGE traded in a $0.01 (≈6%) range between $0.21 and $0.22.
• At 07:00 GMT, DOGE advanced from $0.21 to $0.22 on 808.9M turnover, establishing resistance at $0.22.
• Profit-taking followed through midday, with additional selling pressure hitting at 20:00 GMT as price slipped back to $0.21 on 806M turnover, reinforcing the floor.
• The session closed at $0.21, indicating consolidation between tested support and entrenched resistance.

Technical Analysis

• Support: $0.21 confirmed as structural floor after multiple high-volume defenses.
• Resistance: $0.22 remains the immediate ceiling; breakout requires decisive close above $0.225.
• Momentum: RSI steady near 50, showing neutral trend with potential for directional break.
• MACD: Histogram compression continues, suggesting buildup for momentum shift.
• Patterns: Range-bound consolidation forming; upside target $0.25–$0.30 if $0.22 breaks, downside risk to $0.20 if $0.21 fails.
• Volume: Institutional-scale flows (>800M twice in one session) underscore large-holder participation shaping price action.

What Traders Are Watching

• Whether $0.21 continues to hold under persistent selling.
• Break above $0.225 as the trigger for a rally toward $0.25.
• Futures open interest trends and whale wallet movements post-rally.
• Macro catalysts (Fed remarks, trade negotiations) as volatility drivers across crypto majors and memecoins.

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/02/dogecoin-price-analysis-usd0-21-usd0-22-range-forms-as-institutional-flows-spike

Asia Morning Briefing: Hex Trust CEO Sees Both Promise and Peril in Bitcoin Treasury Firms

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets:

Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.

Digital Asset Treasury (DATs) companies – firms that put bitcoin on the balance sheet – were the talk of the town during BTC Asia in Hong Kong.

But corporate adoption of Bitcoin can be a double-edged sword, says Alessio Quaglini, CEO and Co-Founder of crypto custodian Hex Trust. While treasury holdings put crypto on the balance sheets of public companies, he warns that leveraged strategies could turn adoption into a source of instability.

“It’s great for the adoption. It’s great because you have basically indirect bitcoin access to billions of people investing in local stock exchanges and Nasdaq,” Quaglini told CoinDesk during a recent interview on the sidelines of BTC Asia in Hong Kong.

But he drew a sharp line between healthy diversification and financial engineering.

“If this listing company exists for the sole purpose of holding crypto, well then, it’s a hedge fund that is publicly traded. It’s a financial engineering kind of exercise,” he continued.

Quaglini, like many others in the industry, is concerned about excessive levels of leverage. A recent report from Galaxy illustrates the risk, showing loan volumes at their highest since 2022 alongside a $1 billion liquidation wave, while Korean regulators have already stepped in to freeze new lending products as they grow concerned about leverage straining markets.

“If these companies deploy leverage, and they issue debt to buy Bitcoin with strong triggers, then it’s a big issue,” Quaglini said. In public markets, debt covenants are transparent, meaning traders can anticipate forced selling. “You might be in the situation of the prisoner dilemma… You can have this kind of spiral effect that brings more volatility to the industry.”

Even so, Quaglini sees today’s treasury players as a first step.

“The next step is that you have real companies that do have a lot of operating cash flow, and they’re sitting on huge amounts of cash, like Apple, Google, etc.,” he said. If those firms start allocating reserves into BTC, the shift would be “extremely positive.”

In the end, the real test of the viability of DATs isn’t whether small firms turn themselves into bitcoin proxies, but whether the world’s largest corporates are willing to put their cash piles on-chain.

Market Movement

BTC: Bitcoin is in the green changing hands above $109K. The world's largest digital asset is stabilizing after August saw a rare rotation out of BTC spot ETFs into ETH funds, which has weighed on relative BTC demand in recent weeks. Broader macro remains supportive but price action is still consolidating beneath mid‑August highs

ETH: Ether is trading at $4,298. Market participants are easing on profit‑taking after notching record levels late last month and bumping into resistance near the high‑$4,000s. The August ETF flow trend favored ETH, but near‑term consolidation dominates after the run‑up

Gold: Gold is holding near a four‑month high on mounting bets for a September Fed rate cut and a softer U.S. dollar, both of which typically support bullion

Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose as investors weighed tariff uncertainty and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 0.31% after a U.S. court ruled most of Trump’s global tariffs illegal.

Elsewhere in Crypto:

• Gavin Newsom Wants to Launch a Meme Coin Just to Troll Trump (Decrypt)
• South Korea’s FSC chief nominee faces backlash after calling crypto valueless (The Block)
• Trump Family Share of World Liberty Crypto Grows to $6 Billion (Decrypt)

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/02/asia-morning-briefing-hex-trust-ceo-sees-both-promise-and-peril-in-bitcoin-treasury-firms

Tokenized Gold Market Tops $2.5B as the Precious Metal Nears Record Highs

As the price of gold is on the cusp of breaking its April peak, the market size of crypto tokens backed by the precious metal has already surged to fresh all-time highs.

The overall market capitalization of tokenized gold topped $2.57 billion, CoinGecko data shows, as the two leading offerings, Tether's XAUT and Paxos' PAXG tokens, saw sizable inflows recently. Both tokens's are designed to track the price of gold and are backed by physical bars held in vaults.

XAUT (XAUT), issued by the firm that's behind the USDT stablecoin, saw a $437 million jump in its supply to a record $1.3 billion, per CoinGecko. Tether's Treasury minted 129,000 tokens in early August on the Ethereum network, blockchain data by Etherscan shows.

PAXG (PAXG), the gold-backed token of U.S.-based stablecoin firm Paxos, swelled to a record market size of $983 million, DefiLlama data shows. That's been fueled by $141.5 million net inflows into the token since June.

Gold currently traded at around $3,470, just shy of the April 22 peak hit amidst the tariff tantrum.

The precious metal, which is widely considered as a safe haven asset during times of uncertainty, has been resurging lately, driven by a steepening U.S. Treasury yield curve.

Read more: Gold’s Rally Has a Big Catalyst, and It Could Help Bitcoin Too

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/01/tokenized-gold-market-tops-usd2-5b-as-the-precious-metal-nears-record-highs