Good Morning, Asia. Here is what’s making information within the markets:
Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a every day abstract of prime tales throughout U.S. hours and an summary of market strikes and evaluation. For an in depth overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas.
South Korea has lengthy been identified for its outsized affect on altcoin markets, from the XRP mania that drove a 400% rally final yr to the present-day obsession with a token that proudly calls itself USELESS.
The $USELESS phenomenon has ties to South Korean KOLs, Bradley Park, a Seoul-based analyst with DNTV Analysis, instructed CoinDesk in an interview.
On the middle of all the things is Yeomyung, a Korean KOL and liquidity supplier who aped into USELESS early, held by means of a 50% drawdown, and is now sitting on critical paper features.
“He made large earnings in the course of the Trump coin run, and with USELESS, he additionally earned from [providing liquidity] early on and is now simply holding,” Park instructed CoinDesk. “They’re all simply ready for a CEX itemizing, as a result of with out it, there’s no actual solution to exit.”
Park tracked Yeomyung’s pockets exercise and famous that his early conviction has impressed copy-trading amongst Korean retail traders. Even wallets tied to insiders on Solana’s Jupiter
are holding. The rise of USELESS displays a broader evolution in Korean market conduct.
“I actually assume Korean customers on this market are now not simply exit liquidity,” he stated. “They’re beginning to perceive the market and are evolving into actual world gamers.”
One other character on this story is Bonk Man, an early promoter of BONK, who reappeared to tweet enthusiastically about USELESS after the value rebounded, although some Korean merchants, together with Park, have questioned his sincerity.
“Bonk Man was the primary to shill LetsBONK,” Park stated. “However after the value collapsed, he went silent. Now that USELESS is bouncing again, he’s immediately displaying curiosity once more.”
Park pointed to the rise of Hyperliquid, Kaia, and now Solana-based memecoins like USELESS as proof that Korea is now not a secondary market.
Whereas XRP’s rally was underpinned by authorized readability within the U.S. and narratives about Trump-era deregulation, USELESS feels much less like chaos for chaos’s sake and extra like a mirrored image of the place consideration, and exhaustion, is flowing in in the present day’s market, Park stated.
With no roadmap, no utility, and no pretense of constructing one thing greater, it faucets right into a sort of memetic disillusionment: a collective shrug at conventional crypto guarantees, and an ironic wager on nothingness that, paradoxically, seems to be extra trustworthy than many tokens claiming to alter the world.
Trump Endorses GENIUS Act
President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed the GENIUS Act in a Reality Social put up following its bipartisan passage within the Senate, calling it a serious step towards U.S. management within the digital asset sector.
Trump urged the Home of Representatives to move the invoice “lightning quick” and with out amendments, stating it needs to be despatched to his desk with “no delays, no add-ons.”
The message alerts sturdy government help for the Guiding and Establishing Nationwide Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which introduces reserve and compliance necessities for dollar-backed stablecoin issuers and marks the primary main piece of crypto laws to clear the Senate.
Trump framed the laws as key to enabling “large funding” and “large innovation,” positioning the U.S. as a world chief in digital property.
Whereas the invoice handed the Senate with vital bipartisan backing, its destiny within the Home stays unsure.
Democratic lawmakers are weighing potential amendments, together with stricter oversight for foreign-issued tokens and limitations on potential issuers.
Nevertheless, the invoice is not with out its critics. In a current CoinDesk editorial, Georgetown College finance professor James J. Angel argues that the GENIUS Act is a flawed piece of laws due to fragmented oversight by 55 regulators, redundant processes, exclusion of interest-bearing stablecoins, and inefficient joint rulemakings.
Information Roundup: Coinbase Unveils Coinbase Funds for Retailers
Coinbase (COIN) unveiled Coinbase Funds on Wednesday, CoinDesk beforehand reported, a brand new merchant-focused funds stack constructed on its Ethereum layer-2 community Base.
The product permits world ecommerce platforms like Shopify to just accept USDC 24/7 while not having blockchain experience, utilizing instruments like a gasless stablecoin checkout, an ecommerce API engine, and an onchain funds protocol.
Coinbase stated the system is designed to duplicate conventional cost rails whereas reducing prices and providing always-on settlement. The launch positions Coinbase alongside fintech companies like Stripe and PayPal within the race to modernize funds with blockchain infrastructure.
It additionally deepens its partnership with USDC issuer Circle (CRCL), whose shares jumped 25% on the information, whereas Coinbase rallied 16%. Coinbase says stablecoins processed $30 trillion in transactions final yr, tripling from the yr prior, and it is betting that programmable, dollar-pegged funds will proceed to disrupt the worldwide monetary stack.
Market Actions:
- BTC: Bitcoin rebounded above $105,000 in a V-shaped restoration regardless of escalating Israel-Iran tensions, with sturdy ETF inflows and key help at $103,650 highlighting institutional confidence amid market volatility, based on CoinDesk Analysis’s technical evaluation knowledge.
- ETH: Ethereum rebounded 4% to carry above $2,500 regardless of Center East tensions, with record-high staking and accumulation signaling rising investor conviction amid market volatility.
- Gold: Gold slipped 0.19% to $3,383.11 after the Fed held charges regular at 4.25–4.5%, with Chair Powell signaling no imminent coverage adjustments and emphasizing continued financial energy regardless of commerce tensions.
- Nikkei 225: Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.27% on Thursday as Asia-Pacific markets traded blended, weighed down by the Fed’s price pause and ongoing Israel-Iran tensions.
- S&P 500: The S&P 500 dipped 0.03% to five,980.87 after the Fed held charges regular, with Chair Powell signaling a wait-and-see strategy amid uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs.
