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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.
While stablecoins (USDT, USDC) dominated U.S. headlines last month amid the GENIUS Act and Circle's (CRCL) blockbuster IPO, Asia's quieter yet strategic adoption is reshaping the region’s cross-border finance.
Asian banks increasingly see stablecoins like USDT and USDC as defensive tools against deposit flight and lost transaction revenue. Behind the scenes, stablecoins are already playing an important role in the region's financial plumbing.
Fireblocks' Head of Asia, Amy Zhang, said in a recent interview with CoinDesk that major banks across Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong are proactively exploring local-currency stablecoins to mitigate these threats.
“If I’m not one of the banks banking Circle or banking Tether, am I going to lose deposits?” Zhang told CoinDesk. “That’s a huge risk for banks.”
In Korea, eight major banks, including KB Kookmin and Shinhan, are forming a consortium to launch a Korean won stablecoin by 2026, a direct response to surging local use of USDT and USDC for cross-border transactions.
Japan’s banking giants MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho are piloting yen-pegged stablecoins to streamline trade finance and reduce dependence on traditional cross-border rails. Hong Kong’s Bank of East Asia also recently piloted its own USD and HKD stablecoin settlement network.
Payment service providers (PSPs) are aggressively fueling the adoption of stablecoins, shifting away from costly traditional banking channels.
"A year ago, PSPs were asking if they should do stablecoins," Zhang said. "Now they say, 'I'm moving a billion of client flows; I need a better wallet.'"
Fireblocks, which processed over $3 trillion in digital assets last year, reports that stablecoins now account for about half its transaction volume.
Zhang cited growing usage among Asian e-commerce giants.
Recent media reports say that China's JD.com plans to cut supplier-payment costs dramatically using stablecoins, which is an example of what Zhang mentioned.
PSPs such as Hong Kong's Tazapay use Circle’s USDC to efficiently route cross-border payments into USD and HKD disbursements to help with instant payouts for content creators and gamers in Asia's emerging markets.
A dashboard from Visa Analytics shows that weekends have 30% higher stablecoin volumes, underscoring their role in retail and gig use.
Tether’s USDT dominates stablecoin flows in emerging Asian markets, driven by its liquidity and ease-of-access Zhang said, and by contrast, USDC gains traction in highly regulated financial hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong.
As the region's financial institutions adopt stablecoins defensively and corporate users operationalize them pragmatically, Asia's quiet transformation in cross-border finance infrastructure could become the next headline in stablecoin's evolving history.
The question is, what will be the next IPO to capitalize on this?
Bakkt is Raising $1 Billion to Buy BTC
Bakkt Holdings (NYSE: BKKT) is preparing to join the growing ranks of public companies allocating capital to bitcoin, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday.
The SEC filing shows that Bakkt is looking to raise $1 billion through a mix of securities, common stock, preferred stock, debt, warrants, and units to buy BTC.
The move comes as corporate BTC treasury strategies gain momentum globally. Companies like Metaplanet in Japan, Bridge Biotherapeutics in Korea, and Semler Scientific in the U.S. have made headlines by adding BTC to their balance sheets.
The registration follows a wave of negative news: Bakkt recently lost two of its largest clients, Bank of America and Webull, responsible for a significant chunk of its loyalty and crypto service revenues.
In February of last year, the company warned that it might not be able to continue operations. A few months later, Trump Media was reportedly said to be looking into an acquisition, but since then, nothing has materialized.
Bakkt is also said to be exploring the potential sale or wind-down of its loyalty division as it refocuses on crypto payments and trading infrastructure.
Market Movements
- BTC: Bitcoin held steady above $107K Thursday ahead of a major $40B options expiry on Deribit, with a $102K max pain price and no clear directional bias from traders, while Core Scientific surged 33% on takeover rumors.
- ETH: Ethereum is trading at $2,420 as it tests major resistance between $2,500–$2,600, with analysts saying a breakout could pave the way to $2,800 or even $4,000 amid falling exchange reserves and record user activity.
- Gold: Gold slipped to $3,331 on Thursday despite a weaker dollar and falling Treasury yields, as strong U.S. jobless claims and durable goods data offset recessionary GDP revisions and added uncertainty over the Fed's future leadership.
- Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets are poised to rise Friday, tracking Wall Street gains after the White House downplayed concerns over upcoming tariff deals.
- S&P 500: The S&P 500 rose 0.8% Thursday, nearing a record high after a $9.8 trillion rebound from April lows, capping a 23% rally driven by easing tariff fears and renewed market optimism.
Elsewhere in Crypto
Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) climbed to their highest level since its April 2021 Nasdaq debut on Thursday, bringing the stock nearly full circle after plunging more than 90% during the depths of 2022's crypto winter.
COIN hit $382 Thursday before paring some of the gains and closed higher by 5.5%. The stock's more than doubled since plunging alongside April's tariff-induced market panic.
Coinbase’s 2021 listing marked a watershed moment for the digital asset industry, but also signaled a peak in crypto. The stock rose as high as $382 before sliding over 90% amid the prolonged 2022 bear market.
Now, investors are increasingly positioning Coinbase as a long-term winner in the next phase of crypto growth, defined by rising stablecoin adoption, institutional participation and increasing U.S. regulatory clarity.
The company recently launched Coinbase Payments, a new service aimed at expanding the exchange’s footprint in global commerce. Built on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, the platform allows merchants to accept 24/7 USDC stablecoin payments without needing blockchain expertise. It already integrates with platforms like Shopify, the company said.
Coinbase also benefits from the rapidly-growing stablecoin sector, having a revenue-sharing agreement with Circle (CRCL), issuer of the USDC stablecoin, giving it a cut of the yield generated by reserve assets.
The broader backdrop is supportive as well. The S&P500 and Nasdaq equity indexes notch record highs, and crypto-related businesses such as Robinhood (HOOD) has also enjoyed renewed investor interest.
Some analysts expect further upside.
Benchmark raised its price target to $421 on COIN, saying the company is well positioned to capitalize on potential U.S. legislation, including bills to regulate stablecoins and digital asset market structure.
Meanwhile, Bernstein set a more ambitious $510 target, calling Coinbase crypto’s emerging "universal bank," bridging retail users, institutional investors and on-chain infrastructure at global scale.
Bitcoin BTC traded in a tight range just during U.S. hours Thursday ahead of a big options quarter expiry on Friday.
The top cryptocurrency is currently trading for $107,500, down 0.2% in the past 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 coins by market capitalization, except for stablecoins, exchange coins and stablecoins — lost 0.9% in the same period of time.
"This Friday marks one of the largest option expiries of the year on Deribit,” Jean-David Péquignot, chief commercial officer at Deribit, told CoinDesk. BTC options open interest stands at $40 billion, Péquignot said, and 38% of these contracts will expire on Friday.
“Max pain price for Friday is at $102,000, with a put/call ratio of 0.73," said Péquignot.
Bitcoin’s implied volatility, measured by Deribit DVOL, dropped to 38% from 50% in what was a wild April, signaling perhaps that the market is increasingly confident in the cryptocurrency’s macro-hedge role, according to Péquignot. Meanwhile, put-call skews show no clear directional positioning for traders in the short-term.
“Bitcoin’s $105,000 level is pivotal, with technicals suggesting caution if support fails,” Péquignot said. “Low open interest in perps and fairly depressed Bitcoin implied volatility and skew are indicative of limited expectations for sharp price movements going into Friday’s expiry.”
A number of crypto stocks are managing gains on Thursday, with Core Scientific (CORZ) surging more than 33% off of a Wall Street Journal report that the bitcoin miner may soon be acquired by AI Hyperscaler CoreWeave (CRWV).
Circle (CRCL), Coinbase (COIN), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Hut 8 (HUT) were higher by 5%-7%, while Strategy (MSTR) was lower by nearly 1%.
The bitcoin treasury trend — which has seen many firms globally adopting Michael Saylor’s strategy — entered a new phase on Thursday.
Lingerie Fighting Championships (BOTY), a Las Vegas-based women’s MMA league, announced plans to acquire $230,000 worth of bitcoin within 30 days and up to $2 million over the next six months.
The decision to add BTC to its treasury coincides with LFC’s first shows in the UK. LFC43: Sindependence Day 2 is set for July 4 in London and has already sold out. LFC44: Underground Knockouts follows in Cardiff on July 6.
The firm did not provide any explanation for its bitcoin adoption in its press release. However, CEO Shaun Donnelly told CoinDesk that LFC believed that "bitcoin has lots of potential to grow to levels never seen before and we wanted to get in while we still can."
"While we aren’t able to purchase a large amount I looked at it like real estate — even if it’s only a small starter home it’s better to be in the market than outside wishing you had gotten in when you could have," he added.
A number of bitcoin treasury firms have elected to scale back their prior businesses in order to identify completely as a BTC company and focus on raising funds in order to buy bitcoin.
Lingerie Fighting Championships, meanwhile, could be taking the Tesla approach, simply converting some of its cash holdings into BTC.
UPDATE (June 26, 19:10PM): Updated with comments from Donnelly.
One year after unsuccessfully trying to purchase Core Scientific (CORZ), cloud and AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave (CRWV) is again in talks with the bitcoin miner, according to the WSJ.
Exact terms haven't been discussed, but a deal could be finalized in coming weeks, according to the story.
Roughly one year ago, CoreWeave tried to acquire CORZ for $5.75 per share, or about $1 billion. Up 25% today on this news, CORZ is currently trading above $15 per share.
Among other miners moving higher (though not nearly the magnitude of CORZ) are Hut 8 (HUT), IREN (IREN), and Cipher Mining (CIFR).
A New York judge has rejected a joint request from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs for her to approve a proposed settlement agreement that would slash Ripple’s civil penalty to $50 million and dissolve the permanent injunction against the firm.
It is the proposed removal of the permanent injunction, and not the $50 million civil penalty — discounted from the original $125 million imposed by the court last year — that appears to be the sticking point for District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), who wrote in her Thursday ruling that a permanent injunction against further violations of federal securities laws was, as the SEC suggested at the time, “warranted because of the enormous sums of money Ripple made in violating the law and Ripple’s incentives to continue doing so.”
“Indeed, if the Court should not be concerned about Ripple violating the law, why do the parties want to eliminate the injunction that tells Ripple, ‘Follow the law’?,” Torres wrote. “When the Court imposed the injunction, it did so because it found a 'reasonable probability' that Ripple would continue violating federal securities laws. This has not changed, nor do the parties claim that it has.”
The request comes amid sweeping changes at the SEC following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in January and the subsequent departure of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Under the SEC’s new leadership, the regulator has adopted a more crypto-friendly regulatory posture, creating a Crypto Task Force spearheaded by Commissioner Hester Peirce and dropping a host of investigations and litigation against crypto companies. However, as Torres pointed out in her ruling, most of those cases were dismissed by the SEC “before a court found a violation of federal securities laws.”
“Regardless of leadership changes, the SEC has avoided whipsawing between arguments in ongoing litigation in order to protect the agency's credibility,” said Corey Frayer, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America. “In granting favors to crypto companies, SEC leadership has chosen to tarnish a 90 year reputation the agency carefully built.”
This is the SEC’s second request for an indicative ruling — essentially, a preview of what a lower court will do if a higher court sends the case back down to the lower court for a final decision — that Torres has rejected. In May, she slapped down the first such attempt, citing both jurisdictional and procedural flaws. Earlier this month, the parties tried again, filing a new, expanded request with the court arguing that “exceptional circumstances” warranted the modification of Torres’ final judgement.
Torres was completely unmoved by SEC and Ripple’s arguments, writing: “The Court respects the freedom of parties to amicably resolve their disputes. It is also true that the SEC, like any other law enforcement agency, has discretion to change course after an enforcement action is initiated. But the parties do not have the authority to agree not to be bound by a court’s final judgment that a party violated an Act of Congress in such a manner that a permanent injunction and a civil penalty were necessary to prevent that party from violating the law again. For that, the parties must show exceptional circumstances that outweigh the public interest or the administration of justice. They have not come close to doing so here.”
If the parties “genuinely wish to end this litigation today,” Torres wrote, they have two other choices: they can either withdraw their ongoing appeals in the case, or they can take an appeal.
“Neither option involves requiring this Court to absolve Ripple of its obligations under the law,” Torres said.
Ripple is pushing deeper into multichain interoperability with the integration of Wormhole, a leading cross-chain messaging protocol, with the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and its EVM-compatible sidechain.
The move, announced Thursday, aims to support institutional demand for seamless movement of crypto assets, including stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, across multiple blockchain networks, without added friction or fragmentation.
Wormhole’s integration unlocks the ability to transfer the blockchain’s native token XRP XRP, issued assets and multi-purpose tokens across more than 35 supported chains, including Ethereum ETH, Solana SOL and Avalanche AVAX.
Developers can also initiate cross-chain smart contract interactions using Wormhole’s messaging infrastructure. Ripple says the upgrade will help developers and institutions build multichain applications that prioritize compliance, low cost, and fast settlement.
"If you want real mass adoption, interoperability is essential. The infrastructure has to be there, not just on one chain, but across them," said David Schwartz, the CTO of Ripple, in a press release shared with CoinDesk. "With this integration, tokens natively issued on the XRP Ledger are being set up for that reality by being able to move between blockchain networks while maintaining native issuance, and control."
The development comes as the XRP Ledger increasingly positions itself as a hub for institutions and tokenized real-world assets such as real estate. For example, Dubai's first real estate tokenization platform was built on XRPL, which allows qualified investors to buy fractional shares in apartments and tokenizes title deeds on the network.
Ripple, a payments-focused blockchain development firm with close ties to XRPL, also issues its own regulated stablecoin Ripple USD RLUSD. The token has a $400 million supply across XRP and Ethereum chains, rwa.xyz data shows.
Read more: XRP Ledger's Ethereum-Compatible Sidechain to Go Live in Q2
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told a White House crypto adviser on Thursday that legislation establishing rules for the U.S. crypto markets will be finished by September 30 — later than President Donald Trump had in mind, but earlier than the year-end prediction from one of the leading lawmakers crafting the bill.
At a Thursday press event in his committee's hearing room, Scott told Trump crypto adviser Bo Hines that the new deadline is possible for the legislation, and expressed agreement with Trump that the U.S. House of Representatives should also quickly sign off on the stablecoin bill the Senate passed last week.
Scott, whose committee recently shared some guidelines for how some senior Republicans want the markets regulations to look, said he intends a timeline "seeing market structure completed before the end of September. I think that is a realistic expectation."
To that, Senator Cynthia Lummis, who heads the digital assets subcommittee focused on that work, said, "Yes, sir. You're the chairman, and we will do as you wish."
Meanwhile, top House lawmakers have been hesitant to announce their own strategy for the two related bills on crypto market structure and stablecoins. The House had been in the lead on the former issue, with its Digital Asset Market Clarity Act having cleared the necessary committees on its way toward the House floor. But Representative French Hill, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee that's leading the charge, declined to reveal whether the House will move on the Senate's Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
Hill signaled this week that he thinks some issues need to be worked out between the GENIUS Act and the House's own stablecoin legislation, which would suggest a lengthier process that might jeopardize the short-term deadlines the Senate has in mind.
Senator Lummis had only the day before said at a Washington event that she predicted all the crypto legislation would be completed by the end of the year. That suggested a window going much later than President Trump's wish of finishing by the August congressional break. But even Scott's Sept. 30 timeline goes longer than Trump requested.
One potential hindrance to a quick process is immediately apparent: There's no matching sense from the Senate Agriculture Committee, which needs to also weigh in on this major, complex legislation. So far, the Banking Committee has been leading the charge on market structure, but it can't approve the bill on its own, and Lummis acknowledged after the Thursday event that the process hasn't been as urgent for that other committee.
For his part, the White House's Hines said the president favors the House simply signing off on the stablecoin bill the Senate approved, without further work on it, and he praised the timeline commitment made by Scott and Lummis, adding, "I think it’s very clear you both understand what’s happening.”
In a response to a CoinDesk question on working with the House, Scott said the two chambers are "one team."
"I've been very clear that I think the president's mandate of moving GENIUS Act immediately to his desk is in the best interest of the American people," Scott said.. "I believe that we can do both in a very time-sensitive matter, and that is why I've committed to a deadline."
He said the House's market structure bill, the Clarity Act, is a "strong template for us to move forward on."
Read More: Leading Crypto Senator Sees End of Year as U.S. Legislation Target
Hong Kong’s government released its second major policy statement on digital assets, underlining its pledge to set the region up as a global hub for the industry and saying it plans to establish a regulatory regime that puts risk management and investor protection center stage.
The framework will be overseen by the Securities and Futures Commission and apply to custodians, digital asset service providers, exchanges and stablecoins, the government said Thursday. Public consultations on the licensing regimes will start shortly, it said.
Hong Kong has been making moves in recent years to strengthen its position in the industry, and the statement builds on an earlier pronouncement from 2022, when it said it was "ready to engage" with participants. In December, it granted licenses to four crypto exchanges, and last month passed a law allowing it to license stablecoin issuers from Aug. 1.
The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will also review the legal regime on the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and financial instruments, the government said. The review will look at tokenized bond issuances and transactions. The government is particularly looking at the practical use of tokenization plus how to diversify use cases, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in the statement.
Worldwide, RWA tokenization has grown by 380% in just three years and reached $24 billion this month, according to a first-half 2025 report from RedStone, Gauntlet and RWA.xyz.
"The Government will regularise the issuance of tokenised Government bonds and incentivise the tokenisation of RWAs to enhance liquidity and accessibility through, among other initiatives, clarifying the stamp duty treatment for tokenised exchange traded funds (ETFs)," the government said. It also welcomes secondary market trading of these tokenized ETFs on licensed trading platforms.
Nations across the globe like the U.K., U.S., South Korea and Pakistan are establishing their regimes for crypto companies as interest in the sector continues to grow. The European Union's rules for the industry, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation, were published in 2023 and took effect last year.
A spot dogecoin ETF DOGE may be coming closer to reality.
ETF issuer Bitwise updated a regulatory filing for its dogecoin ETF on Thursday, suggesting approval chances could be growing, according to one expert.
“Bitwise has filed amended S-1s for their spot dogecoin ETF and their spot aptos ETFs," wrote Bloomberg Intelligence's Eric Balchunas. "Good signs as it indicates SEC engagement, and tracks with other spot approvals."
Also noteworthy is the fact that the dogecoin ETF filing was amended to include in-kind redemptions and creations, meaning that the broker-dealers interacting with the ETF can directly trade shares for DOGE tokens, or vice versa.
"Near-lock at this point that in kind will be allowed in spot ETFs across board," Balchunas added.
As of right now, all U.S.-based crypto ETFs must swap their tokens for cash, then swap that cash for shares (or swap the shares for cash, then the cash for tokens), which creates a tax event.
The news isn't helping prices much, with DOGE lower by about 2% over the past 24 hours to $0.16.
21Shares has also filed for a dogecoin ETF, while Grayscale has filed for a dogecoin trust with a 2.5% fee.