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.

As East Asia begins its business day, bitcoin is down 1.8%, trading above $117,800, as traders take some profit after BTC pushed through multiple all-time highs.

While there’s a belief from some market participants that the rally is just beginning, with calls for BTC to hit 160k, 200k, and further, OKX’s Chief Commercial Officer, Lennex Lai warns that risk is building just as fast as market enthusiasm.

«Across platforms, we’re seeing an increase in aggressive long positions and widening funding rates as ‘Crypto Week’ headlines boost sentiment,» Lai told CoinDesk in an interview via Telegram. «At these levels, risks can build quickly — escalation of trade tensions with the EU, Mexico, and other trading partners could trigger sharp corrections. Another risk is letting euphoria drive decisions.»

Lai points to a slate of coming macro announcements – like the U.K. CPI release, and the U.S Core PPI, retail sales, and consumer sentiment, that could influence global risk sentiment and set the tone for broader markets.

These concerns echo findings from K33 Research’s H1 2025 market report, which highlighted similar risks and volatility triggers earlier this year.

According to K33, geopolitical turmoil and trade policy uncertainty have already driven significant market swings, such as a 30% correction to $75,000 earlier in the year.

The report specifically noted, «Bitcoin struggled in this de-risking period but showed subtle hints of relative strength vs equities by outperforming equities in the aftermath of Liberation Day.»

Additionally, K33 highlighted historically low funding rates amidst rising prices, signaling cautious sentiment among seasoned traders who remain wary of abrupt market reversals.

«Annualized funding rates averaged at 4.51% throughout the half-year, the lowest average half-year funding rate since December 31, 2022,» when the post-FTX crypto winter was at its coldest, the report said.

«In moments like this, smart traders focus on strategy over sentiment, using discipline to manage risk,» Lai continued. «The excitement at the top is real, but those who manage their entries, exits, and funding exposure carefully are best positioned for whatever comes next.»

After all, he concluded, «strong momentum doesn’t mean the market is invincible.»

Maple Finance is Crypto’s Largest On-Chain Asset Manager

Maple Finance is now the largest on-chain asset manager, overtaking BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL, according to data from a Dune Analytics dashboard tracking real-time DeFi asset flows. A surge of over $100 million in new deposits this week pushed Maple’s total assets under management (AUM) to $2.9 billion, eclipsing BUIDL’s $2.3 billion.

While BUIDL draws capital with its ultra-conservative exposure to short-term U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents, Maple appeals to more risk-tolerant institutions by offering yield through undercollateralized loans to vetted trading firms and crypto-native borrowers. That model, which relies on delegated credit underwriting rather than blanket overcollateralization, now appears to be scaling faster.

The milestone suggests a growing appetite for yield-bearing DeFi credit products amid continued macro uncertainty. It also marks a rare instance where a decentralized credit protocol has outpaced a major TradFi incumbent like BlackRock on-chain, at least by raw AUM.

AI Tokens Rally as Big Tech Doubles Down on Infrastructure

AI-focused crypto tokens jumped 5% overnight, pushing the sector’s market cap to $29.6 billion, according to CoinGecko. The move comes amid a surge of AI and data infrastructure announcements from major U.S. tech firms, sparking renewed investor enthusiasm across both equity and token markets.

Google said Tuesday it will invest $25 billion into data centers and AI infrastructure across the PJM electric grid, America’s largest, while also agreeing to buy 3,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power via a $3 billion deal with Brookfield. Meta, meanwhile, is planning “hundreds of billions” in AI data center builds, including a multi-gigawatt facility called Prometheus in Ohio.

The announcements were timed around a Trump administration-led summit at Carnegie Mellon University, where over $90 billion in AI, energy, and data infrastructure pledges were revealed. The bullish tone on AI, from both government and industry, appears to be spilling into token markets, at least for now.

Market Movements:

BTC: Bitcoin is trading at $117,810.33, down 1.69%, and failed breakout attempts gave way to high-volume support, narrowing consolidation, and thinning liquidity, signaling market exhaustion and anticipation ahead of the next macro catalyst, according to CoinDesk’s Research’s technical analysis data.

ETH: Ethereum surged 2.6% to $3,066.57 in a volatile 24-hour session, rebounding from a $2,933.50 low as institutional flows, record staking, and strong volume fueled a breakout past $3,075, signaling renewed bullish momentum.

Gold: Gold fell 0.56% to $3,331.55, even as a new London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) poll showed analysts turning more bullish with upgraded 2025 forecasts averaging $3,324.40—driven by geopolitical tensions, dollar weakness, and fiscal concerns, though opinions remain split on whether prices will climb toward $4,000 or fade into year-end.

Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets are set to open mixed after President Trump announced a preliminary trade deal with Indonesia that includes a 19% U.S. tariff on its exports.

S&P 500: The S&P 500 edged 0.4% lower after touching an intraday record, as rising Treasury yields and a 2.7% June inflation reading raised concerns over tariff-driven price pressures, despite strong bank earnings and Nvidia-led tech gains.

Elsewhere in Crypto:

• Legitimate Privacy Tool or Dirty Money ‘Laundromat’? Lawyers Debate Role of Tornado Cash on Day 1 of Roman Storm Trial (CoinDesk)
• Can the Genius Act save banks from stablecoins? (Blockworks)
• ‘Existential Threat’: Bitcoin Proposal Would Freeze Satoshi’s Quantum-Vulnerable Coins (Decrypt)

The Senate Agriculture Committee leapt into Congress’ negotiation over crypto’s market structure legislation with a hearing on Tuesday, and its ranking Democrat, Senator Amy Klobuchar, outlined the significant changes she’d like to see before she’d embrace the effort to set up digital assets regulations.

As the House potentially nears passage of its own market structure bill in the Digital Asset Markets Clarity Act (despite a procedural delay on Tuesday), Klobuchar’s committee will need to sign off on its own legislation. And any major changes she and other Democrats are willing to pursue as a party could stretch the legislative process much longer than the Sept. 30 deadline that Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has set.

«We’re not going to be rolled here,» Klobuchar warned, calling for «some serious changes» to the regulatory proposals being discussed for U.S. crypto.

She suggested the bill needs to better nail down the funding of regulators that’ll be tapped to oversee the rapidly growing new markets, should make a strong effort to protect consumers and needs to close off loopholes that you could «drive a truck through,» referring to the potential that existing securities regulations could be undermined.

The committee’s Republican chairman, John Boozman, highlighted collaboration with the Banking Committee and regulators. So far, the other committee is outpacing his in working on legislation. The Republicans there have publicly released a set of principles they’re following on the bill, though they haven’t yet released a working draft.

«We must act expeditiously to develop a comprehensive regulatory framework for the trading of digital commodities, but we must ensure we get this right,» Boozman said.

While the Democrats are not in charge, many of their votes will be needed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle for most legislation. Similar policy desires have also been expressed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Klobuchar’s Democrat counterpart in the Senate Banking Committee, though crypto-critic Warren is unlikely to become a partner in the negotiation. Klobuchar’s panel, though, has historically been more collaborative than Warren’s.

On the major Senate vote on stablecoin legislation, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, Klobuchar was a no vote. Crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto has given Klobuchar an «F» rating for being against the industry.

Read More: House’s Crypto Markets Bill on Track, But Some in Industry Hope For Senate Overhaul

NEW YORK — There is at least one fact that both the defense and the prosecution agree in the ongoing criminal money laundering trial of software developer Roman Storm: the product he helped to create and run — a once-popular crypto privacy tool called Tornado Cash — was exploited by hackers and cyber criminals to launder their dirty money.

What the parties do not agree on, and the fundamental question at the heart of Storm’s trial, is whether Storm was able to prevent this behavior, whether he knew which criminals were using the Tornado Cash protocol and how and, most importantly, whether he should be held criminally liable for creating a tool that bad actors used to cover their tracks.

Storm, 36, has been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business — charges which, if Storm is convicted, carry a maximum combined sentence of 45 years in prison. His trial kicked off in Manhattan on Monday, and opening arguments took place Tuesday afternoon after lawyers selected a 12-person jury to oversee the three-week trial.

Read more: Jury Seated for Tornado Cash Dev Roman Storm’s Trial

During the government’s opening statements, prosecutor Kevin Mosley told the jury that Roman Storm “knew that his business was laundering dirty money” and that he made millions of dollars doing it. Mosley said the jury would see a photo of Storm wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a washing machine with Tornado Cash’s logo on it — evidence that he allegedly knew exactly what Tornado Cash was being used for.

Storm, Mosley said, turned a blind eye to the hackers using his platform and ignored pleas from scam victims who reached out to him, asking for help recovering their money. Though prosecutors claim Storm either told the victims he couldn’t help them or ignored them entirely, Mosley said Storm maintained full control over the Tornado Cash platform, even tweaking it “to make it even better for criminals to hide their money.”

Some of Tornado Cash’s users included North Korea’s infamous state-sponsored hacking organization, the Lazarus Group, which used Tornado Cash to launder the proceeds of its 2022 hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network. Mosley told the jury that, by allegedly facilitating the Lazarus Group’s money laundering, Storm and his “co-conspirators” — fellow developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Semenov — violated U.S. sanctions against North Korea. Mosley said Storm knew Tornado Cash was helping North Korea skirt U.S. sanctions because he allegedly texted Semenov and Pertsev, “guys, we’re done for” after news of the Axie Infinity hack broke.

Storm’s lawyers, of course, see the facts of the case very differently. In her opening statements to the jury, Keri Axel, a partner at Waymaker LLP, said that Storm’s text to Pertsev and Semenov after the Axie Infinity hack had nothing to do with sanctions, and everything to do with the impact of the hack on Tornado Cash’s reputation, as well as the price of the TORN token, which suffered in the wake of the hack. The washing machine t-shirt, she said, was a joke “in poor taste.”

Storm, Axel said, didn’t work with hackers or scammers, and didn’t want them using his product.

“These criminals, acting without any assistance from Roman [Storm], misused Tornado Cash,” Axel said. “You will not see any evidence that he communicated with them or assisted them, absolutely none.” The fact that Tornado Cash was continuously exploited by bad actors “ultimately killed his dream” of creating a privacy tool that was widely adopted and respected throughout the crypto community, Axel said.

It is privacy — and the legitimate need and desire for it — that sits at the core of Storm’s defense. His lawyers told the jury that their client, a Kazakhstan-born U.S. citizen who taught himself to code while working odd jobs as a bus boy and a security guard before jumping to the tech industry, was inspired to create a privacy tool after meeting Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who she described to the jury as a “crypto rockstar.”

While Axel admitted that Tornado Cash was “misused” by bad actors, she said that they represented a minority of the tool’s users — most of whom she said were normal people using Tornado Cash to preserve their privacy.

“It’s not a crime to make a useful thing that’s misused by bad people,” Axel said, comparing Tornado Cash to a smart phone used to scam people, or a hammer used to break into homes.

She explained to the jury that, because the blockchain is public and easily searchable, any known wallet address can be searched, and its transactions (and the value of its contents) can be viewed by anyone. Axel explained that, in the crypto industry, loss of privacy has led to the recent string of kidnappings and attacks on high-net worth individuals and executives.

“How would you feel if someone took your bank account and published it on the internet?” Axel asked the jury. “You would feel exposed and probably unsafe.”

Axel told the jury that they would hear testimony from a host of victims and hackers, none of which could be directly connected to Roman Storm. The hackers, she said, were only testifying “in the hopes that they can get leniency in their own criminal cases” and that Storm lacked the power to help their victims.

First witness

After opening statements concluded, the government called its first witness, a Taiwan-born Georgia resident named Hanfeng Ling. Ms. Ling told the court how she was the victim of a pig butchering scam in the fall of 2021, that began with a wrong-number Whatsapp message. The scammer convinced Ling to transfer nearly $200,000 from her savings account to purchase crypto and then “invest” the crypto in a fake foreign exchange trading platform.

Ms. Ling’s testimony will continue on Wednesday. Nathan Rehn, the lead prosecutor, told the court that he expects her testimony will be followed by four more government witnesses on Wednesday.

The bulk of Storm’s trial is expected to take place over three weeks, followed by jury deliberation.