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Asia Morning Briefing: Bitcoin Drops to $115K as Third Major Profit-Taking, New Tariff Tensions Add Pressure

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 (BTC) is set to end the trading week in Asia down 2.3% on the day, changing hands above $115,300.
A new round of global tariffs from the White House is dragging down markets in Asia, with the Nikkei 225 opening in the red along with Seoul’s KOPSI. Bitcoin is also not immune to this, as historically digital assets also follow equity markets when the White House announces tariffs – though that has also begun to weaken.
CoinGlass data shows around $260 million in long positions have been liquidated over the last 4 hours.
BTC is struggling with tariff pressure and continued profit taking after a historic run past all-time highs.
According to a new report by CryptoQuant, bitcoin just experienced its third major profit-taking wave of the 2023–2025 bull cycle, with $6–8 billion in realized gains recorded in late July.
Like the previous phases, this wave was defined by large spikes in the Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR), particularly among short-term holders, and a significant 80,000 BTC sell-off by an OG whale on July 25.
New whale cohorts, those who accumulated BTC within the last 155 days, were the dominant sellers, according to the data provider.
Exchange inflows surged to 70,000 BTC in a single day after the OG whale sold off, a level that typically signals a strong intent to exit positions at peak prices.
The selling wasn’t limited to BTC: Ethereum-based whales holding WBTC, USDT, and USDC also realized up to $40 million in daily profits, further supporting the narrative of broad-based capital rotation.
Historically, these profit-taking events have been followed by a two- to four-month period of consolidation before the next leg higher, CryptoQuant wrote. That pattern may be playing out again, with U.S. investor appetite waning.
The Coinbase premium, an indicator that tracks price differences between Coinbase and other global exchanges, recently flipped negative, suggesting that American buyers are no longer paying a premium.
Adding to the cautious tone is the return of macro risk. Trump’s tariff escalation, including new measures that specifically target Canada, has rattled broader risk assets. Equities, bonds, and crypto alike saw declines amid fears of inflation and supply chain disruption.
Without a clear macro catalyst or structural inflows, risk-taking remains selective and conviction light, added market maker Enflux in a note to CoinDesk.
«Until BTC or ETH can post a clean reclaim of recent local highs, price action may stay choppy and rotation thematic rather than trend-driven,» the market maker said.
Market Movements:
BTC: Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $115,500, down 2.3% on the day, as renewed White House tariffs weigh on Asian markets; despite the drop, BTC remains range-bound.
ETH: Ether (ETH) hovered near $3,800 on Thursday after surging over 50% in July—its best month since 2022—as bullish price targets circulated on social media, including a popular analyst projecting a breakout to $15K–$16K this cycle, backed by $5.3 billion in U.S. spot ETF inflows and strong institutional demand.
Gold: Gold rose to $3,296 earlier Thursday before slipping to $3,287.39, down 0.38%, as dip-buying offset a firm U.S. dollar after the Fed held rates steady and Powell pushed back on a September cut amid strong jobs data and rising core PCE inflation.
Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets opened lower Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.65% and the broader Topix index trading flat
S&P 500: S&P 500 futures slipped Thursday night as traders weighed Big Tech earnings and looked ahead to July’s jobs report.
Elsewhere in Crypto:
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CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Drops 2.5% as Nearly All Constituents Decline

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 4248.74, down 2.5% (-109.09) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.
One of 20 assets is trading higher.
Leaders: AVAX (+0.6%) and BCH (-0.8%).
Laggards: UNI (-9.9%) and LINK (-7.0%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
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Pantera-Backed Solana Treasury Firm Helius Raises $500M, Stock Soars Over 200%

Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT) announced on Monday it’s raising more than $500 million in a private financing round to create a Solana-focused treasury company.
The vehicle will hold SOL, the native token of the Solana blockchain, as its reserve asset and aims to expand to more than $1.25 billion via stock warrants tied to the deal, the press release said.
The financing was led by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital, with participation from investors including Animoca Brands, FalconX and HashKey Capital.
Shares of the firm rallied over 200% above $24 in pre-market trading following the announcement. Solana was down 4% over the past 24 hours.
The firm is joining the latest wave of new digital asset treasuries, or DATs, with public companies pivoting to raise funds and buy cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) or SOL.
Helius is set to rival with the recently launched Forward Industries (FORD) with a $1.65 billion war chest backed by Galaxy Digital and others. That firm confirmed on Monday that has already purchased 6.8 million tokens for roughly $1.58 billion last week.
Helius’ plan is to use Solana’s yield-bearing design to generate income on the holdings, earning staking rewards of around 7% as well as deploying tokens in decentralized finance (DeFi) and lending opportunities. Incoming executive chairman Joseph Chee, founder of Summer Capital and a former UBS banker, will lead the firm’s digital asset strategy alongside Pantera’s Cosmo Jiang and Dan Morehead.
«As a pioneer in the digital asset treasury space, having participated in the formation of the strategy at Twenty One Capital (CEP) with Tether, Softbank and Cantor, Bitmine (BMNR) with Tom Lee and Mozayyx as well as EightCo (OCTO) with Dan Ives and Sam Altman, we have built the expertise to set up the pre-eminent Solana treasury vehicle,» Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, said in a statement.
«There is a real opportunity to drive the flywheel of creating shareholder value that Michael Saylor has pioneered with Strategy by accelerating Solana adoption,» he added.
Read more: Solana Surges as Galaxy Scoops Up Over $700M Tokens From Exchanges
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Boundless Launches Mainnet on Base, Ushering in Universal Zero-Knowledge Compute

Boundless, the zero-knowledge (ZK) compute marketplace incubated by RISC Zero, has officially launched its Mainnet on Base, giving every blockchain access to verifiable compute.
The milestone builds on the network’s incentivized testnet, which went live in July and stress-tested Boundless’ architecture under real-world conditions.
During that Beta phase, Boundless operated like a decentralized marketplace where developers seeking ZK proofs for applications such as rollups, bridges and privacy protocols could connect with independent provers, or ZK miners, who generated those proofs.
The launch introduced Proof of Verifiable Work, an incentive mechanism that rewards provers based on the volume, speed and complexity of their computations. Community participation was strong, fueled in part by the anticipation of $ZKC token rewards.
With Monday’s mainnet launch, those capabilities are now operational at scale. The team behind Boundless says it can deliver verifiable compute across chains, enabling developers to build applications that preserve privacy while scaling seamlessly between ecosystems.
Some key protocols have started to integrate Boundless into their systems. Wormhole is integrating Boundless to add ZK verification to Ethereum consensus, making cross-chain transfers more secure.
BOB, a hybrid Bitcoin rollup, is tapping Boundless to allow EVM applications to interoperate with Bitcoin using proofs that inherit Bitcoin’s security while drawing on Ethereum’s liquidity. And staking protocol Lido is deploying Boundless to secure validator exits with transparent proofs, strengthening trust and auditability for its crypto assets.
“For the first time, developers on any chain can access abundant zero-knowledge compute to build complex applications that scale across ecosystems without sacrificing decentralization,” said Shiv Shankar, the CEO of Boundless.
Read more: Risc Zero’s ‘Boundless’ Incentivized Testnet Goes Live
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