Good morning, Asia. This is what makes news in the market:
Welcome to Asian morning briefings, daily summary of top stories throughout the US time, and an overview of market movements and analysis. For a detailed overview of the US market, see Coindesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas.
Uniswap’s Uni Token has surged from $6.00 to $6.65 in the last 24 hours, bringing tokens up by 5%, while the broader market gauge Coindesk20 index has dropped by 1.8% over the last 24 hours. This momentum coincides with UNISWAP, which has recorded its highest monthly trading volume since February, processing more than $73 billion in transactions and generating more than $380 million in revenue this year.
SCB10X’s new CEO sees the opportunity for US-Asia Crypto Dealflow, AI
Kaweewut Temphuwapat, the new CEO of SCB10X, the venture arm of SCB Bank in Thailand, has emerged at the intersection of AI, Crypto and Web3. “We’re definitely going even further towards AI and Crypto and AI Plus Crypto,” Temphuwapat told Coindesk, highlighting these hybrid investments “solidly under the radar.”
He predicts that clearer US crypto regulations will drive trading flows to resilient Asian markets, pointing to the early success of the SCB10X to Ripple.
Temphuwapat praised Thailand’s aggressive and innovative regulators, highlighting the country’s robust payment infrastructure. He expects that Thai banks, including the SCB, will be able to immediately hold crypto tokens directly on their balance sheets, initially through a regulatory sandbox.
Trader James Wynn moves from a billion-dollar bitcoin bet to Memocoin and then to a long Pepe
James Wynn, a kana trader known for his high stake script bets on the decentralized platform hyperliquid, previously reported by COINDESK, is known for his crypto bets on the decentralized platform hyperliquid.
Previously, Wynn closed its $1.2 billion long position on Bitcoin with a loss of $17.5 million, but pivoted to a $1 billion short position with 40x leverage and effectively bet on the entire $50 million wallet balance on Bitcoin’s downside. The shorter and shorter Wynn earned around $3 million before closing, marking one of the biggest deals ever fully executed.
Winn has announced that it will retreat from permanent trading after securing cumulative profits earned from over $3 million in initial investments to $25 million. Traders’ latest highly leveraged PEPE position has already won $500,000 as Memecoin’s value has risen by nearly 6%.
The strategy will buy an additional 4,020 Bitcoins for $427 million.
Bitcoin’s largest corporate holder, Strategy (MSTR), purchased around 4,020 BTC for around $427 million between May 19th and May 25th, bringing total holdings to 580,250 BTC. The acquisition was funded through three separate market equity programs, including sales of general and preferred stocks totaling approximately $427 million.
These latest Bitcoin purchases ran at an average price of $106,237 per coin, with total investments in Bitcoin exceeding $40.6 billion and pushed on an average cost basis of $69,979 per coin. This acquisition reflects our continued commitment to expanding substantial Bitcoin holdings through regular capital raising and stock issuance.
Market movements:
- BTC: Bitcoin holds a record level of around $109,000, with long-term investors continuing to accumulate amidst macroeconomic uncertainty, despite tariff-induced volatility.
- ETH: Ethereum has maintained a resilience of over $2,500 amid volatility and careful whale action, supported by the ongoing institutional influx into Spot ETH ETFs.
- gold: Gold will drop slightly to tariff delays, but it remains above $3,310 as the deficit is concerned about bullish fuel outlook.
- Hangsen: Hong Kong’s Hangsen opened more than 23,304 transactions, led by technical losses, including a 4.9% decline in Meituan, opening lower prices.
- Nikkei: Japan’s Nikkei 225 soaked 0.13% on Tuesday morning, with the market assessing Trump’s tariff delays.
- S&P 500: Closed for anniversary.
Other locations in the cipher…
- Something like inside Trump’s crypto dinner (decryption)
- Solana Eyes Alpenro (Blockworks) for the next generation consensus layer
- Trump Media Group plans to raise $3 billion to spend on cryptocurrency (Financial Times)
- Pakistan taps Bitcoin mining, surplus capacity to fuel AI data centre (Coindesk)