Good morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the markets:
Welcome to the Asia Morning Briefing, a daily overview of top stories in US hours and an overview of market movements and analysis. For a detailed overview of US markets, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas.
Bitcoin’s slide into the low 90s has forced the prediction markets into one of their fastest sentiment resets of the year, with traders abruptly abandoning upside scenarios and re-pricing the pullback as a deeper structural breach rather than a routine correction.
The move marks a rare moment when retail and institutional players were caught off guard at the same time. Polymarket odds on bitcoin’s year-end price have swung hard toward further downside, reflecting a market that expected mild weakness rather than a multi-week selloff that erased most of bitcoin’s year-to-date gains.
In a recent note, QCP warned that even professional desks were not positioned for a weekly close below 100,000 or the loss of the 50-week moving average, calling the move a cycle-level bend that traders are still digesting.
On-chain data from Glassnode shows similar stress with oversold momentum, large realized losses and moderating ETF outflows pointing to capitulation pressure in the late stages as bitcoin trades in a zone where earlier bottoms have formed.
But CryptoQuant argues in a recent note that the market is still missing the final ingredient for a true bottom, noting that realized losses remain virtually non-existent and that long-term owners are still selling for strength.
For now, the market sits between early signs of exhaustion and the lack of capitulation that usually defines a durable floor, creating a volatile stretch as traders decide which signal wins.
Market movement
BTC: Bitcoin fell to around 92,500 during the US session, down about 2% on the day and 27% from last month’s all-time high.
ETH: Ether held just above 3,000, down about 2% over the past 24 hours and extending its weekly decline to about 15%.
Gold: Gold fell to around $4,069 per ounce, down 0.3% as falling expectations of a Fed rate cut in December and a firmer dollar weighed on the metal after briefly pushing it above $4,100 earlier.
Nikkei 225: Asia Pacific markets fell on Tuesday after a tech-led slide on Wall Street, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.92% as investors awaited Nvidia earnings and the September jobs report.
Elsewhere in Crypto
- DappRadar Shuts Down Citing ‘Financially Unsustainable’ Market (CoinDesk)
- Ethereum is the opposite of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, says Vitalik Buterin (Decrypt)
- The man behind Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos Twitter hack to repay over $5 million in stolen bitcoin (The Block)
