Good morning, Asia. Here’s what makes news in the markets:
Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily overview of top stories during the US HOURS and an overview of market movements and analysis. For a detailed overview of US markets, see Coindesk’s Crypto Doybook Americas.
On Wednesday in the United States, Securities and Exchange Commission announced that investors are now allowed to make redemptions in nature for Bitcoin and Ether Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFS).
The decision lets institutional dealers create and redeem ETF shares directly in BTC or ETH, which improves the effectiveness of avoiding FIAT conversions.
But in Hong Kong this is nothing new. At the end of 2023, in the early days of the legislative process of bringing crypto-ETFs to the market (they launched in April 2024), Securities and Futures Commission-town markets mentioned in a circular that redemptions in nature would be allowed.
Part of the reason they were allowed was technical: ETF issuers were obliged to collaborate with licensed local crypto exchanges and use custody solutions. This was not the case in Ontario, Canada, who had crypto -Tfs first, nor the United States in Hong Kong, there was not the same debate about the Ether status of a security as there was in the US
In contrast, US regulators fought with concerns about custody, anti-laundering laundering of money laundering and potential market manipulation.
While SEC never explicitly banned redemptions in nature, ETF sponsors were required to remove them from early archives. The Commission favored a cash approach as a cautious first step with reference to untested operational processes and uncertainty about how to safely run large crypto transfers.
This attitude was not without internal pushback. SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda criticized the Agency’s Agency’s approach during January 2024 approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs.
He pointed out that raw material -based ETFs, like those supported by gold, routinely use redemptions in nature and questioned why crypto was treated differently.
Uyeda argued that SEC did not succeed in explaining why it considered only cash redemptions such as “non-novel” despite the clear deviation from standard ETF practices, warning that the lack of justification set a troubled precedent.
The episode highlights how Hong Kong’s regulator moved with greater clarity and cohesion from the start as it brought these products to the market.
By enabling redemptions in nature early and pairing them with strict requirements for license and custody, SFC avoided the internal contradictions and policy operations that defined the US rollout.
However, there will be a side effect from all this: tracking streams.
Crypto Data Aggregator Sosovalue, which supplies daily flow updates to crypto -Tfs, warns that “subscriptions to physically Bitcoin do not generate cash flow to [ETFs]So they can’t just be counted in daily net flow statistics. “
They have tried to create methods and models to work around this, but say they have not been successful so far.
So unless ETF issuers in the United States publish daily flow in cash and crypto, tracing this metric will be a problem. And it is important to track as it shows the investor mood for the asset class.
Market movements
BTC: Bitcoin trades over $ 117,500 after a modest rebound, but Momentum remains weak when the ETF flows persist, whales are making profits near $ 118K, and macro -mind, including a fixed dollar and Hawkish feed expectations, continues to limit upwards.
ETH: ETH trades over $ 3,700. “Ethereum has appeared in parallel with BTC since its inception to be the second most combat -tested network, and very likely institutions now see Ether Tokenet as a formidable asymmetrical effort with Bitcoin,” said March Zheng, general partner for bizantine Capital, in a note to Coindesk.
Gold: Gold rebound for $ 3,334 on Tuesday and broke a four-day losing row in front of the Fed Meeting, which dealers priced in stable rates despite weak US job data
Nikkei 225: The Markets of the Asia Stock Ocean opened mixed when US Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed that Trump’s Friday-star deadline will continue as planned, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 apartment at the open.
S&P 500: US shares closed lower Tuesday, with the S&P 500 ending a six-day record line as investors weigh earnings, financial data and the upcoming bold rate decision.
Elsewhere in crypto:
- Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm will not take the position, says lawyers (Coindesk)
- Cornell Tech -professor warns AI agents and crypto spelling problems (Bloomberg)
- Senator Lummis introduces Bill that requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider crypto as an asset for priority loans (block)
