Asia Morning Briefing: Bitcoin Holds Steady as Traders Turn to Ethereum for September Upside

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets: Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during ￰0￱ and an overview of market moves and ￰1￱ a detailed overview of U. S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook ￰2￱ is stuck in a holding pattern near $112,000, according to CoinDesk market data , but the bigger story onchain might be the divide emerging between how investors treat BTC and ETH heading into ￰3￱ is acting more like a macro hedge, while ETH is being positioned as the real vehicle for ￰4￱ split reflects a mix of policy uncertainty and shifting trader ￰5￱ a recent note, QCP Capital wrote that doubts about the Fed’s independence are keeping term premiums elevated, a setup that weakens the dollar and supports hedges like BTC and ￰6￱ options desks and prediction markets show momentum gathering in ETH instead, where traders see the most potential for a ￰7￱ reported muted implied volatility in BTC despite pullbacks, suggesting positioning rather than speculative ￰8￱ remains negative, meaning puts are expensive, but that creates relative value in call ￰9￱ risk reversals, meanwhile, have recovered from their recent selloff, indicating renewed demand for upside ￰10￱ options also saw increased activity, with flows skewed to the upside on growing sentiment around its ecosystem and corporate Digital Asset Treasury ￰11￱ activity rotated into ETH beta names like AAVE and AERO, as well as SOL betas like RAY and DRIFT, showing breadth widening beyond ￰12￱ markets back this rotation ￰13￱ sentiment reinforces the ￰14￱ expect BTC to stay capped near $120k, while ETH is given a strong chance of breaking $5,000 — a view consistent with its 20% monthly rally and recovering risk ￰15￱ are increasingly treating BTC as a steady macro hedge, while ETH is emerging as the market’s high-conviction upside play into September.

Europe-based market maker Flowdesk wrote in a recent Telegram update that activity on the desk remains high, with clients broadly positioned for upside even as macro risks linger and seasonal volatility tends to pick ￰16￱ macro backdrop sets the hedge case, trading flows show how positioning is shifting, and prediction markets validate it with real-money bets. Together, they sketch a market where BTC anchors as a governance and inflation hedge, ETH leads on performance, and SOL builds momentum as breadth ￰17￱ Movements BTC : Bitcoin remains in a consolidation phase around the $110K–112K range, marked by waning short‑term volatility. ETH: ETH is trading near $4400.

Its rally is being fuelled by surging institutional interest, especially via ETF inflows, and anticipation surrounding the upcoming Fusaka network ￰18￱ action is supported by strong structural demand as ETH continues to solidify its role in DeFi and smart contracts. Gold: Gold is trading around record highs propelled by expectations of an imminent Federal Reserve rate cut (markets now price in about a 92% chance), weakening confidence in Fed independence, and increased demand from ETFs and central banks acting as conviction ￰19￱ 225: Asia-Pacific stocks climbed Thursday, led by a 0.57% gain in Japan’s Nikkei 225, as Wall Street’s tech rally lifted sentiment despite lingering economic worries.

S&P 500: ￰20￱ rose Wednesday as Alphabet gained after avoiding a breakup in an antitrust ruling and investors boosted September Fed rate-cut bets despite fresh labor market ￰21￱ in Crypto: ￰22￱ Gives Go-Ahead For Polymarket's New Exchange, QCX ( CoinDesk ) Pump. fun’s New Fee Model Hands Out $2M to Creators in First 24 Hours ( Decrypt ) AI Agents Will Become Biggest Stablecoin User, Says Novogratz ( Bloomberg )