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.China Renaissance’s reported plan to raise $600 million for a BNB-focused investment vehicle, with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s YZi Labs investing alongside, may look like a straightforward bet on Binance’s ecosystem. But Singapore-based market maker Enflux argues it’s something deeper: a signal that Asian institutions are building a different kind of crypto exposure than their Western counterparts.“Regional capital allocators are seeking exposure to infrastructure tokens that drive transaction flow, not just store-of-value assets,” Enflux said in a note to CoinDesk, framing the China Renaissance move as part of a broader divergence between East and West.BNB is a great example of this. Binance, of course, isn’t a listed company, but BNB serves as something very close to a stock. Its value is a proxy for market sentiment and confidence in Binance.While U.S. and European markets have leaned into tokenized Treasuries, funds, and real-world assets, Asia’s capital markets are increasingly constructing crypto-native liquidity networks centered around exchange, staking, and transaction infrastructure.”This ties into the broader shift where Asian capital markets are building out their own layer of crypto-native liquidity networks while Western markets tokenized TradFi,” Enflux continued.The logic is straightforward. Value should be accrued by activity, not scarcity. Tron’s move to create a publicly listed company to give investors listed exposure to activity on the TRX network – which is heavily used to send USDT around Latin America – follows the same train of thought.If Enflux’s thesis is right, the China Renaissance fund could be an early blueprint for Asia’s next wave of institutional products: permanent capital vehicles that hold the pipes of the crypto economy, not just its gold.Market Movement:BTC: BTC is trading above $114,500, relatively flat as the market stabilizes after last weekend’s volatility.ETH: ETH rose 1.5% to $4,230 as network activity picked up, even as U.S.-listed Ethereum ETFs saw $118 million in outflows.Gold: Gold surged 2% to a record $4,103 an ounce as renewed U.S.-China trade tensions and expectations of further Fed rate cuts drove investors toward safe-haven assets.Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Tuesday as Trump’s conciliatory remarks on China failed to offset renewed trade tensions, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 1.34%.Elsewhere in Crypto:Crypto market structure bill may need to wait until after the midterm election, says TD Cowen (The Block)Tom Lee’s Bitmine Bought the Dip, Adding Over 200K ETH to Ethereum Treasury (CoinDesk)Ripple Is Offering $200K to ‘Attack’ XRP Ledger Lending Protocol (Decrypt)
Asia Morning Briefing: China Renaissance’s BNB Treasury Highlights a Shift in Asia’s Crypto Playbook
