Asia Morning Briefing: Thai Banks May Soon Hold Crypto, SCB10X CEO Signals Sandbox Push

2 weeks ago

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making quality successful the markets:

Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a regular summary of apical stories during U.S. hours and an overview of marketplace moves and analysis. For a elaborate overview of U.S. markets, spot CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.

Uniswap's UNI token surged from $6.00 to $6.65 implicit the past 24 hours, pushing the token up 5%, portion the broader marketplace gauge CoinDesk20 Index fell 1.8% successful the past 24 hours. This momentum coincides with Uniswap signaling its highest monthly transaction measurement since February, processing implicit $73 cardinal successful trades and generating much than $380 cardinal successful gross this year, arsenic organization involvement grows and a notable whale re-entered the marketplace by acquiring astir $4 cardinal worthy of UNI.

SCB10X’s New CEO Sees US-Asia Crypto Dealflow, AI Opportunities

Kaweewut Temphuwapat, the caller CEO of SCB10X, the task limb of Thailand's SCB bank, sees important opportunities emerging astatine the intersection of AI, crypto, and Web3. "We decidedly [are] going much connected AI and besides crypto and AI positive crypto," Temphuwapat told CoinDesk, highlighting these hybrid investments arsenic firmly "under our radar."

He predicts clearer crypto regularisation successful the U.S. volition substance accrued woody travel into resilient Asian markets, noting SCB10X's aboriginal occurrence investing successful Ripple: "We are an aboriginal capitalist successful Ripple of 10 years ago… we've utilized that exertion for the past 5 to six years successful our SCB App."

Temphuwapat praised Thailand’s proactive and innovative regulators, highlighting the country's robust payments infrastructure. He expects Thai banks, including SCB, could soon straight clasp crypto tokens connected their equilibrium sheets, initially done regulatory sandboxes: "The volition is there... they let america to bash [it] successful a tiny scale."

Trader James Wynn Shifts From Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Bets to Memecoins, Goes Long Pepe

Pseudonymous trader "James Wynn," known for high-stakes crypto bets connected decentralized level Hyperliquid, has shifted absorption from billion-dollar bitcoin positions to memecoins, precocious placing a leveraged $1 cardinal stake connected Pepe (PEPE), CoinDesk reported earlier.

Previously, Wynn closed a monolithic $1.2 cardinal bitcoin agelong presumption astatine a $17.5 cardinal loss, earlier pivoting to a $1 cardinal abbreviated presumption astatine 40x leverage, efficaciously wagering their full $50 cardinal wallet equilibrium connected bitcoin’s downside. That abbreviated concisely netted Wynn astir $3 cardinal successful nett earlier closing, marking 1 of the largest trades ever executed afloat on-chain.

Wynn announced stepping backmost from perpetual trading aft securing a cumulative nett of $25 million, earned from an archetypal concern of conscionable implicit $3 million. The trader’s latest high-leverage PEPE presumption has already gained $500,000 amid a astir 6% emergence successful the memecoin's value.

Strategy Buys Another 4,020 Bitcoin for $427M, Total Holdings Surpass 580K BTC

Strategy (MSTR), the largest firm holder of bitcoin, purchased an further 4,020 BTC betwixt May 19 and May 25 for astir $427 million, bringing its full holdings to 580,250 BTC, CoinDesk antecedently reported. The acquisition was funded done 3 abstracted at-the-market equity programs, including income of communal and preferred banal totaling astir $427 million.

These latest bitcoin purchases were executed astatine an mean terms of $106,237 per coin, pushing Strategy’s full concern successful bitcoin to implicit $40.6 billion, astatine an mean outgo ground of $69,979 per coin. The acquisitions bespeak the company’s ongoing committedness to expanding its sizable bitcoin holdings done regular superior raises and stock issuances.

Market Movements:

BTC: Bitcoin holds dependable adjacent grounds levels astir $109,000, consolidating gains contempt tariff-induced volatility, arsenic semipermanent investors proceed accumulating amid macroeconomic uncertainty.
ETH: Ethereum maintains resilience supra $2,500 amid volatility and cautious whale behavior, supported by continued organization inflows into spot ETH ETFs.
Gold: Gold dips somewhat connected tariff hold but stays supra $3,310 arsenic shortage concerns substance bullish outlook.
Hang Seng: Hong Kong's Hang Seng opened lower, trading supra 23,304, led by tech losses, including Meituan's 4.9% decline.
Nikkei: Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped 0.13% Tuesday greeting arsenic markets assessed Trump's tariff delay.
S&P 500: Closed for Memorial Day.