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.

After a tense weekend that saw the U.S. bomb an Iranian nuclear site, bitcoin has regained its footing, hovering around $106K as Asia begins its Wednesday session and pushing past levels from earlier this month when Israel bombed Iran.

Part of the reason why crypto has recovered alongside traditional markets is just how correlated the two have become.

“Bitcoin’s sensitivity to traditional asset classes and macroeconomic indicators has evolved markedly over the past few market cycles, reflecting its growing integration into the broader macro-financial system,” a recent report from Glassnode and Avenir Group reads. “Institutional infrastructure has reshaped how capital engages with bitcoin. As a result, its market behavior is increasingly governed by structural liquidity, long-horizon positioning, and regulated access points.”

That institutional backbone was visible again this week.

Semir Gabeljic, director of capital formation and investment strategy at Pythagoras Investments, cited ETF flows as a major tailwind: “The huge recent capital inflows in Bitcoin ETFs of $1.1 billion last week and even $350 million today alone” are driving the positive trend.

Spencer Yang, Core Contributor to Fractal Bitcoin, added that one of the reasons why BTC was able to shake off war jitters so quickly is that fundamentally, nothing has changed about the asset class due to the conflict in the Middle East.

All the metrics that investors would look to for BTC are still there, and other bullish market sentiment is possibly on the way.

“We’re seeing continued interest in protocols like BRC-20, especially with the recent upgrade, as well as Runes and Alkanes, which have been getting a lot of attention,” he added. “So overall, on‑chain activity across the board is increasing thanks to these types of assets.”

The takeaway? As bitcoin becomes increasingly defined by institutional demand and macro liquidity cycles, analysts see its price action as less about reacting to headlines and more about long-term capital commitment. This structural shift is what continues to anchor BTC above $100K, despite the noise.

Tim Draper: Bitcoin Is Eating Crypto as Innovation Flocks to BTC

The Bitcoin blockchain is becoming the new home for crypto innovation, absorbing ideas once exclusive to altcoins, just as Microsoft once consolidated the software revolution under its operating system empire, Tim Draper argued in a recent post on X.

Draper pointed to BTC dominance, a metric equivalent to its “market share,” rising over 60%,up from 40% after the 2017 boom-bust cycle and 50% following the 2021 peak, as proof that Bitcoin is reasserting control over the broader crypto ecosystem.

Much like how Microsoft integrated or cloned early success stories like Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, and PowerPoint to form its software suite, Draper says Bitcoin is now incorporating once-altcoin-exclusive innovations: smart contracts, DeFi, ordinals, and low-cost layer 2s.

“All the successful innovations on other platforms are now being ported to Bitcoin,” Draper wrote, calling it an “acceleration” that mirrors Big Tech consolidation. Developers, he said, are increasingly gravitating toward Bitcoin as the most secure and valuable chain.

Draper, who runs a Bitcoin-focused accelerator with Boost VC, said the next generation of entrepreneurs is building on Bitcoin not just for ideological reasons, but because the infrastructure and ecosystem are now ready.

“Smart entrepreneurs are always building on the platform with the strongest gravitational pull,” he wrote. “That platform is Bitcoin.”

WazirX Granted Extension to Present Revised Restructuring Plan

WazirX has received a court-approved extension from the Singapore High Court, allowing it to present further arguments in support of its proposed Scheme of Arrangement. The court also extended the moratorium on creditor actions, which will now remain in place until a ruling is issued on the revised plan.

In a statement released Monday, the exchange said it is awaiting further directions from the court and reiterated its commitment to resolving outstanding claims. The company’s original restructuring plan, rejected by the court last month, as CoinDesk previously reported, sought to reimburse users affected by a $234 million hack in July 2024 through the issuance of recovery tokens and a transfer of operations to a new entity, Zensui Corporation.

More than 93% of creditors had approved the initial plan, but the court cited concerns around governance and transparency.

Without an approved arrangement, WazirX faces the possibility of liquidation under Singapore’s Companies Act, which could lead to extended delays and reduced creditor recoveries. No date has been set for the next court hearing.

Market Movements

• BTC: Bitcoin surged past $106,000 after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran eased geopolitical tensions, triggering a breakout fueled by high-conviction buyers, bullish technical signals, and strong on-chain accumulation, while the broader CD20 index also climbed nearly 1% amid renewed market strength.
• ETH: Ethereum surged 4% to break above $2,450 as Trump’s announcement of an Israel-Iran ceasefire eased global tensions, triggering renewed institutional accumulation and strong on-chain buying momentum.
• Gold: Gold fell as much as 2% to $3,300 after Trump’s surprise Israel-Iran ceasefire announcement eased geopolitical tensions, weakening safe-haven demand even as the metal remains up over 25% year-to-date.
• Nikkei 225: Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.12% as Asia-Pacific markets opened higher Wednesday, buoyed by the Israel-Iran ceasefire and new signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
• S&P 500: U.S. stocks surged Tuesday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hitting their highest levels since February as a tech-led rally gained momentum amid growing optimism over a fragile U.S.-brokered Israel-Iran ceasefire.

Elsewhere in Crypto

Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped 7% as majors staged a relief rally on Tuesday driven by talks of the upcoming U.S. tariffs, due on April 2, being more measured than initially expected.

As per reports, President Donald Trump’s planned “reciprocal tariffs” set for April 2 may be more targeted than previously threatened, with some countries exempt and existing metal levies possibly not stacking.

The tariffs unsettled markets in February, shocking stocks and cryptocurrencies alike with bitcoin (BTC) dropping 17.6% to below $80,000 from its January peak.

Last week, the Federal Reserve raised inflation forecasts and lowered growth projections, likely due to Trump’s trade stance, but described the tariff-driven inflation as temporary while maintaining plans for two rate cuts in 2025, supporting risk assets.

This, along with the possibility of milder tariffs, has boosted market optimism, and memecoins are leading the charge. DOGE, pepecoin (PEPE), mog (MOG), floki (FLOKI), among others, are up more than 5% in the past 24 hours, with the meme sector up 5.6% on average, per CoinGecko data.

That has beaten a 3% run in bitcoin, Solana’s SOL and XRP, with the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index up 2.7%.

Memecoins jump or act as beta bets when ether (ETH) or bitcoin rise because they’re highly speculative assets with amplified sensitivity to broader crypto market trends.

Retail traders often see relief in majors as a signal of bullish sentiment across the crypto ecosystem — chasing higher-risk, higher-reward opportunities like memecoins, which are typically cheaper and can deliver rapid gains in relatively shorter periods.

AI Tokens Remain Stable Despite ‘Bubble’ Talk

Elsewhere, Artificial Intelligence (AI) majors are stable after Alibaba’s Joe Tsai said he sees sign of a bubble forming in the ecosystem, the category is up 4.5% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

“I start to see the beginning of some kind of bubble,” Tsai said during an HSBC conference in Hong Kong. “I start to get worried when people are building data centers on spec. There are a number of people coming up, funds coming out, to raise billions or millions of capital.”

Investment in AI appears to be occurring ahead of current demand, Tsai believes.

NEAR protocol, the largest AI token by market cap, is flat in trading today, but up 14% in the last week as the market continues to positively digest news that Coinbase and the biggest names in AI were working together to collaboratively develop AI agent technology.

Story’s IP token also continues to do well, up 8% on-day, as the project continues to secure notable Hollywood and Korean popstar intellectual property to monetize on its chain. Story has pitched its project as a way for rights holders to survive the AI revolution by easily creating frameworks to license their content for AI training.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is closing its investigation into major non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea, the platform’s founder and CEO Devin Finzer said on social media.

The regulator issued a Wells notice against OpenSea in August 2024, indicating it was planning on pursuing an enforcement action against it. The regulator alleged the platform may have been operating as an unregistered securities marketplace.

The SEC’s move comes as the regulator is slated to vote on a deal negotiated with Coinbase to drop its lawsuit against the exchange, which is seen as a boon for the cryptocurrency industry and NFT creators.

“This is a win for everyone who is creating and building in our space. Trying to classify NFTs as securities would have been a step backward—one that misinterprets the law and slows innovation,” Finzer posted.

Reacting to Finzer’s post, Chris Akhavan, chief business officer of NFT marketplace Magic Eden, suggested it was a victory for the wider cryptocurrency space. “While we are competitors in the trenches, we share a deep belief in NFTs and what they will enable,” Akhavan wrote.

The announcement led to an uptick in activity for the native token of NFT marketplace LooksRare. The token, LOOKS, saw a surge in active addresses shortly after the announcement that represents an “approximately fivefold increase compared to the usual figures,” according to data from TheTie.