A unit of the Chinese fintech conglomerate Ant Group is tokenizing more than $8 billion worth of energy infrastructure on its own blockchain. 

Ant Digital Technologies, the enterprise solutions arm of the Jack Ma-backed Ant Group, is in the process of tokenizing 60 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) of power infrastructure on its AntChain network, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The company has been monitoring power output and outages from 15 million energy devices, including wind turbines and solar panels across China, and uploading this data to their blockchain, according to the report. 

Ant Digital has already completed financing for three clean energy projects using asset tokenization, raising about 300 million yuan ($42 million) total, and its next step will be to issue tokens linked to those assets. 

One of the company’s future expansion options is putting tokens on decentralized offshore exchanges to create more liquidity for the assets, but this is subject to regulatory approval, according to the anonymous sources. 

Ant already tokenizing energy assets 

Ant Digital raised 100 million yuan ($14 million) for energy firm Longshine Technology Group in August 2024, and linked 9,000 of its electric charging units to AntChain. 

In December, it secured over 200 million yuan ($28 million) for GCL Energy Technology by connecting photovoltaic assets to its blockchain.

Related: Green RWAs recast climate assets as profitable cutting-edge tech

Asset tokenization allows companies to bypass traditional financial intermediaries by issuing digital tokens directly to investors. 

This provides several benefits, such as cutting out middlemen like loan officers and underwriters, reducing costs and speeding up funding access, and opening investment opportunities to retail investors typically excluded from infrastructure financing.

Stablecoin ambitions

Ant Group also has grand stablecoin ambitions.

In July, it was reported that Ant Group was working with stablecoin issuer Circle to integrate USDC into its blockchain platform. 

Meanwhile, the group’s global division, Ant International, has been leveraging infrastructure for cross-border corporate payments and applying for stablecoin-related licenses.

RWA onchain value at record high

Real-world asset tokenization is still a nascent sector; however, onchain value has almost doubled since the beginning of this year, reaching a record high of $28.4 billion this week, according to RWA.xyz. 

More than half of this total is tokenized private credit, while just over a quarter of it is tokenized US Treasurys. Ethereum remains the market-dominant chain for tokenizing RWA with a 57% market share.

Magazine: Bitcoin may sink ‘below $50K’ in bear, Justin Sun’s WLFI saga: Hodler’s Digest

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ant-digital-is-putting-8b-in-energy-assets-on-the-blockchain-report/feed/ 0 57508 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bitcoin-stays-below-112k-after-tough-jobs-report-and-fed-cut-bets-what-next/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bitcoin-stays-below-112k-after-tough-jobs-report-and-fed-cut-bets-what-next/#respond Sun, 07 Sep 2025 02:37:47 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bitcoin-stays-below-112k-after-tough-jobs-report-and-fed-cut-bets-what-next/

Bad news has just been bad news over the past 24 hours. Friday’s weak U.S. jobs report bolstered bets on deeper Fed cuts, but bitcoin BTC$110,542.77 hasn’t played along.

The leading cryptocurrency by market value remains heavy below $112,000, instead of rallying on the prospect of easier monetary policy as many had anticipated. The inability to find upside suggests potential for a deeper sell-off ahead.

NFP shock

Job seekers had a tough time in August as the nonfarm payrolls revealed just 22,000 job additions, significantly less than the Dow Jones’ projection of 75,000. The report also revised lower the combined job creation over June and July by 21,000. Notably, the revised June figure showed a net loss of 13,000.

Nine sectors, including manufacturing, construction, wholesale trade, and professional services, registered job losses, while health services and leisure and hospitality were bright spots.

The Kobeissi Letter called the jobs report “absolutely insane.” The newsletter service described the downward revisions in prior months as a sign of a broken system and the labour market entering recession territory.

Following the jobs data, the probability of a Fed rate cut at the Sept. 17 meeting surged to 100%, and the odds of a 50-basis-point cut jumped to 12%. The likelihood of additional rate cuts in November and December also increased, sending Treasury yields lower.

The upcoming revisions to earlier jobs reports are expected to add fuel to the rate cut bets. “The BLS will announce annual benchmark revisions on Tuesday, and they are expected to point to even weaker job growth earlier. Some surveys suggest between 500k and 1 mln jobs could be revised away,” Bannockburn Global Forex’s Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist, Marc Chandler said in a market update.

BTC’s double top is intact; volatility in Treasury yields may rise

Bitcoin briefly rallied on hopes of a Fed rate cut and softer yields, reaching a high of over $113,300. But the bounce quickly faded, with prices slipping back under $111,982 — the double‑top neckline.

Failing to retake that level underscored the late August double top breakdown and validates the bearish setup, keeping downside risks in focus. Prices crossing below the Ichimoku cloud further validates the bearish outlook, as Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets, noted in a market update.

The first line of support is located around $101,700, which corresponds to the 200-day simple moving average (SMA). The latest double top breakdown in bitcoin closely mirrors the one from February this year, which led to a significant multi-week sell-off that pushed prices down to around $75,000.

The double top is a bearish reversal chart formation that occurs after an asset has experienced an uptrend. It forms when the price reaches a high point (the first peak), then pulls back to a support level called the neckline. The price then rises again but fails to surpass the first peak, creating a second peak at roughly the same level. The pattern is confirmed when the price breaks below the neckline, signaling that the previous uptrend has lost momentum and a downtrend may follow.

Treasury yields may turn volatile

The bearish technical outlook, presented by the latest double top breakdown, is reinforced by the possibility of a pickup in volatility in Treasury yields, which often leads to financial tightening.

The volatility could pick up in the coming days, as the impending Fed rate cuts could initially send the 10-year yield lower in a positive development for BTC and risk assets. That said, the downside looks limited and could be quickly reversed, much like what happened in late 2024.

Last year, from September through December, the 10-year yield actually rose, even as the Fed began cutting rates, reversing earlier declines that had occurred in the lead-up to September. The 10-year yield bottomed out at 3.6% in mid-September 2024 and then rose to 4.80% by mid-January.

While the labour market today appears significantly weaker than last year, inflation is relatively higher, and fiscal spending continues unabated, both of which mean that the yield could surge following the September rate cut.

“Why the 10yr yield rose from September through December 2024 is open to interpretation, but there was an underpinning of macro resilience, sticky-ish inflation and lots of talk on fiscal largesse as a medium-term risk. This time around, granted, worries on the economy are more intense. But offsetting this are ongoing fiscal concerns, and quite a different inflation dynamic,” analysts at ING said in a note to clients.

August CPI data due next week

When the Fed cut rates last September, the U.S. consumer price index was well below 3%. Since then, it has edged back up to 3%. More importantly, the August CPI data, due next week, is likely to provide further evidence of inflation stickiness.

According to Wells Fargo, the core CPI is likely to have risen by 0.3%, keeping the year-over-year rate at 3.1%. Meanwhile, the headline CPI is forecast to have risen 0.3% month-over-month and 2.9% year-over-year.

The August jobs report is in, and depending on your perspective, it’s either worrying or the next big catalyst for crypto. While economists were expecting jobless claims of 230,000, the reality arrived at 237,000. Job openings also missed the mark, coming in at 7.18 million versus the projected 7.38 million.

Along with July’s figures, the August jobs report confirms softness in the labor market, which is bad news for the economy but could lead to the keenly-awaited rate cut the crypto industry has been waiting for.

Why a weak jobs report is good news for crypto

So how does a slowing job market translate into crypto optimism? The link lies in the Federal Reserve’s next move. Weaker employment stats put more pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates.

When rates go down, borrowing across the board gets cheaper (think home mortgages, business loans, and yes, margin for crypto traders). This monetary loosening encourages greater risk-taking, new investments, and asset speculation, all of which are rocket fuel for crypto prices.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget, but crypto is more “macro” than most people think. Bitcoin and its siblings thrive in “risk-on” environments when investors are less anxious about the cost of borrowing and put that cash into something volatile or speculative. As soon as rate cuts look likely, traders pivot out of safer assets like bonds and chase growth, tech, and, increasingly, digital assets.

According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the odds of a September rate cut now sit at 97.4% after the jobs report numbers dropped. As crypto markets newsletter The Milk Road put it:

“Jerome Powell might as well pack scissors for September’s FOMC meeting.”

The market is practically begging for easier money, and crypto loves it when money is easy.

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Will this setup kick off Uptober?

Seasonality also has a role to play. For the uninitiated, “Uptober” is the crypto world’s nickname for October, when digital assets (traditionally led by Bitcoin) tend to rally. Why? Some of it is technical, some is psychology, but it’s become a self-fulfilling trend: analysts and traders expect prices to climb once summer’s sluggishness is out of the way. If you layer a likely rate cut over this historical uptrend, the argument for a bullish Q4 gets stronger.

Of course, it’s not all upside. Fed rate cuts can and do increase inflation. The idea is simple: cheaper credit means more spending; more spending, especially if supply chains remain tight, means higher prices. But the Fed’s balancing act means this tradeoff is sometimes considered worth it, especially if it keeps more people employed, even if the dollar is slightly weaker. As The Milk Road notes:

“That’s the balancing game the Fed is forever playing.”

Crypto investors are particularly sensitive to these shifts because inflation has both positive and negative effects on digital assets. On the one hand, inflation can erode trust in fiat currencies, pushing more investors toward Bitcoin’s hard limit of 21 million coins.

On the other hand, unchecked inflation can also lead to policy instability and market volatility, which is never a friendly environment for speculative investments.

With the August jobs report confirming a cooling labor market, the narrative is clear: the environment is risk-on and might just spell gains for crypto.

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Bitcoin rose above $113,000 on Friday as U.S. payrolls increased by 22,000 and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 percent, pushing traders to price a September Federal Reserve rate cut with near certainty.

Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics release, private employers added 38,000 jobs, government payrolls fell by 16,000 and manufacturing lost 12,000.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent on the month and 3.7 percent on the year, the labor force participation rate edged up to 62.3 percent and average weekly hours held at 34.2. The U-6 underemployment rate reached 8.1 percent.

Bitcoin traded above the $113,000 level during the session while hovering just below that mark on real-time charts.

The weak headline gain followed a week of incremental softening across higher-frequency indicators. Initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 237,000, while private-sector payroll growth in the ADP series cooled, reinforcing evidence of slower hiring, according to Trading Economics data

Separately, the services side of the economy improved but showed persistent price pressure: the ISM Services PMI firmed in August, new orders advanced, and the prices-paid index eased only slightly to a still-elevated 69.2.

On costs, the Labor Department revised second-quarter nonfarm productivity up to a 3.3 percent annualized pace and unit labor costs down to 1.0 percent, a combination that supports disinflation at the margin.

Trade flows added another piece to the macro picture. The U.S. goods and services deficit widened to $78.3 billion in July as imports rebounded, the largest gap since early spring, per the latest joint release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau. That pattern points to resilient domestic demand and front-loading related to tariff policy, even as hiring momentum slows.

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Rate expectations adjusted quickly after the August payrolls figures. Futures implied probabilities tracked by the CME FedWatch Tool showed markets treating a September reduction as a base case, with some chance of a larger move discussed in rates commentary during the trading day.

The chance of a 50bps cut sat at 0% yesterday but has now jumped to 12%, while the 3.6% chance of no cut has evaporated to 0%.

The setup is straightforward for crypto: a softer labor market and contained wage growth raise the probability of easier policy, which has historically supported liquidity conditions that can lift risk assets, including Bitcoin.

The mix of slower hiring, firm services demand, and improving productivity leaves the policy debate finely balanced heading into the September 16–17 meeting.

If service inflation pressure, captured in ISM prices, moderates alongside cooling labor conditions and lower unit labor costs, the Fed has room to begin a measured easing cycle, a backdrop that crypto markets have already started to discount.

The committee’s decision will finalize the near-term path for dollar liquidity and duration, and by extension, the tone for digital asset trading into quarter-end.

The Fed meets September 16–17.

An independent investigation commissioned by Input Output found no evidence to support accusations of fraud or misconduct in Cardano’s decade-old ADA Voucher Program, according to a forensic report released on.

The review, conducted jointly by law firm McDermott Will & Emery and accounting firm BDO, examined public claims that insiders misused ADA, manipulated blockchain upgrades to block redemptions, or improperly diverted unredeemed tokens.

The 150-page report, dated Sept. 2, 2025, concluded the allegations “do not have any basis.”

Redemption efforts and findings

Investigators reviewed tens of thousands of documents, carried out blockchain and forensic analyses, and interviewed 18 people ranging from former employees to voucher holders.

Their findings showed that 14,282 vouchers, representing 99.7% of all ADA sold in the program, were successfully redeemed through a mix of on-chain redemptions and a follow-up recovery initiative.

Contrary to claims that elderly investors were disproportionately targeted, only 6.1% of vouchers were sold to people over 65. Of those, just 14 vouchers remain unredeemed.

The report said the program included safeguards to prevent misrepresentation, and distributors who broke rules were suspended. When Cardano’s Byron-era redemption process ended in 2017, 390 vouchers, worth 318 million ADA, remained unclaimed.

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Input Output launched a “Post-Sweep Redemption Project” that deployed consultants and private investigators to track down voucher holders. That effort raised the overall redemption rate to near totality.

Use of unredeemed funds

The report also addressed concerns about unredeemed ADA. In 2023, 68.25 million tokens judged unlikely to be redeemed were transferred to Cardano Development Holdings, a Cayman-based foundation overseen by the nonprofit Intersect.

Those funds supported ecosystem growth through continuity contracts, grants, and community projects. Intersect was formed in July 2023 by Input Output and EMURGO, which each pledged $500,000 annually to the group’s operating budget.

The report said much of the transferred ADA went toward contracts with Input Output Infrastructure, which in turn paid subcontractors under strict monitoring procedures.

The findings mark the strongest rebuttal to long-running social media accusations that Cardano insiders enriched themselves at the expense of early investors. Input Output said it released the full report to “ensure transparency” and encouraged community members to review it.