asia

He pointed out that the total wealth of Asian households is approximately 108 trillion dollars, and a 1% allocation would bring in new funds equivalent to 60% of the current market value.

BlackRock iShares Asia-Pacific Head Nicholas Peach stated at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong that if traditional investment portfolios in the Asia region allocate just 1% to crypto assets, it could theoretically bring nearly $2 trillion in new capital inflows to the market, highlighting the immense potential scale of traditional financial capital.Peach pointed out that as institutional acceptance of crypto ETFs in Asia continues to rise, market expectations for digital assets are changing. Currently, some asset allocation models have begun to recommend including a small percentage of crypto assets in standard portfolios. Based on Asia's approximately $108 trillion in household wealth, even a very conservative allocation could have a profound impact on the market. The asset size of BlackRock's iShares spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, has rapidly grown to about $53 billion. Meanwhile, regulatory agencies in markets such as Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea are gradually promoting the launch of a wider range of crypto ETF products. Industry insiders believe that whether funds can smoothly enter the market in the future still depends on further improvements in investor education and asset allocation frameworks.

According to Jin Ten, Asian stock markets are set to welcome new highs on Tuesday, following a further rebound in U.S. tech stocks after an AI-driven plunge. Futures for stock indices in Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong all indicate an increase, expected to drive the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index to continue its ascent after reaching a record high on Monday. Sameer Samana from Wells Fargo Investment Institute stated that the market often experiences an instinctive rebound after being sold off in certain tech sectors.

KiteAI Asia Pacific Head Laughing confirmed attendance at the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum to be held in Hong Kong on February 10. This event is co-hosted by ChainCatcher, RootData, and Alibaba Cloud, and is one of the important peripheral activities of the Consensus HongKong conference.Kite AI is building the foundational layer of the Agentic Internet, aiming to create a vertically integrated artificial intelligence ecosystem to drive the realization of real business value and the long-term sustainable development of the network. This forum will focus on industry integration trends, growth paths, and market opportunities in the new cycle, engaging in in-depth discussions around key tracks such as RWA, stablecoins, AI, payments, and DeFi. The event aims to gather high-quality project parties, investment institutions, and developers from around the world to build a high-value industry network and jointly explore future opportunities and value potential in the Web3 ecosystem.

Pantera Capital general partner Franklin Bi posted on platform X speculating that the recent large-scale sell-off in the crypto market was driven not by a trading firm focused on cryptocurrencies, but by a large entity from outside the crypto space in Asia.This entity has limited crypto trading counterparts, so it went unnoticed by the crypto community. Franklin Bi speculated that this entity engaged in leveraged trading and market making on Binance → closed yen arbitrage trades → faced an extreme liquidity crisis → obtained about a 90-day grace period → attempted to recover losses through gold/silver trading but failed → and was forced to close positions this week.

According to Jin Ten's report, the latest report from the Treasury and Market Research Department of CIMB International shows that the Singapore dollar slightly weakened against the US dollar during Thursday's Asian trading session due to market expectations that the Federal Reserve may pause interest rate cuts. Federal Reserve Governor Cook recently expressed a cautious attitude towards inflation, and several other Federal Reserve officials share similar concerns.Analysis indicates that unless inflation further slows down and there are no significant negative surprises in the labor market, the Federal Reserve's policy interest rate is expected to remain unchanged for some time.

The online trading giant IG Group has completed the acquisition of the cryptocurrency trading platform Independent Reserve, which has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. This acquisition marks IG Group's official commitment to expanding its presence in the digital asset space.Independent Reserve will be integrated into the IG Group system while maintaining the stability of existing services and compliant operations. IG plans to leverage Independent Reserve's cryptocurrency technology and operational experience to launch cryptocurrency trading products tailored for local markets in Singapore, Australia, and the UAE in the second half of 2026.IG Group stated that this acquisition will help it expand compliant digital asset services in a market where regulations are gradually becoming clearer; Independent Reserve believes that with IG's resources and regional network, it will accelerate the internationalization of its cryptocurrency products.

According to Jinshi reports, as global markets stabilize and concerns over artificial intelligence spending ease, market risk appetite was broadly restored on Tuesday.The stock markets in Japan and South Korea rebounded significantly, with the South Korean KOSPI index closing up 6.84% at 5,288.08 points, marking the largest single-day gain since March 2020. The Nikkei 225 index closed up 3.92% at 54,720.66 points, reaching a historic high. The Taiwan Weighted Index closed up 1.81% at 32,195.36 points.

Billions Network Asia-Pacific Head Lulu confirmed attendance at the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum to be held on February 10 in Hong Kong. This event is co-hosted by ChainCatcher, RootData, and Alibaba Cloud, and is one of the important peripheral activities of the Consensus HongKong conference.Billions Network is a digital identity verification platform aimed at providing a mutually trustworthy future for humans and artificial intelligence. The platform utilizes zero-knowledge proof technology to offer a scalable and secure method for verifying the identities of humans and AI. This forum will focus on industry convergence trends, growth paths, and market opportunities in the new cycle, with in-depth discussions around key tracks such as RWA, stablecoins, AI, payments, and DeFi. The event aims to gather high-quality project parties, investment institutions, and developers from around the world to build a high-value industry network and jointly explore future opportunities and value potential in the Web3 ecosystem.Event registration: https://luma.com/md5v6b5z

The blockchain infrastructure company Global Settlement Network has announced the launch of a pilot program for the tokenization of water assets, with plans to expand the project across Southeast Asia over the next 12 months, targeting a scale of $200 million.The pilot will initially focus on the tokenization of 8 government-contracted water treatment facilities in Jakarta, aiming to raise approximately $35 million for facility upgrades and the expansion of the local water supply network. During the project, stakeholders will also test a settlement channel using the Indonesian rupiah stablecoin and gradually expand to more foreign exchange settlement scenarios in a controlled environment. Mas Witjaksono, chairman of the Indonesian Globalasia Infrastructure Fund, stated that Indonesia has a large number of tokenizable assets in the infrastructure and natural resources sectors, and the related model has growth potential. Reports indicate that the financing gap for water infrastructure in Southeast Asia continues to widen, with long-term investment needs potentially exceeding $4 trillion by 2040. Some industry insiders expect that as emerging markets accelerate adoption, the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market is likely to see significant growth by 2026. Currently, the on-chain RWA scale has exceeded $21 billion.

According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin briefly reached $96,000, accumulating nearly a 10% increase since 2026. This upward trend is primarily driven by strong performance during North American trading hours. According to Velo data, Bitcoin's cumulative return during North American hours is approximately 8%. In contrast, the European session recorded only about a 3% moderate increase, while the Asian trading session has been a drag on overall performance.This trend is in stark contrast to the situation at the end of 2025. At that time, Bitcoin had cumulatively dropped as much as 20% during the North American trading session at the end of November, hitting a low of nearly $80,000. In the fourth quarter, there was often selling pressure on Bitcoin at the opening of the U.S. market, and the spot Bitcoin ETF faced outflows almost daily. Currently, the strongest returns occur shortly after the U.S. market opens, while this period has been the weakest for Bitcoin over the past six months.The U.S. trading session does not necessarily represent the trading activity of U.S. investors, as the price performance during these hours reflects fluctuations on domestic trading platforms and overseas exchanges like Binance. Therefore, the strong returns during U.S. market hours may coexist with a negative premium on Coinbase, indicating that demand may come from global participants rather than domestic U.S. buyers.

Caixin reported in "After Many Twists and Turns, Southeast Asian Gambling Kingpin She Lunkai is Extradited Back to China | Past Events · Future Events" that the only partner of She Lunkai's blockchain project "Asia-Pacific New City" is the Singapore blockchain company BCB Innovation Ltd. The Fincy payment software based on BCB's blockchain is also promoted within Asia-Pacific New City, aiming to create a Southeast Asian version of WeChat. Fincy and BCB share the same parent company and similar shareholders, providing fiat and cryptocurrency exchange transactions, as well as online gaming.Industry insiders point out that by offering exchanges between fiat and cryptocurrency and online games, it effectively introduces many unrelated participants, breaking down large sums of money into smaller amounts, which ultimately converge into a gambling platform disguised as a game, significantly weakening the regulation of the flow of funds.

On-chain data analyst Murphy stated that the on-chain sentiment indicator RMMPC shows that the current Asian market funds have a stronger dominance over BTC prices, starting strong intervention after December 19, 2025, while also driving BTC to rebound after a second retest of $85,000. However, the current American market funds have not yet actively entered, resulting in limited rebound strength.Previously, before the market started in March 2025, Asian funds intervened first, followed by American funds, ultimately providing strong momentum for the market and significantly changing its direction.

According to Coinglass data, the Bitcoin price on Coinbase has shown a continuous negative premium of about -0.1% compared to several other major exchanges in Asia for a duration of 1 hour, which has now narrowed to -0.0632%. Furthermore, since the 15th of this month, the Coinbase premium index has been in negative territory for 12 consecutive days. A negative Coinbase Bitcoin premium index indicates that the Bitcoin price on Coinbase is lower than the global average price, which typically reflects greater selling pressure in the U.S. market, a decrease in investor risk appetite, an increase in market risk aversion, or capital outflows.

According to CoinDesk, Ripple's Asian project SBI Ripple Asia announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Doppler Finance to launch yield-generating products based on XRP and explore the tokenization of real-world assets on the XRP Ledger.It is reported that SBI Digital Markets, regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has been designated as the institutional custodian for the related products, providing segregated custody services for client assets.

According to financefeeds, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 0.25% as expected (with 3 dissenting votes), and Powell confirmed a pause after another rate cut in 2026. The market began to digest the dovish comments from the new chairman candidate Kevin Hassett (who mentioned the possibility of more than 3 rate cuts). At the same time, the Federal Reserve announced a monthly repurchase of about $40 billion in short-term government bonds, which lowers real interest rates and provides liquidity, moderately benefiting stocks, metals, and cryptocurrencies.Compared to the US dollar, major currencies like the euro and yen present a hawkish narrative. The yield on Germany's 30-year government bonds reached a new high, attracting capital inflows into European assets. Precious metals surged strongly: gold broke through $4,300, silver reached a historic high, and platinum and palladium also hit mid-term highs.Bitcoin fluctuated narrowly in the $92,000-$93,000 range, attempting to find demand after a large outflow from ETFs. Bloomberg experts stated that hedge funds are preparing for a rebound. The DAX index has been forming a large consolidation pattern since June 2025, with a potential breakout; the Hang Seng Index is consolidating above the 200-day moving average and may test the 24,500 support zone before reversing.