Coindesk

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.As Asia begins its Thursday business day, ETH is trading at $2,770.ETH is up almost 11% this month, according to CoinDesk market data, outperforming BTC, which rose 5%.Part of this could be because of institutional trading demand, and the fact that it's overtaken BTC in derivatives markets as sophisticated investors increasingly bet on ETH’s structural growth and role as a gateway between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi), OKX Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai told CoinDesk in...

GameStop (GME), the embattled video game retailer turned meme stock, announced Wednesday a $1.75 billion convertible senior note offering.Proceeds will be used at least in part for "making investments in a manner consistent with GameStop’s Investment Policy," per a company press release. Said investment policy is to add bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, according to a March release from the company.Today's offering, only open to qualified institutional buyers, includes an option for purchasers to buy an additional $250 million in notes within two weeks of the initial issuance,. The notes carry no regular interest and will mature in June 2032 unless they are converted or repurchased earlier.Following the March announcement of the bitcoin treasury strategy, GameStop raised $1.3 billion...

Safe, the popular multiparty crypto wallet previously called Gnosis Safe, has launched a new development unit, Safe Labs, in a move aimed at consolidating its operations and sharpening its product roadmap after it was targeted in February's $1.4 billion ByBit hack — the largest crypto heist to date.The new entity will serve as the core development arm of Safe, which until now had outsourced technical work to a separate development firm, a structure commonly used across the crypto industry, Safe Labs Chief Executive Rahul Rumalla said on Wednesday. Safe Labs will operate directly under the umbrella of the Safe Foundation, a nonprofit organization.In an interview with CoinDesk, Rumalla said the transition reflects a broader strategy shift toward building products that...

The U.S. Senate took the initial steps toward final approval of its first major crypto legislation as members opened voting Wednesday on the bill to set standards for U.S. stablecoin issuers, clearing the highest procedural hurdle with a 68-30 result.In a moment that will mark the industry's greatest U.S. policy success to-date, the famously slow-moving Senate is on its way to clearing the legislation with wide bipartisan support. And as the crypto world watches the Senate reverse what had long been a crypto-resistant stance, the House of Representatives has also scored a pair of key votes to advance legislation even more vital to the industry: the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that would establish a full set of rules managing...

Ether (ETH) ETH drifted around $2,770 for most of Tuesday until roughly 8 p.m. ET, when officials said negotiators in London had forged a draft U.S.–China trade framework. The outline — till awaiting presidential approval — would see Beijing resume rare-earth exports while Washington eases curbs on advanced-technology sales. At 8:04 a.m. ET on Wednesday, former U.S. president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE,” pending his and President Xi’s formal approval. Trump claimed the accord would leave U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports effectively at 55 percent versus Beijing’s 10 percent, promised that China would front-load supplies of magnets and other rare-earth materials, and said Washington would uphold concessions such as continued access...