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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.Macro Events and Vitalik's Bold Plan to 10x Ethereum Layer 1 Could Propel ETH Past $3000: OKX's Lennex LaiETH traders are eying $2600 as Asia begins its business day, but OKX's Chief Commercial Officer Lennex Lai sees an easy path for the token to hit $3000 if Vitalik Buterin can get rid of Ethereum's reliance on Layer-2s.Layer 1 refers to the main blockchain infrastructure, such as Ethereum itself, while Layer 2 solutions are secondary systems built on top...

A suspect allegedly behind recent high-profile crypto kidnappings in France has been arrested in Morocco, according to Maghreb Arab Press, a government-run press agency.At the request of French authorities, a joint operation of Morocco’s National Judicial Police Brigade (BNPJ) and the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) took the 24-year-old French-Moroccan suspect into custody, according to a statement from Moroccan police distributed by MAP. The press agency described the man, who was identified by French press as Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, as a mastermind of the crimes."I sincerely thank Morocco for this arrest, which demonstrates the excellent judicial cooperation between our two countries, particularly against organized crime," said French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin in a translated statement on social-media...

Circle made its public market debut Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker “CRCL,” pricing its shares at $31 — above the expected $24 to $26 range.The company sold around 34 million shares in the offering, for a valuation of $1.1 billion. Bloomberg pegs the total amount raised in the IPO at $6.2 billion.Circle initially planned to offer just 24 million Class A shares, with 9.6 million coming from the firm itself and the remainder from early stakeholders. But as demand soared, the offering ballooned to more than 10 times the original amount.This initial public offering (IPO) marks the second major crypto company to go public under the Trump administration, after eToro listed last month.The stablecoin...

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin transferred around $2.6 million worth of tokens through the privacy-focused protocol Railgun on Wednesday, in what appears to be both a routine financial transaction and a quiet endorsement of blockchain-based privacy.It's unclear how the funds sent to Railgun — which included a mix of ETH and USDC — were ultimately used. Railgun is a tool designed to obfuscate on-chain activity, enabling investors to use decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols without transactions being tied to their personal crypto wallets.It is not the first time Buterin has used the protocol. In March, he moved approximately $500,000 through Railgun in a similar transaction. While Buterin has not commented directly on the latest transfer, his continued use of the tool underscores...

This week's main economic event comes on Friday when the U.S. government releases employment data for May. Ahead of that though, were three fairly important data points of their own on Wednesday, and all flashed unexpected weakness.First to hit was ADP private payrolls for May and that report showed the addition of just 37,000 jobs last month, far shy of expectations for 115,000 and well south of April's already weak 60,000. It was the weakest ADP number since March 2023.Next up was the May ISM Services report, which came in at 49.9 against 52 expected and 51.6 in April. A number below 50 shows contraction and May's report was the first time in that zone in one year.Finally, the U.S....