Asia Morning Briefing: BTC’s Institutional Waves Are Building, Not Breaking

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.

Fund manager Jeff Dyment of Saphira Group wants you to zoom out and stop sweating the short-term charts.

His thesis: Data points that suggest institutional bitcoin

buying is losing steam miss the bigger picture.

In a note shared with CoinDesk, Dyment argues that fears of fading institutional demand for bitcoin are overblown, rooted in narrow snapshots of the market.

Yes, ETF and corporate purchases have cooled recently – Michael Saylor's Strategy bought just 16,000 BTC last month, down sharply from December’s 171,000 BTC haul. But this, Dyment insists, is not a sign of decline. It’s a natural ebb in what he calls a “cyclical wave” of adoption.

“Institutional flows often come in waves rather than a steady linear increase,” Dyment wrote. “Short-term demand fluctuations in the spot market are minor ripples on what is, in fact, a rising tide of institutional engagement.”

Dyment points to the addition of 51 new corporate BTC treasuries in the first half of 2025 alone, equal to the total from 2018 to 2022 combined, and a 375% year-over-year increase in corporate BTC buying.

Public companies now hold 848,902 BTC, or approximately 4% of the total supply, with Q2 2025 alone seeing 131,000 BTC added to their balance sheets.

He also highlights the explosive growth of Bitcoin ETFs as further evidence of deepening institutional participation. BlackRock’s IBIT fund, now the largest in the world, holds 699,000 BTC, more than 3.3% of total supply, after becoming the fastest-growing ETF in history.

U.S. spot ETFs have collectively captured approximately 1.25 million BTC, or roughly 6% of the total supply, in just 18 months since their launch, he points out in the note.

Dyment's thesis is finding echoes in the options market.

In QCP Capital's recent note, the Singapore-based fund pointed to whales that are continuing to build exposure to upside risk, snapping up September $130K BTC calls and holding $115K/$140K call spreads.

“Vols remain pinned near historical lows, but a decisive breach of the $110K resistance could spark a renewed volatility bid,” QCP wrote in a Monday note.

So while bears may point to stagnant spot flows and the nearly empty mempool as signs of fatigue, Dyment argues those are just surface-level ripples.

Underneath, the tide is rising, and Wall Street, with its trillions upon trillions of regulated capital, is hungry for crypto. It's just not going to come all at once.

BTQ Pushes Quantum-Safe Framework for Stablecoins

BTQ Technologies has introduced the Quantum Stablecoin Settlement Network (QSSN), a framework designed to help banks, payment firms, and digital asset platforms future-proof stablecoin issuance against threats from quantum computing.

In a press release, BTQ detailed how the system could support quantum-secure versions of popular stablecoin models, including JPMorgan’s proposed USD deposit token (JPMD), by upgrading privileged actions like minting and burning with dual cryptographic signatures (ECDSA and Falcon-512), while preserving compatibility with existing token standards, workflows, and wallets.

The launch comes as the stablecoin market surpasses $225 billion and lawmakers push for regulation with an eye on cybersecurity.

The GENIUS Act, currently advancing in the U.S. Congress, would formalize federal standards for fiat-backed stablecoins and encourage quantum-safe architecture.

BTQ, which has worked with NIST for over a decade, aims to shape those standards and position QSSN as critical infrastructure.

Market Movements

BTC: Bitcoin fell 1.02% from July 6 at 22:00 to July 7 at 21:00, testing key support at $107,519.64 amid heavy selling, before staging a V-shaped recovery off $107,800 as on-chain data showed strong support clusters at $106,738 and $98,566 held by 1.68 million addresses, according to CoinDesk Research's technical analysis bot.

ETH: ETH rose 1.67% amid volatile trading, swinging nearly 3% between $2,529 and $2,604 as support at $2,530 held firm, institutional inflows topped $1.1 billion, and above-average volume marked both the surge and subsequent sell-off.

Gold: Gold dipped on a stronger dollar but rebounded on tariff-driven safe-haven demand, with central bank buying and de-dollarization fueling forecasts of a rally toward $4,000.

S&P 500: Stocks fell Monday as Trump announced new tariffs on imports from seven countries, sending the S&P 500 down 0.79% to 6,229.98.

Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose despite Trump announcing steep U.S. tariffs on 14 trading partners, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 0.36% as duties of up to 40% were outlined for countries including South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand.

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