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BTC Trades Above $79K as Asia Markets Open to Chaos
Markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taipei were deep in the red upon opening on Monday.
By Sam Reynolds
Updated Apr 7, 2025, 3:34 a.m. Published Apr 7, 2025, 2:30 a.m.
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What to know:
- Bitcoin traded above $79,000 as East Asian markets opened to significant declines.
- The CoinDesk 20 index dropped 8%, with major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana experiencing double-digit losses.
- Asian tech stocks, including Alibaba and TSMC, saw substantial declines amid concerns over U.S. semiconductor policies.
Bitcoin traded above $79,000 Monday morning Asia time as markets around East Asia opened to chaos and carnage as the global sell-off continued.
The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the performance of the largest digital assets, is down 8%.
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down over 8% during mid-morning trading, while Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index is down 7%, and the Taipei’s TAIEX is down 9%.
Major tech stocks across the region were some of the hardest hit. Alibaba shares in Hong Kong were down 12% while Tencent was down 9%. In Taipei, TSMC stocks dipped 10% in the first few minutes of trading, triggering the exchange’s price variation limit mechanism which halts trading in either direction.
TSMC’s correction comes as the White House says that semiconductors from Taiwan are exempt from tariffs, but the future of the CHIPS Act – which bankrolled the construction of semiconductor factories in the U.S. – is in question.
TSMC’s major correction on market open is likely foreshadowing of Nvidia’s open in the U.S. Some analysts say NVDA has become more volatile than BTC or ETH.
Elsewhere in crypto, Ethereum is down 11% on-day, XRP is down 9%, and Solana’s SOL is down 10%.
Lending protocols and Aave were some of the worst performers on the market, down around 14% each.
Liquidation data from CoinGlass shows that in the last 12 hours around $675 million in long positions have been liquidated, compared to $123 million in shorts.
TRUMP, the Presidential meme coin, is down 13% according on CoinDesk data, putting it behind lending protocol majors as one of the market laggards.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Here's what bitcoin bulls are saying as price remains stuck during global rally
It's about a lot more than "zooming out." Supply overhangs and investor "muscle memory" regarding gold help explain bitcoin's poor absolute and relative performance.
What to know:
- Bitcoin has failed so far to act as an inflation hedge or safe-haven asset, lagging badly behind gold, which has surged amid high inflation, wars, and interest rate uncertainty.
- Crypto advocates argue that bitcoin’s weakness reflects a temporary supply overhang, investor “muscle memory” favoring familiar precious metals and its correlation with risk assets, rather than a collapse in long-term demand.
- Many bitcoin proponents still see BTC as a superior long-term store of value and “digital gold,” predicting that, once traditional hard assets are overbought, capital will rotate into bitcoin, allowing it to “catch up” to gold.
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