Asia Morning Brief: ETH Gains Momentum, Decentralized AI Stalls, and Trump Wallet Sparks Confusion
Ethereum’s Layer-One Comeback?
Bizantine Capital is doubling down on Ethereum as the network looks to reclaim dominance in the layer-one space. Co-founder March Zheng is urging investors to watch ETH closely as it trades above $2,500—up 40% month-over-month—outpacing most major assets except memecoins like PEPE and DeFi stalwarts like AAVE. The latter’s rally has helped push Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) past $60 billion.
Zheng argues Ethereum’s edge comes from two things:
- Its improved scalability post-Pectra upgrade, and
- Its persistently lower inflation rate than Bitcoin.
“We may be approaching an inflection point,” he told CoinDesk. “It’ll be a very interesting year.”
Still, the market isn’t fully convinced. According to Polymarket, ETH has only a 26% chance of retesting its all-time high of $4,868 this year. On-chain data paints a more bullish picture, with exchange balances at seven-year lows and ETH investment products seeing steady inflows—suggesting growing institutional accumulation.
Decentralized AI Faces Enterprise Hurdles
Despite a booming $27 billion market cap for AI tokens, decentralized compute infrastructure isn’t keeping pace. According to analyst Teng Yan of Chain of Thought, enterprise adoption of Decentralized Compute Networks (DCNs) remains limited.
A few key issues:
- Most DCNs lack basic enterprise functionality (e.g., job scheduling, fault tolerance).
- None rank highly in GPU cloud provider reports—Akash and Prime Intellect barely registered.
- Security certifications (e.g., SOC2, ISO 27001) are largely absent.
- Dashboards are clunky, and onboarding is confusing.
- Many depend heavily on token incentives, raising sustainability concerns.
“Aethir is up 70% in a month, but that’s inflationary if you’re paying for cloud services in ATH,” Yan wrote on X. Until these platforms offer reliable, enterprise-grade alternatives to AWS or Google Cloud, decentralized AI will remain more promise than product.
News You Shouldn’t Miss
🔹 Trump Organization Disavows “$TRUMP Wallet”
The Trump Organization says it has no ties to the newly launched “$TRUMP Wallet,” despite its branding. While Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu claimed a partnership, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump both denied involvement. Trump Jr. did hint, however, at an upcoming official wallet from World Liberty Financial, the stablecoin firm linked to the family. The $TRUMP Wallet website remains live but vague, adding to the confusion surrounding Trump’s crypto affiliations.
🔹 Revolut Eyes Crypto Derivatives
Revolut is reportedly planning to launch crypto derivatives, hiring a general manager to build out the offering. This follows its successful rollout of a professional-grade exchange across the U.K. and EU. The move would put it in competition with new players like GFO-X and Galaxy Digital’s FCA-approved U.K. platform, as derivatives gain momentum in regulated European markets.
Markets Snapshot
- Bitcoin (BTC): Up 2% to over $105K, boosted by MicroStrategy’s $84B BTC accumulation strategy.
- Ethereum (ETH): Trading above $2,500; strong momentum but facing resistance near $2,651.
- Gold: Down 0.51% to $3,356 as rising job openings push capital into risk assets.
- Nikkei 225: Rose 0.83% on Wednesday, following Wall Street’s Nvidia-driven rally.
- S&P 500: Gained 0.58% to 5,970.37; Deutsche Bank raised year-end target to 6,550.
