BOJ Rate-Hike Bets Trigger Asia Selloff and Bitcoin Slide

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.

Bitcoin slid below $90,000 during Hong Kong’s morning hours as Japanese bond yields surged to fresh 17-year highs, triggering a wave of risk-off selling across regional markets.

Japan’s 2-year government bond yield briefly touched 1.01 percent, the highest since 2008, as traders bet the Bank of Japan’s long era of near-zero rates is ending. The selloff followed comments by BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, who said the board will evaluate whether a rate hike is appropriate at this month’s meeting.

Traders pushed up the yen in the morning session in Tokyo, which will eventually accelerate an unwind of yen-funded carry trades that have supported risk assets throughout the year.

Crypto markets, which are deeply sensitive to short-term liquidity conditions in Asia, bore the brunt of the move with BTC dropping below $87,500 and Ether following lower.

Prediction markets reflect uncertainty about Japan’s policy outlook, with Polymarket traders now pricing the chances of a December rate increase at roughly 50%, up seven percentage points.

This week’s focus for traders will be on how the yen moves and what the BOJ is communicating. Any further tightening signals could trigger another round of volatility across regional markets and crypto.

Market Movement

BTC: Bitcoin’s slide below $87,500 set off a wave of forced selling, with more than $150 million in BTC longs liquidated as rising Japanese yields pushed traders to unwind leveraged positions.

ETH: Ether fell toward $2,850, with about $140 million in long positions liquidated as Japan’s shifting rate outlook tightened liquidity across the early Asia session.

Gold: Goldman Sachs says nearly 70% of institutional investors expect gold to keep rising, with the largest group forecasting prices above $5,000 by 2026.

Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets slipped Monday as traders awaited China’s manufacturing data and priced in an 87% chance of a Fed rate cut, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 1.3%.

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