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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.

Telegram's blockbuster deal with xAI, which would see Elon Musk's AI company integrate into Telegram and the two firms share revenue, is still a work in progress despite an announcement from Pavel Durov earlier Wednesday, U.S. time, that the deal was inked.

TON, a token affiliated with Telegram's ecosystem, is trading at $3.30, rallying there from $3 after the initial – now refuted – announcement of the partnership was made. The token is down from an earlier high of $3.68, after Elon Musk posted on X that no deal had been signed between the two companies. TON is still up 11% on the day, according to CoinDesk market data.

While Durov has now confirmed that no deal has been signed, the Telegram founder said there is an “agreement in principle” which might be why TON still has significant support at the $3.30.

All eyes will be on Telegram and xAI as the Asia business day begins to see if more clarification comes from either side.

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Decentralized BlueSky isn't a Web3 Company, Says CEO

VANCOUVER—Jay Graber, the CEO of fast-growing decentralized social media platform Bluesky, got her start in Web3 as a developer for privacy coin zCash, but she wants to keep her X competitor firmly in Web2.

Speaking at Web Summit in Vancouver on Wednesday, Graber argued blockchain technology’s permanence and resource-intensive design make it unsuitable for consumer-oriented social networks, where content is fleeting and personal.

“Why do you need your picture of what you post for lunch being maintained forever in this digital archive?” she asked on stage, highlighting the inherent scalability and cost limitations that drove her decision to avoid blockchain at Bluesky.

Graber, to be sure, isn't against crypto. She says there's still genuine value in the technology for things like payments and digital identity, even if sometimes Web3 often presents solutions in search of a problem, and has a trend of gravitating towards centralization.

“There’s a period where everyone was creating blockchain like this hammer, and we were just going to try blockchain for everything,” Graber said. “Every system that's trying to do it ends up with concentrations because it's easy, and convenience ultimately wins at the end of the day.”

For her, Bluesky's future lies in combining the ideals of decentralization, such as user autonomy and portability, with practical, Web2 infrastructure to create a platform that prioritizes users' needs.

“Blockchain will probably find its place somewhere in the world of technology, but Bluesky is not on a blockchain because we're just making the best choices for our users,” she concluded.

Nvidia's Earnings Beat Boosts Stock, Offers Modest Lift to AI Tokens

Shares of Nvidia rose roughly 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after reporting stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings, highlighted by a 69% revenue increase from last year and a 73% jump in its data center business driven by robust demand for AI chips. Net income rose 26% to $18.8 billion, boosting Nvidia’s year-to-date performance modestly higher, CoinDesk previously reported.

The earnings report provided a slight lift to AI-related crypto tokens like Bittensor (TAO), NEAR Protocol, and Internet Computer (ICP), though gains were modest.

However, Nvidia tempered future expectations, cautioning that second-quarter revenue might fall short of market estimates due to tariff-related trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Market Movements:

BTC: Bitcoin dipped 1.2% to $107,800, though NYDIG sees more room for gains. At the same time, crypto markets shrugged off a U.S. court blocking Trump's broad tariffs as unconstitutional, with BTC trading remaining muted.
ETH: Ether is trading above $2700 as Asia begins its business day. Earlier, CoinDesk analyst Omkar Godbole wrote ETH is eying a breakout above $3,000, forming a bullish “ascending triangle” pattern with rising support and resistance at $2,735, as higher lows signal growing buying pressure and accumulation ahead of a potential price surge.
Gold: Gold has slipped 1% to $3,267.47 amid cooling safe-haven demand, though tariff and geopolitical uncertainty linger.
Nikkei 225: The Nikkei 225 is opening in the green, up 1%, as investors in export-reliant Japan are looking at a recent announcement that the Supreme Court has blocked Trump's tariffs with cautious optimism, even as crypto shrugged it off.
S&P 500: While the S&P 500 closed in the red, futures are up 1% as traders await more clarity regarding the court's move to block Trump's tariffs.

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In brief

Toncoin was recently up nearly 12%.
TON is the native token of The Open Network, which Telegram helped create in 2018.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Telegram was looking to raise $1.5 billion through a bond issuance, and separately, Telegram said it had struck a $300 million deal with Elon Musk’s xAI.

The Open Network’s Toncoin was up nearly 12% on Wednesday amid a report that its affiliated messaging platform Telegram is reportedly eyeing a $1.5 billion raise and an announcement that the firm had struck a $300 million deal with Elon Musk’s xAI.

The native token of the Telegram-affiliated The Open Network, the 18th largest crypto by market value, was trading at $3.37, CoinGecko data shows. TON soared to almost $3.70 and was up about 90% at one point earlier in the morning.

Telegram’s fortunes, which have risen in recent months, continued to swing upward on Wednesday. The company is preparing to raise $1.5 billion in a corporate-bond sale, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing several sources familiar with the company’s plans.

The messaging platform will issue five-year bonds offering a 9% yield—a raise that has invited interest from Emirati-owned investment firm Mubadala, BlackRock, and hedge-fund manager Citadel, according to The Journal.

Telegram has shared with investors that it clocked $540 million in profits on $1.4 billion in revenue in 2024, people familiar with the matter told the publication—a major rebound from its lackluster performance the year prior. The app boasted one billion active users as of March 2025, according to Telegram’s executives, and enrollment in its subscription services has roughly doubled over the past year or so.

Separately, Telegram will deploy AI-powered chatbot Grok to its growing platform under terms of a one-year agreement with xAI, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Wednesday in a social media post. Telegram will receive half of xAI’s subscription sales made through the messaging platform, Durov tweeted.

Durov is still facing criminal charges in France related to alleged illegal activities hosted on Telegram, leaving the application’s future somewhat uncertain.

French authorities arrested Durov in August, alleging Telegram facilitated terrorism and drug trafficking enterprises, among other nefarious activities, on its platform. And earlier this month, authorities declined the founder’s appeal to travel to the U.S. for “negotiations with investment funds,” POLITICO reported.

Telegram created TON in 2018, but distanced itself from the network just two years later as it faced regulatory scrutiny over its role in the project. However, the messaging application began flirting with TON nearly two years later, hosting the TON Wallet App and tap-to-earn games in its application.

The latter initiative helped TON garner widespread recognition last year, as viral tap-to-earn games such as Catizen and Hamster Kombat‌ amassed hundreds of millions of players on Telegram.

Edited by James Rubin

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