Asia Morning Briefing: MSFT, Meta Soar on Strong AI Earnings, But Crypto AI Tokens Fail to Follow

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making information within the markets:

Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a each day abstract of prime tales throughout U.S. hours and an outline of market strikes and evaluation. For an in depth overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) majors are barely down regardless of blockbuster earnings by tech giants Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta, which cited their respective AI efforts as a catalyst for beating earnings.

Microsoft’s cloud income jumped 27% to $46.7 billion, with Azure crossing $75 billion yearly as demand for AI workloads pushed datacenter capability previous two gigawatts. Meta, in the meantime, reported a 22% year-over-year income enhance to $47.5 billion, with a 43% working margin, as AI-powered advert fashions lifted conversions by up to 5% and engagement on Facebook and Instagram surged.

CoinGecko's AI token class, which incorporates majors like TAO, NEAR, ICP, and RENDER is down 1.4%. In distinction, the CoinDesk 20, a measure of the efficiency of the world's largest digital belongings, is flat and buying and selling under 4,000.

Typically, AI tokens transfer in sync with earnings from massive tech. Nvidia's record-breaking rally in 2024 helped the class push past a $10 billion market cap, however bitcoin's rising dominance within the first half of 2025 pulled some air out of the class — and different kinds of altcoins — pushing it down to under $5 billion.

Traders throughout the crypto world as we speak additionally took a breather, given the Fed's current messaging, which maybe explains AI tokens' muted reception to MSFT and Meta's success.

“While policy remained unchanged, Powell’s remark that tariff-driven inflation may only be beginning added a layer of uncertainty that pressured risk assets across the board,” market maker Enflux wrote in a observe to CoinDesk.

“With risk appetite fading and macro messaging turning less predictable, markets may remain in a holding pattern until participants gain clarity on inflation direction and policy response for the next few days or weeks,” Enflux continued.

Nvidia is about to report its earnings in the direction of the tip of August. Time will inform if the GPU large's anticipated stable outcomes will function a catalyst for AI token development.

Market Movements:

BTC: Crypto markets turned unstable on Wednesday as hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell triggered over $200 million in liquidations, with bitcoin briefly falling under $116,000.

ETH: Ether (ETH) is holding above $3,800, up 1.47%, as company treasuries, like SharpLink Gaming proceed to bid on the asset for his or her stability sheet.

Gold: Gold fell 1.17% to $3,288.02 on Wednesday as sturdy U.S. financial knowledge lowered safe-haven demand and bolstered expectations that the Fed will preserve charges regular.

Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets traded combined Thursday as buyers weighed new U.S. tariffs on South Korean imports and awaited the Bank of Japan’s anticipated resolution to maintain charges regular.

S&P 500: The S&P 500 slipped 0.12% to 6,362.90 after Fed Chair Powell signaled no imminent fee cuts amid tariff-driven inflation issues.

Elsewhere in Crypto:

• Trump's Top Crypto Guys: U.S. DeFi Will Thrive, Assures Bitcoin Reserve Is Coming (CoinDesk)
• Polygon suffers hour-long outage weeks after advanced onerous fork (The Block)
• 10 years on, Ethereum has rebuilt itself repeatedly with out compromising on its values, neighborhood members say (The Block)