Bitcoin traded just above $81,000 during Asian morning hours Monday, adding to gains following the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval Thursday for onchain trading of tokenized U.S. stocks. The move helped trigger a short squeeze in the market.
NEAR emerged as the standout performer among major tokens, surging roughly 23% to just above $4. The rally corresponded with heavy activity on NEAR Intents, a cross-chain swap service built on the NEAR blockchain that allows users to trade tokens across different chains without moving funds between platforms first.
Consumer wallets including ZODL and Vizor integrated NEAR Intents to offer Zcash swaps, with daily ZEC volume routed through the service jumping sixfold over the past week. Zcash gained 3% to just above $1,500.
Other major tokens showed modest gains: BNB rose 2% to nearly $777, while Ether and HYPE each picked up about 2%. XRP, DOGE, SOL, and TRX rose 1% or less.
Equities set the tone across Asian markets, with MSCI's Asia Pacific gauge climbing nearly 1% led by technology shares in South Korea and Taiwan. U.S. officials characterized trade talks with China as "very successful" ahead of a summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping this week. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 contracts each rose less than 1%.
Brent crude fell 2% to just above $101 a barrel, marking its fourth straight decline and easing inflation concerns. Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at exchange BTSE, attributed bitcoin's recent spike to the SEC's tokenized-stock approval and the resulting short squeeze, noting limited major calendar events this week beyond Federal Reserve official remarks.
