Bitcoin’s latest boom is largely driven by traders in the Asia-Pacific region! Interestingly, US and European sessions continue to drive prices down.
The shift occurred during a period of limited influence and increasing institutional ownership. Corporate Bitcoin holdings rose above one million BTC, giving long-term holders greater influence over market behavior.
Asia keeps Bitcoin above water
There is a clear divide at Bitcoins [BTC] performance between regional trading sessions.
The APAC session has delivered a cumulative return of around 2%, while both the US and European sessions have remained in negative territory, falling to around -3% and -4% respectively.
Source:
The pattern is consistent: Asia increases prices every day, and Western trading times erase those gains just as quickly.
This has ensured that APAC is the only region exerting meaningful upward pressure, effectively preventing Bitcoin from sliding deeper.
The leverage seems high… but only in dollars
Bitcoin’s Open Interest Profile varied depending on the measurement.
Source: Alpharactal
According to Joao Wedson, CEO of Alphractal, Aggregate Open Interest in USD reached new peaks this cycle, and has soared past $70 billion at the top.
Source: Alpharactal
But the COIN-denominated OI never revisited its 2022 high of around 500,000 BTC. The dollar size of the market increased, but traders no longer used leverage as they did during the previous run.
Source: Alpharactal
A closer look at Bybit also proves this.
BTC typically cooled off when Bybit’s Open Interest approached the 60,000-62,000 BTC zone. Current positioning was below that threshold, indicating moderate leverage among speculative traders.
Corporate bonds as the backbone
Corporate Bitcoin holdings have exploded from 197,000 BTC in January 2023 to approximately 1.08 million BTC at the time of writing. That’s a jump of 448%, and this growth remained high until the end of 2024 and 2025.
Most of the increase came as large, publicly traded companies steadily added BTC to their balance sheets. This is a demand base that was not present in previous cycles.
Source: Glassnode
This is important because it changes the way Bitcoin responds to weakness during Western trading hours.
Now that there are over 1 million BTC in corporate bonds, a significant portion of the supply is effectively locked up. As a result, Asian buying pressure is not working alone.
Long-term institutional holders are now helping to keep the market in check, even during volatile sessions.
Final thoughts
- The steady buying in Asia and rising corporate Bitcoin holdings are now the strongest forces supporting BTC.
- With leverage limited, Bitcoin’s structure looks healthier even as US and European sessions drive prices lower.