BTC Stays Strong Above $79,000 Amid Turbulent Asia Market Open

A new trading week opened to chaos across Asia as regional equity markets plunged and digital assets posted sharp losses, extending last week’s global rout.

Bitcoin (BTC) managed to hold above the $79,000 mark in Monday morning trading, even as investor panic swept across Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taipei. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which tracks major digital assets, dropped 8%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index led the declines, plunging more than 8% by mid-morning. Mainland China’s SSE Composite lost 7%, and Taiwan’s TAIEX nosedived 9%, triggering automatic halts on some stocks.

Tech giants took the brunt of the hit. Alibaba shares sank 12% in Hong Kong, while Tencent fell 9%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) dropped 10% at the open, hitting the exchange’s price-limiting mechanism. The fall came despite U.S. assurances that Taiwanese chips would be excluded from the sweeping tariffs recently announced by President Trump.

Still, uncertainty around the CHIPS Act—a key funding pillar for U.S. semiconductor production—kept pressure on sentiment. Analysts now warn TSMC’s plunge could foreshadow similar turbulence for Nvidia (NVDA) when U.S. markets reopen.

In crypto, Ethereum (ETH) fell 11%, XRP dropped 9%, and Solana (SOL) declined 10%. Lending protocol tokens such as Maker (MKR) and Aave (AAVE) were among the worst performers, each down roughly 14%.

According to CoinGlass, roughly $675 million in long positions were liquidated in the past 12 hours, against $123 million in shorts—underscoring how quickly bullish momentum has unraveled.

The TRUMP meme coin also fell out of favor, shedding 13% and ranking among the day’s steepest declines.