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Asia Morning Briefing: Native Markets Wins Right to Issue USDH After Validator Vote

coindesk.com 15 September 2025 00:22, UTC

Altcoins

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.

Hyperliquid’s validator community has chosen Native Markets to issue $USDH, ending a weeklong contest that drew proposals from Paxos, Frax, Sky (ex-MakerDAO), Agora, and others.

Native Markets, co-founded by former Uniswap Labs president MC Lader, researcher Anish Agnihotri, and early Hyperliquid backer Max Fiege, said it will begin rolling out $USDH “within days,” according to a post by Fiege on X.

Native Markets has been awarded the $USDH ticker on Hyperliquid.

Thank you to all $HYPE stakers and network validators for their time and effort in reviewing the proposals put forward.
— max.hl (@fiege_max) September 14, 2025

According to onchain trackers, Native Markets' proposal took approximately 70% of validators' votes, while Paxos took 20%, and Ethena came in at 3.2%.

The staged launch starts with capped mints and redemptions, followed by a $USDH/$USDC spot pair before caps are lifted.

$USDH is designed to challenge Circle’s $USDC, which currently dominates Hyperliquid with nearly $6 billion in deposits, or about 7.5% of its supply. $USDC and other stablecoins will remain supported if they meet liquidity and $HYPE staking requirements.

Most rival bidders had promised to channel stablecoin yields back to the ecosystem with Paxos via $HYPE buybacks, Frax through direct user yield, and Sky with a 4.85% savings rate plus a $25 million “Genesis Star” project.

Native Markets’ pitch instead stressed credibility, trading experience, and validator alignment.

Market Movement

$BTC: $BTC has recently reclaimed the $115,000 level, helped by inflows into ETFs, easing U.S. inflation data, and growing expectations for interest rate cuts. Also, technical momentum is picking up, though resistance sits around $116,000, according to CoinDesk's market insights bot.

$ETH: $ETH is trading above $4600. The price is being buoyed by strong ETF inflows.

Gold: Gold continues to trade near record highs as traders eye dollar weakness on expected Fed rate cuts.

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Massachusetts State Attorney General Alleges Kalshi Violating Sports Gambling Laws (CoinDesk)