NEAR pulls a Zcash pivot and $BTC taps $81K like it's checking the thermostat 🧭

Bitcoin held just above $81,000 during Monday's Asian session, up less than 1% over 24 hours and extending gains that began after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cleared a path for onchain trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on Thursday, CoinDesk data show. The move triggered a short squeeze that Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at exchange BTSE, said explained much of the weekend's spike. Mei added that there is little on the calendar this week beyond remarks from Federal Reserve officials. "I'd expect more volatility in the last few weeks leading up to that event," Mei said of the Fed's late-October meeting, which leaves more than a month of speeches and a single inflation print to shift positioning.

The session's standout performer was NEAR, which surged about 23% to just above $4 after its cross-chain swap service became the routing layer for a surge in Zcash activity. NEAR Intents, a feature built on the NEAR blockchain, lets a wallet trade one token for another across chains without the user moving funds between them first. Major consumer wallets, including ZODL and Vizor, have integrated the service to offer ZEC swaps, and daily ZEC volume routed through the platform jumped sixfold over the past week. NEAR has effectively become the plumbing for one of the most heavily traded tokens on the market, and its own token has followed the flow.

ZEC itself gained 3% to just above $1,500, while BNB rose 2% to nearly $777. Ether and HYPE each picked up about 2%, and XRP, DOGE, SOL and TRX rose 1% or less. The wider picture saw MSCI's Asia Pacific gauge climb nearly 1%, led by technology shares in South Korea and Taiwan, after U.S. officials described trade talks with China as "very successful" ahead of a summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping this week. S&P 500 futures rose less than 1% and Nasdaq 100 contracts a little more, while Brent crude fell 2% to just above $101 a barrel, its fourth straight decline, easing inflation concerns and lifting Treasury futures.