we are coming down to asia's major market opens. the big story is to let consistent theme, what is the fed going to do? what does that mean for currencies? we are really focusing on the korean won and the japanese yen of course. haidi: perhaps the growing inability for policymakers to be able to do anything to support any further weakness in those currencies. if we have a further lag in dollar strength which is expected. there are some questions being raised. in terms of the inflation being so stubborn in the u.s.. did the fact that the fed actually flagged easing into the end of last year potentially encourage that scenario? let's get you to the opens. annabelle: we've got japan and korea. australia also starting to trade here. the focus sees on currencies. you are watching the japanese yen holding steady here. still around that 154 mark. some investors are saying 155.

that's the point where we see intervention. some saying that 160 could be the in the sand. certainly it's the question of how meaningful and house of santa, how effective would any sort of government intervention be when you've got that ongoing cap between the fed and the boj? what we are seeing here for equities at the start of the day is a little bit of pressure, following what happened on wall street overnight because we had the s&p 500 on its longest losing streak in several months. really big tech bearing the brunt of that. earnings and focus, given we have a number of big tech names reporting over the coming days. that could leave clues on the health of the u.s. economy. also whether we will see any sort of big ai led rally sustaining the momentum. let's chains on. take a look at what's happening in korea to start the day here. the korean won firm are here

against the greenback. six tense of 1%. broadly, equities just modestly in positive territory. fx has been a big talking point. the imf spring meetings are underway in washington. we know that we do have the finance chiefs from the u.s., japan, korea leading. they are all expressing concern. as we also hear from the bank of korea governor saying that the juan levels are really diverging at this point for the fundamentals. annabelle: take a look at how we are tracking when it comes to the first couple minutes of trading. to the open here in australia. the a sx up to chance of 1%. we are seeing quite a bit of leadership from the likes of materials, consumer discretionary also doing ok at the moment. we are focusing on some of the big names like bhp. iron ore output rising despite

some of the weather-related woes. of course, the downside demand story from china as well. pretty good picture for bhp, shrugging off some of those concerns. us trillion bonds opening the session higher. the 20 year auction attaching strong demand there. the aussie dollar also expanding that bounce before we have local jobs data do as well. expect to see a pullback in those march numbers after a big jump that we saw in february that was quite surprising and a little bit of a question mark over that. take a look at oil as well. brent crude up by three tons of 1%, holding the drop. u.s. stockpiles expanding to that ten-month high. balancing out that largest decline that we've seen in three months for crude. watching treasuries. a big jump against long-duration demand with that 20 year treasury auction. quite a bit of participation there. the warning when it comes to

potentially higher for longer continuing to play out here. let's bring in our executive editor paul dobson. so the drumbeat of stubborn inflation, higher for longer. rates will stay here as long as it's needed. potentially we won't get to easing at all this year. is it finally starting to price through the markets? >> yeah. i think so. the odds are being placed and for what the fed is going to do this year. less than two cuts. if you look at market pricing in some of the enthusiasm for equities, it's gone off the boil a little bit as well. although we are also heading into earnings season, of course which tempers those bets as people wait to see whether that can be delivered. what's been really interesting overnight is this meeting between japan and south korea and janet yellen. they appear to have come away

with it with a kind of implicit green light from janet yellen to be able to intervene in the currency market if they feel the need. the commentary that came out of japan and south korea, this is a serious concern. make no mistake. syria's he said really carefully. it gives you a sense that both authorities and south korea and japan are really vexed by this and ready to move and don't feel that there will be anything to hold them back now. it's no surprise for me that you see some gains for the juan at the start of the trading session. we have more of the strength and recovery in the yen as well overnight. annabelle: beyond the fed and what we see in currency markets, another big focus for investors is what we are getting out of earnings. not a grout -- great outlook coming through from the company.

do you see that casting a shadow today? paul: it will be important for the asian chipmakers. they will be paying a lot of attention to that. we saw weakness in the magnificent seven u.s. stocks overnight. nvidia particularly. there will be a little bit of weight on oil markets. people continue to assess how strong that demand is. for chips and ai, we also get the earnings from tsmc later. that's going to be crucial for what it all looks like in our region and particularly for equities in taiwan and the overall benchmark that's waiting there as well. annabelle: of course, asia executive editor for asian markets paul dobson. the tsmc earnings do out. we will be watching those very closely. what also we tracking? the chipmaker story in the session. tsmc numbers on the docket.

coming out with earnings. really disappointing investors as well, given we had a forecast for sales that came in below analyst expectations. concerns around the demand outlook. that's going to be a key thing to track in this session. that's the state of play there. chipmakers are the minors as well. what we've got for production figures that are continuing to come in from different names. santos is one of those, just a few minutes away from trading. but we do have most of the minors moving higher in the session. bhp is another one, iron ore output rising despite rain, despite the concerns about china demand. that's been a really key dynamic in the middle story. it comes down to, what is the demand outlook from china looking like? what is the health of the economy looking like as well? haidi: how tenuous are these

relationships on a geopolitical level? we've been reporting president biden threatening higher tariffs on chinese imports. he is seeking to win over workers ahead of the november election. biden met with members of the united steelworkers in pittsburgh on the second day of the three-day swing through battleground states. take a listen. >> we've got a population that has more people in retirement than working. they are not importing any. they are xenophobic. nobody else coming in. they've got real problems. haidi: for more, let's bring in jenny marsh. we know that from beijing and washington, both sides understand there's a degree of domestic political parser -- posturing. how much of this is based on policy and how much of it is positioning before november? jenny: it's an awful lot of

election posturing right now. there are real concerns in the u.s. around the chinese economy, their industrial policy. you can see from the proposal of the steel tariffs that biden was looking at overnight, since the trump era tariffs. he's really signaling to the industries that the union is strong and he has a lot of core voters that he's going to be tough on china. those actions are largely symbolic. the ship loading power is something which really could hurt china if they do end up trying to click china's ability in that area. at the same time, the fees that he is proposing are likely not going to move the needle. they might just hurt the american economy. they are less competitive than other places. annabelle: yeah. a little bit more bark than

bite. how much does this set the tone going into the u.s. election? jenny: yeah. the turn right now for china is concerned. you see a slew of industries that are realizing that there's this very hawkish election on china on both sides. and all the industries, a slew of industries piling in. even the aviation sector in america last week was calling on biden the block new fights from chinese airlines. saying that xi's pro-russia stance was anticompetitive. the whole gamut of industries right now. i think for china, this is a very sensitive time because it's election posturing. it's hard for subsequent administrations to roll them

back. the best thing for beijing is to try to keep its head down, respond as it can but not retaliate too strongly. try to mitigate the impact of this election season. haidi: they've already found retaliation when it comes to the probe into the ship building industry. at the same time, we are hearing reporting that antony blinken will be headed to china for a four day trip on april 23. this will be the latest high-level u.s. official to visit. how important is it that we continue to see this engagement at a very high level? jenny: i think with the election season being so tense, the engagement is important. the expectations for what lincoln will achieve during his trip will be quite low. he isn't going to come out with deliverables. the fact that they are still talking is going to stabilize the relationship in this very volatile time which is only going to get more volatile as we get closer to the november vote.

annabelle: that was our greater china editor. still ahead, tsmc expected to report a rebound in earnings growth as demand for chips use and ai development booze process. -- boost profits. eq ta show joins us to discuss mna trends in japan and the impact of the companies corporate government reforms. more ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪

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>> iconic american company for more than a century. it should remain a totally american company. [applause] american-owned, american operated by american union steelworkers. the best in the world. that's going to happen. i promise you. annabelle: that was president biden earlier, vowing to keep u.s. steel american-owned. take a look at how nippon steel is trading at the moment. guaranteed to stay u.s. own. president biden telling steelworkers, union workers in that key swing state of pennsylvania on this three-day trip there. on that same trip, he has proposed raising 301 tariffs on chinese steel and aluminum.

all of this as we see this political positioning and engagement with union workers ahead of the november election. talking about this iconic american company. take a look at how we are faring when it comes to the japanese trading session. we are just about 15 minutes into the state of play there. quite a bit of downside. u.s. stocks extended those losses as well overnight. the nikkei 225 down by seven pence of 1%. chipmakers in particular in focus as we see the rest of the sectors really under pressure. a lot of earnings coming through from that sector. tokyo electron as well to be closely watched. our next guest runs the asia business of a cutie with about $247 billion in assets. they say japan is a top priority as a push to improve government standards, leading to a wave of deals and peten of desta to -- potential been is for shareholders.

great to have you with us. we've seen this broad wave of exuberance over this new era for japanese assets. how has that translated into your part of the business? >> yes. thanks for having me today. we see this wave of activity that is starting to happen as a result of the changes in governance and improvements in japan. that's led to a lot of shareholder activist activity. it's creating more deal flow in the private equity industry. there's also an understanding that the public markets are not necessarily the best home for valuing these businesses here. we just announced the take private of a company which was a fan -- family-owned business. we partnered with the family to take the company private. it's one of the largest ever partnership deals like that. you could call it a management

buyout where we teamed up with the family to take the company private. it's a $1.8 billion transaction. the thesis is that we think we can really invest in the business for the long-term and prove the governance and prove the execution of the strategy as a private company much better than we could do in the public markets. we see more and more of these types of opportunities here in japan. annabelle: the management buyout aspect is interesting. does that translate to major industry reshuffles? do you see this strategy as being one of the ways that we see some of the inefficiencies being washed out? jean-eric: yes. i think the partnership strategy is interesting. we are also seeing a lot of entrepreneurial activity in japan as well. that's another theme that we are investing behind. we announce the investment in a company called hr brain which is a software business in the hr software space.

that's an entrepreneurial led company. it's an example of how things are changing in japan. you are starting to see significant entrepreneurial activity at scale, tackling markets like the software market which is a new emerging space and trying to gain share from the traditional client software companies here in the country. annabelle: beyond software, which industries are you looking at in particular for different targets? jean-eric: well, e cutie. the heritage of it is the wallenberg family which goes back to the mid-1800s. that's five generations of an industrial heritage. our industrial focus and our industrial perspective on being -- having a mindset of being an owner of an industrial asset as opposed to being a financial owner, it is something that we think resonates very well here in japan. so we are very focused on

working with industrial companies and helping those management teams and those companies reach their full potential. annabelle: there's been a perception in the past that perhaps directors even within japanese blue-chip companies could be hesitant to work with overseas firms. are you noting a shift in mentality perhaps that's taking place as well? jean-eric: yeah. i think things are changing for the better. i think the combination of the government taking the lead on this and coming out and saying, if your company is trading below book value, you need to do something about it and you need to be accountable for that if you are a director of a listed company. i think there's also been numerous examples in our industry here of private equity firms that have created tremendous value as owners of these businesses. so the directors of the boards of these companies that have sold those corporate divisions are feeling more confident about what happens after they sell.

i think there's been a fear in the past that if you sold a business to a private equity firm, that it would be slashed, it would be highly levered and there would be all sorts of awful things happening. but actually what has transpired , our business model is that we build companies and we future proof businesses and make them more successful and more profitable. employees benefit. shareholders benefit. society benefits. the fact that that model is taking root makes it easier for the boards of directors of companies to view private equity as a force for good, as a positive force for change and having a positive impact. i think that mindset change quite important. haidi: are you seeing much of an impact when it comes to the sustained weakness in the end, in terms of the appeal of deals? jean-eric: yes. i think that's been a headwind for existing investments. the yen has really come down 30

or 40% in the last several years. so if you are not hedged, you would have borne the brunt of that. however, that's been partially offset by rising valuations and rising stock markets, rising multiples. i think at this point, the entry point looks very interesting. although we are not in the business of trying to predict currency movements, you would think that entering at 150 or above is attractive. from a currency standpoint. in the longer term as interest rates normalize the rest of the world and become more comparable. i think generally, we are bullish on japan. not really just for the currency reasons but for a lot of the structural reasons that you are citing and what's happening here. we just think the market is poised for growth in terms of private equity investment into the country. annabelle: that was the

chairperson at a cutie -- eqt asia. this. ♪

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ahhh annabelle: taking a look at how currencies are faring in the session so far. watching the japanese yen, the korean won. both of those currencies firmer against the greenback. we've been hearing from the finance chiefs of the u.s., japan, and korea. acknowledging the weakness and pressures that those local currencies are facing. aussie dollar, kiwi dollar. little changed at this point in time. the broader story has been resilience that we've seen in the greenback in that phase of stronger u.s. growth as well. let's get more on the outlook for the dollar. we are really tracking what it

means, these expectations around the fed and where we go from here. but when you've got the fed saying, be patient, we can't cut too soon, it just tells you that we can really expect dollar strength to continue for some point -- time to come as we continue to track what's happening with yields. haidi: the diversions is hard to close with the boj in no rush at this point to accelerate into the next steps of tightening at all. take a look at our treasuries. we saw a bit of long-duration demand jumping in the 20 year treasury auction. overnight, we aren't seeing that play out on the back of the fed commentary. let's get more on the strength of the dollar. you know, we've talked about some of the structural reasons why we continue to really see this play out.

daniel: yeah. let's go back in history a little bit. we heard a lot during the 1990's and the early part of this century about the u.s. strong dollar policy. one of george w. bush's treasury secretary's said, it's not a strong dollar policy, it's a strong economy policy. that's really what we are seeing now. the u.s. is showing surprising resilience. if anything, it is re-accelerating. inflation is coming down. significantly. but not quite to the point that the fed wanted it to see. the economic performance elsewhere has been lifted up by the united states. germany is limping along. parts of asia are doing so-so. china is ok but disappointing, relative to historical norms. so that's where we are. that adds up to dollar strength.

there's not a lot you can do about it. the dollar is the reserve currency. haidi: that shift through asia, what are the options? in about 20 seconds. daniel: the options are a combination of things. intervention and work in a measured way in the sense that it buys you time while you wait for other things to happen. perhaps a few steps to make short-sellers think twice about some of those trades. running through your reserves allah 1997 is not the way to go. that's pointless. her uncle's unhappy. i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity.

their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for.

haidi: taking a look at how markets are faring. we are 30 minutes into the session. at the start of the day, we are

seeing mixed trading. the broader index fractionally and brought her territory. -- in broader territory. it's not just the story of the fed and expectations around rates. it's also the earnings theme that is influencing the moves here. asml for instance, europe's most valuable tech firm, seeing its audits tumble in the first quarter. weaker outlook as well. china sales being hampered by u.s. export control measures. nvidia also down overnight. chip stocks in the red so far. it's also the key theme of the competition war between china and the u.s.. to that point, bloomberg has learned that the u.s. chipmaker micron is poised to get more than $6 billion in grants from the commerce department to help fund domestic factory project. as part of the biden administration's efforts to boost production. i'm curious for your views.

we are still getting details on these chip grants, these loan guarantees as well. do you think that these will substantially help keep the u.s. ahead in the chip race with china? cory: the u.s. is not ahead in the chip race with china. the u.s. is a diminutive portion of international chip creation. the idea is to get the u.s. back in the game like they were decades ago. we knew the micron money was coming. micron has talked about it. it was one of the many companies we've talked about heard -- we've heard talk about it in the last few months or so. wondering when the money would show up. expecting approval and having received hints that those applications didn't look bad. micron, intel as well as international players getting money.

the first out the gate to actually get the guarantees. but micron ought to be having a good day. haidi: they are pledging -- annabelle: they are pledging to build several more factories here. the u.s. seems to be behind. generally when you take a look at what you see between countries that are increasingly tying tech futures to the u.s., japan, korea, how do you see those companies managing that very difficult balancing act between beijing and washington's needs? cory: you don't have to wave a flag to want to have dispersion in the production of semiconductors. what we all went through in covid and what we are still going through with the economy right now is the shortage of semi conductor production and the ability of manufacturers all around the world to get semiconductors that were manufactured in china and taiwan.

the result of those supply problems have been lasting for years since then. the world has caught up to that. you see programs in south korea, japan, in the united states to try to encourage semiconductor production. it's going to happen all over the country, all over the world. indeed all over the united states when it comes to the united states. it is so important because the economic results of the entire world have been slowed by the inability to get semiconductors because production was so concentrated in so few places. haidi: the huawei breakthrough chip stunned a lot of people. i know there are separate debates about whether they will be able to do that at scale and what comes next. we had the numbers from asml suggesting that china remains a dominant market. is this kind of program really making headway in terms of

gaining that advantage? cory: let's separate those a little bit. the result from asml today, sometime in the last 24 hours, we got these results. you guys are on the other side of the pacific ocean. whatever time it was when we got those asml numbers, really interesting when you dig into the details. what you saw was a big improvement in their overall business in china in terms of the number of units they were selling. ev's have never been sold into china. so you wonder, what are they buying in china and what is china's play here? they cannot get the greatest manufacturing machines available from asml. or even the next level down. so what you see is china trying to get whatever they can to make the best trips that they can but may be starting to recognize that they are not going to get the best and greatest manufacturing capacity from

asml's ev machines. even if they are not going to have those advanced semiconductor manufacturing machines, they are going to have a lot of machines that have to be the next here below. can they find a way to bundle those together with triplets and come up with fantastic production to rival the rest of the world? probably not. you mentioned the huawei production. we could -- it could be impressive if it happens at scale. you really see china rushing to get what they can right now. perhaps reasonably so, concerned about further sanctions on the road. haidi: you talked about the overall benefits being greater pretty debility. does that include a bifurcation in terms of these ecosystems? cory: it might. it starts to hint that way. we've been talking about asml. when you look at nvidia with the latest and greatest chips

available for data center and the ability of those chips to create the best things in ai, if the future of compute is ai, it's on nvidia chips. those chips are nothing like them -- anything else that's available in china or outside of china. then if china can't get access to that, they are not going to have the compute capabilities that the rest of the world has. frankly, the sanctions will have worked. annabelle: against that risk of sanctions, against the demand picture as well, how does this play into tsmc's earnings that are due out later? you are saying that this is a critical data point for the global chip market. cory: when we -- what do we talk about all day? ai. i'm here in san francisco surrounded by startups and companies working on ai. the biggest companies in the world like microsoft and amazon

and google trying to catch up on ai, trying to get to the cutting edge. everything is about ai. then we get the numbers from asml saying, yeah. it's not happening yet. so it's a shocker when we saw those numbers today. is the smc going to confirm that the ai spend is going to be slower than we thought it might be? are they going to say the numbers are one and done? asml said, it's going to happen this year. it's just not going to happen this quarter. we want to get confirmation here. there was a really dramatic result this morning. generally, the market believed it's going to happen sooner, not later. a bad result from tsmc or commentary that suggests we will have to wait. indeed, we are seeing little pieces of this. we are seeing rumors of delays of intel factories in columbus. i've been to those building sites and they are building a lot.

it's going to happen more slowly than we might've expected. so the pace of the buildout will be maybe not confirmed but there will be a lot more data. we will have a second thought to connect when we see the tsmc numbers shortly. annabelle: we know they have projects underway in the u.s., japan, germany. what are you expecting to be signaled on capex in particular? cory: certainly it's one of the most important numbers here. i would love to know more about what the impact was of the big earthquake that happen. this will be a time for them to tell us if it was not diminutive. there are spending plans going forward. the timing of the plant is so important. what they are doing in arizona with money from the chips act. tsmc saying they will spend about $10 for every one dollar that comes in from the u.s. government. you know, it's an encouraging sign for what they might be doing. we don't want to wait. we wanted all and we want it

now. haidi: cory johnson there with us. we appreciate your time. more to come here on daybreak: asia. this is bloomberg. ♪ so, what are you thinking? i'm thinking... (speaking to self) about our honeymoon. what about africa? safari? hot air balloon ride? swim with elephants? wait, can we afford a safari? great question. like everything, it takes a little planning. or, put the money towards a down-payment... ...on a ranch

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from the pboc. this is the picture when it comes to dollar trading at the moment. the pboc says to prevent unilateral consensus on the exchange rate to prevent the risks of exchange rates overshooting. they will closely monitor these factors as well. talking a little bit about loans, transfers, lending, and the efficiency of financial resources there as well. we see a number of central banks and policymakers across the region coming out to talk about exchange rate volatility. we know the moves that we've seen for the yuan have been almost as big as a factor when it comes to the correlating moves across asian fx and the downside pressures. the offshore yuan just advancing this week, seeing its best performance in over -- almost a month in fact with the dollar decline for the first time in six days. the cost of funding for the economy towards a six-year high.

that's making it more expensive for speculators to put in those short positions there. but we have really kind of seen very limited communication there and moves on that fix. we are hearing from the pboc talking about the risks of an overshoot on fx. just adding to the chorus that we are hearing from other policymakers, warning against one-way trading when it comes to asian fx. annabelle: that's right. the finance chiefs of japan and south korea are concerned by their local currency moves as well. let's get to some of the corporate stories we are tracking this morning. we've learned that saudi arabia has neon city project is planning its debut sale for later this year. that is as it looks for more funding sources for the 1.5 trillion dollars worth of construction projects that are planned. sources say neon supportive banks to advise on the sale of bonds which could raise as much

as $1.3 billion. documents generated over $10 billion in mid trading revenue last year. that was among financial markers the firm disclosed to investors as part of a debt deal that it is seeking. it's a rare glimpse into the mechanics of a notoriously secretive firm which is steadily expanding to make markets in areas including etf's, stocks, currencies, derivatives, and bonds. ubs is said to be planning another round of job cuts as it continues to trim headcount following its rescue of credit suisse. sources tell bloomberg the layoffs are expected to affect more than 100 positions across its global investment bank in the coming weeks. cuts are expected in its wealth management unit and its markets units as well. the jp morgan ceo jamie dimon has been blessed -- laying out his vision for the future of money in an ai world. we spoke excessively with him to kick off season to of the circuit with emily chang.

she asked about opportunities and the risks ahead. >> be prepared for any business. when you thing about risks, think about things that can go terribly wrong. can you survive them? it could be technology, government regulations, literally the weather. that might close you down if you are a restaurant. so think all that through. emily: bill gains said banking is necessary, banks are not. to what extent could ai or fintech replace traditional banks? >> i spoke to someone in 1997 who said banks are dinosaurs. he was dead wrong. he's not wrong. technology changes everything. if anyone is complacent or arrogant or things that because you have a big position today, you have a big position tomorrow, that's a mistake. what is banking? someone will have to hold the money, move the money, raise the money, do research around money.

those services will still be around. hopefully we are doing it and using a lot of tech to do a better job at it. i thought it's possible that some tech thing is a piece of that. i've been right about big tech. we have fintech and big tech. they will embed payment systems and their white label banks, like what apple did. they have the right to do that. i would be against unfair use of their position to dominate us in business. apple -- emily: apple is going deeper into financial services. >> they hold money, move money. they are a form of competitor. we also partner with them. i'm used to partnering and competing with a lot of people. emily: existential threat? >> i don't think it's an existential threat. i think if we were complacent about it, yes. haidi: you can watch that

interview in full on the circuit with emily chang. you can catch us live and see past interviews at tv . you can dive into any of the securities or the bloomberg functions we talk about and join in on the conversation as well. this is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out at tv . this is bloomberg. ♪

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annabelle: taking a look at crypto prices this morning. bitcoin holding above 60,000. it briefly dropped the low that overnight. volatility is increasing ahead of the halving event. it's been that big run up that we've seen in crypto prices, given the amount of enthusiasm we are seeing around etf's. haidi: we've seen digital asset platform grayscale saying it's looking to ride the recent rally in crypto markets as bitcoin etf's attract more attention. their ceo spoke to us exclusively about the company's plans to expand product offerings. >> bitcoin etf's in the u.s. were only introduced at the very beginning of the year.

so in the crypto world, what's about 3.5 months is in the real world about a full year of time. so it feels like they've been around for quite some time. it's actually still a very new market. when we think about who is involved in bitcoin etf's today, it is still a red -- relatively small audience. i think we are just at the end of the first phase of adoption before we start to see bitcoin etf's being adopted into model portfolios, making their way onto wealth management platforms , and ultimately being made available to a wide audience of investors. >> what are you offering to compete with your rivals? when do you excite your fees to come down? >> yeah. so the grayscale bitcoin trust is the world's largest bitcoin etf. we've been around since 2013. when i look at how the product has matured over time, for many

investors it's been a fantastic investment. is the best performing publicly traded investment product. but our focus on grayscale isn't just stopping with gb tc. it's about continuing to expand our product family. we recently filed for the introduction of another spot bitcoin etf, the grayscale bitcoin mini trust. we will be able to have multiple products to allow investors to meet them where they are in their crypto journey and ultimately have different products for different investors with different strategies. annabelle: that was the grayscale ceo speaking to bloomberg. it is that big countdown to the bitcoin halving. different ways that we can track that. no precise time. they are saying two days, 25 minutes, 31 seconds at this

point in time. let's get more on what the halving means for etf flows and interests with rebecca san joining us this morning. what's different is that bitcoin hit the record high ahead of the halving event. how much bitcoin is there left to be mined? rebecca: what most people may not realize is that 23% of bitcoin is actually lost. nowhere to be found. so in terms of how much bitcoin is left, it's almost -- only 6.6%. 1.4 million bitcoin out of the 21 million bitcoins in total. etf accounts for 4% of the bitcoin ownership distribution. but the majority of the bitcoin is held by institutional individual investors. roughly 60% of that is going to individuals holding this. so what we will see is as the price continues to go up, these individuals may start selling their bitcoin.

as the etf adoption increases, we may see more liquidity in the space. haidi: what flows have we seen from bitcoin etf's more globally? where are we seeing the demand come from? rebecca: if we look at flows globally, we've seen roughly 30 billion of inflows going into bitcoin etf's. a lot of this is from the u.s. bought etf that launched in january. as michael was saying, grayscale have seen roughly $16 billion worth of outflows. the main reason for that is they are priced the most expensive. 1.5%. so that's why they are now launching the mini version. they haven't disclosed the price on that but we should expected to be under 30 basis points which is where the other people are competing against. blackrock is priced at 12 basis points. so from a flow perspective, this has been a huge demand. more than it -- anyone expected.

we've seen $14 billion worth of inflows into bitcoin etf's globally. what this means is, if we look at where flows were one year ago, only 15 billion. four months into the year, we've reached where flows were one year ago. three years ago, it was only 18 billion. we seen a huge demand for bitcoin etf's globally. with hong kong having just approved the etf's, this will create more enthusiasm and more demand for the product. annabelle: we already have futures etf's for bitcoin and ether in hong kong that haven't attracted much in the way of inflows. why do you think a spot etf would be different? rebecca: if we look at the hong kong mechanism, asia-pacific currently only five etf's and they have roughly 250 million assets under management. most of them are futures based. one of the concerns with futures

based was that people were concerned about the cost of the future. whenever bitcoin futures rule, there's a cost associated with that. therefore, the etf may trade at a premium or discount. i think now that there's a spot bitcoin coming, people feel that it may be cheaper. we don't have the cost association. if we look at the u.s., there was a fee war with the etf's. with the hong kong market, it will be interesting to see where they price their etf's. we could see potentially a few more happen like what we saw in the u.s.. in asia, the fees are typically higher on etf's. on average, the etf he is 95 basis points. in asia, you have to pay rebates. in asia-pacific, we've seen the fees generally a lot higher. crazy rich asians don't care about fees. they prefer the higher fee

products. the higher the fee, the premium the product. if you price it too cheap, people get concerned. anything that is free doesn't catch demand. i think the demand should increase. we've seen a lot of demand for spot bitcoin. it should be interesting to see what happens. haidi: rebecca sin there with us. markets opening in hong kong and mainland china and the next hour. limberbutt or -- reporting that micron is posed to get $6 billion in grants from the commerce department as soon as next week. watching tsmc's results out later. this is bloomberg. ♪

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david: this is my kitchen table and also my filing system. over much of the past three decades i have