According to @CNBC, Taiwan President Lai pledged an additional $40 billion defense budget while lashing out at Beijing, marking a clear escalation signal in cross-strait tensions (source: CNBC tweet and article link https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/26/taiwan-president-lai-china-japan-xi-trump-defense.html). Historical evidence shows that spikes in geopolitical risk are associated with lower equity returns and higher volatility as measured by the Geopolitical Risk Index, a pattern relevant for Asia risk assets (source: Caldara–Iacoviello Geopolitical Risk Index, Federal Reserve Board, https://www.matteoiacoviello.com/gpr.htm). Research also finds BTC and ETH increasingly trade like risk assets, with higher correlation to equities since 2020, implying geopolitical risk transmission to crypto market volatility (source: IMF blog “Crypto Prices Move More in Sync With Stocks,” 2022, https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/01/11/crypto-prices-move-more-in-sync-with-stocks-threatening-financial-stability).