Bitcoin flirted with US$25,000 over the weekend while Ethereum broke through the US$2,000 barrier before both lost steam in early trading in Asia on Monday. Leading “memecoin” tokens Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu token (SHIB) jumped, with DOGE re-entering the crypto top 10 by market cap.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin was trading at US$24,315 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, down 0.5% in the prior 24 hours. Ethereum fell 2.3% to change hands at US$1,936, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- Bitcoin had touched US$24,974 on Friday, its highest since early June and looked set to crack the $25,000 mark, before the buying faded. Ethereum showed more initial momentum, reaching US$2,022 in early morning trading Monday before slipping back.
- Ethereum is still up 14% on the week and has reached highs last seen in late May as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency rallies ahead of the upcoming network “Merge.”
- Cardano fell 5% after earlier rallying 7% to a two-month high of US$0.59.
- DOGE rose 12% to US$0.08, the highest since early June. SHIB surged 38% to hit US$$0.00001774 — its highest since early May — before retreating 4%.
- SHIB recently overtook DOGE in the number of Twitter followers it has with over 3.4 million — an important metric for a token that is heavily dependent on the popularity of its “meme” to drive price movement.
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(Corrects to show DOGE rose 12% to US$0.08.)