Bitcoin and Ethereum were up in Monday afternoon trading in Asia, while all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed. Solana led gains at 5.08%.
See related article: Weekly Market Wrap: Bitcoin rebounds above $23,000. Can it maintain momentum?
Fast facts
- Bitcoin gained 1.87% to US$23,653 over 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin was up 4.22% in the past seven days. Ethereum rose 2.16% to US$1,627, after dropping 0.38% in the past week.
- Solana led gains with 5.08% to US$25, part of its 3.59% weekly rally. Binance’s BNB was up 1.45% to US$312, and 2.97% in the past week.
- Matic, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum scaling network Polygon, dropped 0.24% to US$1.15 but gained 15.62% over the past week as investors look toward the zkEVM update, a layer-2 scalability upgrade for Ethereum blockchain users. According to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, the mainnet launch is expected soon.
- Chinese markets kicked off the Year of the Rabbit on a positive note as traders returned from a week-long Lunar New Year holiday break. The Shanghai Composite closed 0.14% higher on Monday, and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.98%.
- Hang Seng fell 2.73% at Monday’s close, as investors in Hong Kong took profits after the index ended last week at an 11-month high.
- Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.19%, and South Korea’s Kospi was down 1.35%.
- “The re-opening of China, weaker gas prices, and growing signs of a ‘soft landing’ for the U.S. economy as it appears that the Federal Reserve is reducing inflation without creating significant unemployment, are amongst the factors which have improved the outlook for global markets,” said Nigel Green, chief executive of financial advisory firm deVere Group, in a statement shared with Forkast on Friday.
- “Investors are looking ahead to the second half of the year, and to a global economic recovery underlined by an end to interest rate hikes from the major central banks by mid-summer, and possibly rate cuts at the end of the year as inflation falls sharply on a year-on-year basis,” Green added.
- See related article: A crypto regulatory storm front is coming in 2023. Are we ready for it?
