Bitcoin and Ethereum rose in Monday afternoon trade in Asia along with most of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Asian markets dropped on Monday, following last Friday’s Wall Street selloff, as investors brace for more interest rate hikes in the U.S. due to persistently high inflation.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, rose 1.18% to US$23,441 in the 24 hours to 4 p.m. on Monday in Hong Kong, although it dropped 4.4% on the week. Ethereum gained the most among the top 10 cryptos at 2.28% to US$1,637, but lost 3.54% in the last seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
- Polygon’s Matic slipped 0.74% in 24 hours to US$1.26 and has dropped 15.74% over the past seven days. XRP fell 0.71% to US$0.3754, after posting a weekly loss of 3.9%.
- The global cryptocurrency market capitalization rose 1.05% to US$1.07 trillion while total crypto market volume gained 0.57% to US$36.09 billion.
- Asian equity markets ended lower on Monday, following the release of the U.S. personal consumption expenditures January price index last Friday, which rose 4.7% on the year.
- The Shenzhen Component Index dropped 0.73% while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.28%.
- Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.11%, while South Korea’s Kospi ended the day 0.87% lower.
- Hang Seng Index slipped 0.33% after Hong Kong announced that its exports dropped 36.7% in January compared to a year ago. The decline in exports is the largest monthly fall in 70 years.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to increase interest rates further to tackle inflation at its next meeting on Mar. 21 and 22. Currently, interest rates in the world’s largest economy are at 4.5% to 4.75%, the highest since October 2007. The central bank has said interest rates could go as high as 5% to tame inflation.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that the fight against inflation “is not a straight line” and that more work is necessary.
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