Bitcoin was trending lower in early Asia trading on Wednesday with most major cryptocurrencies falling. Bitcoin was priced at US$23,048 as of 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, down 1.2% in the prior 24 hours. Ethereum was little changed at US$1,643, up 0.3%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
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Fast facts
- All other tokens in CoinMarketCap’s top 10 traded lower, while BNB held a marginal gain of 0.4% to US$284.98.
- Ethereum Classic rose 5.5% to change hands at US$36.85 amid a surge of interest ahead of Ethereum’s “Merge.”
- Cronos (CRO), the native cryptocurrency of Crypto.com’s Cronos chain, was up more than 10% to a six-week high of US$0.15 following the announcement of an upgrade to the network on Monday.
- This upgrade is intended to bring “greater network scalability and improvements to the system,” though users won’t be able to transfer CRO on the Crypto.com app or exchange during the upgrade scheduled for Aug. 3, 02:00 UTC.
- In U.S. equity markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.2% on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 Index finished the day off 0.6%. The Nasdaq Composite Index was little changed, down 0.16%.
- U.S. markets are generally jittery as Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, landed in Taiwan Tuesday night, a visit that has prompted condemnation from Beijing and raised tension between China and the U.S.
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