Bitcoin rebounded in Wednesday morning trading in Asia after a slide earlier in the week when U.S. regulators filed a lawsuit against Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. All other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies gained ground. XRP continued to lead the winners, while Cardano followed. U.S. equities moved lower on Tuesday on broader worries about interest rates and the economy and as regulators proposed stricter rules on the U.S. banking industry.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin edged up 1.29% to US$27,290 in the 24 hours to 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, posting a weekly loss of 2.76%, according to CoinMarketCap data. The leading cryptocurrency see-sawed so far this week after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance for alleged violation of trading rules. Bitcoin dropped from around US$28,000 to a low of US$26,677 on Tuesday, and bounced back above the US$27,000 mark early Wednesday.
- Ethereum also regained ground, rising 4.09% to US$1,776, but still down 0.78% for the past seven days.
- XRP continued to lead the winners, jumping 10.04% to US$0.5215 for a rise of 12.92% over the seven days. The token continues to gain on expectations that Ripple Labs, whose crypto payment network is powered by XRP, may win a favorable ruling in a lawsuit filed against the company by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC charged Ripple with selling an unregistered security in the form of XRP.
- “The implications for the case are very broad-reaching for the crypto industry because we expect that this decision will ultimately set a precedent for how the U.S. government will look at categorizing crypto assets and regulating them,” Ripple Labs President Monica Long told Forkast.News on Tuesday.
- Cardano posted the second largest gain among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, jumping 6.68% to US$0.3678, but is still down 1.06% for the week.
- Adding to regulatory tensions, a U.S. judge ordered a hold on Binance’s US$1.3 billion acquisition of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, as requested by the Department of Justice that appealed an earlier court ruling to approve the sale.
- The total crypto market capitalization rose 1.80% in the past 24 hours to US$1.15 trillion. Total trading volume over the last 24 hours dropped 6.00% to US$39.94 billion.
- In the non-fungible token (NFT) market, the Forkast 500 NFT index dropped 0.34% in the past 24 hours to 4,006.47 as of 09:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, moving down 3.26% for the week. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts on any given day. It is managed by Forkast sister company, CryptoSlam.
- U.S. equities closed lower on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.12%, the S&P 500 edged down 0.16%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.45%.
- The U.S. Congress held a hearing Tuesday on recent bank failures where regulators assured deposits in U.S. banks were safe, but said tighter regulations are required on the banking industry. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he was confident the problems in the banking system were being resolved, but his administration would offer additional support as needed.
- The U.S. consumer confidence index rose slightly in March, the Conference Board reported on Tuesday, suggesting more optimism in the economy than thought as the expectation was for a decline.
- On inflation, analysts at the CME Group expect a 57.5% chance the Fed will keep rates between 4.75% to 5% at its next meeting on May 3. The chance of another 25 basis-point hike is at 42.5%, up from 41.7% on Tuesday.
- U.S. stock futures moved up as of 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures edged 0.27% higher, S&P 500 futures rose 0.34% and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.36%. Investors are now waiting for the data about U.S. pending home sales in February, where experts expect a 3% decline from the previous month, according to CNBC on Tuesday.
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