Markets: Bitcoin, Solana lead gains in crypto top ten, Ether slips ahead of Merge

Lachlan Keller

2 years ago

Bitcoin rose to hold its gains above US$22,000 in Tuesday morning trading in Asia, a price it crossed on Monday for the first time in three and half weeks. Ether slipped, while Solana posted the largest gains among the top ten tokens by market capitalization.

Fast facts

Bitcoin rose 2.8% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$22,365 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ethereum lost 2.8% to US$1,712, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The slump in Ethereum comes just ahead of the long-awaited “Merge” which will see the network move from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake. Ethereum Classic — the network from which the main Ethereum network is forked — which had risen along with Ethereum in recent weeks, was little changed at US$38.49.
Solana saw the biggest gains in the CoinMarketCap top 10, adding 7% to US$37.41 as voting opened on a proposal for the Helium Network to migrate off its own blockchain onto Solana. Helium is a distributed network of long-range wireless hotspots aiming to be an alternative to hard-wired internet service.
U.S. equities rose on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.7%, the S&P 500 Index closed 1.1% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.3%.
Investors await the release later today of August’s U.S. Consumer Price Index — a key measure of inflation in the economy — with some estimations projecting a rate of 8.1% or a slowing from July’s 8.5%.
The CPI index is used by the U.S. Federal Reserve to guide its interest rate policy. Senior Fed officials have indicated a commitment to continue raising rates until inflation falls within a band of 2% – 3%. Investors are expecting the Fed to raise rates by 75 basis points at its meeting scheduled for Sept. 20 and 21.