Bitcoin fell but held above US$19,000 in Wednesday morning trading in Asia as the world’s leading cryptocurrency continued its month-long dalliance with that support level. Excluding stablecoins, most of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization fell, led by Solana. Dogecoin was the only token on the list to gain ground.

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Fast facts

  • Bitcoin fell 0.5% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,052 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether fell 0.9% to US$1,279, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
  • Solana led the losers on the list, dropping 3.7% to US$30.79, but Polygon wasn’t far behind with a 3% fall to US$0.78. This despite announcing Tuesday the network’s open-source zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) public testnet, which will allow users to prove they own a piece of data without revealing the information on the EVM.
  • Tron dropped 1.9% to change hands at US$0.06. Dogecoin was the only gainer among the top 10, adding 1.26% to US$0.06.
  • U.S. equities had a mixed day Tuesday. The S&P 500 Index fell 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.1% to its lowest since July 2020 as both Indexes capped a 5-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day up 0.1% boosted largely by gains in Amgen, Inc. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.
  • Equities were hit following Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey advising a meeting of pension funds managers on Tuesday that its £65 billion bond-buying intervention will end this week, and they should rebalance their portfolios by then. The pound fell against the U.S. dollar following the statement, dipping below US$1.10.
  • Investors await the release on Wednesday of the minutes from September’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting for further insight into the thinking of the U.S. Federal Reserve on interest rates and inflation. The Consumer Price Index is also due on Thursday, which will show the rate of inflation for September. Inflation was running at 8.3% for the 12 months to August versus the Fed’s target rate of 2%.

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