Bitcoin was largely flat in Friday afternoon trading in Asia, while Ethereum gained. However, both of the two major coins on the top 10 list by capitalization were trading more than 3% lower week-on-week. BNB’s gains ran into a second day, while Polkadot and Dogecoin rose.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin was trading at US$23,191 as of 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, up 0.85% in the prior 24 hours. Ethereum rose by 2.14% to US$1,664, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- BNB rose 4.12% to change hands at US$317, following reports on Thursday that the crypto exchange was offering staking services for more tokens. The asset has also attracted attention after Binance, the issuer of BNB, said this week that co-founder Yi He will head up its venture capital arm.
- Polkadot, which takes the final slot on the top 10 list by market cap, rose 3.28%, while Dogecoin that sits in 11th place gained 3.39%.
- Asia equity markets saw largely marginal gains as the focus is on non-farm job numbers coming out of the U.S. on Friday. The Shanghai Composite index added 1.19%, with the Hong Kong Hang Seng index edging up 0.15% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gaining 0.87%.
- The U.S. economy added 372,000 jobs in June and if Friday’s report shows that strong pace continued into July, it could influence upcoming U.S. Fed decisions on interest rates. One argument is that a strong job number indicates the U.S. economy is well digesting the rises in rates made so far this year.
- As of the end of July, more than half of S&P 500 companies have exceeded earnings estimates, offering some optimism to markets beaten down by concerns about inflation, higher interest rates and a possible recession in the world’s biggest economy.
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