Ethereum and Ethereum Classic headlined the day’s top gainers among the crypto top 100 while Bitcoin traded sideways during early Friday morning trading in Asia. The total crypto market was up 1.3% to US$1.04 trillion while U.S. investors remain shaky as they await guidance on possible interest rate rises from the Federal Reserve.
See related article: Markets: Bitcoin, Ether bounce back; XRP climbs, Ether Classic jumps, Ankr gains on staking
Fast facts
- Ethereum Classic, the original blockchain from which the Ethereum mainnet is forked, rose 5% to US$37.10 ahead of “the Merge” where Ethereum will ditch the proof-of-work consensus mechanism for proof-of-stake.
- The “Bellatrix” upgrade, the final step before the Merge, is scheduled to activate on Sept. 6, followed by the Ethereum mainnet merge between Sept. 10 – 20, according to a recent blog post from the Ethereum foundation.
- Bitcoin gained 0.8% in the last 24 hours to trade at US$21,578 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether jumped 2.3% to US$1,695, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- Metaverse token hopeful Shiba Inu rose 6.6% to US$0.00001392, while its memecoin contemporary Dogecoin was up just 1.6% to US$0.069. Cardano’s ADA was up 1.4% to US$0.46, as Solana and XRP both rose less than 1%.
- U.S. investors will be closely watching Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s keynote speech at the central bank’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (10 p.m. Hong Kong) on Friday, for an indication of how the Fed may adjust interest rates amid high inflation.
- U.S. equities traded up on Thursday; the Dow Jones finished up 1%, the S&P 500 closed up 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended trading up 1.67%.
See related article: Ethereum finalizes start date for Bellatrix upgrade
