Bitcoin fell below US$24,000 in a mixed morning for the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on Monday in Asia. Solana posted the most gains in that list while leading memecoin Dogecoin dropped the most.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin fell 2.76% in the last 24 hours to trade at US$23,927 as of 9:15 a.m. in Hong Kong, but was still up 11.9% over the past week, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum lost 0.97% to US$1,661, and has gained 11.2% over the past seven days.
- Solana was up 4.6% to US$24.62, a weekly gain of 15.6%. The network has been holding its “Build through the Bear” hackathon this month, which invites community members to build on the blockchain, offering US$50,000 in USDC for the top prize. The hackathon ends on March 14.
- Dogecoin fell 2% to US$0.087, but was still trading up 6.6% over the past seven days. XRP slipped 1.7% to US$0.38, though was still trading 3% higher for the past week.
- The total crypto market capitalization reached US$1.13 trillion overnight, the highest since August 2022, before falling to US$1.12 trillion at 9:15 a.m. in Hong Kong. The total trading volume over the past 24 hours was up by 14.4% to US$54.9 billion.
- U.S. equities had a mixed day of trading on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, but the S&P 500 Index fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed the day down 0.6%. Wall Street will be closed on Monday for Presidents’ Day.
- Many major U.S. retailers are slated to release their holiday season earnings this week, starting with Walmart Inc. and Home Depot Inc. on Tuesday.
- The earning reports are set to come amid growing recessionary concerns in the U.S., as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from near zero to 4.5% to 4.75% to tamp down on inflation. While some have criticized the Fed for raising rates too sharply, the central bank maintains it will be able to achieve a “soft landing” to bring down inflation without triggering a recession.
- The latest Consumer Price Index data showed that inflation was up 6.4% in January from a year ago, down from 6.5% in December and 7.1% in November.
- Analysts at the CME Group predict an 85% chance that the Fed will raise rates by another 25 basis points next month.
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