Bitcoin rose as Ether fell with most of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization during Asian trading hours on Friday. XRP gainned the most, while Dogecoin was the biggest loser. Asian equity markets strengthened following Wall Street’s overnight rally as investors await the release of the U.S. Employment Situation report on Friday.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin rose 0.11% to US$27,933 in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. The world’s first cryptocurrency rose 0.62% during the week.
- Ether lost 0.99% during the day, to trade at US$1,857, but maintained its weekly 3.64% increase. Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade, or the Shanghai hard fork, is slated for next Wednesday, which will allow the withdrawal of staked ETH for the first time.
- XRP token was the day’s biggest winner, as it rose 2.38% to change hands at US$0.51.
- Dogecoin saw the biggest drop among the top 10 cryptos, as it fell 9.01% to US$0.083 on the day, but maintained a 11.70% weekly rise. Social media platform Twitter reinstated its blue bird logo after briefly changing it to a Shiba Inu dog, the memecoin’s mascot.
- The global cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased by 0.44% to US$1.18 trillion in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, while total crypto market trading volume decreased by 11.56% to US$36.18 billion.
- The Forkast 500 NFT index fell 0.24% to 3,990.91 points during the day and slid 0.55% during the week. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts on any given day.
- Asian equities were up in line with Wall Street’s rally, despite mounting worries about the health of the U.S. economy, after several reports, like jobless claims, indicated tighter financial conditions.
- Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.17%, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.45% to close at a one-month high and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.85% during the day. Hong Kong was closed on Friday and will be off next Monday for the Easter holidays.
- Investors await the release of the U.S. Jobs Report later on the day, which includes the monthly change in non-farm payrolls. Strong growth in non-farm payroll data may indicate heating inflation, which investors will analyze to gauge the Federal Reserve’s next monetary decision.
- European stock markets will also be closed over the four-day Easter weekend after closing the trading week in the green on Thursday.
- Gold slid 0.61% to US$2,008 per ounce, after gaining 2% during the week.
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