Bitcoin and Ether fell during Asian trading hours on Friday, along with most of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Asian equities were down, in line with Wall Street’s performance, following hawkish remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve officials on more upcoming interest rate hikes.

See related article: FTX Donations Clawback

Fast facts

  • Bitcoin slid 4.05% to US$23,636 in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. Ether fell 1.74% to change hands at US$1,654, according to CoinMarketCap data.
  • The rest of the top 10 cryptos also fell on the day, except Polygon’s Matic which rose 4.93% to US$1.43 and Polkadot’s Dot which gained 0.83% to US$6.56.
  • The global cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased by 2.51% to US$1.08 trillion in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, with total crypto market trading volume up by 4.29% to US$79.27 billion.
  • Asian equities were down on Friday, mirroring Wall Street’s overnight downtrend following hawkish remarks from Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who said that she sees a “compelling economic case” for another 50-basis point interest rate hike.
  • The Shanghai Composite slid 0.77% and the Shenzhen Component Index lost 1.61%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.28% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended the day 0.66% lower.
  • Gold fell below US$1,830 per ounce to a six-week low, weighed by poor global macroeconomic sentiment and more potential interest rate hikes.
  • European stock also fell on Friday, as investors digested comments from Fed officials and better-than-expected producer price index data for January that rose 0.7% compared to the 0.4% estimate.

See related article: Web3 isn’t just about money, it’s about equality and transparency, says Mysten Labs co-founder