Bitcoin and Ether gained in Tuesday morning trading in Asia along with most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, helped by signs inflation pressure is easing in the U.S. Solana posted the biggest gains and broke back into the top 10 list by market capitalization. BNB was the only token on the list to fall on a report the U.S. Justice Department is stepping up its probe into the token’s issuer and the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance Global.
See related article: U.S. subpoenas hedge funds in Binance probe: report
Fast facts
- Bitcoin was up 0.6% to US$17,193 in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, a 3% increase over the past calendar week. Ether gained 2.6% to US$1,321, an 8.8% weekly rise, according to CoinMarketCap.
- Solana rose 13.7% to trade at US$16.29, a gain of 44.5% for the week and the best start to the year for any major token. The gains follow the release of a new Solana-based, Dogecoin-themed token, called Bonk. Released late last year, Bonk is now trading around US$0.000001628, an increase of almost 1400%.
- BNB fell 0.7% to US$272.64, but is still up 11% for the past calendar week. Federal prosecutors have reportedly issued subpoenas to several U.S. hedge funds, requesting records of communications with Binance as part of its probe into possible money laundering violations.
- Cardano’s ADA token gained 7.4% to US$0.32, bringing its weekly gains to 24.9%. The run started after ADA in 2022 made it into the top 10 most used cryptocurrencies for payments for the first time, according to a Jan. 4 report by Lithuanian cryptocurrency payments processor CoinGate.
- The total crypto market capitalization rose 1.6% to US$848.3 billion, while trading volume jumped 112.2% to US$46.9 billion.
- U.S. equities had a mixed day of trading on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, the S&P 500 Index lost 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.6%.
- The US Federal Reserve cranked up interest rates last year to curb inflation which helped drive stock indices lower and raised worries about a recession. The December U.S. Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation, is released this week on Jan. 12 and should provide further pointers on future Fed policy.
- In other items to watch today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is speaking at a central bank meeting in Sweden, while Japan announces its CPI report for December.
See related article: Hong Kong pushes ahead with crypto hub plans as tech firms, startups show interest: financial secretary
