Bitcoin and Ether fell by the end of Asian trading hours on Friday afternoon, together with all top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization apart from the BNB token. Asian equities declined along with U.S. futures, amid mounting political pressure between China and the U.S.
Fast facts
- Bitcoin fell 2.79% to US$28,118 in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. The world’s largest cryptocurrency lost 8.47% during the week, after falling below US$30,000 on Monday.
- “Bitcoin’s march toward becoming a global reserve asset could surprise many as it siphons value from other asset classes, namely the US$300 trillion global fixed-income market,” wrote Jamie Douglas Coutts, senior market structure analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, to Forkast.
- Ether fell 1.65% to US$1,923, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ether also lost 8.66% on the weekly chart, mirroring Bitcoin’s movement, but remained above US$1,900.
- Dogecoin was the day’s biggest loser, falling 8.44% to US$0.08423, after being yesterday’s biggest gainer in the top 10. The BNB token was the only token in the green, rising 1.52% to US$330.
- The global cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased by 2.27% to US$1.19 trillion in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. The total crypto market trading volume decreased by 11.51% to US$52.85 billion.
- The Forkast 500 NFT index fell 1.85% to 3,934.04 points on the day and lost 1.85% on 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. It is managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.
- Asian equities declined, pressured by U.S.-China tension with President Biden set to sign an executive order in the next few weeks to curb U.S. investments in key parts of China. U.S.-China pressures also intensified after Beijing announced plans on Thursday that it would conduct military drills off its coast and in the South China Sea, amid tensions with Taipei and Washington.
- The Shanghai Composite fell 1.95%, the Shenzhen Component Index dropped 2.28%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 decreased 0.33% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.57% to a three-week low.
- European bourses were mostly flat on Friday, after Hamburg Commercial Bank’s eurozone manufacturing report showed the biggest contraction in the European manufacturing sector since May 2020. The STOXX 600 inched down 0.064% and Germany’s DAX 40 rose 0.01%.
- U.S. stock futures declined on Friday amid mounting tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.33%, the S&P 500 Futures inched down 0.03% and the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.025%.
- The U.S. dollar gained 0.03% to 101.8 points after five consecutive days of losses. The euro shed 0.05% to hold above US$1.09, close to a month-high.
- Gold fell 0.72% to US$1,989 an ounce, set to decline for the second straight week, dragged by interest rate hike expectations from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
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