Bitcoin and Ethereum edged down again in Monday afternoon trading in Asia, after both posted sharp declines on Friday and had a bit of a rollercoaster over the weekend that drove most other tokens lower. Dogecoin was the biggest mover today among the top 10 coins by market capitalization and logged a 3.09% fall in the past 24 hours.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin, after falling below US$21,000 over the weekend, traded at US$21,123, to slip 0.52% in the past 24 hours as of 4 p.m. in Hong Kong. The largest crypto by market cap lost 12.16% over the past seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- Ethereum lost 1.48% to change hands at US$1,561, while sliding 17.89% over the past seven days.
- Dogecoin was trading at US$0.06642, falling 3.09%, and Cardano slid 2.26%. The Shiba Inu meme token was off 0.78%.
- Asia equity markets had a mixed day. The Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.61%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng index fell 0.59% and the Nikkei 225 index was off 0.47%.
- Feroze Medora, Asia Pacific managing director for crypto exchange Gemini, told Forkast that the current movement in crypto prices is “a very classic manifestation of the phenomenon of trading bear markets and typical bear market action” and that “there’s always a bit of a relief rally.”
- “It feels like what’s driving the market and price action right now is more on the macro and the Fed,” Medora said, adding that an upcoming risk event is the Jackson Hole meetings in the U.S. Fed officials are set to meet for the annual Jackson Hole symposium starting on Aug. 25, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to deliver a keynote speech at the event on Friday, which will be closely watched for signals on the direction of interest rates.
- The Ethereum’s “Merge”, expected to occur on Sept. 15 or 16, could also be a factor moving the market. Toya Zhang, chief marketing officer of Bit.com, told Forkast that “the volatility of Ethereum is going to be even higher” as the Merge approaches because “people are betting on the market placing different strategies.”
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