Bitcoin dropped nearly 3% in afternoon trading in Asia. All other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, declined following a two-day rally by most tokens.

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Fast facts

Bitcoin lost 2.97% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$20,103 at 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, and Ether fell 4.03% to US$1,493, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Dogecoin declined 4.99% to US$0.074, after the leading memecoin gained 25.84% over the past week on reports that Elon Musk’s US$44 billion purchase of Twitter was to be completed on Friday. Shortly before midday in Hong Kong, Musk tweeted “the bird is freed,” seemingly referencing the completion of the purchase.

Cardano led losses among top 10 cryptos, decreasing 6.54% to US$0.38, though it stood 12.55% higher for the previous seven days. XRP fell 3.06% to change hands at US$0.46, and Solana dropped 4.49% to US$30.22.

Asia equity markets fell following Wall Street’s mixed results overnight. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index declined 3.66% to its lowest since 2009, with the Nikkei 225 sliding 0.88% in Tokyo. The Shanghai Composite Index closed 2.25% lower after the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Alan Estevez announced the U.S. “expects to have a deal done in the near term,” on limiting chip-related exports to China.

The Bank of Japan announced Friday it will maintain key short-term interest rates at -0.1%, but raised its inflation forecast for the end of 2022 from 2.3% to 2.9%, with Goldman Sachs similarly projecting that inflation in Japan will exceed 3% by the end of 2022 or at the beginning of 2023.
Australia announced that producer price inflation (PPI) increased from 1.4% in the second quarter to 1.9% in the third, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of gains for the measurement and its fastest pace since the third quarter of 2008. Italy’s PPI rose 2.8% from August to September, lower than a forecast of 3.6%. Central banks across Europe released preliminary, year-on-year GDP growth estimates for the third quarter of 2022, with France projecting 1%, Germany 1.2%, and Spain 3.8%.

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