Markets: Bitcoin, Ether prices drop; Matic the only coin to gain

Oisin Mcilroy

1 year ago

Various cryptocurrencies in a winter background

Bitcoin and Ether slumped in Tuesday afternoon trade in Asia, with almost every other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, also losing ground. For the second consecutive day, polygon was the only coin that strengthened.

Fast facts

Bitcoin lost 4.05% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,817 at 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether fell 3.68% to US$1,495, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
XRP lost 4.41% to change hands at US$0.44 after a U.S. District Court judge approved the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request for a time extension on submitting reply briefs in its ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc., the firm whose payment network is powered by XRP.
Dogecoin led losses, falling 9.18% to US$0.10 and Cardano dropped 2.95% to US$0.39. Polygon was the only 10 cryptos to gain, rising 1.35% to US$1.17, overtaking Solana by market cap to rank no. 7 in the top 10 list. The blockchain platform has experienced a number of successes recently, including Meta’s announcement on Friday that Instagram users will soon be able to mint and sell Polygon-powered NFTs.
Solana declined 9.07% to US$28.09 after it rallied from being 19% down for the previous 24 hours by midday in Hong Kong. The losses come amid speculation that crypto exchange Binance Global may sell large quantities of FTT, the native currency of Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange FTX Trading, sparking rumors that Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research may dump its holdings in SOL to raise its liquidity.
Asia equity markets were mixed following Wall Street’s rise overnight. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.25%, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.43% down, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index lost 0.23%.
The European Union has “serious concerns” regarding President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, reported CNBC on Monday ahead of the tightly contested U.S. midterm elections. According to an official document seen by CNBC, the EU alleges the Act is in violation of international trade rules, particularly regarding nine of the tax credit provisions it includes.