Markets: Bitcoin little changed, Ether rises, top 10 cryptos mixed, XRP leads losers

Oisin Mcilroy

2 years ago

Bitcoin traded flat on Tuesday afternoon in Asia hours, while Ether edged higher in a mixed day for prices among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. XRP led the losers for the second consecutive day. Polygon’s Matic token held onto recent gains and Dogecoin also moved higher.

See related article: Bitcoin mining difficulty logs new high, up 3.4%

Fast facts

Bitcoin was little changed in the past 24 hours, dipping 0.07% to trade at US$19,309.18 at 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether rose 0.72% to US$1,347.18, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

XRP was the top 10 cryptos’ biggest loser for a second consecutive day, dropping 1.63% to US$0.45 following further developments late last week in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc., whose payment system is powered by the XRP token. On Friday, the SEC filed a rebuttal to Ripple’s motion for a summary judgment.

Polygon’s Matic token led the gainers for a second consecutive day, adding 0.85% to change hands at US$0.89. The network announced last week that it now hosted 53,000 decentralized apps, an eightfold increase for the year to date. It has also gained support after the Warren Buffett-backed Nubank, reportedly the largest fintech bank in South America, picked Polygon for its blockchain and digital token last week.

Asia equity markets were mixed following Wall Street’s gains overnight. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.02% in Tokyo, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.04%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was volatile, moving from losses of 1.70% to gains of 0.75% in morning trading before closing 0.10% down. The index yesterday plunged to the lowest since the global financial crisis in 2008.

HSBC shares in Hong Kong fell 5.11% after it reported loan-loss provisions that were higher than expected.

In Singapore, inflation rose 7.5% in September from a year earlier, unchanged from August and lower than the 7.7% forecast.

The U.S. Confidence Board will release its latest index on consumer confidence on Tuesday, which is expected to fall to 105 for October from 108 in September. A reading of 90 or higher is regarded as a measure of a healthy economy.