Bitcoin briefly fell below US$19,000 in trading in Asia on Tuesday for the first time this month amid losses across the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. XRP led the losers.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin fell 1.73% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,081 at 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, having earlier fallen below the US$19,000 support line. Ether dropped 2.61% to US$1,283, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- XRP led losses, slumping 6.83% to US$0.4891, though still up 5.84% over the previous seven days following several favorable developments for Ripple Labs Inc., the firm whose payment network is powered by XRP, in its lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Cardano closely followed XRP’s losses, dropping 6% to US$0.3965. Solana was down 4.08% to US$31.57 and leading memecoin Dogecoin fell 4.24% to US$0.059.
- Asia equity markets fell after Wall Street’s decline overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225, returning from a national holiday yesterday, lost 2.64%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index dropped 2.23%. The Shanghai Composite Index was little changed, edging up 0.19%.
- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Krisalina Georgieva said Monday that the U.S. economy is slowing due to higher borrowing costs “starting to bite.” IMF calculations forecast that roughly one-third of the world economy will be in an economic contraction up until at least Q2 2023.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon issued similar predictions, saying the U.S. will be pushed into a recession “six to nine months from now,” adding that “Europe is already in recession.”
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