Bitcoin continued trading below the US$20,000 support line in Friday afternoon trading in Asia. Ether fell in a “sell the news” mood after the Ethereum network completed the network Merge on Thursday. Most other coins among the top 10 by market capitalization dropped.
See related article: Markets: Bitcoin dips below US$20,000; Ether, ETC fall post-Merge
Fast facts
- Bitcoin fell 2.23% in the past 24 hours to change hands at US$19,757 as of 4 p.m. in Hong Kong. Ether (ETH) slid 9.86% to US$1,472 and saw a seven-day loss of 13.63%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- ETH was the largest loser among the top 10 coins, followed by Solana, which dropped 5.07%. XRP fell 4.32%. Ethereum Classic (ETC), the token from the original chain from which ETH was forked, lost 11.63%.
- Ethereum’s long-awaited “Merge” concluded on Thursday, pushing the ETH price as high as US$1,648 at one stage.
- In a statement shared with Forkast late Thursday, Anto Paroian, CEO of cryptocurrency hedge fund ARK36, said many investors would see the Merge completion as a “sell the news” type of event. After the initial surge, “we may actually see the price of Ethereum drop within the next few days or weeks,” Paroian said, adding just like the rest of the crypto markets, ETH is still very much driven by the negative macroeconomic outlook.
- Asia equity markets traded down, following on Wall Street’s fall overnight. The Shanghai Composite index lost 2.3%, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng index closed down 0.89%. The Nikkei 225 index fell 1.1%. The Chinese yuan weakened past 7 per U.S. dollar, the psychologically important level, for the first time in two years.
- China posted better-than-expected August industrial production and retail sales data on Friday. Its industrial output grew 4.2% in August from a year ago, beating the 3.8% in a Reuters poll, and August retail sales rose 5.4%, higher than the 3.5% forecast.
- The U.S. released higher-than-expected August retail sales figures on Thursday, with a 0.3% increase from July. Meanwhile, fewer unemployment claims in the week ended Sept. 10 suggest a robust economy that may support the Federal Reserve’s policy of aggressive interest rate increases to tame inflation. The U.S. central bank will make its latest decision on interest rates at its next meeting on Sept. 20-21.
See related article: As “The Merge” succeeds, rival ETHPoW fork falters