Bitcoin and Ether rose during afternoon trading in Asia, along with most of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Polygon’s Matic token led the gains.
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Crypto market bounces back
Bitcoin rose 2.23% to US$27,387 in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. The world’s first cryptocurrency fell as low as US$26,601 yesterday, before reclaiming the US$27,000 level. Ether fell 1.13% to US$1,827.
“Bitcoin failed to reclaim the US$28,800 level on the weekly, and then Bitcoin weekly closed below US$27,600, failing to hold it as support… Turn US$27,600 into resistance and this could enable further downside into the low US$20,000s,” said pseudonymous crypto analyst Rekt Capital on Twitter. “
Polygon’s Matic saw the biggest daily gain, rising 3.77% to US$0.8813, followed by Cardano’s ADA, up 3.32% to US$0.378.
XRP token was the only coin in the red, as it fell 0.26% to US$0.4463, after leading the gains in yesterday’s trading session.
A new security concern was raised after crypto wallet firm Ledger recently announced the launch of Ledger Recover, an optional recovery service for users’ seed phrase. The announcement caused widespread community distress about Ledger’s potential backdoor into their devices, putting users’ secret seed phrases at risk. Ledger Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet attempted to quell the fire by saying, “There is no backdoor for anyone, neither us, a provider or even a very gifted hacker to access it.”
Ethereum NFT sales down for a second day
In the NFT market, the Forkast 500 NFT index rose 0.24% to 3,390.51 points in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong but declined 1.23% during the week.
Ethereum’s 24-hour NFT sales decreased for the second consecutive day, dropping 19.17% to US$15.6 million. Bored Ape Yacht Club sales, the largest Ethereum-based NFT collection, fell 63.18% to US$811,464, while its spin-off collection Mutant Ape Yacht Club sales fell 21.22% to US$734,727.
Asian and U.S. equities strengthen
Most Asian equity markets were up on Thursday, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.40%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index 0.85% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 1.60%. The Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.12%.
Investor concerns over China’s post-pandemic economic recovery persisted after data showed that China’s industrial production expanded by 5.6% year-on-year in April, missing market expectations of 10.9%.
Major U.S. stock futures rose as of 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. The S&P 500 futures index inched up 0.090%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 futures gained 0.12%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 0.015%.
Investor sentiment was lifted by the prospect of the debt ceiling crisis being resolved after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy indicated on Wednesday that the government would not default on its debt.
The optimism surrounding the U.S. debt ceiling talks inspired European bourses on Thursday. Germany’s DAX 40 rose 1.41% to 16,176 points, its highest level since Jan. 2022, while the benchmark STOXX 600 rose 0.51%.
Eurozone inflation accelerated to 7.0% in April from 6.9% a month earlier, mainly driven by rising services and energy costs. Core inflation excluding food and fuel prices slowed to 7.3% from 7.5%, according to Eurostat.