Bitcoin edged higher to remain above US$19,000 in early Friday morning trading in Asia, after fluctuating around that resistance level all week. Ether dipped, while XRP led the gainers among the cryptocurrency top 10 by market capitalization.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin rose 0.7% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,564 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether dropped 0.1% to US$1,335, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- XRP surged 7.4% to change hands at US$0.48 after a U.S. District Court Judge overruled the Securities and Exchange commission’s attempts to withhold documents in its court case against Ripple Labs Inc. — whose payment network is powered by XRP. The documents were written by former Division Director William Hinman, relating predominantly to a speech he gave in which he argued that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities.
- Solana was the only other token to post whole percentage point gains, rising 2.2% to US$33.97. Dogecoin gained 0.2% to US$0.06 and BNB rose 0.7% to US$283.
- U.S. equities took a hit on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%, the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 2.8%, and the S&P 500 Index finished the day down 2.1% to reach a new low for the year.
- The broad-based sell-off was led by tech giant Apple Inc., which closed down 4.9% after the Bank of America downgraded the stock from “buy” to “neutral” as it sees weaker consumer demand hurting the company’s bottom line. Apple shares have fallen 20% so far this year.
- Markets were also shaken by news the U.S. has technically entered a recession according to one definition of the term, as the economy shrank by 0.6% in Q2 this year following a similar contraction in Q1, according to the latest gross domestic product estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis released Thursday. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said the central bank will continue to raise interest rates until a target inflation rate of 2% is achieved, even if it risks pushing the economy into a recession.
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