Bitcoin, Ether tread water; most top cryptocurrencies are falling
Bitcoin and Ether traded little changed on Tuesday morning in Asia, while most of the other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies fell. Polygon led the losers, along with Solana and Shiba Inu. US stocks gained ground on Monday after last week’s decline.
See related article: Janet Yellen calls for strong regulatory framework for crypto as India leads G20 push for regulation
Fast facts
- Bitcoin fell 0.23% over the past 24 hours to trade little changed at $23,509 as of 08:00 in Hong Kong. The leading token has a seven-day loss of 5.34%, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ethereum also treaded water at USD 1,634, off 0.41%. The token is down 4.05% in the last seven days.
- Polygon’s Matic token accounted for the biggest drop among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, falling 3.63% to $1.24, extending its weekly loss to 16.27%. Polygon Labs, the developer of the Polygon blockchain, said last week that it would lay off 20% of its workforce, which was followed by a reported error on Polygon’s network.
- Solana lost 2.43% to USD 22.69, for a weekly loss of 13.41%. Solana developers are investigating a network error on the Solana Maint Beta last Saturday, which forced it to restart the network and downgrade it from a recent update.
- Shiba Inu fell 2.53% according to the research firm Lookonchain reported a wallet that moved 182 billion Shiba Inu tokens to crypto exchanges on Monday, usually a sign of preparation for sales that could drive prices lower. The last time the same wallet transferred over 200 billion Shiba Inu in December 2022, the price fell by more than 7% on the day, according to Lookonchain. The token is down 7.21% for the seven-day period.
- Total crypto market cap was down 0.15% to $1.07 trillion, while total trading volume jumped 34.55% in the past 24 hours to $45.70 billion.
- US stocks rose on Monday after last week’s decline on concerns about indicators showing inflation remains entrenched. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.22%, the S&P 500 gained 0.31% and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.63%.
- Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary, told CNN on Monday that inflation in the US is still too high, but that the economy can achieve a soft landing. She said the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation through higher interest rates while maintaining a strong labor market appear to be achievable.
- US interest rates are now between 4.5% and 4.75%, the highest since October 2007. Federal Reserve meeting minutes from January released last Wednesday showed policymakers agreed to slow the pace of rate hikes, but warned that the tightening cycle is not over.
- The US Census Bureau released its latest monthly durable goods report on Monday, with orders for manufactured goods – excluding transport – rising 0.7% in January, or below expectations in a sign of a slowdown in growth that has fueled inflation.
- Analysts at CME Group predict a 76.7% probability that the Fed will raise interest rates by another 25 basis points in March. They also forecast a 23.3% chance of a 50 basis point increase, down from the 27.7% reported on Monday.
See related article: South Korea’s Lotte Group partners with Polygon for global NFT operations
