Bitcoin, Ether, Discard 500 NFT index falls, gold rises as Janet Yellen rules out broad bank deposit insurance

Bitcoin and Ether fell during Asian trading hours on Friday, along with most of the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, with Binance’s BNB posting the biggest loss in the top 10. Most Asian stocks rallied, despite Wall Street’s overnight performance. Investor worries about a banking crisis returned after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government was not considering “blanket insurance” on bank deposits.

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Fast facts

• Bitcoin rallied 1.94% to US$27,676 in the 24 hours to 16:30 in Hong Kong. Ether fell 2.25% to change hands at $1,754, according to CoinMarketCap data.
• The rest of the top 10 cryptos also fell on the day, except for Litecoin which rose 8.33% to $87.83. Binance’s BNB token was the biggest loser of the day, falling 3.9% to $324.73, followed by Solana’s SOL token, which ended the day 2.38% lower at $21.76.
• The global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell by 1.80% to $1.16 trillion in the 24 hours to 4:30 PM in Hong Kong, and the total trading volume of the crypto market increased by 5.65% to $67.71 billion.
• Discard 500 NFT index fell 0.64% to 4,105.25 points. ggoose lost 36.24% to be the biggest decliner of the day, followed by EGoldMiner which ended the day 17.24% lower.
• Gold rose 0.31% to US$1,970 an ounce on Thursday after gaining 1.6% on Wednesday, driven by comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who said the US government is not considering an “insurance cover” for bank deposits.
• Most Asian stocks rallied on Friday, bucking Wall Street’s overnight decline, after the Federal Reserve delivered an expected 25 basis point rate hike, signaling it may halt rate hikes but reiterated its commitment to continue fighting inflation.
• The Shanghai Composite rose 0.64%, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.94%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.17% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended the day 2.34% higher.
• Annual inflation in Hong Kong eased to 1.7% in February 2023, from 2.4% the previous month, representing the slowest increase in consumer prices since May 2022.
• European stocks fell on Thursday, with Germany’s DAX 40 down 0.44% and the STOXX 600 down 0.76%, dragged by the banking sector which was downgraded to “neutral” from “overweight” by investment banking giant Citigroup.

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