Bitcoin, Ether drop; Polkadot, XRP Biggest Losers; Asian shares rise
Bitcoin and Ether fell in trading on Monday afternoon in Asia, along with all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market cap. Polkadot and XRP led the losers on that list. Asian shares were mostly higher after a Wall Street rally on Friday, while most US stock futures strengthened.
See related article: Central Banks’ Actions Move Crypto; Standard Chartered eyes $100K Bitcoin
Bitcoin, Ether extend losses
Bitcoin fell 3.25% to US$28,022 in the 24 hours to 16:00 in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization lost 2.14% over the past seven days.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also fell 3.13% to $1,853, but gained 0.24% on the week.
Polygon’s Matic was the biggest loser among the top 10 cryptos, dropping 5.03% to $0.9311, bringing its weekly losses to 5.36%. XRP was the second biggest loser in 24 hours, falling 4.78% to $0.4368, and has lost 5.84% in the last seven days.
Total crypto market capitalization plunged 3.19% to $1.15 trillion, while total market volume lost 6.13% to $34.23 billion.
Ethereum NFT sales are falling
The indices are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. They are managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.
In the non-fungible token market, the Forkast 500 NFT index fell 0.96% in the 24 hours to 16:30 in Hong Kong and fell 5.55% for the week.
In the last 24 hours, NFT sales on Ethereum, the leading blockchain for NFTs, have decreased by 5.80% to $14.7 million. Sales for Bored Ape Yacht Club, the largest Ethereum-based pool, increased by 76.99% to $1.2 million, while Azuki sales rose 15.13% to $985,000 in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlam.
Asian shares rise, US futures strengthen
Asian stocks were mostly higher on Monday, following a rally on Wall Street on Friday. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.81%, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.40%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.24%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.71% after the Bank of Japan’s March policy meeting minutes indicated board members were concerned about inflation.
Most US stock futures gained as of 4.30pm in Hong Kong, apart from Nasdaq-100 futures, which fell 0.12%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.095%, and S&P 500 index futures rose 0.018%.
Investors in the US are closely watching the release of the upcoming consumer price index report, scheduled for Wednesday, and producer inflation data scheduled for Thursday.
Reflecting the cautious mood, European stock markets traded almost flat on Monday. The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.17%, while Germany’s DAX 40 fell 0.028%.
Investors await first-quarter earnings reports from PayPal Holdings, Lucid Group and Palantir Technologies.
See related article: Bitcoin is rediscovering its mojo as banks stumble, says Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick
