Bitcoin, Ether gain as China eases Covid rules amid protests; Dogecoin jumps

Bitcoin and Ether rose in morning trade on Wednesday in Asia, with all other non-stablecoin top 10 cryptocurrencies also gaining ground as China said on Tuesday it will relax some Covid rules in response to protests. The demonstrations started last week and spread to several cities, rattling capital markets around the world.

See related article: Bitcoin Price Follows Slide in Asia Stock Markets Amid Growing China Protests Against Covid-19 Lockdowns

Fast facts

• Bitcoin rose 1.5% to US$16,467 in the 24 hours to 08:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether gained 4.25 percent to trade at US$1,219, according to CoinMarketCap.

• Dogecoin saw the biggest gains on CoinMarketCap’s top 10 list, rising 6.75% to $0.10, bringing its gains over the past seven days to 30%. Dogecoin has rallied in recent weeks as longtime proponent Elon Musk hinted that it could be used for payments in a revamp of Twitter’s social media platform, which he bought in late October.

• XRP rose 2.1% to change hands at $0.39. The gain came despite Coinbase Global Inc., the largest US-based crypto exchange, saying its wallets would no longer support XRP, as well as Bitcoin Cash and Stellar tokens, from January 2023 citing low usage. Investors seemed unfazed by this as all three tokens rose over 1%.

• Total crypto market capitalization was $834 billion, down 18% from $1.023 trillion on November 9, or before the FTX.com exchange filed for bankruptcy.

• Trading volume in the last 24 hours fell 13.05% to $43.27 billion.

• US stocks had a mixed day on Tuesday. The Dow Jones gained less than 0.1%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 0.6% in a third straight day of losses for the latter two indices.

• Investors are looking ahead to Wednesday when US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will speak about the state of the economy and inflation. The Fed has raised interest rates by 75 basis points four times this year to curb inflation, but is expected to raise by 50 basis points at its meeting on 13-14. December.

• The Fed has been raising interest rates since this March to try to curb inflation, raising them from near zero to a 15-year high of 3.75% to 4%, and has signaled that rates could end up exceeding 5%. The Fed has indicated that it will continue to raise interest rates until inflation reaches a target of 2%. The consumer price index showed that inflation was 7.7% in October, down from 8.2% in September.

See related article: NFT images of anti-lockdown protests in China flood OpenSea