Bitcoin, Ether, Other Crypto Gains With Stocks Amid Global Fund Injections To Support Banks

Bitcoin rose in trading in Asia on Friday morning to near $25,000. Ether and the rest of the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies also rallied as global stock markets steadied following moves by authorities in the US and Europe to stop banks holding cash after a series of industry failures in the past week threatened to spread. BNB led the crypto winners as a US court rejected government objections and approved Binance’s $1 billion deal to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager.

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Fast facts

• Bitcoin rose 2.75% in the past 24 hours to USD 24,973 at 09:00 in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped 24% in the past seven days, the biggest gain among the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Some commentators argue that Bitcoin acted as a safe haven for investors as bank failures rocked global stock markets this week.

• Ether gained 1.32% to trade at $1,668, a gain of 17% over the past seven days.

• BNB, the native token of the Binance crypto exchange, led the gainers on Friday with a 7.56% jump to $327.98. A US court judge on Wednesday rejected the government’s appeal to block a $1 billion offer by Binance US to buy the assets of the failed Voyager platform. The token added 19.51% for the seven-day period.

• Polygon’s Matic token climbed 2.88% to $1.14, registering a weekly gain of 14.04%. Salesforce, one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies with a market capitalization of more than $150 billion, has partnered with Polygon blockchain to help customers build non-fungible token (NFT) related programs, according to a chirping by Polygon Labs on Thursday. Saleforce has previously launched a suite of customer relationship management tools for Web3 developers.

• The total crypto market capitalization rose by 1.91% in the last 24 hours to $1.08 trillion. Total trading volume in the last 24 hours fell 25.30% to 61.92 billion USD.

• US stocks closed higher in a relief rally on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.17%, the S&P 500 rose 1.76%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.48%.

• The rise in shares came after Credit Suisse said on Thursday it would borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($54 billion) from the Swiss National Bank to shore up liquidity. On the US side, 11 US financial institutions injected $30 billion into First Republic Bank on Thursday after the bank’s share price fell sharply on fears of a bank run.

• US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Thursday that the US “banking system remains healthy” and “the Federal Reserve is providing further support to the banking system with a new lending facility.”

• On the inflation front, the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday reported a more-than-expected drop in jobless claims in the week ended March 11, indicating a strong labor market that supports the view that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again this month.

• US interest rates are between 4.5% and 4.75%, the highest since October 2007. Analysts at CME Group expect a 79.7% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points this month. The chance of no interest rate increase is 20.3%, down from 45.4% on Thursday.

• The US consumer price index (CPI) rose 6% from a year earlier in February, slowing from 6.4% in January, but still well above the Fed’s target of keeping annual inflation below 2%.

• U.S. stock futures traded flat to lower at 9 a.m. in Hong Kong, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 0.14%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.11%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index tread water with a 0.03% drop.

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