Bitcoin, Ether rise amid positive inflation data, despite reports of Russian missile strikes in Poland

Bitcoin and Ether rose on Wednesday morning in Asia along with most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, paring gains amid reports of alleged Russian missile strikes on Poland while US inflation data provided support.

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Fast facts

• Bitcoin rose 1.6% to $13,886 in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether rose 0.8% to $1,252, according to CoinMarketCap.

• XRP rose 3.2% to $0.38, continuing a positive rally in recent days as US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase filed an amicus brief on Monday in support of Ripple Labs Inc. – the company that uses XRP to power its payment system – in its lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

• Polygon rose 2.6% to $0.94 and Solana rose 2.1% to $14.30, but still traded down about 40% for the week as it was hit particularly hard by Alameda selling off large amounts of its reserves s in the token to try to stabilize the price of the collapsing FTT, the original token of sister company FTX.com.

• Cronos, the native token of peer-to-peer exchange Crypto.com, rose 5.8% to $0.073, but represents only a small rally for the token, which is still trading down nearly 30% for the week after details emerged that Crypto.com accidentally sent approximately USD 400 million worth of Ether to the wrong wallet address, in an attempt to move it to cold storage. This sparked concerns of a situation similar to FTT, where the falling price greatly increased the financial pressure on FTX and contributed to its eventual bankruptcy on Friday.

• US stocks ended the day higher on Tuesday; The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%, the S&P 500 rose 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day 1.5% higher.

• Stocks were initially shaken before recovering after reports of alleged Russian military strikes across the Polish border near the town of Przewodow, where two people are believed to have died. Since Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an attack on the country is considered an attack on the entire organization, and the strikes risk a significant escalation in the 9-month war as other member states could be drawn in to respond militarily. Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied the reports, while authorities continue to investigate.

• However, US producer price index data lent support to markets as it showed wholesale prices rose 0.2% in October – below the 0.4% expected by analysts – adding to evidence that inflation is easing in the country. Inflation stood at 7.7% in October, below the 8.2% it was at in October.

• The US central bank has been raising interest rates since March this year to try to tackle inflation, steadily raising them from near zero to a 15-year high of 3.75% to 4%. The Fed has signaled that it will continue to raise interest rates until inflation reaches a target of 2%.

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