XRP gains; Lift-off for Space Pepe NFTs; US investor sentiment up after positive debt talks
Bitcoin and Ether prices fell on Friday morning in Asia. After a bullish run, Litecoin joined most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies to record losses. XRP was the only winner. It recorded gains following the launch of its new central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform by issuer Ripple. US stock futures rose after a strong rally in regular trading on Thursday. Positive earnings reports, debt ceiling talks both played a role.
See related article: Is Tether untethered – or just dandy?
XRP provides unprecedented profit
Bitcoin fell 1.97% to US$26,852.75 in the 24 hours to 7:45 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong, down 0.67% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The fall back below the $27,000 threshold indicated a return to a bearish trend after Thursday’s rally. However, that trend should be short-lived, said financial analyst Tone Vays during an interview.
– I think we have reached the bottom. We are now in a halving cycle that tends to see Bitcoin go up with less than a year to the halving event.”
Halving refers to a pre-programmed reduction in the rate at which new tokens are created, which reduces supply and can drive prices higher.
“We’ve had an extended bear market and it’s just time for Bitcoin to rise again,” Vays added.
Like Bitcoin, Ether fell 0.92% to $1,804.6. However, it posted an increase of 0.29% for the week.
XRP was the only winner among the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. It gained 2.68% to $0.4607, while gaining 9.13% in the last seven days.
These gains followed an announcement on Thursday by Ripple Labs. The payment protocol and exchange network said it is launching a platform for a CBDC as part of Hong Kong’s first e-HKD (electronic Hong Kong dollar) pilot program.
The Ripple platform will provide a “frictionless end-to-end solution for central banks, governments and financial institutions to issue their own digital central bank currency,” according to a press release from the company.
Ripple will partner with Taiwan-based Fubon Bank on the project.
The announcement followed additional Ripple-related news earlier this week. On Wednesday, a US federal judge rejected a motion filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to prevent public access to the so-called Hinman document.
These internal documents relate to former SEC Director William Hinman’s comments that Bitcoin and Ether are not financial securities. The decision is considered a victory for Ripple Labs in the ongoing legal dispute with the SEC. The regulator accuses them of offering unregistered securities.
Elsewhere, most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were trading lower. Solana led the losers. It fell 3.4% to $20.36, but was up 0.37% in the past seven days.
Litecoin lost ground after a bullish week. It was down 3.37% to $90.77.
The Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency had seen a surge in interest recently. This was mainly due to congestion and higher transaction fees on the Bitcoin network associated with the current popularity of ordinals. The Litecoin network has also now seen its own surge in order inscriptions.
On the recent popularity of ordinals on the Bitcoin network in particular, Vays identified a solution to the operational problems it raises.
“The Bitcoin main chain wasn’t really designed for this kind of purpose,” he said. “Yes, the Bitcoin blockchain can be used for these types of projects. I just wish they were done on the Liquid sidechain.”
The Layer 2 solution Liquid offers ways to incorporate word of mouth and other initiatives on the Bitcoin blockchain without increasing transaction fees, he added.
The total crypto market cap fell 1.44% in the last 24 hours to $1.12 trillion. Total trading volume lost 6.46% to $32.07 billion.
Space Pepe NFTs Rise 28270%
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 rose 0.1% to 3,387.40 points in the 24 hours to 09:30 in Hong Kong. It has been up 0.1% over the past seven days.
Daily NFT sales on Ethereum, the leading blockchain for NFTs, fell 17.31% to $14.4 million. Sales on the Bitcoin blockchain also lost 11.45% according to CryptoSlam! data to 6.9 million dollars.
Space Pepes, a Bitcoin NFT pool based on the Pepe the Frog meme, shot up 28270% to US$7.3 million in the last 24 hours until 11:30am in Hong Kong. The collection topped Cryptoslam’s NFT collection ranking by sales volume.
Uncategorized Ordinals — Cryptoslam’s category of Bitcoin Ordinals that are not part of an established collection — rose 140.12% to US$1.9 million in the last 24 hours.
The Mythos blockchain-based DMarket NFT collection came in second. DMarket consists of online gaming NFTs traded on the gaming marketplace of the same name. It was acquired by blockchain game maker Mythical Games in January this year.
In individual NFT sales, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s #5042 recorded the highest price. It sold for $172,135.
US stocks rally; hawk noises from the Fed
US stock futures were trading higher as of 10:45 a.m. in Hong Kong, adding momentum to Thursday’s rally. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.074%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.17%. Nasdaq Composite futures added 0.28% after rising 1.51% in mid-market trading on Thursday.
Wall Street’s three stock indexes rose after the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said a bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling could be put to a vote next week. The comments followed upbeat conversations with US President Joe Biden, easing investors’ concerns that the US could default on its debt.
That scenario, which would have major consequences for US and global markets, can be avoided if the White House and Congress can agree to raise the debt ceiling.
Biden and McCarthy have been actively discussing a solution to the ongoing conflict throughout this week. Biden has also expressed optimism that an agreement can be reached.
Democratic negotiators informed the president on Friday that they are making “steady progress” in debt ceiling talks ahead of his appearance in Japan for this weekend’s Group of Seven summit.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned earlier this month that the US will start defaulting on its debt payments as early as June 1. Yellen called for swift action to raise the debt ceiling, saying that a debt default would destroy jobs and businesses in the country. country.
About the relationship between the crisis and the crypto markets, said Clara Medalie, head of research at the crypto market data provider Kaiko. Discard via email that so far there was little sign of any impact based on recent price movements. This is “in large part because the arrangement has yet to play out and there is still hope that an agreement will be reached before June 1,” she added.
Elsewhere, US investors saw positive first-quarter results from major US companies.
Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, reported overall revenue growth of 7.6% for the quarter. – We had a strong quarter. Comp sales were strong globally with e-commerce up 26%. We leveraged expenses, increased our operating margin and increased our pre-sales profit,” Walmart President Doug McMillion said in the company’s earnings report.
Shares of California-based technology maker Nvidia jumped nearly 5% on Thursday after the company announced it was teaming up with another California-based cloud software company ServiceNow to build AI for businesses.
Regarding interest rates, central bank governor Jerome Powell will speak publicly on Friday. He is expected to mark the central bank’s latest policy views on inflation and interest rates.
Other members of the Fed made hawkish comments on Thursday. Fed Governor Philip Jefferson said the United States should wait to assess the full impact of higher interest rates on inflation until now before deciding to rule out further increases.
Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan also said it is not yet time to stop raising interest rates.
US interest rates are now between 5% and 5.25%, the highest since 2006. The Fed meets again on June 14 to decide whether another rate hike is necessary. Inflation was 4.9% in April, lower than expected but still above the Fed’s target of 2%.
The CME FedWatch Tool predicts a 66.7% chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged in June, down from 76.2% the previous day. It predicts a 33.3% chance of another 25 basis point rate hike.
