Bitcoin crossed the US$30,000 mark in early morning trading in Asia on Tuesday, the highest in nearly 11 months, leading a rally for all top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, including Ether. U.S. equities closed mixed on Monday as investors looked to several economic readings to get a better idea of which way the Federal Reserve might jump on interest rates this week. This follows data that suggests the labor market remains tight, while other indicators suggest the economy may be headed for a recession.
See related articles: Hong Kong financial secretary eyes Web3 push despite market volatility
Fast facts
-
Bitcoin jumped 5.25% in 24 hours to US$29,890 at 09:00 a.m. in Hong Kong and then crossed the US$30,000 mark in the morning for gains of more than 8% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is trading at its highest price since June 10, 2022, and is up nearly 80% year-to-date after slumping for most of last year.
-
Bitcoin’s gains reflect its role as a safe haven to hedge against inflation and recession, said Marat Minkin, co-founder of decentralized finance payments app TONBanking. Forkast.News Friday. Prices will be driven by regulatory developments and economic data this week, Minkin said.
-
Ether rose 3.04% to US$1.917, having added 6.23% in the past seven days. This is ahead of Wednesday’s Shanghai upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain, which will allow investors to withdraw their staked Ether for the first time and add other features and improvements to the blockchain.
-
Solana rose 3.08% to US$20.95 and gained 2.70% weekly. The Solana Foundation last Thursday introduced “state compression” aimed at reducing on-chain storage costs for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
-
Total crypto market capitalization jumped 3.40% to US$1.23 trillion in the last 24 hours. Total trading volume increased by 40.50% to US$41.68 billion in the last 24 hours.
-
In the NFT market, the Forkast 500 NFT Index rose 0.17% to 3,941.20 in the 24 hours to 09:00 in Hong Kong, but was down 2.41% for the week. The index is a proxy measure of global NFT market performance and includes 500 eligible smart contracts on any given day. It is managed by Cancel the lab Data Branch, CryptoSlum.
-
NFT trading is fairly flat after the long weekend and the focus is more on gains in cryptocurrencies, said Yehudah Petscher, NFT strategist at CryptoSlam.
-
US equities closed mixed on Monday after a three-day weekend. Investors have multiple data releases this week, including the US Consumer Price Index on Wednesday and the US Producer Price Index on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.30%, the S&P 500 rose 0.10%, and the Nasdaq Composite index treaded water with a 0.03% dive.
-
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in March, below analysts’ forecast of 3.6%. While that suggests a stronger economy, it contrasts with a drop in new payrolls in March that reflected a slowdown.
-
Amid this mixed picture, CME Group analysts expect a 28.3% chance the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged at its next meeting on May 3, while 71.3% predict a 25-basis-point rate hike, up from 64.7% on Monday. US interest rates are currently 4.75% to 5%, the highest since June 2006.
-
US stock futures traded flat as of 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.09%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.07%. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended 0.03% lower.
See related articles: FTX’s lack of financial control complicates recovery of bankruptcy assets, legal filings say