Bitcoin, Ether extend losses amid lawsuit against Binance

Bitcoin and Ether extended their declines in Tuesday afternoon trade in Asia, along with most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, after regulators in the U.S. pulled up Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, for allegedly violating trading mandates. Asian markets mostly gained on Tuesday, reflecting a rise in U.S. equities on Monday, as investor sentiment picked up following a slew of positive announcements that eased fears of a banking sector crisis. 

See related article: Binance rejects U.S. charges of violating trading rules, manipulating markets

Fast facts

• Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, lost 3.06% to US$26,960 in 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to data from CoinMarketCap, declining 2.22% in the last seven days. Ethereum dropped 1.61% to US$1,724, after losing 0.6% on the week.
• BNB, the native token of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, saw the biggest decline among top 10 cryptos. The token dropped 5.19% in the last 24 hours to US$309, after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Monday it filed a “civil enforcement action” lawsuit against Binance and its top executives for allegedly breaking trading rules.
• XRP was the only token among top 10 cryptos to gain in Tuesday afternoon trade in Asia, climbing 5.61% to US$0.4843, and has risen 25.47% on the week. The gains come as Ripple Labs, whose payment network is powered by XRP, expects to win a lawsuit filed against it by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly selling US$1.3 billion in unregistered securities.
• The global crypto market capitalization dropped 1.96% to US$1.13 trillion, while the total crypto market volume gained 30.1% to US$43.42 billion in the last 24 hours. 
• The Forkast 500 NFT index fell 0.54% to 4,004.93 on the day and declined 3.34% on the week. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts on any given day.
• Asian equity markets mostly rose on Tuesday after concerns regarding a banking industry crisis eased. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.11%, South Korea’s Kospi increased 1.07% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.15%. 
• The Shanghai Composite lost 0.19% and the Shenzhen Component Index dropped 0.72%, over concerns that Covid-19 related disruptions continue to hamper China’s economic recovery. 
• Gold slid 0.24% to US$1,951 an ounce, after falling 1% on Monday. The precious metal remains under its one-year high of US$2,000 that it touched last week.
• European bourses rose for a second consecutive day. The benchmark STOXX 600 gained 0.34% and Germany’s DAX 40 advanced 0.5%. 
• European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will speak at the opening ceremony of the Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Hub Eurosystem Centre later Tuesday.
• London’s benchmark FTSE 100 rose 0.43% during the day, after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the country’s financial system is resilient and has robust capital, but warned that interest rates may move higher.
• See related article: Is our banking system obsolete?