Bitcoin, Ether extend losses; Solana gains most

Bitcoin dropped on Monday afternoon in Asia and continued to trade below US$30,000. Cardano led losers among top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies in a mixed market. Solana led gains, followed by Binance’s BNB token and memecoin Dogecoin. Asian equity markets rose on Monday ahead of China’s first-quarter gross domestic product report due on Tuesday, which is expected to grow by 4% on the year. Markets also picked up after the People’s Bank of China injected US$25 billion in funding to banks while maintaining key lending rates at 2.75% and in line with expectations. 

See related article: U.S. House Financial Services Committee releases draft stablecoin bill for Wednesday hearing

Fast facts

• Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, lost 1.69% to US$29,854 in 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, after gaining 5.49% on the week, according to CoinMarketCap. 
• Ether dropped 0.41% to US$2,091 on the day, but gained 12.39% on the week, after the Shanghai upgrade allowed investors to withdraw the staked token. The first six hours saw investors pulling out over US$102 million worth of Ether. 
• Cardano’s ADA token dropped the most, falling 2.6% in 24 hours to US$0.44, but strengthened 13.7% in the past seven days.  
• Solana gained the most among top 10 cryptos, rising 3.54% to US$25.13, and bringing its weekly gains to 24.11%. Last week, Solana Mobile launched Saga, an Android smartphone integrated with the Solana blockchain. 
• BNB, the native token of world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, rose 3.14% to US$344.56, after gaining 10.06% on the week. Memecoin Dogecoin rose 3.01% to US$0.09304 and has gained 12.32% in the last seven days. 
• The global crypto market capitalization lost 0.73% to US$1.27 trillion, while the total crypto market volume gained 22.55% to US$41.91 billion in the last 24 hours. 
• Asian equity markets gained on Monday as investors awaited China’s gross domestic product report due on Tuesday. The world’s second-largest economy is expected to report a growth in the first quarter, by 4% on year.
• The Shanghai Composite rose 1.42% and the Shenzhen Component Index gained 0.47%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 1.68% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 strengthened 0.07%. 
• Japan’s new central bank Governor Kazuo Ueda said last week that the country will keep interest rates ultra-low for now. Japan’s inflation is currently at about 3%. 
• “In many countries, inflation is very high or not slowing enough. The important thing is that the situation is quite different in Japan,” Ueda said last week, according to a Reuters report. 
• European bourses gained on Monday. The benchmark STOXX 600 rose 0.09%, Germany’s DAX 40 inched up 0.11% and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.01%.
• See related article: US SEC investigates crypto exchange Bittrex for potential regulatory violation: WSJ