Bitcoin rallied above US$28,000 in Wednesday afternoon trade in Asia after losing ground earlier in the week when U.S. regulators filed a lawsuit against Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, for allegedly breaching trading rules. Ether and all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization also gained. Asian equities mostly rose as a global banking sector crisis eased further, boosting investors’ risk appetite.
See related article: Binance sees $627 million in net Ethereum outflow following CFTC lawsuit
Fast facts
- Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, rose 4.09% to US$28,105 in 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, but lost 0.03% on the week, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ethereum gained 4.69% to US$1,805, bringing its weekly gains to 0.53%.
- BNB, the native token of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, gained 2.34% to US$316, after losing 6.11% in the last seven days. The gains come after Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao rejected allegations made by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a lawsuit for allegedly breaking trading mandates.
- XRP gained the most among top 10 cryptos, rising 15.23% to US$0.5579, and strengthened 22% on the week.
- Monica Long, president of Ripple Labs whose crypto payment network is powered by XRP, said in an exclusive interview with Forkast, that “the implications for the case [filed against Ripple by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] are very broad-reaching for the crypto industry because we expect that this decision will ultimately set a precedent for how the U.S. government will look at categorizing crypto assets and regulating them.”
- Cardano’s ADA token was the second-biggest gainer among top 10 cryptos on Wednesday, rising 9.07% to US$0.381 in 24 hours, bringing its weekly gains to 1.42%.
- The global crypto market capitalization rose 4.09% to US$1.18 trillion, while the total crypto market volume gained 1.74% to US$44.18 billion.
- Asian equity markets mostly gained on Wednesday as market concerns over a global banking sector crisis eased further. Chinese tech giant Alibaba led the rally, with its shares rising over 12% in Hong Kong after it announced a decision to break up the company into six business units with plans to raise fresh funds while exploring initial public offerings.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.06% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.33%. The Shanghai Composite lost 0.16% while the Shenzhen Component Index strengthened 0.13%.
- The Forkast 500 NFT index inched up 0.14% during the day, while falling 2.83% during 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.
- European stocks rose on Wednesday, as investors welcomed data showing that German consumer morale improved for a sixth consecutive month to its strongest level since last July. The STOXX 600 rose 0.69% and Germany’s DAX 40 inched up 0.75%.
- French authorities have raided five major banks (Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Natixis, HSBC and Exane) as part of an investigation into a potential money laundering and tax fraud case that may have cost the French and German governments over €100 billion (US$108.5 billion).
- Gold slid 0.45% to trade at US$1,964 per ounce, pausing its recent rally as fears over the global banking sector dissipated. Vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Michael Barr said that Silicon Valley Bank’s troubles were due to “terrible” risk management, indicating that it may have been an isolated incident.
- The dollar index inched up 0.18% to 102.5 points on Wednesday, as demand for safe haven assets declined among investors.
- See related article: Bankman-Fried charged with paying millions in bribes to Chinese government officials
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