Bitcoin, Ether and most other top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies gained in Wednesday afternoon trading in Asia, except Binance’s BNB and Tron. Litecoin also strengthened ahead of its halving event, its first since August 2019, during late evening on Wednesday in Asia.
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Bitcoin leads gainers
Bitcoin gained 2.11% to US$29,543 in 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, bringing its weekly gains to 1.11%, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency recovered after falling below the US$29,000 support line to a low of US$28,657.02 overnight. The token was also the biggest gainer in the last 24 hours.
Earlier in the day, Bitcoin threatened to break through the US$30,000 resistance level on the back of Tuesday’s announcement that software developer MicroStrategy plans to sell US$750 million of stock.
“Cryptocurrencies were in the red, extending losses since last month’s peak. Overall, the market has been able to rebound to a certain extent since the beginning of the year but could come under some pressure as traders could continue to secure their gains,” Denys Peleshok, Head of Asia at London-based financial trading firm CPT Markets, said in email comments on Tuesday.
“The market has been reacting to the legal challenges crypto companies have been facing in addition to changes in sentiment and monetary policy in the U.S. in particular,” Peleshok added.
Decentralized stablecoin exchange Curve Finance reported a security issue in older versions of Vyper, the programming language used for smart contracts. According to data from smart contract auditing firm BlockSec, hackers drained an estimated US$41 million in cryptocurrencies from the platform as a result of the malfunction.
“The decline of Curve could constitute a risk for DeFi [decentralized finance] and could fuel caution among traders. The exploit and subsequent fall of the protocol could reignite fears of large-scale failures in other crypto assets,” Peleshok said.
“Such concerns could see investors favor Bitcoin instead of other smaller cryptocurrencies and could help the largest crypto regain some market dominance after it stabilized around 50% of the total market value,” Peleshok added.
Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, gained 1.11% to US$1,854 in the past 24 hours, and has risen 0.06% on the week.
BNB, the native token of world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, fell 0.43% to US$244.53, although it has gained 2.89% in the last seven days. On Tuesday, Binance announced the launch of Binance Japan K.K., offering 34 coins, making it the country’s largest exchange by token offerings.
According to the Wall Street Journal, China is Binance’s largest market despite the country’s ban on crypto, with users trading about US$90 billion worth of cryptocurrency-related assets in May.
Litecoin gained 0.77% to US$91.14 in 24 hours, bringing its weekly gains to 1.57%. The Litecoin halving event will take place later on Wednesday and is expected to cut mining rewards to increase its scarcity and potentially boost its price.
“Litecoin has been performing well recently… The halving event is expected to impact the Litecoin network and its price significantly. Investors are positioning themselves ahead of the halving, anticipating a positive effect on the cost of LTC and the broader market,” Robert Quartly-Janeiro, chief strategy officer of crypto exchange Bitrue, said in emailed comments on Wednesday.
The next Bitcoin halving is scheduled for April next year, which occurs roughly every four years.
“The Bitcoin halving will reduce the block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. This reduction in rewards and rising mining costs will likely lead to a decline in the Bitcoin mining hash rate and pose challenges for miners,” Quartly-Janeiro said.
“Only the most efficient miners with low energy costs and efficient equipment are expected to survive, while others may be forced to shut down their operations,” Quartly-Janeiro added.
The total crypto market capitalization increased 1.50% to US$1.18 trillion, while crypto market volume jumped 20.45% to US$38.86 billion in the last 24 hours.
