Bitcoin, Ether upper edge with top 10 cryptos; Litecoin surges after record transactions in 2022

[ad_1]

Bitcoin and Ether prices rose Tuesday morning on exchanges in Asia, along with all the top ten non-stable cryptocurrencies. Litecoin led the winners, while XRP, Dogecoin, and Polygon also posted increases of between 2% and 3%.

See Related Article: Hong Kong Financial Service Providers Gear Up For Retail Crypto Traders

Fast facts

Bitcoin was up 0.4% to hit US$16,686 in the 24 hours to 8am in Hong Kong, while Ethereum gained 1.2% to trade at US$1,214, according to CoinMarketCap.

Litecoin rose 5.6% to trade at a two-week high of US$74.84 after the Litecoin Foundation, the organization behind the cryptocurrency, announced on Sunday that the network had recorded a record of over 39 million transactions in 2022. The token is up around 6% in the past calendar week.

The Polygons Matic token rose 2.8% to change hands at US$0.78 as data from crypto whale tracker WhaleStats revealed the token was one of the top 10 most bought coins by the over 500 large Ether whales over the New Year period. However, Matic is still down around 3.7% for the week. The WhaleStats list included the Shiba Inu memecoin token and the Web3 sports-based Chiliz token.

Dogecoin rose 1.7% to trade at US$0.071. The gains follow the Dogecoin Foundation, the group responsible for developing the network, announcing an allocation of 5 million Doge ($358,000) to a fund for core Dogecoin developers. The coin has more catching up to do as it is still down around 5% for the week.

Solana added 12.8% to trade at US$11.26. Sitting just outside CoinMarketCaps’ top ten list, these gains come as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted his support for the network on Friday, saying he hoped[s] the community has its fair chance to prosper. The token has now made up most of its losses over the past seven days.

US stock markets were closed on Monday due to the New Year holiday and will reopen for trading on Tuesday. Investors are awaiting the release of the minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s December meeting for more information on the Fed’s view on inflation and interest rate policy.

The Fed raised rates by the expected 50 basis points in December, taking benchmark rates to between 4.25% and 4.5%, the highest level in 15 years. He also warned of more increases coming in 2023 as he makes fighting inflation his top priority. The latest US consumer price index showed inflation up 7.1% in November from a year ago, although down from readings of 7.7% in October and 8.2% in September.

US stock and bond markets had one of the worst years on record in 2022, with the S&P 500 losing 19.4% as the Fed raised interest rates to slow the pace of inflation.

See related article: How Crypto Custodians Can Help Centralized Exchanges Regain Public Trust

[ad_2]