Bitcoin, Ether extend gains; XRP biggest winner in top 10

Bitcoin and Ethereum extended gains on Tuesday afternoon in Asia along with almost all other non-stablecoin top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. XRP was the biggest winner, rising nearly 4.8% in the last 24 hours.

Fast facts

• Bitcoin rose 0.16% in the last 24 hours to trade at US$16,882 at 4p.m. Hong Kong time and Ether gained 0.17% to trade at US$1,222, according to CoinMarketCap. 
• XRP increased 4.77% and was trading at US$0.368, while Cardano rose 1.67% to US$0.2638 in the last 24 hours. Polygon strengthened 1.77% to trade at US$0.8139.
• Dogecoin slipped 0.79% in the last 24 hours to trade at US$0.07501.
• Asian markets strengthened on Tuesday following China’s announcement that inbound travelers will no longer need to quarantine from Jan.8. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.98% and Shenzhen Component gained 1.16% while markets in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia were closed for the Christmas holiday. 
• Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.16% at Tuesday’s close. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday that it will require Chinese visitors to present a negative Covid-19 test.
• See related article: 14 years on, why Bitcoin will survive its growing pains

Pradipta Mukherjee

Pradipta Mukherjee is a business reporter and has worked for Bloomberg News and Business Standard in India. An MBA and a post-graduate in Economics, Mukherjee focuses on financial markets and corporates. She is a Mary Morgan Hewitt award recipient for Women in Journalism. She has also won the Jefferson Fellowship; the Thomson Reuters Foundation fellowship on ‘Social Media and Digital Journalism’ at The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and most recently, the Kiplinger Fellowship at Ohio University, USA.