Markets: Bitcoin, Ether little changed; XRP lead losers

Bitcoin and Ether traded little changed Friday morning in Asia, with most other tokens on the top 10 list of non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies losing ground. XRP and Polygon led the losers, while Cardano’s Ada token continued its run higher.

See related article: MoneyGram seeks to seal parts of its filings in the XRP lawsuit between Ripple, SEC

Fast facts

• Bitcoin dipped 0.13% to US$16,839 in the last 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong. Ether slipped 0.44% to US$1,250, according to CoinMarketCap data. Bitcoin is up more than 1% in the first calendar week of 2023, while Ether has added more than 4%.
• XRP lost 2.71% to US$0.338 and is off about 1.3% on the week. Polygon fell 2.21% to US$0.788, but held gains of more than 1% over the past seven days. Tron dropped 1.85% to US$0.0537 and is little changed on the week.
• Cardano was the only gainer among the top 10 crypto, adding 0.56% to US$0.2691. Ada, the native token for the Cardano proof-of-stake blockchain, has seen gains of 10% over the last week. One bullish factor is a report by payment processor CoinGate saying the token in 2022 entered the top 10 list of most used cryptocurrencies for the first time.
• The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dipped 0.46% to US$817.45 billion. Trading volume fell 23.83% to US$27.26 billion.
• The collapse of the FTX exchange continued to rumble through the crypto industry in the first week of New Year, doing damage to companies associated with it. Crypto bank Silvergate Capital cut 40% of its staff after facing US$8.1 billion in withdrawals sparked by the FTX failure in November. Crypto lender Genesis Global Trading also reportedly cut its headcount by 30% and is considering filing for bankruptcy, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the developments.
• U.S. equities finished lower on Thursday as concerns about a recession returned to prominence after the Federal Reserve made clear its intention to stamp out inflation with a potentially longer run of interest rate hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1% and the S&P 500 Index dropped 1.16%. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.47%.
• Some recent U.S. indicators suggest inflation is easing, such as the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index released this week and falling to 48.4 to indicate an economic contraction. However, the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes released on Wednesday showed it will maintain a policy to raise interest rates to curb inflation.

• The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed that inflation was up 7.1% in November compared to 2021, albeit a steady decline from October’s 7.7% and 8.2% in September. The December CPI will be announced on Jan. 12.

See related article: Silvergate cuts 40% of staff after covering US$8.1B withdrawals in FTX collapse