Bitcoin Plummets to Near US$28,000, Ether Stagnant, U.S. Equities Tumble Amid Rate Hike Woes

Key Points:

• Bitcoin falls below US$28,000 as cryptocurrencies face pressure from the US and European economies and the prospect of higher interest rates.
• The total crypto market capitalization drops 1.35% in the past 24 hours to US$1.20 trillion.
• NFT trades fall off due to a surge in gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain amid recent hype surrounding the meme PepeCoin.

Bitcoin experienced a decline in value and fell to almost US$28,000, with Ether maintaining a steady trading pace and most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies losing steam.

One of the biggest losers in this downward trend was Dogecoin. The drop comes amidst broader concerns about liquidity and the direction of the U.S. economy, with the U.S. regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies being another significant factor contributing to the decline. In fact, Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, has indicated that it is considering moving elsewhere due to this regulatory uncertainty.

To give more specific detail, Bitcoin experienced a 2.10% drop to US$28,321 within the 24-hour period ending at 09:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, which expanded its weekly loss to 7.95%, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped to a low of $28,037 earlier on Friday, but then later made up some of that ground.

On the other hand, Ether was the only top 10 non-stablecoin token logging gains in the past 24 hours, but it essentially traded flat at US$1,950, up 0.16%. The token has lost 7.14% over the past seven days. The Ethereum Name Services, a digital identity protocol, announced on Thursday it had partnered with crypto payment platform Moonpay to allow the purchase of .eth domain names through fiat currencies.

As previously noted, Dogecoin led the losers, falling 7.63% to US$0.08446 for a weekly loss of 4.57%. Cryptocurrencies in general have been facing pressure from the potential weakness in the U.S. and European economies and the prospect of higher interest rates, said Denys Peleshok, Head of Asia at CPT Markets. Peleshok added that “both economies could continue to see a slowdown in growth, contributing to a deterioration in investors’ sentiment and appetite for risk, in particular among institutional investors.”

Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, has acquired a license to operate in Bermuda. The announcement followed Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s statement on Tuesday that the company may move outside the U.S. due to the lack of clarity from regulators, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.

To give a broader perspective, the total crypto market capitalization dropped 1.35% in the past 24 hours to US$1.20 trillion. The total trading volume over the last 24 hours fell 16.17% to US$52.28 billion.

In the NFT market, the Forkast 500 NFT index slid 1.73% to 3,962.23 in the 24 hours to 09:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, down 1.23% for 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. It is managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

However, NFT trades have fallen off recently due to a surge in gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain, which can partly be attributed to the recent hype surrounding the meme PepeCoin, according to Forkast Labs NFT Strategist Yehudah Petscher.

Additionally, U.S. stock futures traded mixed as of 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.05%. The S&P 500 futures inched 0.04% higher. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.14%. The three indexes fell Thursday, partially on poor first-quarter earnings from Tesla Inc. and AT&T Inc.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday reported initial jobless claims in the prior week were higher than expected, pointing to a slowing economy. Despite the soft economic readings and rising concerns about a recession, Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said on Thursday she expected interest rates to move above 5% this year, but noted the monetary tightening circle was nearing an end. Currently, U.S. interest rates are between 4.75% to 5%, the highest since June 2006. Analysts at the CME Group now see a 17.9% chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at its next meeting on May 3, while 82.1 predict a 25-basis-point increase, down from 83.3% on Thursday.

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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