Bitcoin and Ethereum prices dropped in afternoon trading on Monday in Asia, along with all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Bitcoin continued trading under US$23,000, while Solana and Polygon led losses.
See related article: New Bitcoin protocol may shake up the NFT market
Fast facts
- Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, dropped 2.17% to US$22,883 at 4 p.m. in Hong Kong on Monday, after losing 3.27% for the week. Ethereum lost 2.03% to US$1,634, although it gained 0.42% in the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
- Solana dropped 4.27% to US$23, the largest loss among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos, as it slid 8.03% in the past calendar week. Polygon’s Matic dropped 3.69% to US$1.20, although it gained 3.78% on the week.
- Most Asian equity markets were down on Monday, after the United States on Friday announced its lowest unemployment rate since 1969 at 3.4%. Interest rates may rise further to tackle inflation.
- The border between Hong Kong and China fully reopened on Monday but investors remained cautious. The Shenzhen Component Index lost 1.18% while the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.76%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell for the third consecutive session and closed the trading day down 2.02%.
- South Korea’s Kospi ended the day 1.7% lower while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was among the exceptions and gained 0.67% on Monday as the yen weakened against the U.S. dollar.
- India’s Sensex index at the Bombay Stock Exchange dropped 0.51% at 3.12 p.m. local time as investors keep watch for the Reserve Bank of India’s policy announcement on Wednesday.
- See related article: India crypto industry on ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as government ignores requests in Budget