Bitcoin Back Above $29,000, Ether Gains; Matic Leads Winners on Polygon Tools Update

Bitcoin and Ether climbed in early Thursday morning trade in Asia, but the majority of the top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed. Polygon’s Matic topped the winners on network upgrades, while Ripple’s XRP fell. Stock futures in the United States sank, mirroring losses on Wall Street on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by the predicted 25 basis points, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that inflation remains a problem, heightening fears that further rate rises are on the way. Investors are still skeptical that the banking sector is out of the woods after a string of bank collapses since March.

According to CoinMarketCap statistics, Bitcoin surged back over the US$29,000 resistance line, rising 1.23% to US$29,032 in the 24 hours to 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. Over the last seven days, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has gained 2.12%, surpassing its 20-day moving average.

Bitcoin is up 75% year so far, and Standard Chartered Bank predicts it will reach US$60,000 this year, as financial troubles in the United States may persuade some investors of Bitcoin’s position as a safe haven.

The second-largest token, ether, rose 1.84% to US$1,905, gaining 2.06% weekly. The remaining top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization were mixed.

Matic from Polygon topped the winners, jumping 2.99% to US$1.01 and increasing its weekly gains by 2.03%. Polygon said on Wednesday that it had updated its network to promote the adoption of decentralized apps, or dApps.

Ripple fell 0.32% to $0.4635.

In the last 24 hours, the overall crypto market value increased by 1.14% to US$1.20 trillion, while trading volume increased by 19.42% to US$41.97 billion.

In the non-fungible token (NFT) market, the Forkast 500 NFT index fell 1.69% to 3,648.07 in the 24 hours to 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, bringing the week’s total to 1.65%.

“I believe it is related to gas [fees].” It’s high today, and people have remarked on it while minting (or not minting because of it),” stated Yehudah Petscher, NFT Strategist at Forkast Labs.

In other NFT news, South Korea’s premier blockchain game developer Wemade debuted the Bored Ape Golf Club (BAGC) NFT collection on its platform on Wednesday.

According to Wemade’s press statement, the golf-themed edition of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club collection had 40,000 concurrent users during its presale period last year. Wemade, founded in 2000, serves various play-to-earn video games internationally, including MIR4, and has over US$83 million in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2022.

On Wednesday, US authorities warned NFT trading platforms when they charged Nathaniel Chastain, the former head of product at the OpenSea NFT marketplace, with money laundering and fraud in the “first-ever digital asset insider trading scheme.”

As of 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, US stock futures were down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.41%, the S& P 500 futures index fell 0.37%, and the Nasdaq-100 futures index fell 0.37%.