Bitcoin, Ether tread water; most top cryptocurrencies drop - Forkast News

Bitcoin and Ether traded little-changed on Tuesday morning in Asia, while most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies fell. Polygon led the losers, along with Solana and Shiba Inu. U.S. equities gained ground on Monday after last week’s slump.

Fast facts

Bitcoin dipped 0.23% in the past 24 hours to trade little changed at US$23,509 as of 8 a.m. in Hong Kong. The leading token is holding a seven day loss of 5.34%, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ethereum also treaded water at US$1,634, off 0.41%. The token is down 4.05% in the past seven days.
Polygon’s Matic token posed the biggest drop among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, falling 3.63% to US$1.24, and extending its weekly loss to 16.27%. Polygon Labs, the developer of the Polygon blockchain, said last week it would lay off 20% of its workforce, which was followed by a reported glitch on Polygon’s network.
Solana lost 2.43% to US$22.69, posting a weekly loss of 13.41%. Solana developers are investigating a network failure on the Solana Mainet Beta last Saturday, which forced it to restart the network and downgrade it from a recent update.
Shiba Inu dropped 2.53% after analytics firm Lookonchain reported a wallet moving 182 billion Shiba Inu tokens to crypto exchanges on Monday, usually the sign of preparation for selling that can drive prices lower. Last time the same wallet transferred over 200 billion Shiba Inu in December 2022 the price fell more than 7% on the day, according to Lookonchain. The token is down 7.21% for the seven day period.
The total crypto market capitalization edged 0.15% lower to US$1.07 trillion, while the total trading volume jumped 34.55% over the past 24 hours to US$45.70 billion.
U.S. equities edged higher on Monday after last week’s tumble on concerns about indicators showing inflation remains entrenched. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.22%, the S&P 500 gained 0.31% and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.63%.
Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, told CNN on Monday that U.S. inflation remains too high, but the economy can achieve a soft landing. She said the Federal Reserve’s attempt to curb inflation through higher interest rates while maintaining a strong labor market appears achievable.
U.S. interest rates are now between 4.5% to 4.75%, the highest since October 2007. The January Federal Reserve meeting minutes released last Wednesday showed policymakers agreed to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes, but warned the tightening cycle is not over.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced its latest monthly report on durable goods on Monday, with orders for manufactured goods – excluding transportation – rising 0.7% in January, or below expectations in a sign of a slowdown in the growth that has been feeding inflation.
Analysts at the CME Group predict a 76.7% likelihood the Fed will raise rates by another 25 basis points in March. They also predict a 23.3% chance for a raise of 50 basis points, a decrease from 27.7% as reported on Monday.