Bitcoin dips after reclaiming US$26,000, Ether falls; XRP only gainer in the crypto top 10
Bitcoin dipped on Monday morning in Asia after reclaiming the US$26,000 support level over the weekend. Ether also fell back, but held above US$1,700. XRP was the only gainer among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, while Polygon led the losers. The U.S.-based crypto exchange Bakkt reportedly joined other trading platforms in delisting Polygon, Solana and Cardano after the U.S. regulator labelled them illegally issued financial securities. U.S. equity markets are closed Monday for a public holiday, but they could gain in the week as economic data on Friday pointed to slowing inflation, while the first visit to China in almost five years by a top U.S. diplomat could be positive for capital markets.
Bitcoin, Ether dip; XRP rises
Bitcoin fell 0.97% over the last 24 hours to US$26,308 at 07:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, but held onto a weekly gain of 1.58%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency breached the US$26,000 level on Saturday to reach a seven-day high of US$26,769. The token had slumped to three-month lows at the end of last week.
Ether edged down 0.82% to US$1,716, logging a weekly loss of 2.18%.
With the exception of XRP, other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded lower in the past 24 hours. Polygon’s Matic led the losers, slumping 3.22% to US$0.5971 and down 5.88% over the past seven days.
New York-based crypto exchange Bakkt has suspended trading of Polygon, Solana and Cardano tokens and plans to delist them, according to Fortune on Friday. Trading platforms such as Robinhood and eToro have also decided to delist multiple cryptocurrencies after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed lawsuits this month against Coinbase and Binance.US and named a long list of cryptocurrencies as securities that were issued and sold without SEC approval.
“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were affected by increasingly changing sentiment toward crypto as traders could limit their risk-taking in the crypto market due to limited upside catalysts and particularly considering the legal risks in the US,” said Wael Makarem, senior market strategist at trading platform Exness Group, in emailed comments.
“The legal actions could scare away some investors from the market but could be relatively positive for Bitcoin’s dominance against other cryptocurrencies. In this regard, Bitcoin has also been gaining ground against Ethereum,” said Makarem.
The Bitcoin balance on crypto exchanges reached a three-month low of 2,281,978.198 tokens on Sunday, according to blockchain data tracker Glassnode, which reduced some selling pressure as investors normally move tokens to exchanges when they plan to sell.
XRP was the only top 10 non-stablecoin token that logged gains for the past 24 hours, rising 1.01% to US$0.4859, but losing 6.34% for the week.
FinTech firm Ripple Labs, whose crypto payment platform is powered by XRP, announced on Friday a partnership with Columbia’s central bank to explore the use of blockchain technologies in the country’s digital payment system.
The total cryptocurrency market cap dipped 0.53% to US$1.07 trillion in the last 24 hours, while crypto trading volume fell 18.47% to US$19.69 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.