Top cryptocurrencies drop in thin trading

Bitcoin shed 2.94 per cent over the past 24 hours to $25,062.60, Ether declined 4.74 per cent to $1,652.25, Cardano lost 4.10 per cent to $0.2624, and Solana shed 3.18 per cent to $14.44

Bitcoin dropped in Thursday morning trading in Asia, falling below $25,000 at one point for the first time since mid-March. Ether also dropped with other non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies as trading volumes dived and the U.S. Fed left interest rates unchanged as anticipated, but cautioned of more raises this year to check inflation. Ripple’s XRP token dropped in spite of the release of documents this week that were expected to assist the firm’s defence in an U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

Bitcoin shed 2.94 per cent over the past 24 hours to $25,062.60 at 6:30 a.m. in Hong Kong, shedding 4.69 per cent in the past week, as per CoinMarketCap data. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of nearly $490 billion, dropped below the $25,000 support line to $24,902 earlier in the morning.

Ether declined 4.74 per cent to $1,652.25, posting a 9.70 per cent loss for the week. All other top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies dropped, as per CoinMarketCap.

Cardano lost 4.10 per cent to $0.2624, shedding 18.57 per cent of its value in the last seven days. Solana shed 3.18 per cent to $14.44 and posted a weekly decline of 22.52 per cent.

The two tokens have been on a downturn since being named in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit filed last week against the Binance.US and Coinbase exchanges, where the federal agency labelled the two — along with several other altcoins — as financial securities.

Benjamin Stani, the director of business development and sales at Matrixport, stated the declines are mainly the overhang from the Securities and Exchange Commission suing Binance and Coinbase.

It has been mainly the altcoins that have been declining, he added. Bitcoin and, to some extent, ether as well have been holding up better and that I think is mostly due to the fact that the SEC named several (altcoins) as securities and that has this chilling impact.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged as expected on Wednesday at 5 per cent to 5.25 per cent after ten successive raises to control inflation.

But in another negative for investors, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell stated it may take years to get inflation under control, dousing expectations for rate cuts later this year and increasing the possibility of higher interest rates ahead. Stocks closed mixed.

The total cryptocurrency market cap shed 2.76 per cent to $1.02 trillion during the past 24 hours, and the daily crypto trading volume dropped 5.37 per cent to $31.89 billion, as per CoinMarketCap data.