Bitcoin, Ether up; ADA posts most gains among top 10 cryptos

Bitcoin and Ether were up during Asia trading hours on Thursday afternoon as many markets in Asia returned from the Luna New Year break. Cardano’s ADA led the rally among top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

See related article: A series of events: Crypto’s 2022 timeline

Fast facts

Bitcoin rallied by 1.21% in the past 24 hours, to trade at US$23,005 by 4 p.m. in Hong Kong. Ether gained 3.31% to change hands at US$1,606, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin fell below the US$21,000 mark in early November after the collapse of FTX exchange took the industry by storm. Bitcoin was able to reclaim its pre-FTX price on Jan. 16, which acts as a psychological price level for investors.

Cardano surged 4.84% to trade at US$0.37, and Solana had the second biggest gain with a 4.69% jump to US$24.39.

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization increased by 1.89% to US$1.05 trillion in the 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong. The total crypto market trading volume increased by 9.25% to US$62.70 billion.

Traders returned from the Lunar New Year holidays in various Asian markets, where equities were up despite Wall Street’s overnight slide. Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.76% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index inched up by 2.19%, its highest close in almost two years.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid by 0.12% while South Korea’s latest economic data showed its GDP fell by 0.4% in the last quarter of 2022 from the third quarter, marking the first time its economy had contracted in two and a half years.

Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve are scheduled to meet next week to decide the next move on interest rates. Analysts from CME Group predict a 99.8% chance of an increase of 25 basis points.

See related article: Are VCs looking for the next big crypto star in 2023?