Markets: Bitcoin, Ethereum extend losses

Bitcoin and Ethereum fell Thursday afternoon in Asia, along with all 10 other major non-stable cryptocurrencies on fears that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates further to fight inflation.

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Fast facts

Bitcoin fell 2.19% to $20,832 as of 4 p.m. Hong Kong on Thursday, after gaining 14.89% over the past seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Ethereum lost 3.37% to US$1,529 but rose 9.36% last week.

Memecoin Shiba Inu fell 10.9% to $0.00001111, after gaining 20% ​​in the past seven days. Investors are waiting for the release of Shibarium, a layer 2 network that will run on top of the Ethereum blockchain.

Solana fell 7.16% to US$21.32 and gained 31.39% over the past week. Polygon’s Matic token lost 5.88% to US$0.9454 after strengthening 6.5% on the week.

Polkadot lost 4.56% to US$5.75 and Dogecoin fell 6.97% to US$0.08099.

Asian stock markets were mixed on Thursday. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange rose 0.87%, the Shanghai Stock Exchange 0.49% and South Korea’s Kospi 0.51%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.12% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.44%.

“While the likelihood of a challenging global outlook remains high in 2023, we see more opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region,” Chloe Shea, chief investment officer of global investment firm Schroders, wrote in a note. shared with Forkast.

“Positive steps taken by Chinese policymakers, Asian markets preparing to outpace developed markets to end the tightening cycle, and attractive valuations relative to history and global peers are among the positive catalysts. for Asian assets to perform well,” she added.

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