Bitcoin climbs above $19,000, Ether bounces back, BNB gains on staking

Bitcoin rose above US$19,000 on Thursday morning in Asia, recovering along with other tokens in the top 10 by market capitalization after a sharp sell off on Wednesday. Ether moved higher after the Binance exchange, the world’s biggest, said it would offer Ether staking, a move that boosted its own BNB token.

See related article: Markets: Bitcoin slumps below US$19,000, Ether drops despite Merge progress

Fast facts

• Bitcoin rose 2.5% in the past 24 hours to US$19,296 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether gained 4.5% to US$1,630, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
• Binance said Wednesday it was offering Ethereum staking at 6% annual percentage yield, or APY, ahead of the network’s Merge, which is expected to take place in the middle of next week.
• BNB, a token issued by Binance, saw the biggest gains in CoinMarketCap’s top 10, rising 6.3% to change hands at US$278.95, while Solana was up 6% to US$32.71.
• U.S. equities rose Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.4% while the S&P 500 Index rose 1.8%. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 2.1% to end a seven-day streak of losses. All three posted their best day of trading in about a month.
• Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Lael Brainard on Wednesday said the Fed is committed to its campaign of rising interest rates to tackle inflation, but added that the Fed remains dependent on what the data shows and doesn’t want to overtighten. “We are in this for as long as it takes to get inflation down,” Brainard said in a speech to a conference hosted by The Clearing House and Bank Policy Institute.
• Traders have priced in a 76% chance of a 75 basis-point increase in interest rates at the Fed’s next meeting on Sept. 20-21, while the next main data release on the pace of inflation in the U.S. is the August consumer price index on Sept. 13. Interest rates in the U.S. are currently 2.25%-2.5% 

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