Bitcoin gains ground, Ether rises, Solana leads winners, BNB little-changed to lower

Bitcoin rose in Tuesday morning trading in Asia to hold above support at US$26,000. Ether also logged gains along with most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Binance’s BNB token was little changed to lower on signs the world’s largest crypto exchange may be winding down its expansion in Europe amid widespread regulatory woes. Equity futures in the U.S. edged lower after the long weekend break, recent mixed signals on the state of inflation, and speculation about more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Crypto

Bitcoin rose 1.41% over the last 24 hours to US$26,765 at 07:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, moving up 3.21% for the past seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a weekly high of US$26,984 early Tuesday to test resistance at US$27,000.

Ether gained 0.86% to US$1,734, but has flatlined over the past seven days to log a weekly loss of 0.48%. Solana led the winners in the top 10, rising 3.76% to US$15.95 and up 4.95% for the week.

Most other top 10 non-stablecoin tokens moved higher in early morning trade. However, Binance’s BNB posted a dip of 0.25% to US$242.87, though the token is still holding onto a weekly gain of 5.38%. The Binance exchange seems to be reining in its global expansion plans amid growing regulation challenges.

Binance Markets Ltd, the U.K. subsidiary of Binance, can no longer “provide regulated activities and products” for non crypto-related activities in the country, according to a Monday posting on the website of the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). According to reports, Binance had permission to provide such services in the U.K. but had requested to the FCA it be withdrawn as they were unlikely to be used.  

Apart from the ongoing lawsuit with U.S. regulators, Binance is also facing challenges in Europe. The company on Friday said it will withdraw from the Netherlands after being unable to secure a virtual asset service provider registration in the country. The crypto exchange is also reportedly under an anti-money laundering probe in France.

Digital asset investment products saw an outflow of US$5.1 million last week, according to data tracked by Europe-based cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares on Monday. The data marks the ninth consecutive week of outflows, while the number is smaller than US$88 million in the previous week after the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF.

CoinShares indicated the slump in prices of many tokens had brought in some bargain-hunting. “The prior week crash in altcoin prices prompted investors to add to positions (in altcoin-linked investment products),” wrote CoinShares in its Monday report, “with XRP, Cardano and Polygon being the focus.”

The total cryptocurrency market cap rose 0.86% to US$1.07 trillion in the last 24 hours, while crypto trading volume rose 35.69% to US$26.74 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.