Bitcoin and Ether gained in Monday afternoon trade in Asia, along with all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, after U.S. regulators took charge of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, both with exposure to crypto industry, protecting deposits and confirming that no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, gained 9.9% to US$22,555 in 24-hour trade to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, taking its total gains for the week to 0.68%. Ethereum increased 9.64% to US$1,614 on the day and 3.3% on the week, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Cardano’s ADA token led gains at 12.04% to trade at US$0.3412, and has risen 2.23% in the past seven days. Solana was the second-biggest gainer, rising 10.3% to US$19.83 but lost 4.57% on the week.
The global crypto market cap gained 8.97% to US$1.03 trillion, while the total crypto market volume rose 21.66% in the last 24 hours to US$77.36 billion.
Asian equity markets mostly rose on Monday, boosted by higher U.S. stock futures and U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen stating the government would protect depositors at the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index led gains at 1.95%. The Shanghai Composite strengthened 1.2% and the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.55%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.11% while South Korea’s Kospi inched up 0.67%.
Investors are looking to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s meeting on March 22 to decide on interest rate increases and direction of the economy. Interest rates in the world’s largest economy are at 4.5% to 4.75%, the highest since October 2007, and are expected to increase by another 25 basis points.
Investors are also awaiting U.S. inflation data on Tuesday and the European Central Bank’s meeting on Thursday for signals on global financial policy.
Crypto investors had a glimpse of relief after USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, briefly regained its peg to the U.S. dollar Monday morning Asia time, after losing its peg due to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in which it held around US$3.3 billion. Circle said that the US$3.3 billion reserves will be fully recovered Monday when banks open in the U.S. USDC was trading at US$0.99 as of 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong.
The Forkast NFT 500 index fell 0.39% to 4,022.19 in the past 24 hours. Planet IX – Gravity Grade lost 18.96% as the day’s biggest decliner, followed by EGoldMiner that declined 16.81%.
European stocks weakened as risk appetite remained low, pressured by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The Stoxx 600 fell 1.1% and Germany’s DAX 40 lost 1.45%.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 1.5% to 7,634 points, dragged by energy sector stocks, falling to a two-month low.
