Markets: XRP soars 23%, Bitcoin holds above US$19,000, Ether gains

Bitcoin continued trading above US$19,000 in Friday afternoon trading in Asia. Ether rose along with most of the top 10 coins by market capitalization following the completion of the first phase of Cardano’s Vasil hard fork. XRP led gains with its price soaring over 20% in the past 24 hours.

See related article: Markets: Cryptocurrencies up amid Cardano’s Vasil hard fork, XRP leads gains

Fast facts

• Bitcoin gained 1.6% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,239 at 4 p.m. Hong Kong time. Ether was up 4.3% to change hands at US$1,332, although it was still down 9.3% over the past seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
• XRP, the native token of XRP Ledger that powers Ripple’s payment network, surged 23.3% to US$0.5215, bringing its gains to 61.7% over the past seven days. This came as another motion in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) versus Ripple Labs Inc. case set Dec. 9 as a deadline for third-parties to submit motions to seal evidence.
• Dogecoin traded up 4%, making it the third largest gainer among the top 10 after XRP and Ether. Cardano’s ADA rose 2.9%.
• Asia equity markets ended lower with the Hong Kong Hang Seng index down 1.2%, the Shanghai Composite index lower by 0.7% and the Nikkei 225 index losing 0.6%.
• On Friday, Singapore released its August consumer price index, which came in higher-than-expected at 7.5% amid core inflation hitting a near 14-year high.
• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank, on Thursday raised its base rate by 75 basis points, following the move of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which raised rates and warned of more increases to come to rein in inflation.

See related article: Cardano Vasil upgrade completes its first phase