Bitcoin falls below USD 24,000 to start the trading week in Asia

by James · February 19, 2023

Bitcoin coins and money on a black office table

Bitcoin fell below $24,000 on a mixed morning for the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on Monday in Asia. Solana posted the most gains on that list while leading memecoin Dogecoin fell the most.

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Fast facts

Bitcoin fell 2.76% in the past 24 hours to trade at $23,927 as of 9:15 a.m. in Hong Kong, but was still up 11.9% in the past week, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum lost 0.97% to $1,661, gaining 11.2% in the past seven days.
Solana was up 4.6% to US$24.62, a weekly increase of 15.6%. The network has held its “Build Through the Bear” hackathon this month, inviting community members to build on the blockchain, offering $50,000 in USDC for the grand prize. The hackathon ends on March 14.
Dogecoin fell 2% to $0.087, but still traded up 6.6% in the past seven days. XRP fell 1.7% to $0.38, but still traded 3% higher in the past week.
The total crypto market capitalization reached US$1.13 trillion overnight, the highest since August 2022, before falling to US$1.12 trillion at 9:15 a.m. in Hong Kong. The total trading volume in the last 24 hours has increased by 14.4% to 54.9 billion USD.
US stocks had a mixed trading day on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, but the S&P 500 fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day down 0.6%. Wall Street will be closed on Monday for President’s Day.
Many major U.S. retailers are slated to release holiday season earnings this week, starting with Walmart Inc. and Home Depot Inc. on Tuesday.
The earnings reports are set to come amid growing recession concerns in the US, as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from near zero to 4.5% to 4.75% to curb inflation. While some have criticized the Fed for raising interest rates too sharply, the central bank maintains it will be able to achieve a “soft landing” to bring down inflation without triggering a recession.
The latest consumer price index data showed inflation was up 6.4% in January from a year ago, down from 6.5% in December and 7.1% in November.
Analysts at CME Group predict an 85% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by another 25 basis points next month.