Bitcoin, Ether, Other Crypto Gains With Stocks Amid Global Fund Injections To Support Banks

by Arthur · March 17, 2023

Bitcoin rose in trading in Asia on Friday morning to near $25,000. Ether and the rest of the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies also rallied as global stock markets steadied following moves by authorities in the US and Europe to stop banks holding cash after a series of industry failures in the past week threatened to spread. BNB led the crypto winners as a US court rejected government objections and approved Binance’s $1 billion deal to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager.

See related article: US, Germany shut down ChipMixer for alleged ties to $3 billion crypto laundering

Fast facts

Bitcoin rose 2.75% in the past 24 hours to USD 24,973 at 09:00 in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped 24% in the past seven days, the biggest gain among the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Some commentators argue that Bitcoin acted as a safe haven for investors as bank failures rocked global stock markets this week.
Ether gained 1.32% to trade at $1,668, a gain of 17% over the past seven days.
BNB, the native token of the Binance crypto exchange, led the gainers on Friday with a 7.56% jump to $327.98. A US court judge on Wednesday rejected the government’s appeal to block a $1 billion offer by Binance US to buy the assets of the failed Voyager platform. The token added 19.51% for the seven-day period.
Polygon’s Matic token climbed 2.88% to $1.14, registering a weekly gain of 14.04%. Salesforce, one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies with a market capitalization of more than $150 billion, has partnered with Polygon blockchain to help customers build non-fungible token (NFT) related programs, according to a chirping by Polygon Labs on Thursday. Saleforce has previously launched a suite of customer relationship management tools for Web3 developers.
The total crypto market capitalization rose by 1.91% in the last 24 hours to $1.08 trillion. Total trading volume in the last 24 hours fell 25.30% to 61.92 billion USD.
US stocks closed higher in a relief rally on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.17%, the S&P 500 rose 1.76%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.48%.
The rise in shares came after Credit Suisse said on Thursday it would borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($54 billion) from the Swiss National Bank to shore up liquidity. On the US side, 11 US financial institutions injected $30 billion into First Republic Bank on Thursday after the bank’s share price fell sharply on fears of a bank run.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Thursday that the US “banking system remains healthy” and “the Federal Reserve is providing further support to the banking system with a new lending facility.”
On the inflation front, the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday reported a more-than-expected drop in jobless claims in the week ended March 11, indicating a strong labor market that supports the view that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again this month.
US interest rates are between 4.5% and 4.75%, the highest since October 2007. Analysts at CME Group expect a 79.7% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points this month. The chance of no interest rate increase is 20.3%, down from 45.4% on Thursday.
The US consumer price index (CPI) rose 6% from a year earlier in February, slowing from 6.4% in January, but still well above the Fed’s target of keeping annual inflation below 2%.
U.S. stock futures traded flat to lower at 9 a.m. in Hong Kong, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 0.14%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.11%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index tread water with a 0.03% drop.