Bitcoin, Ether slip but remain above key price levels while altcoins struggle to find momentum

Bitcoin and Ether fell during Wednesday afternoon trading in Hong Kong but remained above key price levels while most of the top altcoins were in the red. The altcoin bear market could last another two to six months, due to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s moves against these tokens, industry experts told Fork.

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Bitcoin, Ether, most of the top 10 cryptos are down except Doge, Sol

Bitcoin fell 0.21% from 7:20 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong to US$30,735. Ether was down 0.61% over the same period to trade at USD 1,929, having moved above USD 1,900 since Sunday.

On Tuesday, the price of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, surged to US$31,371, its highest since June 2022, on optimism over spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund filings by a range of Wall Street heavyweights, including Blackrock.

While both Bitcoin and Ether remain firmly above key psychological levels, altcoins seem to lack momentum compared to the two largest cryptocurrencies.

“The delisting of specific assets from US cryptocurrency exchanges in June has accentuated a demarcation in asset performance that has existed since the start of the bear market in 2021,” said Jamie Coutts, a senior market structure analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Fork in a statement.

“Assets considered commodities, Bitcoin and Ethereum (though not anchored), have generated collective returns of nearly 70% year-to-date and are 58% off their all-time highs. Meanwhile, SECurities are averaging a paltry 18.87%, languishing 84% below their all-time high,” Coutts wrote, adding that the altcoin bear market could last another two to six months.

Altcoins have suffered from the SEC’s crackdown on tokens they view as financial securities. Solana, Cardano, Polygon and BNB were among those the regulator named as unregistered securities in its lawsuits filed in early June against exchanges Coinbase and Binance.US.

Litecoin was the biggest loser of the day in the top 10, falling 2.65% to $104.49, followed by Binance’s BNB token which fell 1.20% in the past 24 hours and traded at $242. 29.

Dogecoin rose 0.45% to US$0.06858, followed by Solana’s Sol token which rose 0.26% to US$19.20, as the only two winners of the day in the top 10 cryptos.

Total crypto market cap in the past 24 hours fell 0.89% to US$1.2 trillion and market volume fell 27.35% to US$27.24 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Ethereum, BAYC NFT Sell Decline, Bitcoin Ordinals Expand Profit

The Forkast 500 NFT index rose 0.83% to 2,770.49 points in the 24 hours to 4:30 PM in Hong Kong, but fell 3.35% over the week.

After a weak Tuesday, Bitcoin’s 24-hour non-fungible token sales rose 41.21% to US$3.53 million, while sales for $FRAM BRC-20 NFTs rose 3.19% to US$1.36 million.

Ethereum 24-hour NFT revenue fell 22.24% to US$19.07 million, while sales for the largest Ethereum native NFT collection, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, fell 20.44% to US$19.07 million. $2.33 million, but Mutant Ape Yacht Club revenue increased 29.44% to US $2.3 million.

“The Forkast 500 NFT index reflects falling sales prices for collections across all chains, but it is Ethereum that is really dragging the market down with it,” Petscher said, pointing to the recent problems with the Azuki NFT collection.

“Azuki’s struggles irritated the already struggling market… Azuki’s new Elementals coin was supposed to be a boom for NFTs and instead was a bust, becoming a catalyst that drove NFT collections to an all-time low.”

Azuki sales continued to fall, dropping 16.36% to $1.66 million, after the new Azuki Elementals collection was criticized for being too similar to the original. The Azuki Elementals collection began hitting stores last Tuesday and sold out in 15 minutes, but left collectors disappointed as the latest collection looked almost identical to the original.

Of the Forkast Labs NFT indices, the Forkast SOL NFT Composite was the only one in the red, down 0.75% to 791.91 points.

Asian stocks, US stock futures fall as investors brace for more rate hikes

Major Asian stocks weakened from 4:30pm in Hong Kong as investors were cautious ahead of China’s inflation data due later this week, with deflation risks still weighing on the world’s second-largest economy.

The Caixin China General Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) — a measure of the performance of both manufacturing and services in China — fell from 55.6 the previous month to 52.5 in June. This is the sixth consecutive month of expansion for the Chinese private sector. However, the pace of growth was the slowest since January.

Employment in China also grew again, as the services sector created more jobs following a drop in manufacturing payrolls, according to Trading Economics.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.25% and the Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.91%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.57% and the Shanghai Composite fell 0.69%.

US stock futures also fell during Wednesday afternoon trading in Hong Kong as investors worried that continued monetary tightening could push the US economy into recession.

The S&P 500 futures index fell 0.33%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 futures weekend fell 0.48% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.3%.

Investors are now anticipating the release of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in June, scheduled for later today, for more guidance on the central bank’s upcoming monetary decisions.

Markets are expecting another 25 basis point rate hike this month as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said more rate hikes are needed to bring inflation to the 2% target.

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