Thursday morning trading saw a decline in bitcoin, but it remained above the US$20,000 support level. Ether also lost ground. The sole cryptocurrency in the top 10 by market capitalization was XRP. Bitcoin traded hands at $20,166 after declining 0.9% over the previous 24 hours. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the price of ether decreased by 0.7% to $1,353.
Dogecoin, the most popular memecoin, lost the most money among the top 10, dropping 2.2% to US$0.06, Cardano dropped 1.1% to US$0.43, and Solana barely changed, sliding 0.2% to US$34.07.
Following news that Ripple Labs Inc., the company whose payment network is powered by XRP, was named one of the world’s most promising Fintech businesses in the CB Insights Fintech 250 for 2022, the price of XRP increased 2% to US$0.49.
Prices for XRP continue to fluctuate as the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC) pursues its ongoing legal action against Ripple. The SEC initially filed the lawsuit in 2020, alleging that Ripple had sold tokens as unregistered securities. The SEC objected to motions from two companies on Tuesday that sought amicus briefs in support of Ripple.
On Wednesday, there was little movement in US stocks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index both decreased by 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 0.1%.
Following data that showed the U.S. economy is still growing well with firms adding 208,000 jobs in September — more than predicted and up from 185,000 in August — according to payroll services company ADP on Wednesday, markets leveled after a solid start to the week.
This is viewed as another indication that the rate of inflation isn’t slowing down and that the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon raise interest rates again. The U.S. inflation rate is currently 8.3%, and the Federal Reserve has stated that it wants it to return to the goal range of 2%.
