Tuesday morning trading in Asia saw Bitcoin rise above US$19,000 for the first time in nearly two weeks after dipping below that resistance level overnight. Ethereum climbed together with the other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, indicating that it is beginning to recover from the post-Merge dip.
At 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, Bitcoin increased by 0.8% over the previous 24 hours to trade at US$19,564, while Ether increased by 3.4% to US$1,379, according to CoinMarketCap.
Despite these increases, Ether is still 19.5% lower than it was a week ago because to a severe sell-off following the eagerly anticipated Merge, which saw it switch to a proof-of-stake network.
Although it is still 20.6% lower than last week, Ethereum Classic, the network from which Ethereum was forked, was also trading 1.6% higher at US$30.48 on Tuesday.
Top 10 CoinMarketCap gainers were headed by XRP, which increased 8.2% to US$0.38.
This comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs Inc., the company that created the token, requested summary judgment in the protracted legal dispute in an effort to settle it without a trial.
The second-largest mover was Solana, which increased by 5.4% to trade at US$32.70, while Dogecoin increased by 2% to reach US$0.058.
U.S. stocks also finished the day Monday up. The S&P 500 Index increased by 0.7%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 0.8% for the day.
Investors are anticipating the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve on September 20–21, which is anticipated to result in another 75-basis-point increase to combat escalating inflation.
Given that August’s Consumer Price Index bucked expectations by showing inflation had actually climbed during the month by 0.1%, market analysts at CME Group currently forecast there is a 19% chance the Fed will boost rates by the entire 100-basis points. In the United States, interest rates are currently set between 2.25% and 2.5%.
