Bitcoin Holds Its Ground Amid Binance Lawsuit, XRP Keeps Rising, US Stocks Fall

Bitcoin rallied in Wednesday morning trading in Asia after falling earlier in the week as US regulators filed a lawsuit against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. All other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies gained ground. XRP continued to lead the winners while Cardano followed. US stocks fell on Tuesday on broader concerns about interest rates and the economy and as regulators proposed tougher rules for the US banking industry.

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Bitcoin is up 1.29% in Hong Kong in the 24 hours to 9:00 a.m. to $27,290, posting a weekly loss of 2.76%, according to Bitcoin Profit CoinMarketCap data. The leading cryptocurrency has been teetering so far this week after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a filing Lawsuit against Binance for alleged breach of trading rules. Bitcoin fell from around $28,000 to a low of $26,677 on Tuesday and rallied back above $27,000 early Wednesday.
Ethereum also gained ground, rising 4.09% to $1,776 but still down 0.78% over the past seven days.
XRP continued to lead the gainers, surging 10.04% to $0.5215 over the seven-day period, up 12.92%. The token continues to gain expectations that Ripple Labs, whose crypto payments network is powered by XRP, could win a favorable verdict in a legal action filed against the company by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC charged Ripple with selling an unregistered security in the form of XRP.
“The implications of the case are very far-reaching for the crypto industry, as we anticipate that this decision will ultimately set a precedent for how the U.S. government will categorize and regulate crypto assets,” said Monica Long, President of Ripple Labs told Forkast.News on Tuesday.
Cardano posted the second-biggest gain among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, surging 6.68% to $0.3678 but is still down 1.06% for the week.
A US judge added on regulatory tensions ordered a stop at Binance $1.3 billion acquisition of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, as requested by the Justice Department appeals a previous court ruling approving the sale.
The total crypto market cap increased by 1.80% to $1.15 trillion in the last 24 hours. Total trading volume fell 6.00% to $39.94 billion in the last 24 hours.
In the non-fungible token (NFT) market, the Forkast 500 NFT index fell 0.34% over the past 24 hours to 4,006.47 at 09:00 in Hong Kong, down 3.26% for the week is equivalent to. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts on any given day. It is managed by Forkast sister company, CryptoSlam.
US stocks closed lower on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.12%, the S&P 500 fell 0.16% and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.45%.
The US Congress held one Hear Tuesday on recent bank failures, with regulators reassuring depositors in US banks are safe but need stricter regulations for the banking industry. US President Joe Biden called on Tuesday he was confident that problems in the banking system would be resolved, but his administration would offer additional support if needed.
The US consumer confidence index rose slightly in March, according to the Conference Board reported on Tuesday, suggesting more optimism in the economy than thought as a slowdown was expected.
On inflation, analysts at CME group Expect a 57.5% chance of the Fed keeping rates between 4.75% and 5% at its next meeting on May 3rd. The probability of another 25 basis point hike is 42.5%, up from 41.7% on Tuesday.
US stock futures rose at 9:00 am in Hong Kong. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.27%, S&P 500 futures were up 0.34% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.36%. Investors are now awaiting data on pending US home sales in February, which experts say are expecting a 3% month-on-month decline CNBC on Tuesday.