Asia’s Bitcoin rose to $26,500 Thursday morning. The week before, the token recovered from a sharp drop with its biggest single-day surge in six weeks. Ether, another major cryptocurrency, rose near $1,700. All 10 non-stablecoin top cryptocurrencies gained value. Both the U.S. equity and cryptocurrency markets rose on the same day. The August S&P Global purchasing manager’s index showed a U.S. economic slowdown, easing inflation and interest rate concerns.
The best cryptocurrency was Solana’s SOL. Solana Pay’s partnership with Shopify enabled USDC payments on the popular e-commerce platform. The Forkast 500 NFT index fell after OpenSea stopped enforcing creator royalties, which continues to affect the NFT market. Nvidia’s earnings report beat expectations, sending its shares up 6% and boosting the U.S. equity market.
Cryptos benefit from Wall Street gains
Bitcoin was $26,510.04 at 07:20 a.m. in Hong Kong, up 2.23% in 24 hours. According to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency fell 8.11% this week. Bitcoin rose 3.7% to $26,786.90 on Wednesday from $25,806.99.
Bitcoin rose on Wall Street. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose over 1% Wednesday. This surge followed S&P Global’s flash U.S. Composite PMI index, which measures manufacturing and service sector activity.
The index showed August economic growth nearly stalled. Current price increases reflect investor hopes that a slowdown in consumer spending will cause the U.S. Federal Reserve to pause its interest rate hike cycle, benefiting the cryptocurrency market.
CoinGlass liquidated $39.08 million in Bitcoin in 24 hours. There were $9.65 million long positions—investors betting on the cryptocurrency’s price rising.
Bitcoin short positions liquidated $29.43 million, surpassing long positions since August 20. This shift boosted investor sentiment.
Ether rose 3.04% to $1,681.25. Despite this rise, Ether fell 7.06% last week.
On Wednesday, Bitstamp announced that it will stop offering U.S. customers Ether staking on September 25. The “current regulatory dynamics” in the US prompted this. The exchange announced it would suspend trading of seven SEC-classified cryptocurrencies on August 27.
Last 24 hours, all 10 top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies gained. Solana’s SOL token led at $21.61 with 5.35%. The week, SOL fell 5.23%.
Blockchain-based payment protocol Solana Pay partnered with Shopify on Wednesday. This partnership lets Solana Pay users shop USDC online without intermediary fees. The protocol is considering SOL and BOND payments, according to TechCrunch.
The cryptocurrency market cap rose 2.53% to $1.07 trillion and trading volume 10.71% to $35.37 billion.
NFT market not at rock bottom yet
CryptoSlam, a Forkast.News/Forkast.Labs subsidiary, manages these global NFT market indexes.
The primary Forkast 500 NFT index fell 1.11% to 2,271.35 at 10:30 a.m. in Hong Kong. This index fell 7.48% last week. The Forkast Ethereum and Cardano NFT indexes fell, while Solana and Polygon rose.
The Forkast 500 is down 44.87% since January. In a Wednesday YouTube video, Forkast Labs NFT strategist Yehudah Petscher predicted further index decline. He stated, “The market lost 75% of its value last year, so we have much further to fall. Possible drop of 30% or more.”
The rise in transactions suggests industry growth despite these challenges. Wednesday, Petscher tweeted: “NFTs dead? It’s false. Sales are comparable to early/mid 2021, but buyers/sellers are near 2022. Last week’s 3,701,251 transactions were record.
24 hour NFT trading volume fell 11.20% to $12.92 million. CryptoSlam reported volume declines for Ethereum and Polygon and slight increases for Solana, Bitcoin, and Cardano.
Market analyst Petscher said “OpenSea royalty policy is still affecting. Down sales, down transactions, up average sales price.”
He said, “The recent increase in average sales price suggests that expensive NFTs are being sold, although these tend to result in losses nowadays.”
Last week, OpenSea, a major global NFT marketplace, announced that it would stop enforcing royalties on August 31.
After OpenSea’s announcement, Rarible, a competing NFT marketplace, supported royalties on Wednesday. Rarible will stop aggregating orders from royalty-free marketplaces like OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2.
Rarible co-founder Alex Salnikov tweeted: “Decentralization allows artists to break the “starving artist” stereotype and grow their projects through authentic ownership and continuous earnings.” He added, “We back creators. Thus, we won’t support royalty-free marketplaces.”
At 11:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, Rarible’s 24-hour trading volume rose 310.85% to $34,000 after this announcement. DappRadar reported OpenSea’s 24-hour volume at $2.19 million, down 8.82%.
Petscher said, “In Wednesday’s YouTube video, I don’t think this affects the situation, but collectors and creators need to back their claims with money.”
He said, “Rarible will partner with royalty-believer creators. This includes collectors.”
Ethereum-based Bored Ape Yacht Club led 24-hour NFT sales. Sales dropped 50.91% to $1.34 million in 24 hours. DMarket on Mythos Chain and Sorare on Ethereum placed second and third.
Nvidia gives global equities a boost
Tech-focused Nasdaq U.S. stock futures rose 1.30% in Hong Kong at 11:40 a.m. Tuesday ended with higher values for the three major U.S. indexes.
Thursday morning Asian primary stock indices rose. Korean Kospi, Chinese Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong Hang Seng, and Japanese Nikkei rose.
S&P Global released its flash U.S. composite PMI index on Wednesday. This index fell from 52.0 in July to 50.4 in August, the weakest economic upturn since February 2023.
S&P Global Market Intelligence Chief Business Economist Chris Williamson: “August’s near-stalling of business activity casts doubt on third-quarter US economic growth. The survey shows factory output fell further and the service sector-led second-quarter growth acceleration has slowed.”
The euro zone’s flash composite PMI index dropped from 48.6 in July to 47.0 in August. The Hamburg Commercial Bank reported the lowest reading since November 2020 on Wednesday.
Mohamed A. El-Erian, Allianz advisor, tweeted, “Government bond yields have fallen sharply across the board, including at the front end, due to stronger expectations that the ECB and Fed will keep rates unchanged.”
U.S. interest rates are at their highest in 22 years, between 5.25% and 5.50%. The CME FedWatch Tool now predicts a 13.5% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike at the September Fed meeting, down from 15% on Wednesday.
Investors expect Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Friday opening speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium to reveal future monetary policies. Global central bank leaders will attend this annual Fed summit.
Nvidia reported second-quarter revenue of $13.51 billion, up 100% annually, on Wednesday. The company predicted $16 billion in revenue for the three months ending October, exceeding analysts’ $12.5 billion expectations.
Nvidia’s share price rose 3.17% on Wednesday and reaching an all-time high of $517 in extended Asian trading on Thursday morning.
Investing.com senior analyst Thomas Monteiro: “Nvidia’s AI results are promising. This validates the tech stock narrative this year.”
Thursday’s South Korean central bank base rate was 3.50%. National inflation is at 2.26%, a two-year low.
