Bitcoin rose on Friday morning in Asia to trade above the resistance level of US$26,000, leading a rally across most top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. The exceptions were Cardano and Toncoin, which both posted minor losses. Ether logged moderate gains but remained below US$1,650. U.S. financial services giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. is reportedly exploring a blockchain-based payment and settlement system, raising optimism for more institutional adoption of blockchain. U.S. stock futures traded mixed, after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower on Thursday. Stronger-than-expected jobs data has added to U.S. rate hike concerns.
Bitcoin spearheads crypto winners
Bitcoin rose 1.62% in the last 24 hours to US$16,179.43 as of 07:30 a.m. in Hong Kong, turning a weekly loss into a gain of 0.75%, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s leading cryptocurrency had been trading between around US$25,500 and US$26,000 since Saturday. It reached an eight-day high of US$26,409.30 early Friday morning.
JPMorgan, the largest bank in the U.S. by asset size, is “in the early stage” of developing a blockchain-based digital deposit token for cross-border payments and settlements. The bank has already laid out most of the underlying infrastructure, but will wait for approval from U.S. regulators before making the token itself, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Deposit tokens are transferable digital assets representing deposit claims against a commercial bank. Token transactions take place on blockchains, making deposits faster and cheaper than traditional methods.
“It is another sign that large corporations continue to build their blockchain capabilities during this bear market,” Markus Thielen, head of research & strategy at digital asset service platform Matrixport, said in an emailed comment.
The market is currently waiting on a decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding another U.S. financial giant — BlackRock. On June 15, the world’s top asset manager applied for approval to create a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
“While most expect the SEC Blackrock decision to hit the market in October, the news of a potential ETF approval can also come any time,” Thielen said.
“Once Bitcoin regains some momentum, the rally could have legs and bring prices back above US$30,000,” he added.
Elsewhere, Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), said on Thursday that despite the apparent good health of the U.S. economy, the country’s banking industry “continues to face significant downside risks from the effects of inflation, rising market interest rates, and geopolitical uncertainty.”
Bitcoin prices have historically benefited from uncertainties in the banking system, such as the crisis at Zurich-based lender Credit Suisse in March. The bank’s sudden collapse sent the token’s price from below US$27,000 to over US$28,000 on March 19.
Ethereum gained 0.77% to US$1,644.68 over the past 24 hours and edged down 0.07% for the past seven days.
Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies logged small gains. Cardano’s ADA and the TON network’s Toncoin were the only tokens that posted losses, dipping 0.14% and 0.70% respectively. But both coins posted gains for the week at 1.07% for ADA and 3.68% for Toncoin.
The total crypto market capitalization gained 1.37% to US$1.05 trillion. Trading volume dropped 11.95% to US$23.81 billion.
