Markets: Bitcoin Little Changed; Ether, Eth Classic Lead Gains Ahead Of The Merge

Republished By Plato

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Bitcoin was little changed while most of the crypto top ten by market capitalization rose, edging the entire crypto market cap back above US$1 trillion in Thursday morning trading in Asia. Ether and Cardano led the gains after Wednesday’s slump on inflation concerns in the U.S.

Fast facts

Bitcoin rose 0.3% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$20,241 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether (ETH) gained 3.8% to US$1,634, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum Classic (ETC), the network from which ETH was forked in 2016, gained 11.3% to US$39.32. The rise in ETC and ETH comes as Etheruem is expected to complete the “Merge” this week, which is forecast to slash electricity use and improve the speed of transactions on the network.
Cardano gained 3.8% to change hands at US$0.48 while Solana was up 3.2% at US$34.09. The total market cap gained 1.4% to sit just over US$1 trillion after falling below that point for much of Wednesday.
U.S. equities also gained after the sharp declines on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.1%, the S&P 500 Index finished 0.3% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7%.
Markets slumped Wednesday after the August Consumer Price Index in the U.S., a key inflation measure, rose 0.1% month-on-month when the market had expected a decline.
This generated concern the U.S. Federal Reserve may raise rates more than the 75 basis points expected when it meets on Sept. 20-21, with the market consensus rising to 35% for a full percentage point increase, the largest hike in 40 years. However, that likelihood has since been adjusted down to 24%, according to data from CME Group.
The next key economic data event for nervous equity markets is U.S. retail sales figures due later today. Interest rates in the U.S. are currently between 2.25% – 2.5%.