Markets: Bitcoin, Ether rise; XRP leads gains

Bitcoin and Ether edged up slightly on Tuesday morning in Asia, along with nearly all other non-stablecoin top 10 cryptocurrencies. XRP led the gains with about 5.6%, followed by Cardano and Polygon.

Fast facts

• Bitcoin rose 0.46% to US$16,919 in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether gained 0.66% to trade at US$1,227, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
• XRP was up 5.58% to change hands at US$0.3657, and gained 7.91% over the past seven days. If early, Ripple Labs Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse expects its XRP lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to end early next year.
• Dogecoin fell to US$0.07576 after dropping 0.27% in the past 24 hours. The memecoin extended its losing streak since last week, when supporter Elon Musk announced that he will be stepping down as Twitter’s chief. Dogecoin traded at a low of US$0.07099 last week.
• Cardano traded up 2.32% to US$0.2653, while Polygon rose 2.32% to trade at US$0.8136.
• The Asian markets closed higher on Monday as China announced that it will reopen its borders and scrap inbound Covid quarantine rules from Jan. 8.
• The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.65%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 also rose 0.65%. The U.S. and Hong Kong equities markets were closed on Monday for Christmas.

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