Markets: Bitcoin rises as Ether leads gains in crypto top 10

Bitcoin and Ether were trading higher along with top 10 tokens by market capitalization excluding stablecoins in Monday morning trading in Asia, as the world’s largest cryptocurrency remained above US$19,000. XRP was the only token on that list to fall.

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Fast facts

• Bitcoin gained 1% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,268 as of 8 a.m. in Hong Kong. It had fallen as low as US$19,053 on Sunday morning. Ether led gains on the top 10 list, rising 2.5% to US$1,306, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
  

• Polkadot rose 2.2% to change hands at US$6.19, Solana gained 2% to US$30.17 and Cardano was up 1.8% at US$0.37.
  

• Despite trading flat for the past day, Tron overtook the Shiba Inu token over the weekend to reenter the top 10 list excluding stablecoins after being bumped from the position last Friday. It was changing hands at US$0.06. XRP was the only token that fell, dropping 0.9% to US$0.47.
  

• U.S. equities closed lower on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3%, the S&P 500 Index dropped 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed the day 3.1% lower.
  

• Equities pulled back from Thursday’s gains following the release of data showing that U.S. inflation had slowed slightly in September to 8.2%, down from August’s 8.3%, but remained elevated and above market expectations given the Federal Reserve’s ongoing campaign to tackle inflation through raising interest rates.
  

• Elevated interest rates are “hurting the situation,” former presidential hopeful and U.S. senator Bernie Sanders said on Meet the Press on Sunday, blaming higher inflation on macroeconomic trends and record company profits. He said he would not raise rates any higher. Interest rates in the U.S. are currently set to a range of 3% to 3.25%.

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