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Bitcoin dropped to around the US$26,000 level Friday morning in Asia, giving up much of the previous day\u2019s gains. Ahead of the U.S Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell\u2019s Friday speech at Jackson Hole, investors are looking for signs of an end to the rate hike cycle, with repercussions for the crypto market. Ether moved lower to near the US$1,600 support level, while most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies logged losses. Solana led the losers after its own day of gains Thursday. The Forkast 500 NFT index fell, although the Solana blockchain\u2019s new partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify could mean better times ahead for NFTs. U.S. stock futures posted marginal gains after Wall Street closed lower on Thursday, with all three major U.S. indexes logging losses of over 1%.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin dropped 1.40% in the last 24 hours to US$26,081.21 as of 07:20 a.m. in Hong Kong and traded 2.90% lower for the week, according to CoinMarketCap<\/a> data. The world\u2019s leading cryptocurrency reached a low of US$25,914.93 on early Friday, a 2.9% decline from its high daily high of US$26,688.48 on Thursday.<\/p>\n According to Samer Hasn, market analyst at Australia-based global multi-asset broker XS.com, the current caution in the crypto market is due to increased regulatory scrutiny in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has brought lawsuits against a number of digital asset firms, including Ripple Labs, Binance.US and Coinbase. Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp said<\/a> Thursday it will stop Ether staking services for U.S. customers from Sep. 25 in light of recent regulatory developments.<\/p>\n Hasn said the \u201cnegative sentiment may continue to put pressure on the cryptocurrency market in the coming weeks or months until a regulatory and legislative environment that regulates the cryptocurrency market becomes clear.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to data<\/a> from blockchain intelligence firm Santiment that shows Bitcoin whales moving large amounts of the token to their wallets as a further sign of a decline in market sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe relatively huge movements in cryptocurrency wallets, led by Bitcoin, may continue to weaken the confidence of participants and fuel a state of caution about what may happen in the future in the market and lead to collapses or wide fluctuations,\u201d Hasn added.<\/p>\n Greta Yuan, head of research at Hong Kong-based digital asset exchange VDX, said that investors have to recognize that \u201cthe bear market is not over yet.\u201d With trading volume across the market still weak, Bitcoin\u2019s price could remain in the range of US$25,000-27,000 for some time, she added.<\/p>\n Alongside Bitcoin\u2019s losses, Ether also dipped 1.40% to US$1,652.77 and was down 3.27% over the past seven days.<\/p>\n Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded lower over the past 24 hours. The exception was Binance\u2019s BNB token, which edged up 0.58% to US$217.48 but still logged a weekly loss of 1.87%.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mastercard said it will end four crypto card programs in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bahrain by September 22. The global payment giant was partnered with Binance on the four programs. No reason was provided for the cancellations, first reported<\/a> by Reuters on Thursday.<\/p>\n Solana\u2019s SOL token led the losers, falling 3.09% to US$20.90 for a weekly loss of 4.98%.<\/p>\n