Bitcoin rose and Ether fell during Friday afternoon trading in Hong Kong, along with most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Solana\u2019s SOL was the day\u2019s biggest loser, failing to capitalize on Thursday\u2019s rally fueled by its partnership announcement with e-commerce firm Shopify on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
See related article: <\/em><\/strong>Weekly Market Wrap: Bitcoin falls below US$26,000 following Evergrande\u2019s bankruptcy<\/a><\/p>\n Solana\u2019s SOL token<\/a> fell 4.69% in the 24 hours to 4:30 in Hong Kong to US$20.67, as the day\u2019s biggest loser in the top 10, giving up most of the gains made Thursday, when Solana announced<\/a> a partnership with Shopify to offer crypto payments via Solana Pay, a peer-to-peer payments protocol built on the blockchain.<\/p>\n The XRP token<\/a> was the day\u2019s second biggest loser in the top 10, falling 3.18% to US$0.5115, which marks a six-week low for the coin, reversing nearly all the progress made since Ripple\u2019s partial victory<\/a> over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bitcoin was little changed during afternoon trading in Asia at US$26,098 as of 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong after briefly dipping US$25,966 earlier in the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n The world\u2019s first cryptocurrency has been weighed down by numerous factors, including large holders selling during a low-liquidity period, according to Alex Konanykhin, the chief executive officer and founder of Unicoin, an equity-backed crypto that pays dividends.<\/p>\n \u201cBitcoin is inherently volatile. Its price can be driven down by negative news or by a large sale, especially in late summer when liquidity is at its lowest.\u201d<\/p>\n Investors are also cautiously anticipating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell\u2019s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, which may signal more rate hikes or a negative attitude towards digital assets.<\/p>\n \u201cCryptocurrencies compete with fiat currencies, so a Fed Chairman may not possibly see Bitcoin as anything but a pesky competitor. Chairman Powell is likely to be negative about Bitcoin but it\u2019s nothing new: many regulators have made negative statements about cryptocurrencies,\u201d wrote Konanykhin in a statement shared with Forkast.<\/em><\/p>\n Total crypto market capitalization over the past 24 hours fell 1.62% to US$1.05 trillion while market volume decreased 12.34% to US$28.43 billion, according to CoinMarketCap<\/a> data.<\/p>\n The Forkast 500 NFT index<\/a> rose 0.41% to 2,279.88 points in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong but fell 6.90% in the past week.<\/p>\n Solana\u2019s non-fungible token (NFT) sales rose 124.43% to US$2.29 million after the new Meegos collection reached over US$1.1 million in sales during the past 24 hours. The Forkast SOL NFT Composite<\/a> fell 1.23% in the past 24 hours, suggesting that liquidity from established Solana-native collections is flowing into the Meegos collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSolana is having a big day of sales, up over 122% and now in the #2 spot on CryptoSlam\u2019s blockchain rankings. A majority of these sales are behind a new PFP collection called Meegos, which was created by Blocksmith Labs,\u201d said Yehudah Petscher, NFT strategist at Forkast Labs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ethereum<\/a>\u2019s 24-hour NFT sales rose 11.89% to US$8.67 million, but that of the largest Ethereum-based collection, the Bored Ape Yacht Club<\/a>, fell 11.33% to US$1.23 million. DeGods sales rose over 309% to US$883,229, making it the third largest NFT collection across all chains by 24-hour sales volume.\u00a0<\/p>\n Major Asian equities fell as of 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong on Friday, with Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225<\/a>, Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index<\/a>, the Shenzhen Component<\/a> and the Shanghai Composite<\/a> all declining.<\/p>\n Beijing proposed that local governments scrap a rule that disqualifies people with previous mortgages from being considered first-time homebuyers in major cities, in an attempt to halt the slump in the mainland\u2019s residential property market. Yet, the move failed to boost investor sentiment.<\/p>\n Investors worldwide were cautiously anticipating key speeches by Fed Chair Jerome Powell and ECB President Christine Lagarde at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium later today, for signs on future interest rate decisions.<\/p>\n Both the euro and the British pound hit a new two-month low ahead of today\u2019s speeches.<\/p>\n Major U.S. stock futures rose for a fourth consecutive day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, the S&P 500 futures index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 futures all posting gains.<\/p>\nSOL erases Shopify boost<\/h3>\n
Forkast 500 sees rare rise\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Asian equities fall, U.S. stock futures gain ahead of Powell\u2019s speech<\/h3>\n
![\"Wall](\"https:\/\/forkast.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/wall-street-sign-2021-08-26-16-02-30-utc-3-1260x840.jpg\" "\\"SOL")