XRP, Polygon, And Ether Are The Biggest Losers On The Market‍

As most of the top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization rose in the Asian afternoon trades on Monday afternoon, Bitcoin and Ethereum also rose. Due to persistently high inflation in the U.S., Asian markets dropped on Monday, following last Friday's Wall Street selloff, as investors prepare for the possibility of further interest rate hikes in the U.S. 

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Here are some quick facts

• The price of bitcoin, which is the biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has risen by 1.18% to US$23,441 in the 24 hours leading up to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong Monday, despite dropping 4.4% over the previous week. CoinMarketCap data indicates that Ethereum gained the most among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, gaining 2.28% to US$1,637, but it has lost 3.54% in the last seven days, according to its data. 

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• Polygon's Matic fell 0.74% in 24 hours to US$1.26 and has fallen 15.74% in seven days. After posting a weekly loss of 3.9%, the price of XRP took a 0.71% drop to US$0.3754. 

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• There was an increase in the global cryptocurrency market capitalization of US$1.07 trillion by 1.05% while the total volume of transactions in the crypto market increased by 0.57% to US$36.09 billion.

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• There was a sharp decline in the Asian equity markets on Monday, following the release of last Friday's U.S. personal consumption expenditures January price index, which rose 4.7% compared with the same period a year ago.

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• Shenzhen Component Index fell by 0.73%, while Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.28% in the same period. 

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• A 0.11% drop was recorded by Japan's Nikkei 225, while a 0.87% decline was recorded by South Korea's Kospi.

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• The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.33% following Hong Kong's announcement that its exports dropped 36.7% compared to a year ago in January as compared to the same period last year. It is the largest drop in exports in 70 years as a result of the decline in exports. 

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• There is a good chance that the U.S. Federal Reserve will increase interest rates further in order to tackle inflation at its next meeting on March 21 and 22. At the moment, interest rates in the world's largest economy are at a high level of 4.5% to 4.75%, the highest level since October 2007. It has been suggested that for the central bank to be able to tame inflation, interest rates may rise as high as 5%. 

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• Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary of the United States of America, said on Saturday that the fight against inflation is not a straight line and that there is a lot more work to be done.