Bitcoin traded above US$23,000 throughout Wednesday afternoon trading in Asia, while Ethereum and other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed. Cardano led gains with 2.03% followed by XRP’s 1.13%. 



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Fast facts




Bitcoin gained 0.45% to US$23,081 in 24 hours to 4.05 p.m. on Wednesday in Hong Kong. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has gained 1.51% in the past seven days. Ethereum lost 0.27% to US$1,575, but was up 1.16% on the week. 



Cardano and XRP gained the most among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos by market capitalization. Cardano jumped 2.03% to US$0.3821, and has gained 6.30% in the past week. XRP rose 1.31% to US$0.4007, but was down 2.22% in the past seven days. 



Dogecoin lost 2.59% to US$0.09234 on Wednesday afternoon in Asia, amid Dogecoin advocate and Twitter chief Elon Musk’s push to introduce a payments system to the social media platform. The memecoin was up 8.96% for the week. 



Most Asian markets gained on Wednesday as investors eye interest rate hikes by major central banks this week. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to announce a 25 basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. 



The Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.31% to close Wednesday trading, while the Shanghai Composite jumped 0.90%. 



Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 1.05% for the day, South Korea’s Kospi inched up 1.02%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.07%.



India’s Sensex index at the Bombay Stock Exchange gained 0.27% at Wednesday’s close. India Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced a 33% increase in the country’s capital expenditure to US$122 billion in Budget 2023-24 , prioritizing infrastructure spending and job creation. This is India’s last full year budget before the 2024 general elections. 



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