Bitcoin falls below US$30,000 mark, Binance’s BNB and Solana post gains, and U.S. equity futures lose momentum amidst mixed economic outlooks

In early Monday morning trading in Asia, Bitcoin saw a slight dip, falling just below the US$30,000 mark. Additionally, Ether struggled to maintain its momentum after a strong surge following the recent upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain. The majority of other leading non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded lower, except for Solana, Binance’s BNB token, and Litecoin, which saw gains. While U.S. equity futures rose after last week’s gains, they lost some momentum on Friday due to mixed economic outlooks.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin experienced a 1.47% decline to reach US$29,858 in the 24-hour period leading up to 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, for the week, it has risen by 5.13%. The token managed to pass the US$31,000 mark briefly on Friday before vacillating above US$30,000 over the weekend.

Binance’s BNB emerged as the biggest winner, surging by 3.07% to hit US$343.33 and posting a weekly gain of 9.79%. This comes after the major cryptocurrency exchange announced its partnership with the Brazilian Football Confederation to issue the first non-fungible token (NFT) of the country’s national football league. Meanwhile, Solana saw a climb of 3.01% to reach US$24.91, with a weekly jump of 22.63%, following the unveiling of Saga by Solana Mobile, an Android smartphone that integrates with the Solana blockchain. Solana Labs also teamed up with U.S.-based drink retailer Boba Guys for an on-chain loyalty reward program. Over the past 24 hours, the total crypto market capitalization declined by 0.76% to US$1.26 trillion, while the 24-hour trading volume rose by 13.46% to US$38.86 billion.

The Forkast 500 NFT index increased by 0.91% to reach 4,053.99 in the 24-hour period up to 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. It has gained 2.98% over the week, serving as a proxy measure of the global NFT market’s performance, comprising 500 smart contracts that are eligible on any given day. This index is under the management of CryptoSlam, which is a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella. As of 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, the U.S. stock futures were slightly up.

More specifically, The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.19%, while the S&P 500 futures added 0.17%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 0.01%. Although the three indexes experienced a dip on Friday, they had all gained over the week. Investors were given mixed signals on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy after the release of U.S. economic data that revealed an increase in consumer sentiment in April but a decline in March retail sales, which indicated that inflation could be slowing down. Nonetheless, the first-quarter earnings of major banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. surpassed expectations, suggesting that a stronger economy may boost inflation, which a Reuters report pointed out on Friday.

Currently, U.S. interest rates are the highest since June 2006, with rates ranging between 4.75% to 5%. Predictions from analysts at the CME Group indicate a 17.9% chance that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates at its next meeting on May 3, while 82.1% expect a 25-basis-point rate hike, which is an increase from 66.5% last Friday.