Ether and Bitcoin hit highest levels in 10 days

Ether and Bitcoin reached their highest levels in 10 days on Sunday as the market showed some signs of stabilisation.

Ether, the No. 2 cryptocurrency, advanced as much as 5.8 per cent to US$1,279.06 on Sunday before pulling back yesterday.

The rally comes after the token dropped as low as US$880.70 on June 18. It appears to have found support around its 200-week moving average, which now sits near US$1,200.

No. 1 Bitcoin topped out on Sunday at US$21,860, after having fallen as low as US$17,742.83 on June 19.

It hovered around US$21,000 yesterday, bringing overall crypto market capitalisation to just below US$1 trillion (S$1.38 trillion), according to CoinMarketCap, a price-tracking website for crypto assets.

Bitcoin represents more than 40 per cent of the crypto market's value.

Ether "is leading the way following sizeable short liquidations", Fundstrat said of the crypto rally last Friday. Data from Coinglass shows there was about US$60 million of short liquidations in Ether last Friday, the most in five days.

Cryptocurrencies have suffered this year amid United States Federal Reserve rate increases and stubbornly high inflation. Ether is still down more than 60 per cent this year, even after rallying from its extreme lows.

A broad-based sell-off in digital assets and the collapse of high-profile tokens TerraUSD and Luna have also caused ripple effects across the industry.

A wave of liquidations triggered fear of contagion risks.

Major lenders Celsius Network and Babel Finance have frozen withdrawals this month, and Three Arrows Capital, a major crypto hedge fund, is facing liquidity troubles that rattled investors.

At the weekend, crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital, which has disclosed its exposure to Three Arrows Capital, said it is limiting customer withdrawals from its platform to US$10,000 and to 20 transactions during a 24-hour period.

Meanwhile, hackers have looted about US$100 million from a so-called cryptocurrency bridge, targeting a key vulnerability in the digitalasset ecosystem.

Blockchain network Harmony said in a tweet that the hack of its Horizon bridge, which lets people swap coins between blockchains, took place last Thursday morning.

The hacking of Horizon, which offers cross-chain transfers between Ethereum and Binance, marks the third major bridge hack this year.

In February, hackers stole more than US$300 million from the Wormhole bridge. In late March, Ronin Bridge lost about US$620 million to hackers.

BLOOMBERG