Bitcoin falls as mining difficulty hits record high, rest of crypto top 10 also decline

Bitcoin dipped in Tuesday morning trading in Asia, but held above the US$19,000 support line where it has been fluctuating for several weeks. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also slipped, as did the rest of the cryptocurrency top 10 by market cap, excluding stablecoins.

See related article: Bitcoin mining difficulty logs new high, up 3.4%

Fast facts

Bitcoin fell 1.1% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,337 as of 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether dropped 1.3% to trade at US$1,345, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The world’s leading blockchain reached an all-time high for mining difficulty after a 3.44% increase in Monday’s biweekly adjustment. Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of how much more computing power miners have to apply to verify transactions in a block to add to the blockchain. The data is from BTC.com.
Polygon slipped 0.7% to US$0.89, the smallest decline on CoinMarketCap’s top 10 list. The token has risen 6.4% over the past seven days on news that the Warren Buffett-backed Nubank, reportedly the largest fintech bank in South America, picked Polygon for its blockchain and digital token last week.
XRP, the token used in Ripple Labs Inc.’s payment system, fell 3.3% to US$0.45, following another twist in the legal case between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether XRP is an unregistered security. The SEC filed a legal rebuttal to Ripple’s motion for a summary judgment in its favor on Friday. The SEC wrote Ripple’s motion should be denied “because the undisputed evidence shows that defendants engaged in unregistered offers and sales of securities to public investors.”
U.S. equities started the week higher on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.3%, the S&P 500 Index rose 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.9%.
The U.S. Confidence Board is set to release its latest index on consumer confidence on Tuesday, where the expectation is the reading will fall to 105 for October, down from 108 in September. A reading of 90 or higher is regarded as a reflection of a healthy economy.