Bitcoin fell in Asian morning trading on Thursday, but held above the $20,000 support line. Ether also lost ground. XRP was the only cryptocurrency in the top 10 by market capitalisation to gain momentum.

Some facts:

• Bitcoin has fallen 0.9 per cent in the past 24 hours and was worth US$20,166 as of 8am in Hong Kong. Ether fell 0.7% to US$1,353, according to CoinMarketCap.
• Leading memcoin Dogecoin was the biggest loser in the top 10, falling 2.2% to US$0.06, Cardano fell 1.1% to US$0.43 and Solana was little changed, falling 0.2% to US$34.07.
• XRP rose 2% to US$0.49 after it was revealed that Ripple Labs Inc, whose payment network runs on XRP, was listed by CB Insights Fintech 250 for 2022 as one of the world’s most promising fintech companies.
• XRP prices remain volatile amid multidirectional developments in the ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple, which was originally filed in 2020 with the SEC alleging Ripple sold tokens as unregistered securities. On Tuesday, the SEC rejected petitions from two firms that had requested briefs in support of Ripple.
• US stocks were little changed on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.2%.
• Markets leveled off after a strong start to the week after data showed the US economy was still strong, with businesses adding 208,000 jobs in September – more than forecast and up from 185,000 in August, payroll services provider ADP said on Wednesday.
• This is seen as another signal that the rate of inflation is not slowing and points to further interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. US inflation is currently at 8.3 per cent and the Fed has said it wants to return it to its target range of 2 per cent.