Major cryptocurrencies extended losses on Monday amid uncertainty over the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in March.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest virtual currency in terms of market capitalisation, tumbled nearly 1 percent to $41,899.091 at 9:17 am, according to CoinDesk data.
The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell 2.14 percent over the last 24 hours to $1.86 trillion, while trading volumes were down 11.35 percent to $61.44 billion, according to moneycontrol.
In rupee terms, Bitcoin fell 1.14 percent to trade at just over Rs 33,30,681.
Bitcoin has witnessed a very volatile trend over the past one year – the virtual currency has hit a high of $69,000 and a low level of $33,000.
Second-largest cryptocurrency Ether, which is linked to ethereum blockchain, also shed more than 2 percent to $2868.42 at 9:21 am. In rupee term, Ethereum fell more than 2 percent to over Rs 2,27,000.
Meme crypto Dogecoin traded flat at $0.15, while Shiba Inur rose over 1.5 percent on Monday to $0.000029.
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Solana, which witnessed substantial interest from the crypto traders last year, turned negative to trade at $93.61 at 9:28 am.
Other cryptocurrencies such as Litcoin, XRP, Chainlink, Avalanche, Cardano, Polygon, Stellar, Terra, and Internet Computer were trading in the red over the past 24 hours.
The US stock markets fell on Friday on worries over an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and concerns of inflation and interest rates. All the Wall Street indices lost more than 1 percent. S&P 500 tumbled 1.9 percent, while Dow Jones contracted 1.4 percent on close.
Oil prices rose on Monday towards their highest levels in more than seven years on fears that a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia could trigger sanctions from US and Europe and disrupt energy exports from the world’s top producer.
Asian markets also witnessed a downward trend on Monday.
The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday reiterated its stance on cryptocurrency and said the digital asset is a huge threat to macroeconomic and financial stability.
Meanwhile, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget announced a 30 percent tax on the returns from trading or investing in cryptocurrencies or other digital assets such as NFTs.
(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)
First Published:Â IST
