Major cryptocurrencies were trading lower on Thursday as the investors rush for safer investments amid global political uncertainties and the developments of the Fed minutes.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest virtual currency by market capitalisation, was trading 0.41 percent lower at $43,695 (over Rs 34,26,960) at 10:25 am, according to CoinDesk data. The cryptocurrency fell more than 13 percent in the past year.
Bitcoin has witnessed a volatile trend over the past year – the virtual currency oscillated between a high of $69,000 and a low level of $33,000.
The global cryptocurrency market cap fell to $1.93 trillion from the previous day’s figure of $1.99 trillion.
Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency which is linked to ethereum blockchain, fell more than 2 percent to $3,056.
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Meme crypto Dogecoin shed more than 1 percent to trade at $0.147, while Shiba Inu gained nearly 1 percent to trade at $0.000031. Solana, which witnessed substantial interest from the crypto traders last year, also edged down over 2.5 percent to trade at $99.39 at 10:38 am.
Other cryptocurrencies such as Litcoin, XRP, Chainlink, Cardano, Polygon, and Terra were trading in the negative territory over the past 24 hours. On the other hand, Stellar, Internet Computer, Avalanche, and Cosmos gained marginally.
Indian equity markets gave up early gains to trade lower. The US stock markets shrugged off early losses to close flat on Wednesday on developments from Fed minutes and easing geopolitical tensions.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Tuesday said unbacked cryptocurrencies will be no match for prudently designed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Meanwhile, making a strong case for banning cryptocurrencies, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar on Monday said they are even worse than Ponzi schemes and threaten the financial sovereignty of a country.
Earlier, 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.
