Bitcoin dropped sharply during the early trading hours in Asia on Thursday following the hawkish tone from the US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell over rate hikes. However, the largest crypto token found some footing at the lower levels.
Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate will shutter operations. In other news, India, which is presiding over the G-20 summit this year, has put crypto assets under its money laundering laws. The government of India issued a notification about the same on March 7.
Bitcoin slipped below the $22,000 mark, falling about 2 per cent amid the negative news inflows and market volatility. Its largest peer Ethereum was also down, falling more than a per cent and remained below $1,600 level. Altcoins, however, were under severe pain.
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Barring XRP, Shiba Inu and US dollar-pegged stablecoins, all other top and popular crypto tokens were trading with big cuts on Thursday. Solana plunged 7 per cent, whereas Polygon shed 6 per cent. Avalanche dropped 5 per cent, while Polkadot, Cardano and Litecoin were down 3 per cent, each. On the contrary, XRP rose 3 per cent.
The price of Bitcoin is struggling to stay above $30,000 and Ethereum is hovering around $2,000. Overall market sentiment remains cautious due to ongoing regulatory crackdowns and concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading lower, slipping below the $1 mark to $998.6 billion. The crypto m-cap dropped 2 per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total trading volumes increased by over 2 per cent close to $45.01 billion.
Crypto exchanges and intermediaries dealing with virtual digital assets will now be required to perform KYC of their clients and users of the platform. The Finance Ministry on March 7 notified that entities dealing in virtual digital assets (VDAs) will now be considered ‘reporting entities’ under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
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Tech View By WazirX Trade Desk
Ripple (XRP) is showing strength compared to the whole crypto market, it is trading above 20-day EMA(Exponential moving average) and is up for the day. The XRP price chart has broken out of triangle pattern consolidation with good volume, an upward movement is expected to continue.
The next resistance for XRP token is expected at the $0.43 level and the next support could be expected around the $0.36 levels. XRP Ledger is used by developers to create solutions that solve inefficiencies, including remittance and asset tokenization.
(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts’ own and do not represent those of Business Today. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)
