Bitcoin Leads Majority Cryptocurrencies to Open With Losses, Ether Among Few to Register Gains

Stepping into the second week of December, the overall cryptocurrency market looked lethargic with only a handful of crypto tokens registering gains. The world's oldest cryptocurrency Bitcoin continued its streak of witnessing dips as the token began the week trading at $54,553 (roughly Rs. 41 lakh) with a value loss of 0.28 percent as per Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber. On international exchanges such as CoinMarketCap and Binance, the Bitcoin prices are hovering around $49,000 (roughly Rs. 37 lakh) riddled with marginal losses.

Ether, on the other hand, has managed to small gains. With a minor value addition of 0.94 percent, Ether is presently trading at $4,652 (roughly Rs. 3.4 lakh) as per the Gadgets 360 crypto price tracker.

While only a small bunch of cryptocurrencies including USD Coin and Polygon joined Ether on the gain trail, majority popular altcoins followed Bitcoin into the dip.

The list of cryptocurrencies that failed to register a hike in their values include Tether, Cardano, Ripple, Polkadot, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu, among others.

It is noteworthy that none of the cryptocurrencies witnessed any drastic changes in terms of their gains and losses percentages. All the price highs and lows remained marginal.

Industry experts predict that the market movement is likely to change rapidly.

“Altcoins took the brunt of the selling, with Bitcoin also seeing an ~25 percent intraday drop — the highest single day stump since May 2020. The coming week is expected to be another volatile session for markets as traders return back to the office. Should prices fail to meaningfully recover lost ground over the next few weeks, we might then enter a cyclical bear market,” the CoinDCX team told Gadgets 360.

The fluctuations in the crypto market come after last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected a second spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal from WisdomTree.

The present slow market movement also comes ahead of eight major cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase Global CFO Alesia Haas, and FTX Trading CEO Sam Bankman-Fried are slated to appear before the US House Financial Services Committee on December 8. The meeting will be first of its kind where crypto players and US government officials will discuss ways to regulate the booming space.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.