Bitcoin, Ether, and Most Altcoins Stand Strong as New Coronavirus Variant News Rattles Crypto Market

Bitcoin and other crypto coins had a rough end to a torrid week as news of a new COVID-19 variant saw values drop across the market. Bitcoin is currently valued at $56,910 (roughly Rs. 42.6 lakh) on the Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, up by 0.26 percent after a heavy 7.92 percent dip on Friday. Global exchanges like CoinMarketCap surprisingly value the world's most popular cryptocurrency at $57,276 (roughly Rs. 42.9 lakh), suggesting that Bitcoin has improved by 5.5 percent in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin has suffered a highly volatile November with CoinGecko data suggesting that its valuation has dipped 7.3 percent over the past month.

Ether had a similar dip to Bitcoin's on Friday, plunging 9.34 percent. That said, the second-most popular cryptocurrency has recovered 3.01 percent over the past 24 hours alone to be valued at $4,342 (roughly Rs. 3.25 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the second-largest crypto by market cap pegged marginally lower at $4,314.9 (roughly Rs. 3.23 lakh), where the recovery is significantly better at 6.85 percent over the past 24 hours. Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that the Ethereum blockchain's native cryptocurrency has seen a 7.3 percent dip in value roughly over the past month during which Ether also managed an all-time high of $4,870 (roughly Rs. 3.61 lakh).

Overall, the market tracker does look positive at the time of publishing, with most of the popular altcoins in green. Cardano, Chainlink, Ripple, Polkadot, and Litecoin have all gained in value over the past 24 hours, while Tether is down by 3.66 percent.

Meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have had rough few weeks. Dogecoin is currently trading at $0.21 (roughly Rs. 15.54) down by 0.91 percent in the past 24 hours, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000039 (roughly Rs. 0.002946), up by 3.97 percent over the past 24 hours. In terms of market cap standings, DOGE is still in the top 10 list, while SHIB has dropped to the 12th spot.

Bitcoin tumbled on Friday, dragging smaller tokens down, after the discovery of a new, potentially vaccine-resistant coronavirus variant saw investors dump riskier assets for the perceived safety of bonds, the yen, and the dollar.

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