Bitcoin, Ether Values Rise a Day Before US Federal Reserve Plans to Announce a Rate Hike

Bitcoin bulls tried to make a push and move beyond the $40,000 (roughly Rs. 30.5 lakh) mark and they were successful but not for long as the value of the world's most valuable cryptocurrency fell back sharply to drop to around the $39,000 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh) mark. After reaching a 24-hour high of $41,551 (roughly Rs. 32 lakh), the value of Bitcoin is currently in the green by 0.56 percent. Bitcoin's value currently stands at $40,518 (roughly Rs. 31 lakh) on Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.

On global exchanges, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency is currently hovering around the $39,000 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh) mark at $39,178 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh), up by 1.07 percent over the past 24 hours. As per CoinGecko data, Bitcoin has moved very little over the past week, up by 1 percent week-on-week.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, has also had a similar showing over the past day, shooting up to $2,742 on global exchanges on Wednesday morning but wiping the gains off soon after. At the time of publishing, Ether is valued at $2,712 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the crypto's value at $2,620 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh), where the coin has seen a fairly positive 24-hour run to gain 2.93 percent over the past 24 hours. CoinGecko data reveals that the cryptocurrency's value has moved up by close to 2 percent over the past week, although the original altcoin has dropped by roughly 9 percent in value over the past month.

Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker paints a fairly positive picture elsewhere — the global crypto market cap increased by 1.13 percent over the past 24 hours. Terra appears to be among the few cryptocurrencies to be marked in red, a surprise for some since the crypto asset has had a fairly strong run over the past couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Cardano, Avalanche, Polygon, Polkadot, Chainlink, Cosmos, Uniswap, and Binance Coin have all moved up in value.

Meme coins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin haven't performed up to scratch despite the wider crypto market performing fairly well over the past 24 hours. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.12 (roughly Rs. 9) after dipping by 0.41 percent over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000023 (roughly Rs. 0.0017), up by 0.06 percent over the past day.

The global crypto market has seen a rally over the last 24 hours as new gains have strengthened the market. The repercussions of Elon Musk's statement about not selling Bitcoin have continued. The result is an increased rally of investments towards Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The dominant trend of selling crypto has changed to purchase, fostering new gains.

The current global macroeconomic situation looks to be quite fragile with the US inflation numbers touching a four-decade high. On the other hand, the geopolitical uncertainty with the Russia-Ukraine war has only compounded the situation.

Meanwhile, at home, the government has said it has no plans to introduce a cryptocurrency and that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working towards a phased implementation strategy for the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed, "RBI does not issue a cryptocurrency. Traditional paper currency is a legal tender and is issued by RBI in terms of provisions of the RBI Act, 1994. A digital version of traditional paper currency is called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC),"

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.