Bitcoin, Ether Record Losses Amid US’ Debt Ceiling Discussions; Most Altcoins Fall

Bitcoin on Friday, May 19, recorded a loss of 1.67 percent to trade at the price point of $26,785 (roughly Rs. 22 lakh) on both national as well as international exchanges. The value of Bitcoin dropped by $542 (roughly Rs. 44,850) in the last 24 hours, in the backdrop of US thinking of re-adjusting its debt ceiling. The US, at this time, is undergoing a financial slowdown that is also pressured by major debts that the country has acquired since 2009. To control the situation, the US is considering altering the limit on borrowing more capital from entities like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund among others. This limit is called the debt ceiling.

Ether slipped by 0.91 percent value-wise to trade at $1,800 (roughly Rs. 1.48 lakh). The second most valued cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, Ether lost $23 (roughly Rs. 1,903) in the last 24 hours.

“Bitcoin experienced a downward trend primarily influenced by ongoing debt ceiling discussions in Washington, DC., and other regulatory developments. While Bitcoin has registered an eight percent decrease month-to-date, it still boasts a remarkable 61 percent increase year-to-date. Similarly, Ethereum has mirrored Bitcoin's performance, declining by over 1 percent in the past 24 hours. Ethereum has faced setbacks in the past five days, resulting in a five percent decrease month-to-date and a significant 62 percent decrease overall,” Edul Patel, CEO of crypto investment firm Mudrex, told Gadgets 360.

Usually, the price movement of BTC and ETH sets the tone for the trajectories of other cryptocurrencies as well.

Binance Coin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Solana, Polygon, Litecoin, Polkadot, and Tron followed BTC and ETH on the loss trail.

Price dips also impacted Shiba Inu, Avalanche, Chainlink, Uniswap, Cosmos, and Cronos.

The crypto market has observed slight selling pressure in the last 24 hours. Global crypto market capitalisation is at $1.12 trillion (roughly Rs. 92,72,681 crore), down 1.34 percent in the last 24 hours.

Small profits were recorded by Tether, USD Coin, Ripple, Binance USD, LEO, Stellar, and Bitcoin Cash.

“In token-specific action, Ripple (XRP) is launching a platform for CBDCs, enabling central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue their unique forms of digital currency. XRP is trading around $0.4 (roughly Rs. 33), up 4.1 percent in the last 24 hours,” Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead, CoinSwitch Ventures, told Gadgets 360. “The crypto fear and greed index is down 3 points, currently in the neutral zone with 48 points. This hints toward a cautious overhang amongst investors.”

Insiders from the Indian crypto space have also pointed out that bears in the Bitcoin market may take advantage of this uncertain climate of the sector.

“The outcome of the expiry will determine Bitcoin's short-term performance, with potential effects on its price. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's mining difficulty level skyrockets to a record high, accompanied by a surge in hash rate to 350 TH/s. This indicates the strengthening security and resilience of the Bitcoin network, bolstered by a greater number of miners contributing their computational power to validate transactions and uphold the decentralized nature of the blockchain,” the research team at CoinDCX told Gadgets 360.

In other news, Bitcoin Frogs, the non-fungible token (NFT) launched on Bitcoin Ordinals, emerged as the most actively traded collection in the last 24 hours as of yesterday, surpassing even popular collections like Bored Apes.

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