Crypto Price Today: Bitcoin Hovers Over $70,000 on ‘BTC Pizza Day’ Anniversary, Altcoins Trade Sideways

Bitcoin on Wednesday, May 22, logged a minor loss of 2.54 percent. The value of BTC on national and international exchanges at the time of writing, stood at $72,182 (roughly Rs 60 lakh) and $70,036 (roughly Rs. 58.3 lakh), respectively. The asset, despite seeing small losses, celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day anniversary, the day that gave it the status of a legitimate payment option. Back in 2010, a total of 10,000 Bitcoin tokens were spent to get a $40 (roughly Rs. 3,330) pizza from Papa John's – making it the first real world commodity to have ever been purchased using Bitcoin. The buyer of this pizza was Laszlo Hanyecz, a Florida, US-based software programmer.

"Bitcoin Pizza Day is a significant date in the crypto community, symbolising the beginning of a new era in digital finance. We celebrate the very first transaction which has now become a symbol of Bitcoin's journey from a digital experiment to a mainstream financial phenomenon,” Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex told Gadgets360. The crypto investment firm is using this day to spread awareness around BTC and distribute pizzas to over 2,000 children in Bengaluru.

Ethereum clocked an impressive surge of 11.35 percent on May 20, marking its most substantial one-day percentage gain since Thursday, November 9, 2023. In the last 24 hours however, the asset has gone through a price correction that took its value to $3,793 (roughly Rs. 3.15 lakh) after touching a high of $4,093 (roughly Rs. 3.40 lakh).

“The recent price rally has reignited interest among investors and enthusiasts within the broader crypto market. Over the past week, ETH has become a central focus of activity, with on-chain data indicating increased engagement from large-scale investors. This resurgence in Ethereum's price has triggered significant whale activity, highlighting a pivotal development in the crypto landscape,” the ZebPay Trade Desk told Gadgets360, commenting on ETH's market movement.

Tether, Solana, Ripple, Cardano, Shiba Inu, and Tron were struck by losses on Wednesday.

Bitcoin Cash, Chainlink, Near Protocol, and Polygon also recorded losses.

The overall crypto market cap dropped by 0.49 percent in the last 24 hours, and its valuation currently stands at $2.6 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,16,43,830 crore), showed CoinMarketCap.

Meanwhile, Binance Coin, Dogecoin, Avalanche, and Polkadot emerged among a handful of cryptocurrencies that held on to the profits on Wednesday.

“With ETH and related coins rising, the total value locked in DeFi protocols also increased to 100 billion dollars and achieved this feat for the first time in two years with the leading protocols being Lido and Coinbase's wrapped staked ETH. If the ETH ETF is approved, a new all-time high in TVL will not be a far-off dream,” the CoinSwitch Markets Desk told Gadgets360.