Bitcoin and Ether hit new records in value as investments into cryptocurrencies surge.
Bitcoin's newest bull run may still be far from over, unless there's a major fall off
Bitcoin hit yet another all-time high of $68,525 (roughly Rs. 50.7 lakh) on Tuesday before investors decided to take profits home and drive the price down through the day. Bitcoin on Wednesday morning was trading at $71,447 (roughly Rs. 52.9 lakh) on Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber as global exchanges like Coindesk and Binance have BTC trading at around $66,606 (roughly Rs. 49.3 lakh). The most popular crypto asset is down by 2.4 percent over the past 24 hours although its bull run may not be over. Bitcoin had previously achieved an all-time high of $67,000 (roughly Rs. 49.7 lakh) in the latter half of October.
Similar to Bitcoin's surge, Ether also managed a new all-time high of $4,840 (roughly Rs. 3.6 lakh) on Tuesday, although prices did dip through the day. As per Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker, Ether was trading at $5,065 (roughly Rs. 3.8 lakh), down by 1.68 percent over its 24-hour low. Tuesday's high is also the first time the Ethereum-based coin managed to pass the $4,800 (roughly Rs. 3.55 lakh) mark.
The meme coin war that appeared to be heating up over the past couple of weeks now seems to have lost its momentum this week. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu both marked dips in what hasn't been the best of weeks for either dog coin. DOGE is down by 4.53 percent over its 24-hour low, trading at $0.29 (roughly Rs. 21.72), while SHIB saw a fall of 5.08 percent.
The market tracker, at the time of publishing, has its fair share of reds and greens with Cardano, Ripple, and Litecoin rising, while Ripple and Polkadot saw its values fall.
Although investor interest after a somewhat lacklustre summer is driving cryptocurrency as a whole, broader institutional interest is being driven by professional products linked to the likes of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, the rise of decentralised finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are at the heart of Ether's rise.
Bitcoin's rise in popularity is also asking hard questions of nation-states mulling approval of the asset as legal tender. While El Salvador's already making the most of its BTC profits, the government of Zimbabwe now appears to be considering the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal payment option alongside its national currency, the Zimbabwean Dollar.
Charles Wekwete, the head of the e-Government technology in the African country has revealed that discussions on legalising Bitcoin payments are underway with the private sector players.
Elsewhere, New York's new mayor-elect Eric Adams feels that it's about time schools began incorporating crypto as a subject into their curricula. Adams, who's been an avid crypto fan and bullish on its widening scope recently made headlines for stating that he would take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin.
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