Crypto Market Watch: Bitcoin, Ethereum Prices Rise Amid Drop in Value of Stablecoins and Memecoins

Bitcoin price on Wednesday was $27,145 (roughly Rs. 22 lakh), as the most expensive cryptocurrency in the world recorded a small profit of 0.24 percent. The currency's resistance level at this point is currently higher at $28,000 (roughly Rs. 23 lakh) on both national as well as international exchanges. Over the past 24 hours, the value of Bitcoin rose by $70 (roughly Rs. 5,800). For now, BTC is far from its previous all-time high of $68,000 (roughly Rs. 56 lakh) recorded in November 2021.

Despite Bitcoin's obstructed growth, the digital asset has emerged as a major store of value in recent days, highlighted Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead, CoinSwitch Ventures, in conversation with Gadgets 360. “

As per recent data by Glassnode, Bitcoin HODLing seems to be on the rise, as proportion of BTC HODLed for at least a year has reached a record level of 68 percent. HODL, instead of SELL, slightly hints towards a strong investor sentiment baseline which can brew to become bullish. The crypto fear and greed index remains at the same position as yesterday, with 50 points,” he added. The term HODL is native to the crypto sector and stands for an industry slang — ‘Hold On for Dear Life'.

Ether recorded very small gains on Wednesday. The digital asset grew by 0.30 percent to trade at $1,846 (roughly Rs. 1.5 lakh). ETH grew by only $6 (roughly Rs. 500) over the last 24 hours.

It is worth noting that ETH has retained a stagnant pricing below $1,920 (roughly Rs. 1.5 lakh) for the last 16 days, raising concerns. The digital asset tried to break out of its price range on May 6, but the attempt was short-lived and lasted less than 24 hours. “With staking protocols achieving new heights, the price of Ethereum is set to increase,” predicted Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX.

With both, BTC and ETH opening with gains — many other cryptocurrencies also saw their values rise. These include Binance Coin, Cardano, Polygon, Solana, Polkadot, and Leo — all of which recorded small but significant profits on Wednesday.

The overall crypto market slipped by 1.55 percent in the last 24 hours to $1.13 trillion (roughly Rs. 93,28,777 crore) on Wednesday, as per CoinMarketCap.

“Concerns over regulatory challenges in the crypto market and macroeconomic uncertainties, such as the US debt ceiling stalemate, might have impacted market liquidity,” Edul Patel, the CEO of Mudrex crypto investment firm told Gadgets 360. Given the market volatility, several popular cryptocurrencies recorded drops in value on Wednesday, including stablecoins as well as memecoins.

Tether, USD Coin, Ripple, Binance USD, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu — saw its value fall on the price chart.

Prices of Litecoin, Avalanche, Chainlink, Cosmos, and Uniswap also fell on Wednesday.

The coming days could see the crypto sector stabilise, likely due to factors like the International Organisation of Securities Commissions releasing its own rules to oversee the Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) sector.

In India, more crypto exchanges are trying to ensure users' compliance with tax rules. Giottus, for instance, has become the latest crypto exchange to partner with Singapore-based Taxnodes to help its users compute their crypto taxes. Previously, ZebPay and WazirX have also signed similar deals with Taxnodes.

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.