Bitcoin, Ether Drop in Value Yet Again as Investors Brace for Fed Interest Rate Hike

Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have corrected yet again on Wednesday as investors decide to turn risk-averse preparing for the biggest rise in US interest rates in three decades. In terms of value, the world's most popular cryptocurrency dropped by a whopping 5.01 percent through Wednesday, dropping below $43,000 (roughly Rs. 32 lakh) across global exchanges for the first time in almost two weeks. At the time of writing, the value of Bitcoin has fallen by 4.24 percent in the past 24 hours and stands at $45,934 (roughly Rs. 34.5 lakh) on Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.

On global exchanges, the price of Bitcoin stands closer to the $44,000 (roughly Rs. 33 lakh) mark at $43,779 (roughly Rs. 33 lakh) losing 3.69 percent in value over the past 24 hours. As per CoinGecko data, the correction over the past couple of days has seen BTC slip by 7.8 percent in value week-to-day.

Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency has had a positive showing through March but the first week through April hasn't quite been the same. At the time of publishing, Ether is valued at $3,393 (roughly Rs. 2.5 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the crypto's value at $3,230 (roughly Rs. 2.5 lakh), where the coin has seen a dip of 3.9 percent over the past 24 hours.

CoinGecko data reveals that the cryptocurrency's value has dropped by more than 5.3 percent over the past week despite positive investor interest.

As per Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker, the last day hasn't been a positive one for most altcoin either. The global crypto market cap witnessed a considerable dip of 4.41 percent over the past 24 hours. Terra, Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot have all lost upwards of 7 percent in value, while Binance Coin, Polygon, and Cosmos all marked losses.

Meme coins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin have also had a dogged past 24 hours. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.15 (roughly Rs. 12) after losing 10.27 percent over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000026 (roughly Rs. 0.002), down by 5.53 percent over the past day.

While Bitcoin and the wider market hasn't performed as expected over the past week, MicroStrategy, the US-based business intelligence firm has made a fresh purchase of 4,167 Bitcoins worth $190.5 million (roughly Rs. 1,435 crore), this time after acquiring a $205 million (roughly Rs. 1,545 crore) Bitcoin-backed loan from Silvergate bank. While securing the loan at the end of March through Silvergate Bank's SEN Leverage Program, MicroStrategy had made it known that a major portion of the loan would be directed towards the purchase of more Bitcoin, while the rest of it would be levelled towards improving company operations.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs said it is planning to offer over-the-counter (OTC) options trading for Ethereum to its clients. The investment bank cited growing client interest in the token ahead of its widely anticipated shift to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model.

The move comes just a few weeks after the bank executed an OTC options trade for Bitcoin, a first for a major Wall Street bank. The transaction was through digital fund manager Galaxy Digital, which is the biggest provider of liquidity for Goldman Sachs' crypto products.

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