Bitcoin Continues to Slip to Values Below $57,000 as Market Focus Shifts to Altcoins

Bitcoin showed signs of recovery over the past weekend but has dropped in value yet again. Bitcoin is currently trading at $62,320 (roughly Rs. 46.4 lakh) on Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber while global exchanges like CoinMarketCap value the most popular cryptocurrency at $56,884 (roughly Rs. 42.3 lakh). Bitcoin dipped by over 1.27 percent the past 24 hours after trade closed on Monday at 3.67 percent. Over the past week, Bitcoin has dropped by over 9 percent since US President Joe Biden signed an infrastructure bill that requires digital asset brokers to record and report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service starting 2023.

The struggle hasn't been for Bitcoin alone. Ether dropped 0.67 percent over the past 24 hours to be valued at $4,572 (roughly Rs. 3.4 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the second-largest crypto by market cap pegged at $4,171 (roughly Rs. 3.1 lakh). Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker shows that the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency has roughly seen a 13 percent plunge in value since its November 10 all-time high of $4,870 (roughly Rs. 3.61 lakh).

"The cryptocurrency market remained consolidated over the past 24 hours. With Bitcoin dropping towards the $57,000 [roughly Rs. 42.4 lakh] mark, the bears are getting more active. BTC dominance fell below 42 percent, which suggests that, currently, the altcoins are more bullish than BTC. Over the coming 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market is likely to remain range-bound," expects Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of AI-driven crypto investment platform, Mudrex.

The market tracker certainly suggests that altcoins are the focus for this week. Cardano, Uniswap, and Ripple have all gained in value over the past 24 hours, while Polkadot and Tether see red, although the drop in value hasn't been significant for either coin.

Meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu haven't fared well over the past couple of weeks and that streak continues for DOGE. Dogecoin is currently trading at $0.24 (roughly Rs. 18.21) down by 1.2 percent in the past 24 hours, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000044 (roughly Rs. 0.003285), up by 1.46 percent.

The market appears to have reacted negatively to El Salvador's plans to build a Bitcoin city. President Nayib Bukele said the city will be circular to mimic the shape of a large coin and will be built at the base of Conchagua volcano in order to harness its geothermal energy to power bitcoin mining as well as supply energy to the city.

The construction and infrastructure of the city will be financed partly by an issue of $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,449 crore) in sovereign bonds backed by the cryptocurrency, Bukele said. The city will have no property, income or capital gains taxes, with costs covered by a sales tax and money raised by the bond issues.

Elsewhere, blockchain gaming and metaverse-related tokens continue to rally after Facebook changed its name to Meta to show its resolution to build a metaverse. As per CoinMarketCap data, all the popular metaverse tokens in The Sandbox, Gala, and Decentraland have gone up massively over the past week.

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.