Bitcoin, Ether Rally as Crypto Market Witnesses Rare Mid-Week Bounce Fuelled by Fed Chair Relief

Bitcoin and the larger crypto market witnessed a rare rally through Tuesday (December 11) as US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell vowed to fight inflation in testimony before lawmakers who are expected to focus on the recent surge in inflation. Bitcoin witnessed a 2.94 percent rise in value through Tuesday and is currently at $46,177 (roughly Rs. 34.13 lakh), up by 0.32 percent over the past 24 hours on Indian exchanges like CoinSwitch Kuber. Meanwhile, on global exchanges, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency stands at $42,548 (roughly Rs. 31.44 lakh) up by 0.60 percent over the past 24 hours.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation has had a torrid start to the year so far, shedding close to 15 percent over the past two weeks, but Tuesday saw a strong rally for the crypto asset. The Ethereum-based cryptocurrency witnessed a rise of 7.06 percent through the day and hasn't let the momentum slip into Wednesday either. At the time of publishing, Ether is valued at $3,503 (roughly Rs. 2.59 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the crypto pegged lower at $3,225 (roughly Rs. 2.38 lakh), where the coin saw a rise of 3.48 percent over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin and Ether are leading the pack in the rally, but most of the other well-known altcoins aren't far behind. Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker reveals a positive picture for the entire market. Ripple, Cardano, Polkadot, Uniswap, Polygon and Litecoin all saw an improvement in valuation. Meanwhile, Chainlink, and Tether were the only coins to witness a drop in value across the market chart.

Meme coins saw a strong surge midweek as well. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.17 (roughly Rs. 12.34) up 5.86 percent, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.00003 (roughly Rs. 0.00224), also up 3.13 percent. That said, SHIB's value has dropped by 13.8 percent in the past week, while Dogecoin's has slipped by 8.7 percent.

While the crypto market breathes a sigh of relief, the UK has upped its influence in the country's cryptocurrency sector with the launch of an independent group of lawmakers intent on regulating the maturing digital currencies market. Dubbed the Crypto and Digital Assets Group, the group includes members from Parliament as well as the House of Lords; its mission is to craft new rules for the digital asset industry that support innovation.

Elsewhere, the federal investigation agency (FIA) of Pakistan has sent an official notice to popular crypto exchange Binance that is being named in a major scam. The FIA will be investigating the complaints of Binance users who have alleged that the crypto exchange made them transfer funds into unfamiliar third-party wallets. The scam is estimated to have cost people a collective total of around $100 million (roughly Rs. 739 crore). A notice has also been sent to Binance headquarters located in the British overseas territory of the Cayman Islands for answers.

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.