Bitcoin Prices Fall While Solana Surges as Crypto Market Continues to Reel From Investor Uncertainty

Bitcoin and the wider crypto market has continued its run in red over the past few days as the ongoing threat of Russia invading Ukraine, as well as, the imminent release of a White House executive order on cryptos both appear to build a negative sentiment among investors. The world's most valuable cryptocurrency has had a forgettable weekend which appears to have set the wrong pace for the week through early Monday with a 1.89 percent dip in price over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin's value currently stands at $41,622 (roughly Rs. 31 lakh) on Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.

Meanwhile, on global exchanges, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency stood at $38,984 (roughly Rs. 33 lakh) down by 1.97 percent over the past 24 hours. As per CoinGecko data, Bitcoin's strong movement through the first couple of weeks of February has momentum as the crypto asset has dipped 7.6 percent in value over the past week alone.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, has seen a considerable dip over the past week too, but the last 24 hours has seen the crypto asset rise in value. At the time of publishing, Ether is valued at $2,906 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the crypto's value hover around the $2,700 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh) mark at $2,718 (roughly Rs. 2.5 lakh), where the coin went up by 0.53 percent over the past 24 hours. Compared to the price of Ether a week ago, CoinGecko data reveals that the cryptocurrency's value has dipped by 5.5 percent.

While the ongoing market correction has decimated many cryptocurrencies in its wake, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggests that the mass purge is actually good for the long-term health of the wider crypto market. Buterin says true believers and devoted engineers who are building things would surprisingly be open to another bear market.

Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that although major crypto assets suffered a bit of fall in value mid-week, most popular altcoins did manage minimal gains too. While Avalanche, Polygon, Polkadot, and Uniswap all dipped in value, Solana, Cosmos, and Terra were among the big hitters, adding upwards of 3 percent, despite the broad bearish sentiment affecting the market.

Meme coins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin — the two most sought-after meme coins both went up in value in the past 24 hours. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.14 (roughly Rs. 11) after rising by 1.04 percent over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000029 (roughly Rs. 0.0021), up by close to 4 percent over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger recently labelled Bitcoin a “climate crisis” and talked about how upcoming technologies should focus on consuming lesser power. Intel is currently working on a crypto mining chip, which Gelsinger said will be “energy efficient”.

This chip is claimed to curb the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining by reducing its energy demands. The US tech major's 60-year-old chief was speaking to Bloomberg where he revealed about this new chip in the making.

Elsewhere, leading music company Universal Music Group (UMG) decided to take the NFT plunge after penning a partnership with Curio, the premier non-fungible token (NFT) platform for entertainment brands and music artists. Under the new deal, Curio will become the global outlet for future officially licensed NFT projects from UMG's record labels, operating companies, and recording artists worldwide. 

The collaboration will allow UMG greater scalability and flexibility in producing authentic fan-oriented collectibles that are carefully curated for each project.

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.