Bitcoin Bounces Back to $36,000 as Ether, Major Altcoins See Red Again

Bitcoin price has seemingly turned a corner in trading today after the cryptocurrency hit its lowest since July earlier this week. The downward slide of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dates back to November when BTC hit a record high and the rally continued into the new year. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation did manage a positive run through Monday, gaining 2.69 percent in value through the day. Bitcoin's value is currently at $39,698 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh), up by 0.71 percent over the past 24 hours, as per Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.

Meanwhile, on global exchanges, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency climbed above $36,000, marking a slight revival over the past couple of days. As per CoinMarketCap, BTC is valued at $36,310 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh), up by 2.94 percent over the past 24 hours.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, however, isn't following Bitcoin's trail. The Ethereum-based cryptocurrency witnessed yet another dip of 1.65 percent through Monday only to see more red on Tuesday morning. At the time of publishing, Ether is valued at $2,618 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the crypto's value dropped well below the $2,500 mark at $2,394 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh), where the coin dropped 1.73 percent over the past 24 hours.

Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker shows that most popular altcoins witnessed a serious rattling too, with even stablecoins failing to show streaks of green on the day. Cardano, Tether, Ripple, Polkadot,Chainlink, Uniswap, and Polygon all dropped in value. Cosmos' ATOM token surprisingly soared by more than 8 percent, making the token one of the only gainers on the day.

Meme coins haven't had a very good start to the week and the market on Monday saw bigger dips for Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.14 (roughly Rs. 10) after dipping by 4.14 percent over the last 24 hours, while Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000022 (roughly Rs. 0.002), down 6.4 percent over the past 24 hours. As per CoinGecko data, both DOGE and SHIB have dropped over 20 percent in value over the past 7 days with Shiba Inu's fall being closer to 30 percent.

"Bitcoin bounced back to $37,000 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh) yesterday. BTC's new support level sits at $30,000 (roughly Rs. 22 lakh). If it drops below this, it can reverse its long-term bull trend taking it back to where it started. Ethereum is running low trading at $2,400 (roughly Rs. 2 lakh). While most of the top altcoins, according to the market cap, are in red. Avalanche, Cosmos, Wrapped Bitcoin are running a bit in green. Cryptocurrencies are not the only assets running in red, but stock markets are also doing a bit low," Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of crypto investment firm Mudrex, told Gadgets 360.

The two-month slump in cryptocurrency prices has been blamed on various causes, with one common theme being pushed by some reprots is that it's because cryptocurrency is allegedly a Ponzi scheme. Although there are some dubious altcoins on the market, that view is not shared by others as the leading coins and tokens in 2022 are finding real-world use through decentralised finance (DeFi) and other areas.

Meanwhile, El Salvador, the central American country that legalised Bitcoin last year, has been multiplying the number of Bitcoins in its treasury. After Bitcoin's recent dip, El Salvador purchased a batch of 410 more tokens for $15 million (roughly Rs. 110 crore). The development comes after Bitcoin prices fell as low as $35,000 (roughly Rs. 25 lakh) from $42,270 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh) in recent days.

Closer home, T-Series, the popular music label is all set to experiment with the new-age sectors of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse. T-Series has teamed up with Hungama TV's Web3 venture called Hefty Entertainment. The Hefty metaverse will be supported by Polygon blockchain, which also backs Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Both T-Series and Hungama TV aim to become early adapters of the changes that will mold how people will consume content in the times to come. As part of the deal, Hungama will be creating NFTs from the vast catalogue of new and existing content parented by T-Series.

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.