Bitcoin Regains $20,000, Ether Clears Path to $1,700

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, managed to stay in the green for the second consecutive day, managing to climb back above the $20,000 (roughly Rs. 16 lakh) mark after a mid-week plunge saw BTC drop below $19,000 (roughly Rs. 15 lakh). The value of Bitcoin has witnessed a considerable rise of over 4 percent in the last 24 hours with its price now hovering around the $20,100 (roughly Rs. 16 lakh) mark across global exchanges while Indian exchanges like CoinSwitch and CoinDCX values BTC at $20,955 (roughly Rs. 16.70 lakh), 1.46 percent higher than yesterday.

On global exchanges like CoinMarketCap, Coinbase, and Binance, the price of Bitcoin stands at $20,118 (roughly Rs. 16 lakh) while CoinGecko data shows that BTC's value is currently 0.7 percent higher than where it stood last Friday.

As we inch closer to 'Merge', Ether has continued its upward trajectory. Ether is valued at $1,779 (roughly Rs. 1.40 lakh) across Indian exchanges while on global exchanges, the crypto's value is at $1,691 (roughly Rs. 1.30 lakh), where the cryptocurrency's value has moved up by 3.6 percent over the past 24 hours.

Ether's showing over the latter stages of the week so far sees the cryptocurrency's value again move a lot higher than where it was last week. CoinGecko [data] (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum) suggests that the world's second-largest crypto asset has moved up 6.8 percent in value week-on-week.

Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that most major altcoins had a good day over the past 24 hours. The global crypto market capitalisation also witnessed a rise of 3.79 percent through late Thursday and early Friday.

Polkadot, Uniswap, Cosmos, Solana, Monero, Cosmos, Avalanche, Cardano, Polygon, TRON, and BNB — all saw gain over the last 24 hours.

Memecoins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin also followed most altcoins with minor ups to show for. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.06 (roughly Rs. 5) after gaining 2.26 percent in value over the last 24 hours, while Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000013 (roughly Rs. 0.0010010), up 2.27 percent over the past day.

Crypto prices followed a recent trend in tracking stocks, which closed higher on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, S&P 500, which has a big tech component, and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) — all climbed more than a half-percentage point.

The release next week of the latest US Consumer Price Index (CPI) will show if the US Federal Reserve has made progress in its inflation fight. However, most observers of monetary policy expect the bank to raise interest rates a robust 75 basis points for the third consecutive time.

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.