Crypto Market Hovers Lowly on Prices as Bitcoin, Ether Fail to See Gains

Majority cryptocurrencies, at this point, are riddled with losses, causing several investors to rethink their ventures into the crypto sector. On Friday, June 17, Bitcoin opened trading at $21,791 (roughly Rs. 17 lakh) after incurring losses of over seven percent as per Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber. Maintaining its streak of lowest values in the least six months, BTC failed to charm investors outside India as well. Binance and CoinMarketCap reported losses of over eight percent in BTC values. On an international level, BTC is trading at $20,350 (roughly Rs. 15 lakh).

Ether saw even bigger losses than Bitcoin on Friday. The world's second most valuable crypto asset dipped by 11 percent to trade at $1,154 (roughly Rs. 90,115) as per Gadgets 360's crypto price tracker.

With the top two cryptocurrencies losing steam in the market, other altcoins are struggling to see any profits whatsoever.

Binance Coin, Solana, Polkadot, and Avalanche are among popular altcoins that opened with losses today.

Binance USD, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu also dropped in values.

Among gainers were Tether, USD Coin, and Monero, that registered miniscule profits.

The crypto sector has been crippling under economic pressure for a while now.

After the crash of Terra and Celsius networks, the crypto assets slipped dramatically in prices over the last few weeks. US' decision to increase interest rates to fight recession-like economic climate also has added to the stress.

The market cap of the sector that stood at over $2 trillion (roughly Rs. 15,610,304 crore) around March this year, currently stands at $892 billion (roughly Rs. 89,265 crore), as per CoinMarketCap.

A bunch of crypto firms have announced staff lay-offs as a cost-cutting measure, required to keep their businesses afloat.

Coinbase, BlockFi, and Crypto.Com have collectively fired around 1,600 employees of the crypto sector in the last few days.

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