Bitcoin Slightly Falls, Ethereum Surges Over 2%

Cryptocurrency (Representative image)

Cryptocurrency prices continue to be a mix of green and red on October 24. The global cryptocurrency market cap is Rs 191.25 lakh crores, a 1.10 percent increase over the last day, while the total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is Rs 5,98,796 crores, which makes a 24.54 percent decrease.

Bitcoin’s price is currently Rs 47,35,999  and its dominance is currently 45.06 percent, a decrease of 0.45 percent over the day.

Meme cryptocurrency Shiba Inu tops the WazirX exchange in terms of volume with Tether and Bitcoin trailing behind on second and third respectively.

SHIB, the self-proclaimed “dogecoin killer”, which was created in August 2020 by someone who uses the name Ryoshi is modeled after Dogecoin. It is currently trading at Rs 0.002790, 28.39 percent higher since yesterday.

Bitcoin’s journey into mainstream finance has reached another major milestone – and another record price. The cryptocurrency was trading at US$66,975 (£48,456) following the launch of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US which has dramatically increased bitcoin’s exposure to investors.

The fund, which opened on October 19, allows investors to speculate on the future value of bitcoin – without actually owning it. It is the first time investors have been able to trade an asset related to bitcoin on the New York Stock Exchange and was preceded by much media attention and hype in financial markets.

Many financial institutions have previously tried to get approval for bitcoin ETFs without success. Until now, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (the US government agency which protects investors) has been reluctant to approve any. This was partly due to the intense volatility of bitcoin, as well as broader concerns about the unregulated industry of cryptocurrencies.

But Gary Gensler, chairman of the SEC, said the commission would be more comfortable with “future-based” ETFs because they trade on a regulated market. This is a significant change of direction for the SEC which has happened since Gensler arrived at the helm in April 2021.

As off 7.40 am on October 24, these are the prices of the largest cryptocurrencies (data from WazirX):

NAME PRICE (INR) 24H %
Bitcoin 47,35,999 -0.50%
Ethereum 3,19,600 2.10%
Tether 77.53 -0.62%
Cardano 167.0997 -1.00%
Binance Coin 37,475.44 -0.08%
XRP 84.5 -0.56%
Polkadot 3,395 -2.01%
Dogecoin 19.3 0.10%