India’s proposed bill on cryptocurrencies led to a bloodbath in the virtual coin market late on Tuesday as prices of Bitcoin, Ether and other altcoins tanked.
The sharp fall in prices came soon after the government announced that it would table the cryptocurrency bill in Parliament during the upcoming winter session. The bill seeks to prohibit all private players in the cryptocurrency space, leading to major virtual coins tanking nearly 15 per cent.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, plunged nearly 15 per cent while Ether fell almost 12 per cent. All other smaller altcoins registered similar losses.
Sea of red in #cryptocurrencies as prices crash post news that India proposes a law to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies.#CryptocurrencyNews #cryptotrading pic.twitter.com/55XUPyZ6Ue
— Siddharth Zarabi (@szarabi) November 23, 2021
While the cryptocurrency market has stabilised after the crash, volatility is likely to increase as a large number of investors in India may look to exit the market. There are chances that many investors in India would sell their stakes following the government’s proposed law.
At 10:15 am, Bitcoin was trading at $56,592.62 or 0.68 per cent lower than its price 24 hours ago. Its market capitalisation remained over $1 trillion and the 24-hour trading volume was $1.53 billion.
Ether, the native coin on the Ethereum platform, gained 1.99 per cent after falling sharply on Tuesday. It was trading at $4,263 at 10:15 am. Ether’s market capitalisation stood at $500 billion and the volume of trade over the past 24 hours was $1.19 billion.
Read | Cryptocurrencies crash as govt seeks to ban private players with new Bill | Top points
Most other altcoins or smaller cryptocurrencies were trading in the red as the virtual coin market has been eclipsed by a wave of volatility, especially after the Indian government’s decision to ban private players.
Commenting on the panic selling witnessed on Indian crypto exchanges, Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex, a global algorithm-based crypto investment platform, said, “The global cryptocurrency markets remained fairly range-bound over the past 24 hours. However, the speculation around the banning of private cryptocurrencies in India caused a massive panic selling across Indian crypto exchanges.”
“Investors should note that the news about banning is mere speculation, and the contents of the bill are not yet clear,” he added.
Hitesh Malviya, founder, itsblockchain.com, said, “The different interpretations of the definition of private cryptocurrencies by the media, and influencers have orchestrated this environment of fear among retail crypto investors.”
“Cryptocurrencies are trading at a 20-30 per cent discount right now due to the chaos created by the government. The ruling government should have acted more responsibly to define the definition of private cryptocurrency since they mentioned the term for the first time back in February,” he added.
“In my understanding, bitcoin, ethereum, and other popular cryptocurrencies are not controlled or managed by any private entities, transactions are on the public ledger, and they are recognized as public cryptocurrencies in every major economy.”
Here are the latest prices and trends of popular cryptocurrencies:
|
Cryptocurrency |
Price (US Dollar) |
24-hour change |
Market cap |
Volume (24 Hours) |
|
Bitcoin |
56,610 |
-0.29% |
$1.07 trillion |
$1.53 billion |
|
Ether |
4,265.89 |
2.52% |
$501.11 billion |
$1.19 billion |
|
Dogecoin |
0.223487 |
0.29% |
$29.52 billion |
$1.77 billion |
|
Litecoin |
212.31 |
0.98% |
$14.66 billion |
$80.70 million |
|
XRP |
1.04 |
-0.46% |
$104.45 billion |
$3.40 billion |
|
Cardano |
1.69 |
-6.94% |
$55.41 billion |
$202.59 million |
DISCLAIMER: The cryptocurrency prices have been updated as of 10:40 pm and will change as the day progresses. The list is intended to give a rough idea regarding popular cryptocurrency trends and will be updated daily.