Ahead Of Budget 2022, Bitcoin, Ethereum Rise

The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation rose 4.66 percent over the last 24 hours to $1.75 trillion, while the trading volumes were up 15.08 percent to $63.86 billion.

While decentralised finance (DeFi) accounted for 15.58 percent of the 24-hour cryptocurrency trading volume at $9.95 billion, stablecoins 78.02 percent of at $49.83 billion. Bitcoin’s market dominance dipped 0.32 percent to 41.52 percent and the currency was trading at $38,340.42 in the morning on February 1.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022 during the day and it would be closely watched for any announcements or signals on the government’s stance on cryptocurrencies that have been gaining popularity but continue to operate in a grey area.

In rupee terms, Bitcoin rose 1.85 percent to trade at Rs 30,39,615, while Ethereum rose 4.2 percent to Rs 2,13,849.6.

Cardano rose 0.9 percent to Rs 82.99 and Avalanche 4.43 percent to Rs 5,534.6. Polkadot gained 6.33 percent to Rs 1,525.79 and Litecoin was up 0.87 percent to Rs 8,636.15 in the last 24 hours. Tether dipped 1.6 percent to Rs 79.5

Memecoin SHIB rose 2.29 percent, while Dogecoin rose 1.02 percent to trade at Rs 11.22. Terra (LUNA) increased by 13.68 percent to Rs 4,073.4

JP Morgan analysts have said that Bitcoin will struggle to get institutional adoption because of its volatility, while Ethereum will face more competition from rival blockchains.

In a note for investors, analysts at the New York City-based bank said that they saw “significant challenges” going forward for the two biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced that it raised a $400 million Series C funding round, which now values the rising firm at $32 billion.

It’s a significant uptick in valuation from the last time FTX raised funds in October 2021, when it pulled in $420.69 million in a Series B-1 round at a valuation of $25 billion. Prior to that, FTX announced a $900 million Series B raise in July 2021 that was later revised to $1 billion, with a valuation of $18 billion.

January has been brutal for Bitcoin, with prices declining 20 percent since the start of the month but things have gone much worse for other cryptocurrencies in the top 15 by market capitalisation, specifically the “Ethereum killers.”

In January, Solana has lost 42 percent of its value relative to the US dollar, Terra is down 40 percent, and Avalanche has been buried by a 36 percent drop. Lower down on the table, Algorand is worth 43 percent less since the start of the year. Cardano ticked down 20 percent, while Polkadot lost 27 percent.

As of 8:25 am, these were the prices of various cryptocurrencies in the Indian market (Data from WazirX.com)