Bitcoin, Ethereum jump 9% each

The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation rose to $1.87 trillion over the last 24 hours from $1.70 trillion, while the trading volumes climbed to $90.36 billion from $68.72 billion on February 4.

The decentralised finance (DeFi) accounted for 13.44 percent of the total cryptocurrency trading volume at $12.21 billion in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, stable coins accounted for 81.35 percent of the crypto market 24-hour volume at $73.92 billion.

Bitcoin’s market dominance rose marginally to 41.65 percent and the virtual token was trading at $41,388.68 on February 5. The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 23.2% from the year’s low of $32,950.72 on January 24.

In terms of INR, Bitcoin prices climbed over 9 percent to Rs 32,33,214, while Ethereum advanced 9.5 percent to Rs 2,34,199.9.

Cardano rose nearly 6 percent to Rs 88.73 and Avalanche jumped over 11 percent to Rs 6,096.60. Polkadot rose over 7 percent to Rs 1,617.09 and Litecoin was up 6.7 percent at Rs 9,320 in the last 24 hours.

Cryptocurrency will never be a legal tender, Indian Finance Secretary T V Somanathan had said on Thursday clearing the air on the legality of private digital currencies in the market. The 2022-23 Budget has given a clarity on taxation of virtual digital assets and proposed to impose a 30 percent tax on gains made on such trades, besides subjecting crypto transactions, beyond a threshold, to 1 percent TDS.

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