Russia must ban cryptocurrencies, the country’s central bank said in a report released Thursday. The report says cryptocurrencies are volatile and widely used in illegal activities such as fraud.
The sluggish macroeconomic conditions, rise in oil prices and tapering cues from the Federal Reserve, rising inflation and slump in technology market added to woes of traders.
Barring Terra and dollar-pegged stablecoins, all other seven out of top-10 digital tokens were trading lower during early trade on Thursday. Cardano posted double-digit cuts.
The global crypto market cap tanked more than 5 per cent and slipped to $1.87 trillion mark, thanks to constant selling. Also, the total crypto market volume dropped over 11 per cent to $66.73 billion.
Bitcoin once again slipped below the $40,000 mark and Ethereum slipped below $3,000 level. All top 20 tokens were trading in red at the time of writing this report.
What’s cooking in India?
India’s crypto investors and platforms are awaiting the upcoming Budget for clarity on regulations and taxations.
While the regulations and the bill related to it has taken a back seat for a while, India is likely to levy high tax rates between 30-40 per cent on crypto assets, suggests various reports.
Expert’s Take
As Russia, one of the largest crypto adopters in the world, announced its plans for a blanket ban on crypto, the digital asset market plunged back into the red, CoinDCX Research Team.
Other altcoins also nosedived with yet another economic powerhouse taking a hard stance against crypto, it added. “While this may be a cause for concern, the crypto industry has weathered through multiple bans, restrictions and regulatory scrutiny over the years but have stood the test of time.”
The two significant cryptos fell by nearly 5 per cent and 7 per cent, trading at their lowest in the past ten days. Other top altcoins by market cap are also running in red than the previous day, said Edul Patel CEO and Co-founder, Mudrex.
“The downward trend is likely to put investors in a chaotic situation. The fall of significant cryptos can be attributed to lower demand, inflation, and seasonality. The coming week would be vital for the crypto spectrum.”
Global Updates
Creating an official digital version of the US dollar could give Americans more, and speedier, payment options, but it would also present financial stability risks and privacy concerns, the US Federal Reserve said.
The paper made no policy recommendations and offered no clear signal on where the Fed stands on whether to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital form of cash in your pocket.
Other than this, hackers have continued to exploit a vulnerability in the cross-chain bridge Multichain about three days after the weakness surfaced. They have stolen about $3 million in cryptocurrency, according to online publication
Vice.
Also, Robinhood Markets Inc is rolling out crypto wallets to 1,000 users, allowing them to send and receive cryptocurrencies through their brokerage accounts, the company said.
In another news, Agoric, a startup dedicated to creating JavaScript-based smart contracts, announced on Thursday it had sold over $50 million of its native BLD tokens in under two hours using the CoinList platform.
