cryptocurrency price today: Top cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin, Avalanche, Terra, Ethereum fall up to 6%

New Delhi: Major cryptocurrencies plummeted on Monday, extending the rout seen in these tokens over the weekend. The expectations of an aggressive rise in the interest rates continue to weigh on crypto markets. Sluggish economic growth is also denting the sentiments for the digital cart.

Barring the dollar-pegged stablecoins — USD Coin and Tether — all major crypto tokens and altcoins were trading lower. Terra dropped 6 per cent, whereas Avalanche tumbled 5 per cent. Ethereum and Shiba Inu plunged 4 per cent each.

The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading sharply lower at the $1.53 trillion mark, falling about 3 per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total cryptocurrency trading volume zoomed about 14 per cent to $98.63 billion.

What’s cooking in India
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has flagged ‘anonymity’ as an ‘inherent risk’ in blockchain technology, but also added that the government supports the use of the same.

Sitharaman’s remarks come ahead of the launch of the budgetary announcement of central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is based on the blockchain technology itself and is billed as being similar to the paper currency carried in wallets.

Expert take
In its recent acquisition, Terra purchased 37,863 Bitcoins, almost doubling its Bitcoin holdings. This purchase amounted to almost $1.5 billion making their total holding to almost $3 billion, said WazirX Trade Desk.

“They are almost near their short-term goal of $3 billion and are moving towards their long-term goal of $10 billion in Bitcoin to support the algorithmic stablecoin US Terra, often known as UST,” it added.

Global updates

• Google is reportedly assembling a web3 team to create services for developers running blockchain apps. Web3 is still in its early phases, but the company is bullish on its significant promise.

• The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Blender.io, a North Korea-linked crypto mixing service that obfuscates the origin and destination of bitcoin transactions, and added bitcoin and ether addresses to its blacklist.

• Nine out of 10 central banks around the world are exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDC), according to the results of a survey conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

• High-profile hacks on crypto “bridges” — which let users swap digital tokens across blockchains — are creating opportunities for exchanges and other businesses to offer more secure alternatives.

• Blockchain gaming firm Irreverent Labs raised $40 million in a recently completed funding round, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.