Cryptocurrency prices today rose with Bitcoin hovering around the $20,000 level. The world’s largesr and most popular cryptocurrency rose over 5% and was trading at $19,885. The global cryptocurrency market cap today was below the $1 trillion however, rose about 6% in the last 24 hours to $914 billion, as per CoinGecko.
On the other hand, Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, jumped more than 11% at $1,068. Meanwhile, dogecoin price today was also trading more than 11% higher at $0.05 whereas Shiba Inu rose about 6% to $0.000008.
Other crypto prices’ today performance also improved as Stellar, Uniswap, XRP, Tether, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche, Polygon, Chainlink, Terra Luna Classic, Cardano, Litecoin and Tron prices were trading with cuts in the range of 4-14% over the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin struggled to hold above the closely-watched $20,000 level, extending a period of marked volatility that saw huge weekend swings as investor sentiment remains highly fragile as the Federal Reserve goes full-throttle to fight inflation with interest-rate hikes that drain liquidity from markets.
Bitcoin is down about 57% since the start of the year, Ether has slumped 70%, with many other tokens down even more. Digital assets have been selling off all year along with other risky holdings as global central banks have shifted to hiking interest rates to quell soaring inflation.
Developments like lender Celsius freezing withdrawals and decentralized-finance applications taking unprecedented measures to protect themselves against cascading liquidations have injected further uncertainty into the industry.
Short-term retail holders who had bought over the past year and a half faced an early test as Bitcoin fell to the lowest levels since 2020. Then strategists at Glassnode said this month that the downturn had entered its ‘deepest and darkest’ phase, with even long-term holders coming under duress, reported Bloomberg. Overall, the crypto market has shed more than $1 trillion in value this year.
All sorts of pockets in crypto have been beset by negative developments. A number of firms in the space have announced layoffs and hiring freezes, and many market-watchers are expecting further price declines.
(With inputs from agencies)
