BTC, ETH and Majority Altcoins Hit With Losses, Market Maintains Constant Fluctuations

Bitcoin recorded a value dip of 3.37 percent on both, national as well as international exchanges on Friday, February 17. At the time of writing, the price of BTC stood at $23,844 (roughly Rs. 19.7 lakh). The value of BTC tumbled down by $109 (roughly Rs. 9,020) in the last 24 hours. Experts have predicted that this is just a minor hiccup before BTC prices soon rise again. All cryptocurrencies, that reeled-in profits one day ago, reflected small losses next to their names on the price charts.

Ether’s value slipped by 1.73 percent on Friday. As per Gadgets 360’s crypto price tracker, ETH is currently priced $1,657 (roughly Rs. 1.37 lakh).

Among loss-making cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot joined Litecoin, Tron, and Avalanche.

Cosmos, Chainlink, Leo, Monero, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar also settled with losses.

“This decline comes after the release of the unexpected increase in the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) data, suggesting that the U.S. central bank could not succeed in controlling the price increases. The release of PPI data has made investors more cautious about inflation and monetary policies, heightening their concerns,” Edul Patel, the CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex told Gadgets 360.

The total crypto market cap slipped down by 2.72 percent in the last 24 hours. As per CoinMarketCap, the market cap stands at $1.09 trillion (roughly Rs. 8,98,46,324 crore).

Only a small number of altcoins registered profits today, which include Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD, Polygon, Wrapped Bitcoin, and Elrond.

“Crypto markets surprise with a huge price surge, even as strict US regulatory actions continue to play out. In what can be described as a ‘surprise rally’ even amidst increasing regulatory gloom in the US, crypto markets witnessed a sharp surge in prices in the last two days. The sudden up move was triggered after US consumer data suggested that sentiment remained strong and there is an increased probability of a soft landing; which resulted in a rally across ‘risk-on’ assets,” Parth Chaturvedi, Crypto Ecosystem Lead, CoinSwitch told Gadgets 360.

“However, the rally has sustained spectacularly in crypto prices, sending overall crypto M.Cap close to $1.2 trillion (roughly Rs. 99,32,340 crore), with BTC rising by 9 percent and ETH by 7 percent over the course of last week. Traders are describing this as a ‘short squeeze’ playing out, as the markets were in ‘oversold’ territory because of the regulatory moves by the SEC. Chair Gary Gensler slapped a $30 million (roughly Rs. 248 crore) fine on Kraken and asked them to halt their staking-as-a-service offering, deeming it a security. Further, the SEC Chair announced new custodial rules and directions for crypto assets, which would add further regulatory hurdles for crypto companies operating in the US,” Chaturvedi added.

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