cryptocurrency: Top cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin, Solana, Ethereum, Avalanche shed up to 4%

New Delhi: Major crypto tokens were trading lower on Friday following hawkish commentary from Federal Reserve, which is planning aggressive rate hikes. Barring the dollar-pegged USD Coins, all major crypto tokens were trading lower during early hours on Friday. Solana tanked 4 per cent, followed by 3 per cent fall in Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, Dogecoin, Luna and Avalanche.

The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading almost lower at $1.88 trillion mark, with marginal gains in the last 24 hours. However, the total cryptocurrency trading volume zoomed about 18 per cent to $106.72 billion.

What’s cooking in India?
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal has backed FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent call for governments worldwide to evolve a suitable global regulatory regime to track new age cryptocurrencies which can pose serious problems.

The telecom billionaire added that India is amongst the most important nations in a deeply-divided world as it has consistently valued its democratic system.

The Indian crypto industry is facing yet another challenge as many Indian banks and payment service providers have halted their services to crypto exchanges. Users have been unable to make fiat deposits to their crypto exchange wallets.

Expert’s take
“The strict monetary policy has been hitting speculative assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies harder this year,” said Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex. “However, indicators remain bullish for a short period.”

While on the other hand, Decred is up by nearly 14 per cent outperforming the market. There is no clear catalyst behind the DCR’s rally with the broader market being down, he added.

The hawkish commentary from Fed’s boss Jerome Powell is weighing the crypto market. The US central bank is expected to be proactively aggressive to tackle the rising inflationary numbers, said Kunal Jagdale, Founder, BitsAir Exchange.

“The risk of higher borrowing costs and potential economic recession is making safe havens an attractive bet and thus investors are keeping off risky assets. However, overall sentiments are optimistic,” he added.

Global updates
Bitcoin mining hosting firm BitRiver called sanctions imposed on it by the US Office for Foreign Assets C ontrol (OFAC) an attempt to favor American companies, according to a statement provided to CoinDesk.

US Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), has recruited almost two dozen Democratic colleagues to urge federal environmental officials to devote further scrutiny to the consequences of cryptocurrency mining.

Tech View by OKX
Privacy coin XMR has not slowed down since late February. The coin has been in a solid uptrend from around 130 USDT to nearly 300 USDT today. Many see budding sanctions on Russia and other nations as a possible reason for the push, as users seek privacy ahead of a changing macro worldview.

XMR is reaching a previous resistance area — a similar spot where a drop occurred in October. For now, buyers remain firmly in control.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)