Top cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin, Terra, Avalanche gain up to 9%

New Delhi: The cryptocurrency market was back in action with strong gains following a recent correction due to muted appetite for the riskier asset class. Rising inflation and hawkish tone of central banks has kept investors on their toes.

Barring XRP and Solana, eight out of the top 10 digital tokens were trading higher at 9.30 am IST. Avalanche zoomed 9 per cent, whereas Terra and Bitcoin added up to 4 per cent each.

Bitcoin, the numero uno digital token, crossed the $47,000 mark once again, whereas its peer behemoth Ethereum raced past $4,000 levels after more than a week.

The global crypto market cap gained a per cent to $2.21 trillion mark compared to the last day. However, the total crypto market volume gained about 23 per cent to $95.29 billion.

Despite a range-bound session, the traded volumes surged over the past 24 hours. It signals that the cryptocurrency market might be poised for a volatile session over the coming few days, said Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of Mudrex.

What’s cooking in India?
Crypto is still in a legal grey zone but it has become a household phenomenon amid the pandemic as the prospect of multi-bagger returns attracted Indians to the highly volatile digital tokens.

According to Reuters, up to 15 million Indians own crypto assets. Crypto’s rising popularity caught policymakers’ attention earlier this year.

Parliament’s month-long winter session is set to end on Thursday and there are no signs of the bill still. To add to worries, the RBI last week told its board that a complete crypto ban was needed as partial restrictions won’t work.

Expert’s Take
“Crypto markets were generally quiet over the past 24 hours, trading tightly within a 5 per cent range. Leverage risk continues to decline across the board as traders unwind positions ahead of the holidays,” said CoinDCX Research Team.

“Funding rates were near zero for bigger names. As we head towards the end of the year, we expect market activity to remain muted, with interest returning come January as investors begin re-allocating towards the asset class,” it added.

Global Updates
CoinSwitch Kuber, India’s largest crypto company in terms of users, has added new crypto assets in the month of December for investors.

Decentraland (MANA), The Sandbox (SAND), Gala (GALA), Request (REQ), Coti (COTI) are the assets that are included on the platform. The crypto unicorn has initiated various education initiatives to inform and educate investors as part of this asset listing process.

Tech View by Giottus Cryptocurrency Exchange
While blockchain can be applied to several problems and challenges, several successful crypto projects tend to focus on payment solutions. This space tends to be one of the most difficult to solve, with several aspects to consider – such as transaction time, costs, ease of use, etc.

Stellar Lumens intends to compete with the likes of Western Union and MoneyGram, with its blockchain network intending to deliver a faster and cheaper method to make payments globally. It does this by running its own exchange that allows for asset transfers between users. In other words, users can send money to anyone, in the currency of their choices.

Stellar Lumen’s cryptocurrency – XLM – started off the year with a steep rally. However, XLM’s drop during the recent December crash was steep – taking it from $0.36 to $0.22. As a result, fibonacci retracements of this drop are fairly widespread. The first resistance – $0.257 – is where XLM trades right now, and has been consolidating for several days. Any closes on larger time frames should assist in fuel for the next resistance located at $0.277 and $0.294. However, an intermediate trendline resistance around $0.27 will also need to be flipped into support.

If Bitcoin continues to look bearish – given its recent weekly close below key levels, then more downside is certainly on the cards for all altcoins, including XLM. It may well dip to fill the low of its crash wick – located at $0.224. This may provide a swing failure pattern move (i.e a quick wick and a strong bounce). However, if this does not materialize, support from $0.198 – a key level where it has previously bounced in July, should come to the rescue.

Major Levels
Support: $0.244, $0.198

Resistance: $0.257, $0.277, $0.294

(Time is in UTC and the daily time frame is 12:00 AM – 12:00 PM UTC)
(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts’ own and do not represent those of ETMarkets.com. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)