Bitcoin, ethereum plunge on sell-off

Popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin on Wednesday plunged on major cryptocurrency platforms, including India, amid uncertainties about the future of digital currencies. Bitcoin — which plunged up to 27 per cent earlier in the day — was trading at $39,429.20, down 10.20 per cent at 11.30 pm IST. Ethereum was trading 19.33 per cent down at $2,793.65 on crypto platforms.

Dogecoin’s price fell by 21.65 per cent to $0.382533 and XRP fell 22.74 per cent to $1.25.

Cryptocurrency expert Hitesh Malviya said, “We have seen a market-wide correction today … not only bitcoin, other major cryptocurrencies like ethereum, binance and polkadot witnessed a 25-50 per cent drop in the last 24 hours. Correction is the part of any bull market cycle. As of now, bitcoin is testing a major support level around $30,000-35,000. Ideally, it’s a good area to buy bitcoin for long-term trades.”

China’s PBOC on Tuesday issued a warning about a rebound in speculation in virtual currencies. China announced that financial and payment institutions are banned from pricing or conducting business in virtual currencies.

“Recent comments by some industry stalwarts such as Elon Musk might have also contributed to some corrections in the pricing. Moreover, the recent ban on crypto-related transactions imposed by the Chinese government seems more of a precautionary measure since it does not stop Chinese people from holding these currencies,” said

Neeraj Khandelwal, chief technology pfficer (CTO) and co-founder of CoinDCX.