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Tag: Bitcoin

  • End of crypto craze?

    End of crypto craze?

    More than $200 billion were wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market this week, a report by Nishant Arora

    As foreign portfolio investors continue to pull out money from the Indian equity market, the sell-off in the crypto market and the digital asset space has also accelerated in the wake of global economic meltdown.

    More than $200 billion were wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market this week and the globally crypto market capitalisation fell below $1 trillion for the first time since February 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

    The already sinking cryptocurrency market in India is also witnessing a huge sell-off as the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies nosedive amid volatile market conditions triggered by factors like high inflation, rising interest rates, the Russia-Ukraine war, and China lockdowns.

    According to experts, crypto investors and traders in India are currently exercising caution and a distinct dip in crypto buying has been noticed.

    Nischal Shetty, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, said: “Indian investors are cautious and are taking the ‘wait and watch’ approach.”

    Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has plunged about 70 per cent since its record high of $69,000 in November last year.

    It was hovering around Rs 20,000-Rs 21,000 per coin this week.

    According to analysts, Bitcoin may hit a grim $14,000 this year at this rate.

    Smaller cryptocurrencies, which tend to move in tandem with Bitcoin, also fell.

    Ethererum, the second-largest digital token, fell as much as 12 per cent to $1,045, a new 15-month low.

    The current decline means that Ethererum has shed 77 per cent of its value since November 2021.

    According to Cointelegraph, Ethereum sell-off resumed this week, with its price risking another 25 per cent decline in June.

    However, in such a gloomy scenario, India’s own Gari digital token by short-video making app Chingari has risen about 40 per cent.

    Chingari, the fastest-growing Blockchain social app, this week announced the ‘GARI Mining’ programme to empower 4 crore monthly average users (MAU), becoming the first social app in the world to offer crypto to its creators and users on its platform.

    “This programme will ensure a level playing field for big and humble creators. Now, creators and users on the app can earn GARI tokens which can be traded on exchanges for money and creators will not be at the mercy of brand collaborations as their only source of income,” said Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder and CEO, Chingari and GARI token.

    Meanwhile, the fate of cryptocurrencies in India is still hanging in balance, and the much-awaited crypto bill is yet to see the light of the day.

    In April, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated her doubts about the size of the cryptocurrency market worldwide and stressed the need for a regulatory mechanism acceptable to all countries to prevent its use to launder money and fund terrorism, which, she said, were big concerns for India.

    India distinguishes between cryptocurrency and crypto assets as a result, and the minister had in February announced a 30 per cent tax on income from these transactions, which includes a 1 per cent deduction at source.

    Indian Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman

    The country is poised to have its own digital currency by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) next year that will be based on Blockchain technology.

    According to Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-founder and CEO, Unocoin, “the cryptocurrencies industry is fast evolving and hence it would need regulations to be constantly updated”.

    “It is unlikely to be successful if we just try to bring guidelines for cryptos,” he said.

    Not only cryptocurrencies, investors of DeFi (decentralised finance) platforms also need to exercise “caution and scrutiny” amid growing concerns about the liquidity of this certain type of cryptocurrency service, experts have warned.

    The warning came as Celsius Network, a DeFi platform and one of the largest crypto lenders, announced that it was “pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts” for its 1.7 million clients.

    “The wider crypto ecosystem has been rocked again — not by ‘real’ cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but by DeFi,” said Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisories.

    “There are legitimate and serious concerns about networks’ high yields, links to failed dollar-pegged stablecoin Terra, and reserves,” said Green, urging people to exercise caution and scrutiny on crypto lending firms which offer clients lucrative double-digit yields on assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

    Decentralised finance or DeFi offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a Blockchain.

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  • Bitcoin value dropped below $34,000

    Bitcoin value dropped below $34,000


    Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency in the world, has also fallen in value, down by more than 10 per cent in the last week…reports Asian Lite News

    The value of Bitcoin continued to fall over the weekend as it dropped below $34,000, according to the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, BBC reported.

    The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value has now fallen by 50 per cent since its peak in November last year.

    The slide in the value of digital assets comes as stock markets around the world also dropped in recent days.

    On Monday, some Asian markets headed lower again with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index down by around 2 per cent.

    Bitcoin accounts for about a third of the cryptocurrency market with a total value of $650bn, BBC reported.

    Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency in the world, has also fallen in value, down by more than 10 per cent in the last week.

    Although much of 2022 had been relatively quiet for the cryptocurrency market, volatile trading in digital assets has not been that unusual in previous years.

    Trading was dominated for years by individual investors, but more recently the market has seen an influx of professional investors, such as hedge funds and money managers.

    With more traditional investors trading digital assets, cryptocurrencies have increasingly followed the movements of global stock markets.

    Many of the institutional investors that buy cryptocurrencies treat them as risk assets, similar to technology stocks.

    In times of market uncertainty traditional investors will often sell what they see as riskier assets and move their money into safer investments.

    Last week, central banks around the world, including the US, the UK and Australia, raised interest rates as they attempted to tackle rising prices.

    The US Federal Reserve raised its key lending rate by half a percentage point, marking its biggest rate hike in more than 20 years.

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  • Bitcoin investors likely to lose up to $545 mn in 20

    Bitcoin investors likely to lose up to $545 mn in 20


    People also unintentionally (or occasionally intentionally) send crypto to a burn address, or to an address on a different network, and lose it…reports Asian Lite News

    Bitcoin investors are likely to lose up to $545 million this year, owing to various reasons like forgetting passwords to their wallets or making a mistake in recording their “seed phrases”, according to a new report.

    A seed phrase is a series of words generated by your cryptocurrency wallet that give you access to the crypto associated with that wallet.

    Analysts have estimated that at least 20 per cent of all Bitcoin is lost and that the majority of those funds are irretrievably lost.

    According to new research from CryptoAssetRecovery.com, between $272 million to $545 million of Bitcoin will be lost this year.

    “Crypto gets lost for a host of reasons: People forget the passwords to their wallets; people make a mistake in recording their seed phrases and some die without giving adequate instructions for how to access their funds,” according to the report.

    “However, this does not include Bitcoin lost to scams or theft.

    “While such funds are lost to the original wallet holder, they are not lost to the total money supply of Bitcoin. Those funds will likely continue to circulate,” the report noted.

    People also unintentionally (or occasionally intentionally) send crypto to a burn address, or to an address on a different network, and lose it.

    A new Bitcoin block reward is issued every 10 minutes, and in 2022, the block reward is 6.25 Bitcoin. The block reward will halve again in 2024, to 3.125 BTC/ block reward.

    “Since there are 525,600 minutes in a year, and a block reward is issued every 10 minutes, 52,560 block rewards or 328,500 BTC will be issued in 2022,” the report noted.

    “It’s clear that the vast majority of the approximately 3.8 million lost Bitcoin were lost early in the blockchain’s history, before it had any economic value.

    Given that between 2-4 per cent of the 328,500 Bitcoin mined in 2022 is likely to get lost, somewhere between 6,570-13,140 Bitcoin are likely to get lost.

    “When Bitcoin’s price is approximately $41,500, this means that between $272 million and $545 million in Bitcoin alone is likely to be removed from the Bitcoin money supply in 2022,” the report claimed.

    Bitcoin’s price on Wednesday fell below $40,000 as other major cryptocurrencies were trading in the red, according to Coindesk data.

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  • Modi’s Twitter handle compromised, Bitcoin link shared

    Modi’s Twitter handle compromised, Bitcoin link shared

    After Prime Minister Modi’s account was compromised, #Hacked began trending in India…reports Asian Lite News.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter handle was restored after getting “very briefly compromised,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet on Sunday, after it shared a link promising a bitcoin giveaway.

    “The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured. In the brief period that the account was compromised, any tweet shared must be ignored,” PMO India said in a tweet.

    The account of Modi, who has more than 73.4 million followers, has now been restored.

    Before the account was restored, a tweet was shared with a URL on PM Modi’s timeline which read, “India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country.”

    Minutes later, another tweet was posted, saying, “Yes this account is hacked by John Wick (hckindia@tutanota.com), We have not hacked Paytm Mall.”

    “We have 24X7 open lines of communication with the PM’s Office and our teams took necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as we became aware of this activity. Our investigation has revealed that there are no signs of any other impacted accounts at this time,” Twitter spokesperson told IANS.

    After Prime Minister Modi’s account was compromised, #Hacked began trending in India.

    “Good Morning Modi ji, Sab Changa Si?,” Srinivas BV, the national president of the Indian Youth Congress, tweeted.

    “Was the Twitter account of the Hon’ble PM shri #NarendraModi ji hacked? And promise of #Bitcoin !!” tweeted political activist Tehseen Poonawalla.

    Another user warned others about the link. “#PMmodi #modi account #hacked, please do not click on the link. It’s a scam. … Even PM’s account is not safe. How safe will be Indian social media from hackers, manipulators, scammers and foreign influence? #Twitter verified security compromised?”

    Earlier, in September 2020, the Twitter account linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website and mobile app was hacked by an unknown group with a series of tweets asking followers to donate to a relief fund through cryptocurrency.

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  • Seductive crypto ads leave Indian investors in dilemma

    Seductive crypto ads leave Indian investors in dilemma

    India has seen a spurt in the popularity of crypto exchanges and platforms in recent months like CoinSwitch Kuber (CSK), WazirX, CoinDCX, ZebPay, Unocoin and BuyUcoin etc…reports Nishant Arora

     “Kya aapke portfolio mein crypto hai?” If you have read such advertising lines recently — and now watching crypto ads as you surf through IPL 2021, YouTube and various social media platforms — make sure you hold on to your hard-earned money for a while.

    Indian crypto players are bombarding people with advertisements across platforms — doubling down on their marketing spend when the cryptocurrencies are yet to be accepted as legal tender and lack legal framework and regulatory norms in the country.

    The ball is currently in the court of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). A cryptocurrency bill is expected in the winter session and till the whole picture is cleared, investing in cryptocurrencies can be a dangerous move, warn legal experts.

    “Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks,” is a thin line at the end of the advertisements, not visible to many people who have started investing via various crypto exchanges.

    According to Dr. Pavan Duggal, a seasoned Supreme Court advocate and a cyber law expert, few players are asking Indian investors to invest in cryptocurrencies, primarily because there is a big legal vacuum that exists in the country.

    “India has still not made up its mind as to how it wants to deal with cryptocurrencies. These are not legal tender in India. As per the judgment of the Supreme Court of India, the Reserve Bank of India is the nodal statutory authority to deal with all aspects pertaining to cryptocurrencies. However, more work needs to be done in this area,” Duggal told IANS.

    If we look at cryptocurrencies as mere electronic records, they could be brought under the ambit of legality under Section 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. However, there is a lack of appropriate capacity building and awareness among the Indian investors about legal capabilities and nuances of cryptocurrencies.

    “The government cannot be a mute spectator while open calls are being made asking Indian investors to invest into cryptocurrencies. Without appropriate homework on the legalities of cryptocurrencies in India, merely prohibiting players from asking Indian investors to invest crypto currencies would also not work,” Duggal elaborated.

    India has seen a spurt in the popularity of crypto exchanges and platforms in recent months like CoinSwitch Kuber (CSK), WazirX, CoinDCX, ZebPay, Unocoin and BuyUcoin etc.

    Within 15 months of commencing operations in India, CoinSwitch Kuber is India’s largest crypto exchange with more than 10 million users. Of the total 10 million users, 7 million are active users on the platform with a monthly transaction volume of Rs 15,138 crore.

    Homegrown crypto exchange Unocoin has launched deposits via UPI wallets in the Indian currency for a faster top-up to buy and sell Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies on the platform.

    “There is still uncertainty among the prospective users regarding the usage of cryptocurrency in comparison to real money. We want all our users to have the ease of trading or exchanging on our platform,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO and Co-Founder, Unocoin.

    According to a report by IT industry’s apex body Nasscom, there are 15 million retail investors in India investing in the cryptotech space.

    New Delhi-based cyberlaw expert Virag Gupta said that several emerging sectors within the digital economy do not have an established legal framework and regulatory network.

    “Cryptocurrency is a unique area, since it attracts concurrent regulation by the Ministries of Law, Finance and Commerce; alongside the RBI and the SEBI. Nonetheless, certain regulatory needs may be addressed using the IT Act and taxation may be enabled through a notification by the Ministry of Finance,” Gupta told IANS.

    A legal endorsement by the RBI and legislation passed by the Parliament may further pave the way for lawful trading.

    “It is a misconception to believe that a conducive regulatory environment will harm the crypto currency sector. Rather, to cement a certain future, detailed jurisprudence diving deep within the currency and technology essential to the sector must be designed,” Gupta suggested.

    Otherwise, the entire sector may be susceptible to uncertain government intervention “such as measures employed by the Chinese government which have led to loss of trust, investments, and overall destruction of the market”.

    China’s central bank announced last month that all transactions of cryptocurrencies are illegal, effectively banning digital tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana etc.

    When Bitcoin crossed $50,000 again last week, Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin, said there has been a paradigm shift in the investment patterns across the globe which is underlined by the data shared by crypto exchanges from time to time.

    “India’s middle-class population is willing to explore digital assets for creating long-term wealth to fulfil their goals, which may not be possible through any other asset class,” Thakral said.

    However, it is possible that the gullible Indian investors would invest in crypto currencies, only to find that their business interests have been prejudicially impacted.

    “This is a golden opportunity for the Indian government to explore mechanisms of how it can ride the tide of crypto-currencies and also draft enabling legal frameworks to regulate crypto-currencies,” said Duggal.

    To cement a certain future, “detailed jurisprudence diving deep within the currency and technology essential to the sector must be designed,” Gupta added.

    (Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)

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  • WazirX announces the launch of India’s first NFT marketplace

    WazirX announces the launch of India’s first NFT marketplace

    The popularity of cryptocurrencies over the last 18 months has led to these tokens slowly becoming a part of mainstream markets and investment decision-making, with more and more people looking to put their money into the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin and many other tokens. While the prices of all these tokens have soared, the craze around crypto has also created a new phenomenon – non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. NFTs are essentially units of data on blockchain networks, where each unit is unique and cannot be changed for another. They are being used to certify ownership of digital assets, and have the potential to change the way digital economies work. Many celebrities, content creators and even organizations from all over the world have pushed their NFTs this year, with some of these being sold for huge amounts. In this light, it is extremely encouraging that India finally has its own NFT marketplace as well, through the crypto exchange WazirX.

    This is quite an interesting and encouraging development for the crypto industry in India, which recently received a breather from its central bank as well, as it stated that an old 2018 order that barred banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies can no longer be cited to restrict cryptocurrency operations in the country.

    NFTs are the next big thing in the crypto market, and given the popularity of crypto in India, it was vital for this new trend to enter the Indian market as well. The use of online crypto gambling has also been widespread in the country, and NFTs could be a potential game-changer in that industry as well, with bitcoin games in India perhaps being accessible via NFTs in the near future.

    WazirX, which is owned by Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, recently announced the launch of WazirX MarketPlace, which will be a marketplace for Indian artists and creators to post their content in exchange for WRX, the platform’s own native token (1 WRX = Rs 104 at present)

    WazirX, which is owned by Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, recently announced the launch of WazirX MarketPlace, which will be a marketplace for Indian artists and creators to post their content in exchange for WRX, the platform’s own native token (1 WRX = Rs 104 at present). Users will be allowed to switch their holdings of WRX to other blockchain networks such as Ethereum at a later date, but the current condition is in place to try and encourage the use and growth of WRX.

    WazirX has also decided to allow the purchase and sale of NFTs via WRX only as of now to mitigate the environmental cost of minting new NFTs, which is the same as that for coins like Bitcoin, and has led to quite a lot of opposition to the overall crypto industry all over the world. A 5 per cent service charge will be subtracted from all sale proceeds, with the remaining amount being deposited into creators’ accounts, while artists will also have the option of adding a royalty fee of up to 15 per cent on resales of their assets. The beta phase of the marketplace is launching with a fixed price model in place, with WazirX opting to not allow bidding on these digital assets at the moment, unlike the global model where huge sales of NFTs have taken place partly due to the bidding system in place.
    There are around 15 popular creators, including visual artist Vimal Chandran, wall mural artist Sneha Chakraborty and media artist Ishita Banerjee who have posted their creations on the WazirX marketplace already, with more than 15,000 applications by creators being processed by the company at present. This is an exciting time for the crypto sector in the country, with restrictions finally being lifted to allow full access to the crypto market, and the arrival of NFTs in the mix is another step in this direction, with other entities sure to follow WazirX’s lead.