Bitcoin Prices Subdued; Speculation On Whether RBI’s Fintech Department Will Oversee CBDCs

The global crypto market showed some signs of recovery as prices of major crypto tokens seem to have stabilized at the moment and most of them were either trading with little gains or marginal losses at 8.20 am, according to Coinmarketcap data. The fact that trading volume was down by 22.10 per cent at $71.33 billion was a reassuring sign. The global crypto market cap now stands at $1.97 trillion, an increase of 0.27 per cent in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced via an internal circular the creation of a dedicated fintech department. The new department will try to promote innovations in the fintech sector and solve its various challenges.

It is being speculated that the department will be active on the cryptocurrency front in terms of framing regulations and a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Coindesk quoted a source as saying, “You can expect much more action from Ajay Kumar Choudhary (who will oversee the new department) towards the Central Bank Digital Currency. This may signify a shift from RBI’s stance towards fast-tracking CBDC piloting.”

The world’s oldest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) continued to remain under pressure as bears are trying to break its key support zone of $40,000. For now, it seems that the bulls have managed to hold ground, but the question is till when? The price as of 8.20 am was down by 0.16 per cent at $41,943.85.

“Bitcoin continues to remain in a two-month downtrend, with a series of lower price highs. The relative strength index (RSI) levels on the daily chart are the most oversold since December, although within a price downtrend. However, on the market leader's weekly chart, the RSI is not yet oversold, which implies that the downward trend will most likely remain intact,” says Gaurav Dahake, CEO, Bitbns.

Things are turning around for investors of Ethereum, which saw its price rise by 0.69 per cent at $3,154.30. Cardano (ADA) is down by 2.08 per cent at $1.17. Algorand (ALGO), which is known as the Ethereum killer, is down by 2.88 per cent at $1.39; its market cap now stands at $8,949,658,180.

Among other major coins, Binance Coin (BNB) is up by 1.23 per cent at $439.71, while Solana (SOL) is down by 2.06 per cent at $140.95. Polkadot (DOT) is up by 1,81 per cent at $24.72.

Today’s top gainer was NinjaFloki (NJF), which was up by 746.21 per cent at $0.0000551. Surprisingly, this was the same crypto token that topped the charts on Saturday with gains of 1,774.28 per cent. The top loser was Hatoken (HATOK), which fell by 99.60 per cent to $0.00000000003454.

Meme Coins And DeFi

Dogecoin (DOGE) is down by 0.75 per cent at $0.1513. Its volume to market cap ratio stands at 0.01907.

Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) is up by 0.67 per cent at $0.00002836. ELON is trading with a loss of 1.06 per cent at $0.000001278, Floki Inu is up by 7.20 per cent at $0.00007437, while Samoyed Coin (SAMO) is trading with a gain of 0.75 per cent at $0.03145.

In the DeFi segment, YFI (yearn.finance) was trading with a loss of 5.72 per cent at $32,189.33, Terra (LUNA) was up by 6.30 per cent at $72.67, Avalanche (AVAX) was up by 3.72 per cent at $88.86, Uniswap (UNI) was currently up by 3.36 per cent at $15.74, while Aave (AAVE) was down by 2.77 per cent at $207.76.

Latest Updates

The Verge reported that BitMart, a crypto exchange registered under (MSB) Money Services Business in the Cayman Islands, has failed to deliver on its promise to pay back its users, who were affected by the $200 million hack that occurred in December. There were still many users who are yet to receive their refund.

Meanwhile, the US Congress will hold an oversight hearing sometime in the coming weeks to hear about how crypto mining is affecting the environment, as per a Coindesk report.