Cryptocurrencies slide as market selloff deepens

RIYADH: Prices of cryptocurrencies plunged on Monday as concerns over the spillover risk to the global economy from Chinese property group Evergrande’s troubles rippled over to wider markets.

Bitcoin tumbled 7.33 percent to $43,804 at 4:29 p.m. Riyadh time. Its rival Ether, the coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain network, fell 8.74 percent to $3,050.45, according to data from CoinDesk.

The loss in the value of cryptocurrencies comes at a time when institutional interest in the space has surged and some investment banks have ramped up their forecasts for cryptocurrencies in the coming months.

“Their fate seems a little tied to equities at the moment, and the price action is incredibly similar too,” said John Marley, CEO of forexxtra, a London-based FX consultancy.

Ether price

Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, managing director of JPMorgan said that the fair value of Ether is much lower than its current price.

According to a set of measurements based on the network’s activity, it calculated the value of the digital coin at $1,500, 55 percent below its market price.

One of the reasons cited was that Ethereum was not unique anymore, and it faced stiff competition from other chains such as Solana and Avalanche.

“We look at the hash rate and the number of unique addresses to try to understand the value for Ethereum. We’re struggling to go above $1,500. There is a question mark here. The current price is expressing an exponential increase in usage and traffic that might not materialize,” he stated.

Lawsuit

In the midst of an ongoing lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Ripple's legal team said they have no plans to settle with the SEC.

They are confident that SEC President Gary Gensler will be convinced that pursuing the case is to pick winners and losers in the crypto space based on innovation.

"Ripple’s legal team told Fox Business they have no plans to settle with SEC over lawsuit on XRP, confident they can show Gary Gensler in pursuing the case is picking winners and losers in the crypto business to the detriment of innovation,” Charles Gasparino tweeted.

Indians embrace crypto

Indian citizens are embracing cryptocurrencies to invest and earn extra money after the pandemic, according to reports from the regional media.

But what is even more interesting is that this growth has been greater in smaller cities, where interest in cryptocurrency is at its peak.

The profile of these participants was also interesting, as they are highly educated and open to diversifying their investment portfolios and not only focus on Bitcoin.

A local exchange, Wazirx, has reported astonishing levels of new customers coming from these small towns, classified as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

“Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities have driven almost 55 percent of the total user signups on Wazirx in 2021, thereby overtaking Tier 1 cities, which demonstrated a signup growth of 2,375 percent,” Wazirx CEO Nischal Shetty was quoted as saying in local media reports.