Cryptocurrencies continue to decline amid rate hike concerns

Bitcoin extended its slide over the weekend as most speculative assets continued to be hit hard

The cryptocurrency market continued to decline over the weekend as expectations of an early rate hike from the Federal Reserve hurt investor sentiment. That said, on Monday the digital token was seen recouping some losses.

Up to five of the top 10 digital tokens were trading lower at 8:30 am IST (3:00 am GMT), while the same number of tokens were trading higher. Bitcoin was trading in the red, while Terra surged 6%.

The global crypto market cap was stable at $1.97 trillion from the previous day. The total crypto market volume dropped nearly 23% to $71.19 billion.

Bitcoin extended its slide over the weekend as most speculative assets continued to be hit hard. The largest cryptocurrency by market value approached $40,000 for the first time since late September, bringing its losses from a peak just three months ago to around 42%.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency companies have come up with several proposals to regulate cryptocurrency, ranging from making the exchanges accountable for any money laundering or other regulatory issues to differentiating between different exchanges based on their value and their technology.

Some of the more popular cryptocurrency exchanges are starting to notice what could be a disturbing sign: Individual investors are heeding the industry mantra of ‘holding on’ and avoiding trading as digital asset prices fall.

Following a Chinese ban on Bitcoin mining in early 2021, the market has been hit hard and some miners have migrated to other countries like Kazakhstan due to favourable factors like abundant energy, crypto currency exchange WazirX said.

Due to the protests in Kazakhstan, the government shut down the internet in the state, hitting bitcoin miners hard and the hash rate declined 13.4%, which was one of the factors responsible for the recent bitcoin crisis, it added.