Cryptocurrency Prices today on December 17: Market in red as Bitcoin, Ethereum fall

The global crypto market capitalisation fell by 2.16 percent over the last 24 hours to stand at $2.21 trillion. Bitcoin, currently trading at $47,743.70, saw a fall in its market dominance by about 0.23 percent over the last day to stand at 40.77 percent.

The total cryptocurrency trading volume over the last 24 hours was $89.44 billion, falling by 22.92 percent. While DeFi ($11.55 billion) accounted for 12.91 percent of the total crypto volume, stablecoins ($70.06billion) made for 78.33 percent of the crypto market's 24-hour market volume.

As for major cryptocurrencies globally, Bitcoin dipped marginally by 1.6 percent to trade at Rs 38,13,924 while Ethereum (Rs 3,17,117) also declined by 0.53 percent. Cardano (Rs 99.97) fell by 3.2 percent. Avalanche (Rs 8,151.60) tumbled by 2.53 percent, Polkadot (Rs 2,067.54) fell by 3.33 percent, and Litecoin (Rs 11,900.11) also fell by 2.31 percent over the last 24-hours.

Memecoin SHIB dipped by around 1.97 percent while DOGE declined by 2.8 percent to trade at Rs 13.95. Bitcoin is currently trading at Rs 38,13,924 while LUNA increased around 4.45 percent to trade at Rs 5,139.93

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath recently stressed on developing regulations around cryptocurrencies rather than banning them outright, particularly in developing economies.

"Regulating crypto assets and currencies is essential, especially for emerging and developing economies, as banning them may not work as crypto exchanges are located offshore, which makes it easier for an individual to trade in them despite the ban,” she said.

She also added that no individual country can solve this problem as cryptos involve complex cross-border transactions.

Digital-asset firm Securitize is launching two tokenised funds that will track crypto indexes from S&P Dow Jones Indices. The funds will track the Cryptocurrency Large Cap Ex-MegaCap Index as well as the Kensho New Economies Composite Index from S&P. While the large-cap one gives investors exposure to more than 30 different cryptocurrencies, the latter is centred around fintech, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, among other things.

Former US first lady Melania Trump recently launched her own NFT platform. A portion of the proceeds from her NFT collection will be used to help children in foster care. The first NFT, a watercolour by the French artist Marc-Antoine Coulon titled "Melania's Vision," will be available for purchase through the end of the year for the price of 1 SOL, the cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain protocol, (approximately $150).

As of 8:15 am, these were the prices of various cryptocurrencies in the Indian market (Data from WazirX)