Cryptocurrency Prices Today on December 10: Bitcoin down 1.36% at Rs 39 lakh

Cryptocurrency (Representative image)

Cryptocurrencies traded in the red early on December 10. The global crypto market cap dropped to $2.28 trillion, a 3.40 percent decrease over the last day. The total cryptocurrency market volume over the last 24 hours is $105.34 billion, which makes a 2.96 percent increase.

The total volume in DeFi (Decentralized finance) is currently stands at $15.04 billion, 14.28 percent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins is now $83.40 billion, which is 79.18 percent of the total cryptocurrency market 24-hour volume.

Bitcoin's price is currently over Rs 39.28 lakh, and its dominance is currently 40.24 percent.

Reuters reported that the proposed legislation that would ban the use of cryptocurrencies as a method of payment in India also seeks to make those who infringe the law subject to arrest without a warrant and being held without bail, according to a source.

According the summary of the bill, the Indian government is planning a "general prohibition on all activities by any individual on mining, generating, holding, selling, (or) dealing” in digital currencies as a "medium of exchange, store of value and a unit of account”. Further, flouting any of these rules would also be "cognizable" which means an arrest without a warrant is possible, and "non bailable," it said.

Also, Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said the central bank could lose control over money supply and inflation management if cryptocurrency is allowed in the country.

"Crypto is backed by algorithms and there is fear that the central bank might lose control over money supply and inflation management. There are also concerns that crypto will disrupt the monetary policy", Subbarao said while speaking at a webinar organised by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business. Rao also said India’s case for issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) may not be strong as there are capital controls.

On the industry side, CII in a statement said crypto or digital tokens should be treated as securities of a special class to which the provisions of existing securities regulations will not apply, and a new set of regulations appropriate to the context should be evolved and applied.

This would mean regulatory focus principally on dealings and custody, rather than on issuance (except where issuance entails an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to the public by an issuer established in India), it added.

As off 8.10 am on December 10, these are the prices of largest cryptocurrencies (data from WazirX):