Cryptocurrency Prices Today May 8: Bitcoin down, Polkadot biggest loser as cryptos trade in red

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Cryptocurrencies traded in the red early on May 8. The global crypto market cap stood at $1.60 trillion, a 3.36 percent decrease over the last day. The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours reached $80.16 billion, marking a 12.97 percent drop.

The total volume in DeFi stood at $9.10 billion, 11.35 percent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins at $74.84 billion was 93.35 percent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.

Bitcoin's price was pegged at Rs 28.08 lakh, with a dominance of 41.60 percent. This was a 0.12 percent increase over the day, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

In domestic news, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 7 flagged anonymity as an "inherent risk" in blockchain technology and called for taking precaution in future with a rise in the use of this technology.

The finance minister made it clear that using the distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is also called as blockchain, is absolutely imperative and the government also supports the use of the same.

The minister's remarks come ahead of the launch of the budgetary announcement of central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is based on the blockchain technology itself and is billed as being similar to the paper currency carried in our wallets.

"The anonymity is what … one unknown element in this whole thing. The anonymity of the person or whoever or the robot is the one which we have to be absolutely readying ourselves as a future challenge, Sitharaman said, addressing an NSDL event.

In international news, California, which would have the world's fifth-largest economy if it was a country, became the first United States state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related innovations, following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March, AP reported.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for state agencies to move in tandem with the federal government to craft regulations for digital currencies. It also calls for officials to explore incorporating broader blockchain computer coding into the government operations of the state where much of the world's technological innovation is born.

Dee Dee Myers, a senior advisor to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development said, "There are a lot of opportunities, she said. There’s also a lot of unknowns in the industry and so that’s another reason we want to engage early."

As off 7.55am on May 8, these are the prices of largest cryptocurrencies (data from WazirX):