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

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. Read more here

Crypto scam revenue up 81% in 2021, hits $7.7 billion: Chainalysis

The explosion of rug pulls in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem over the past year helped to propel revenue from crypto scams to $7.7 billion in 2021, according to blockchain data firm Chainalysis. Per Chainalysis' 2022 Crypto Crime Report, revenues from crypto scams in 2021 were up 81% on the previous year, with rug pulls accounting for 37 percent of all crypto scam revenue—up from 1 percent in 2020. Read more here.

IMF's Gita Gopinath suggests regulation, not ban, for cryptocurrency

Emerging economies should regulate cryptocurrency, instead of banning it, International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath said on December 15. “There are challenges to banning it whether you can end up with truly banning crypto because many exchanges are offshore and they are not subject to regulations of a particular country,” Gopinath said, addressing an event organised by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). Pitching for a global policy, Gopinath also said that“no individual country can solve this problem on their own” because of the ease with which cryptocurrency transactions can be done across borders. Read more here.

Coinbase plans 'Identity Tools' to access metaverse, store NFTs

Coinbase is working on tools to let people access the metaverse—a loosely-defined term that describes an emerging digital world where we work, live, play, and shop. On December 16, Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong and an executive in charge of identity tools, Alex Reeve, published a blog post that set out the company's vision of the metaverse and its plans to operate there. Read more here.