Bitcoin trading above Rs 36.44 lakh

Most cryptocurrencies were in the red in early trade on March 30. The global crypto market cap dropped 0.95 percent to $2.12 trillion in the last 24 hours, while the total cryptocurrency market volume slipped 2.26 percent to $116.49 billion. The total volume in DeFi stood at $19.47 billion, 16.71 percent of the total cryptocurrency market 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins is now $94.80 billion, which is 81.38 percent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. Bitcoin's dominance dropped by 0.02 percent to 42.17 percent, as per CoinMarketCap data. The world's largest cryptocurrency traded at Rs 36.44 lakh in early deals on March 30. Read full here

Blockchain company Ronin hit by $615 million crypto heist

Blockchain company Ronin said March 29 that hackers stole cryptocurrency worth almost $615 million from its systems, in what would be one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record. The project said that unidentified hackers stole on March 23 some 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens. At current exchange rates, the stolen funds are worth $614 million. Ronin is used to power the popular Axie Infinity game, which uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It said in a blog post that the hacker had used stolen private keys – the passwords needed to access crypto funds – to make off with the funds. "We are working directly with various government agencies to ensure the criminals are brought to justice," Ronin said. Read details here

Government must reconsider its current regressive stand

Across the world there are many countries like Singapore, Germany, and Switzerland that have adopted investor-friendly policies towards virtual digital assets (VDAs), while India is among the few that has adopted such antagonistic laws. What is disheartening is that India possesses immense potential to effectively become a leader in the cryptocurrency business. However, a 30 percent taxation impedes such possibilities, and may affect India’s chances of being at the forefront of innovation in this industry. Statements from the ministry have led to some clarity about the government’s stance on VDAs, but there still remains a lot more unanswered questions, like will India be conferring legal status on VDAs, or will it accept the unregulated regime? Take a look

NFT collection failures begin to mount in flashback to ICO bust

For every Bored Ape and CryptoPunk there is a Baby Baller, one of the thousands of NFT projects that have faltered not long after celebrated debuts. On average, one in three NFT collections have essentially expired, with little or no trading activity, blockchain analytics firm Nansen found. Another third are trading below the amount it costs issuers to mint the tokens. Nansen analysed about 8,400 collections comprised of 19.3 million individual NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. As failed projects pile up, long-time crypto observers are having flashbacks to the Initial Coin Offering bust of 2018, when thousands of digital token quickly became worthless after regulators warned they’re probably unregistered securities. Read more here