The cryptocurrency market experienced a price correction across most digital assets in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, on Wednesday, December 18, recorded a decline of 2.60%, trading at $103,740 (approximately ₹88 lakh) on international exchanges. Earlier, Bitcoin had reached an all-time high of over $108,200 (around ₹91.8 lakh) before retreating to its current price. This correction affected Bitcoin’s performance on Indian exchanges as well, with trading values around $103,701 (about ₹88.6 lakh).
“Bitcoin’s recent surge to $108,260 approximately ₹91.9 lakh on Tuesday is indicative of growing institutional interest,” said Avinash Shekhar, Co-Founder and CEO of Pi42, in a conversation with Gadgets360. He further added that Bitcoin needs to hold support above $102,000 approximately ₹86.6 lakh, as a slide below this level could trigger a liquidity squeeze, while stability above could indicate further upward momentum.
It also plunged 4.25 per cent to trade at $ 3,841, equal to roughly ₹3.26 lakh. On Indian platforms, ETH fell by a slightly deeper 4.88 percent, trading at $ 3,839 that accounted to around ₹3.26 lakh.
“Shekhar further said that Ethereum is in a consolidation phase but might follow Bitcoin’s rally on the back of bullish investor sentiment resulting in the liquidation of short positions. Historically, Ethereum has been seen lagging behind for a while before catching up to the momentum built up by Bitcoin,” he added.
Altcoins also seemed to be bleeding red across the board, according to Gadgets 360’s crypto price tracker. Tether, Binance Coin, Dogecoin, Cardano, Tron, Avalanche, and Chainlink registered losses on Wednesday. Shiba Inu, Polkadot, Bitcoin Cash, Near Protocol, and Cronos saw a similar decline in their prices.
According to CoinMarketCap, the overall valuation of the cryptocurrency market went down by 2.77% in the past 24 hours to $3.62 trillion, converting it to ₹3,07,42,307 crore. The market dominance of Bitcoin remained strong at 56.65 percent.
Market analysts are hopeful for a more friendly regulatory environment ahead for cryptocurrencies. “The crypto market is showing promising signs, with U.S. lawmakers committing to advance digital asset legislation—a long-awaited development for the sector. Key figures, including the new Senate Banking Chair, have referred to crypto as the ‘next wonder’ of the world, indicating a strong commitment to regulatory clarity,” said Shivam Thakral, CEO of BuyUcoin.
At the same time, some cryptocurrencies like Ripple, Solana, Stellar, Uniswap, Litecoin, and Iota witnessed slight gains on Wednesday. Industry experts suggest that investors remain cautious yet optimistic as they head into macroeconomic uncertainties in the forthcoming days.
