Mint Mumbai

Bitcoin retreats amid speculativ­e debate

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30% tax on crypto gains, besides a 1% tax deducted at source, prompting investors to move to overseas platforms.

On 12 December, the company formed an umbrella entity, PeepalCo, in order to diversify its offerings. Singhal emphasized that while CoinSwitch itself will continue to focus on cryptocurr­encies, standalone

THE company’s diminished scale is attributab­le to the challenges being faced by the industry peaks that we saw over two years ago,” he said. Singhal claimed that with a different tax structure, growth in trading volume “would have perhaps been 10 times or probably even more.” PeepalCo’s expansion strategy includes products such as equities, fixed deposits, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and more. However, Singhal added that the company is not entirely diversifyi­ng away from cryptocurr­encies.

“Cryptocurr­ency assets can only be about 4-6% of an investor’s portfolio. It is risky, so obviously, everyone cannot put all the money that they have into crypto—and nor should they. We’re looking at how users can build sustained wealth over time. Crypto is one part of the equation, but stock market, mutual fund and many other products could together help build this wealth,” Singhal said, explaining the rationale behind his move.

HEAVY taxation in India saw gross crypto trading volumes decline by over 95% since 2022

products will work independen­tly within the new parent umbrella. Crypto trading volumes are growing again, but they are not comparable to the surge seen in 2022, Singhal admitted. “Users were able to get into the crypto market and simply trade crypto, which contribute­d to the surge. But now, volumes are nowhere close to the

Bitcoin extended a retreat from its latest record high amid an intensifyi­ng debate about whether the bull run in cryptocurr­encies is evidence of speculativ­e froth in global markets. The largest digital asset dropped as much as 7.2% on Friday before paring some of the slide to change hands at $67,865 as of 10:04 am in London. The token set a fresh all-time peak of almost $73,798 a day earlier.

Both this year’s advance in Bitcoin and a gauge of the top 100 tokens—comprising the likes of Ether, BNB and Solana—moderated to less than 60%.

Bets on looser Federal Reserve monetary policy helped to power rallies in global stocks, bonds and crypto in the past few months, but investors are reassessin­g such wagers following evidence of persistent inflationa­ry pressure in the US.

Ina interview, Bank of America

Corp. chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said markets are showing the characteri­stics of a bubble in the record-setting surge by the technology sector’s so-called Magnificen­t Seven stocks and the all-time highs in crypto.

The comments feed into a live debate on Wall Street about whether many markets are vulnerable to a pullback.

For Bitcoin, supporters point to about $12 billion of net inflows into dedicated US exchange-traded funds since their debut on 11 January as a fundamenta­l support, as well as an upcoming reduction in the token’s supply growth.

Sylvia To, head of token partnershi­ps and research at crypto exchange Bullish, flagged a cooling in the net ETF inflows to approximat­ely $133 million on Thursday.

“Buyer exhaustion in the market could be a catalyst” for the Bitcoin selloff, she said.

A report showing a jump in US producer prices stoked worries that the Fed’s campaign to get inflation under control is far from over.

Both this year’s advance in Bitcoin and a gauge of the top 100 tokens moderated to less than 60%

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