Malaysia Mulls Over Cryptocurrency As Legal Tender; NFTs To Be A Large Part Of Collectibles Market Growth; Bitcoin Falls

Discussions are on in Malaysia about making cryptocurrencies legal tender in the South-east Asian country. Malaysia’s Deputy Communication Minister, Zahidi Zainul Abidin, said on Monday in the country’s parliament that the ministry has made a proposal to the government regarding the adoption of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin as a legal transfer, according to various media reports. "We hope the government will allow this." We are trying to see how we can legalise this so that we can develop youth participation in crypto and assist them, "Abidin said. 

Within 20 months of operating in India, CoinSwitch, a crypto unicorn, has completed its first-ever employee stock option plan (Esop) buyback worth $2.5 million (approximately Rs 19 crore) within 20 months of operating. "The equity buyback programme is a small effort to acknowledge our employees’ contributions to the phenomenal growth of CoinSwitch," says Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch. 

The global collectibles market, which was worth $412 billion in 2021 (actual value), will reach $692.4 billion by 2032 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be a large part of the growth, shows Market Decipher’s latest report, "Collectibles Market and NFT Market Size, Statistics, Growth Trend Analysis, and Forecast Report, 2022–2032." The fastest growing sectors include sports memorabilia, NFT, and toy collectibles.

Prices of Cryptocurrency

In the cryptocurrency market, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) was down by 0.94 per cent in the last 24 hours, while it was trading at $41,340.48 at 5:00 pm IST. Its dominance in the crypto market is currently at 41.80 per cent, down by 0.30 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap.com. 

In the last 24 hours, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,912.44, with a rise of 0.02 per cent, while Binance Coin (BNB) rose 0.11 per cent over the same period and was trading at $394.94. Solana (SOL) was down by 0.20 per cent to $90.16 and Cardano (ADA) was up by 0.66 per cent to $0.8955. 

Among meme coins, Dogecoin was up by 0.02 per cent and was trading at $0.1212 at 5:00 pm on Coinmarketcap.com. Rival Shiba Inu was down by 1.37 per cent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $0.00002318. Dogelon Mars was down 2.69 percent and trading at $0.0000007129 in the last 24 hours, while Samoyedcoin was down 1.40 percent and trading at $0.01698.

Overall Scenario

The global crypto market cap was at $1.88 trillion, registering a decrease of 0.18 percent in the last 24 hours, while the total crypto market volume was $87.14 billion, up by 4.64 percent, as per Coinmarketcap.com.

Grom (GR) became the biggest gainer, recording a rise of 4,422.70 per cent. It was trading at $0.05202 at 5:00 pm, as per Coinmarketcap data. In contrast, the Spookk Inu (SINU) witnessed the maximum loss, falling 99.99 per cent. It was trading at $0.0000000003084, according to Coinmarketcap data.