The majority of the cryptocurrencies were trading lower, with Bitcoin falling below $39,000 level on Monday.

The world's largest virtual currency, in terms of market capitalisation, was down 2.07 percent at $38,980.53 at 9:19 am, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin market cap was at $739.7 billion, while the trade volume hovered just over $20 billion. The cryptocurrency has shed nearly 7 percent in the past seven days.

Bitcoin has witnessed a volatile trend over the past year - the virtual currency oscillated between a high of $69,000 and a low level of $33,000.

Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency which is linked to ethereum blockchain, traded flat at $2717.3. However, the virtual currency has fallen nearly 5 percent over the past seven days.

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Meme crypto Dogecoin was mostly flat at $0.139, while Shiba Inu gained 1.92 percent to trade at $0.0000269. Solana, which witnessed substantial interest from the crypto traders last year, also rose 6.59 percent to trade at $94.23 at 9:47 am.

Other cryptocurrencies such as Litcoin, XRP, Chainlink, Cardano, Polygon, Stellar, Internet Computer, Avalanche, and Terra were trading in the negative territory over the past 24 hours.

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Indian equity markets fell on Monday as geopolitical tensions over Ukraine issue cast shadows over investors' confidence.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva last week said unbacked cryptocurrencies will be no match for prudently designed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

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Meanwhile, making a strong case for banning cryptocurrencies, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar had said they are even worse than Ponzi schemes and threaten the financial sovereignty of a country.

Earlier, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget announced a 30 percent tax on the returns from trading or investing in cryptocurrencies or other digital assets such as NFTs.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Feb 21, 2022 10:08 AM IST