Cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin slips below $19,000, Ethereum falls over 6%

Major cryptocurrencies extended losses on Thursday with Bitcoin slipping below $19,000, and Ethereum below $1,300. The global crypto market cap stood at $901.42 billion, with a volume of $89.73 billion in the past 24 hours.

The Federal Reserve announced a hike in the key interest rate on Wednesday — along expected lines. The policy announcements mark a third back-to-back increase of 75 basis points in the key interest rate, which stands in the range of 3-3.25 percent.

The world's largest and most popular virtual currency, Bitcoin, fell 2.2 percent to $18,594.4. Its market value stood at $354.9 billion. The trade volume was at $47.4 billion.

Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of Mudrex, said, "If BTC can hold above the $19,000 level, we may see an upward growth."

The second largest virtual currency, Ethererum or Ether, fell 6.1 percent to $1,258.9 with a market capitalisation of $153.7 billion. The trade volume of Ethereum was $21.1 billion in the last 24 hours.

On Ethereum, Patel said, "The price of ETH has been dipping since the Merge took place as miners continue to dump their ETH in the market coupled with macroeconomic factors. If the selling pressure from miners increases, ETH is likely to fall below the $1,000 level."

Meme-based virtual currency Dogecoin was 3.2 percent down with a market capitalisation of $7.6 billion. Shiba Inu was trading 1.1 percent higher while Solana fell 2.6 percent to almost $31 billion.

The dollar index — which measures the US currency against six peers other than the rupee — hit a 20-year high of 111.5 supported by Fed 75 bps rate hike.

On the domestic front, Indian equity indices — BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 — fell after a gap-down start on Thursday tracing losses across major global markets. The domestic currency sank to a fresh all time low of 80.61 against the US dollar.