The days are getting rougher from rough for the cryptocurrency industry. On Tuesday, June 14 — Bitcoin values dipped by 16.51 percent. As per Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, BTC is trading at $23,331 (roughly Rs. 18 lakh). This tumble of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency comes in the backdrop of the hiked inflation rate in the US as well as the recent crash of crypto lending platform called the Celsius Network. On international exchanges as well, BTC fell by over 16.42 percent to trade at $21,924 (roughly Rs. 17 lakh).

This is by far the lowest that Bitcoin values have sunk to in the last six months after it touched its last time high of around $68,000 (roughly Rs. 53 lakh) in November last year.

Ether also trailed behind Bitcoin to register losses of over 15.40 percent. The price of the cryptocurrency is currently trading at $1,238 (roughly Rs. 96,665) as per the crypto price tracker by Gadgets 360.

With the top two cryptocurrencies collapsing in the market, majority altcoins also suffered substantial dips.

These include Binance Coin, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Tron, and Avalanche.

Meme coins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin also witnessed losses.

At this point, the global crypto market cap stands at $963 billion (roughly Rs. 75,15,077 crore) after registering a decline of 13.74 percent in the last 24 hours.

“Growing expectations of a sharper Federal Reserve interest rate hike to fight inflation led to an evaporation of investors’ risk appetites across the board, with numerous indices officially entering a bear market. What initially began as a sell-off in traditional markets eventually led to a massive contagion effect across multiple sectors of the economy, with crypto not spared either,” said the research team of CoinDCX, talking to Gadgets 360.

Meanwhile, some cryptocurrencies did manage to see gains on the price charts.

These include Tether, Chainlink, Decentraland, Bitcoin SV, and Elrond.

Industry experts however, remain optimistic about the market recovery that they foresee in due course of time.

At this point, the decision of Celsius network to suspend all withdrawals on its lending platform, has gravely impacted the crypto market. Citing ‘extreme market conditions’ and a need to ‘stabilise liquidity, Celsius has defended its decision.

“Prices aside, notwithstanding the generally weak market sentiment, we continue to be encouraged by the building momentum persisting in crypto, where developers and businesses continue to be focused on developing value accretive projects for the long haul,” the CoinDCX team added.

Edward Snowden, president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and a renowned whistleblower, also deems there is more value in cryptocurrencies in their use as a means of digital payment than as an investment.

Meanwhile, the installations of Bitcoin ATMs around the world have risen in recent days, Coin ATM Radar has highlighted in its recent report. In the first ten days of June alone, over 882 Bitcoin ATMs have reportedly emerged in different parts of the world.