IMF Against Using Crypto As Money; Algorand to Take Over Times Square to Save Energy

Crypto assets are quite volatile, they can hardly be deployed as money, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advises against adopting them as money, said Kristalina Georgiev, a Bulgarian economist and chairwoman and managing director of IMF at a high-level panel discussion on “Money at a Crossroad”. At the same event, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the most significant risks that cryptocurrencies pose are money laundering and terror financing.

In other news, Algorand (ALGO) aims to be a different crypto blockchain by committing to build technological products which are environmentally sustainable and do not harm the climate. The Algorand Foundation will take over New York Times Square for an hour to demonstrate this commitment by darkening the billboards. The move is expected to save approximately 6500-kilowatt hours of energy.

Cryptocurrency Prices

The global crypto market cap increased by 1.95 per cent to $1.89 trillion at 8.50 am. The global crypto volume was up by a massive 58.96 per cent to $96.13 billion, as per Coinmarketcap data. 

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, was trading at $40,648.01, higher by 2.12 per cent in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) was also trading higher by 1.5 per cent at $3,044.43.

“Bitcoin continues to hover around $40,000 after briefly touching $38,547. Ether briefly retraced below $3,000, reaching a low of $2,880 but has rebounded to slightly above $3,000. Bearish signals on the monthly chart of the market leader are evident; however, a positive momentum signal on the daily chart is needed for price recovery,” says Gaurav Dahake, CEO and founder, Bitbns.

Among other major coins, Cardano (ADA) was up by 1.15 per cent at $0.9354, Algorand (ALGO) was trading with a gain of 1.74 per cent at $0.7313, Binance Coin (BNB) was up by 1.39 per cent at $415.10, Solana (SOL) was trading with a gain of 0.29 per cent at $102.02, and Polkadot (DOT) also rose by 1.09 per cent at $18.11.

Today’s top gainer was Sanji Inu (SANJI), which was up by 547.6 per cent at $0.00000000002827. The top loser was Cryptogram (CRYPTOGRAM), which was down by 96.74 per cent at $0.0001036.

Meme Coin And DeFi Prices

Dogecoin (DOGE) was down by 0.37 per cent at $0.1398. Its volume to market cap ratio stands at 0.04868. Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) was down by 0.01 per cent at $0.00002501.

Dogelon Mars (ELON) lost 1.52 per cent to trade at $0.0000007733, Floki Inu (FLOKI) fell 0.95 per cent at $0.00002824, and Samoyed Coin (SAMO) was down by 1.99 per cent at $0.01868. 

In the DeFi segment, YFI (yearn.finance) was trading with a gain of 1.49 per cent at $18,964.91. Terra (LUNA) was up by a massive 13.95 per cent at $89.64, while Avalanche (AVAX) gained 1.34 per cent at $77.27. Uniswap (UNI) was, however, down by 0.61 per cent to trade at $9.28 and Aave (AAVE) by 1.26 per cent to trade at $167.05.

Latest Updates

“I think the biggest risk for all countries across the board will be the money laundering aspect and also the aspect of currency being used for financing terror. I also think regulation using technology is the only answer. Regulation using technology will have to be adaptable so that it is not behind the curve,” said Sitharaman at the IMF spring meeting.

Algorand Foundation’s takeover of the Times Square will begin to mark Earth Day celebrations around the globe. “Algorand was built from the start to achieve global speed, scale, and decentralisation while maintaining a lightweight, energy-efficient footprint. That's what sets us apart from other blockchains. We are committed to global financial inclusion at scale. From traditional payments to NFTs, to DeFi and the metaverse, we have the technology that delivers speed, scale, security and decentralisation, all on a carbon-neutral platform,” said Staci Warden, CEO of the Algorand Foundation.