Cryptocurrency update: CoinDCX becomes country’s first crypto unicorn; Bitcoin slips 0.4%, Ethereum adds 0.9%

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, on Wednesday fell by 0.47%, trading at $45,726.53. While Ethereum rose by 0.91% and was trading at $3,161.21. All the major cryptocurrencies were trading in green. Binance Coin became the third most valued cryptocurrency in the world, pushing Tether USDT to the fourth position, with a price rise of 7.91%, trading at $381.13.

Top 10 Cryptocurrency prices as on August 11, 2021

*All prices as of 11 August 2021, at 7:59 AM, Table Source:coinmarketcap.com. Conversion rate for the USD to INR used was $1=Rs 74.43

CoinDCX becomes India’s first crypto unicorn

CoinDCX became India’s first cryptocurrency unicorn after the exchange raised $6.70 billion from investors led by Facebook Inc co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group even as local authorities push back against crypto assets. The latest funding round values the firm at $1.1 billion, chief executive officer and co-founder Sumit Gupta said in an interview on Tuesday. Other investors including existing partners Coinbase Ventures, Polychain capital, Block.one and Jump Capital.

The investment comes as policymakers continue to debate on the status of digital currencies in India , as recently as last week the central bank said it has major concerns about private virtual currencies and the government will take a final stance on the matter.

According to Chainalysis, The investment in the company grew to nearly $6.6 billion in May from some $923 million in April 2020.

Over the next few years, CoinDCX aims to expand its user base to 50 million from 3.5 million users and focus on educating users on crypto and blockchain.

AMC theatres to accept cryptocurrency for movie tickets

AMC theatres will start accepting bitcoins to pay for movie tickets, its CEO announced during the company’s earnings call on Monday. AMC is the biggest chain of movie theatres in the US, and would join a growing number of businesses that are now starting to accept Bitcoins as a form of payments. Although Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been seen as a strong investment for some years now, it has been harder to use them as currency, but with their values hitting new highs in 2021, institutional institution investors are getting on board, and more businesses want in as well.

During the AMC earnings call on Monday, CEO Adam Aron said that AMC will start accepting Bitcoin as payments for tickets purchased online by end of 2021. As these are online payments they would be applicable all over United States. While many brands have been running smaller tests by accepting cryptocurrencies in localised markets but AMC will bring it to all of its theatres.

Aron also added that the movie theatre chain would be setting up IT systems in place to accept Bitcoin from the end of 2021.