Big coins stagger

Digital collateral token Amp (AMP) is on full blast. The 28th-largest crypto (as measured by total market capitalization) cranked up 16% in the past 24 hours as of Wednesday at 7 a.m. (EST). And it has gained more than 90% over the past seven days; just now, minutes ago, AMP broke a dime, for a record high.

In terms of a use-case claim-to-fame, AMP says it can dampen, in decentralized fashion, the risk of any form of asset transfer between parties who can neither trust nor verify, whether a micro payment or sale of a beachfront mansion.

Investors looking for the next Dogecoin-esque penny-crypto flyer could find themselves hurtling into the steaming vortex of value-exchange guarantees; or they can go to the dogs.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) shot up 21% since yesterday following an announcement from Coinbase that SHIB would be listed and trading could begin as early as tomorrow. Also being newly listed on the publicly traded crypto exchange are Chiliz (CHZ) and Keep Network (KEEP). AMP was listed on Coinbase last week.

Bitcoin hit $41,000 on Tuesday. It held steady above $40,000 for the first part of Wednesday. But sudden price swings are always only a moment away and ... yeah, BTC was just seen clumsily doddering about. Resting at $39,300, BTC was 2.3% lower over 24 hours.

Whales and long-term holders seem married to a thesis tied to unimaginable heights but more than two-thirds of professional money managers believe Bitcoin is in a bubble, according to the latest Bank of America Global Fund Manager survey (CoinDesk).

Meanwhile, Ethereum fell 4.5% over the past 24 hours and remains mired in the mid-$2,000 range.

All the major coins are right now in repose, some slightly hunched over, others, lying prostrate on the ground: Internet Computer shed 12% since Tuesday and has lost 92% since hitting its all-time high of $700 on May 10.

To ban crypto or not to ban crypto – that is the question for India's government.

Knowledgeable observers do not expect this matter to be resolved any time soon, not with monsoon season setting in and the nation gripped by a devastating public health crisis.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the status of crypto in the world’s second-most-populous nation, "it’s a safe bet that the battle of wills we have witnessed in recent months will continue for some time yet," said technology writer Monika Ghosh, describing, in a Forkast article, a "three-way regulatory wrangle" among India’s central bank, its top court and its largest banks.

Talk about a circular firing squad.

A government circular is a written statement of government policy. One such declaration, published in 2018 by the Reserve Bank of India, instructed all of the businesses it regulates to cease any involvement with crypto. 

Last year, however, India's highest court struck down the RBI circular.

But in recent weeks, with the regulatory atmosphere darkening, Indian banks reverted to a “do not touch” crypto stance, disingenuously citing that original RBI anti-crypto circular in emails to customers, prompting a backlash.

At the end of May, coming full circle, the RBI issued a circular to clarify its 2018 circular, as toothless.

The timing of the banks’ crypto clampdown may have been influenced by legislation that proposed a sweeping ban on all cryptocurrencies and related transactions, although for unknown reasons that bill was set aside and no action was taken. Now apparently the government is painstakingly combing through the bill clause by clause (BeInCrypto).

Crypto exchanges in India are left in the dark. Yet some global exchanges are still game to possibly plunge into the Indian market but need to sort out a number of thorny issues with respect to setting up their own operations versus acquiring a local target, with regulatory uncertainty making entry all the more tricky.