India is known for its rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market, despite the lack of clear and favorable regulations. Recently, news broke about an engineer's arrest for allegedly stealing $6.67 million in cryptocurrency.
Engineer Arrested for Cryptocurrency Theft
According to The Indian Express, the Cyber Crime Unit of Bengaluru detained a software engineer for allegedly stealing around $6.67 million in cryptocurrency from his former employer. The accused, Shubhang Jain, 26, has been charged with stealing the cryptocurrencies from Cipher Technologies Private Limited. An investigation officer noted, 'Jain had transferred the cryptocurrencies to his relatives’ wallets and later even withdrew money. He used to live in luxury hotels and maintained a low profile. As he moved from place to place, the police were unable to track his movements.' Jain was arrested in Mumbai after authorities tracked his frequent contacts with brokers for purchasing luxurious properties. He was hired through the Telegram platform.
Indian Crypto Market Overview
According to available data, the Indian cryptocurrency market is expected to reach $6.6 billion by the end of 2024, despite a negative CAGR forecast of -2.44%, which could shrink the market to $6.4 billion by the end of 2025. Binance stands as one of the largest platforms in India’s crypto market, followed by Gate.io, Coinbase, and Crypto.com.
Market News Updates
On September 10, 2024, Standard Chartered, a leading bank, started offering digital asset custody services in the United Arab Emirates. The bank partnered with Brevan Howard Digital for this launch. PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo recently integrated with Ethereum Name Service (ENS), enabling 270 million users to transfer cryptocurrency assets using simple ENS names instead of long wallet addresses. As of the writing, the cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $1.99 trillion, with a 1.01% intraday decline. The trending memecoin, Dogwifhat (WIF), decreased by 7.30%, reaching $1.56. In the past 30 days, WIF has lost over 9.81% of its trading price and 7.38% of its market cap in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin was trading at $56,591 with a 0.99% intraday decline and a 3.31% monthly decrease. The intraday gainers list was led by Internet Computer (ICP), whose price surged over 10.20%, reaching $8.68, followed by Aave trading at $150.43, up by 9.39%.
India’s cryptocurrency market continues to develop despite regulatory challenges and instances of theft. While major global financial institutions expand their digital offerings, the market volatility necessitates clearer and more favorable regulatory frameworks.
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