By: Rajesh Bajaj

Though Reserve bank of India and government has cautioned investors against virtual currencies, it's bumper returns make it impossible for the speculators to come out of it's fatal attraction. 

recently, bitcoin is facing a meltdown, but some other crypto-currencies like Ethereum and Cardano have registered gains. market sources predict that speculators may now take big positions in alternative currencies. 

In fact, it is to be noted that Bitcoin has got the highest fancy in the world market, but some other crypto-currencies have earned much higher returns for investors.

It is observed that Bitcoin is losing ground. According to market sources, Bitcoin is facing a major downturn as the much vouched crypto-currency's valuation is taking a hit in the holiday season. On 29th december, last trading day of 2017 bitcoin slumped to the lowest point of $10,400 before stabilising a little in Tuesday's trading. 

This figure is far short of the dizzying heights it reached, as it came within striking distance of the $20,000 milestone. The retrenchment isn't typical for cryptos, which often snap back after a few losing sessions. The last time bitcoin dropped for five successive weekdays was September and, before that, July.

The slump can be attributed to the red flags raised by a number of regulatory authorities as the euphoria reached its crescendo. On Christmas day, news agency Reuters reported that Israel's markets regulator will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

"We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don't want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty," Hauser said. "There is an importance to signal to the market where things are... Investors should know where we stand," Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) said.

now let us look At other cryptos performance. The analysis of the price movement of 10 largest cryptocurrencies in the past two and half months throws up interesting patterns. 

As said earlier, although Bitcoin has got the highest attention in the world, there are other currencies that actually fetch far higher returns for investments.

now let's see, if you had bought Rs 1 lakh worth of these crypto money in October, how much your investment be worth today? 

we are taking top ten cryptocurrncies in term of market capitalisation. If you had invested in cardano one lakh Rupees in october, you would have got Rs. 8.5 lakh by December end. 

similarly in IOTA it would be Rs. 6.4 lakh, in LITECOIN    Rs. 5.5 lakh, in BITCOIN CASH Rs.4.4 lakh, in BITCION    4.0 lakh, in RIPPLE    Rs. 3.7 lakh, in MONERORs. 3.4 lakh, in DASH Rs. 2.9 lakh, in NEM Rs. 2.4 lakh and in ETHERIUM Rs. 2.3 lakh.

Now let us see how much returns these cryptos have given during october to december period in per ceantage terms. In cardano has jumped 755 per cent, IOTA 539 per cent, LITECOIN 450per cent, BITCOIN CASH 337 per cent, ITCION 302 per cent, RIPPLE 266 per cent, MONERO 235 per cent, DASH 185per cent, NEM 141 per cent and ETHERIUM has jumped126 per cent, once again it is to be noted that The Reserve bank of India and government has cautioned investors to be wary of virtual currencies like Bitcoin, saying they are like Ponzi schemes with no legal tender and protection. 

Finance ministry has stated that, "There is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes which can result in sudden and prolonged crash exposing investors, especially retail consumers losing their hard-earned money. Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious as to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes,"

VCs are stored in digital/electronic format, making them vulnerable to hacking, loss of password, malware attack etc. which may also result in permanent loss of money, it said. 

Noting that there has been a phenomenal increase in recent times in the price of virtual currencies (VCs) including Bitcoin, in India and globally, it said, the VCs don't have any intrinsic value and are not backed by any kind of assets. 

"The price of Bitcoin and other VCs, therefore, is entirely a matter of mere speculation resulting in spurt and volatility in their prices," it said.