New Delhi: Prices of popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have gained even as the value of tokens associated with gaming has spiked.

Bitcoin, the oldest cryptocurrency, was trading at USD 42,824.85, up by 3.11 percent, according to CoinDesk data.

Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up by 2.21 percent to USD 3,079.70.

Meanwhile, gaming tokens witnessed a price bump even as the global crypto market moved a little.

Cryptocurrencies such as XRP was up by 7.95 percent, Solana was up by 4.51 per cent, Terra was up by 2.34 per cent, Cardano was by 3.54 per cent, Polkadot was by 3.56 per cent, Stellar was by 3.06 per cent, Dodgecoin was up by 6.84 per cent, Chainlink was up by 4.35 per cent, Polygon was up by 3.83 per cent, Shiba Inu was up by 24.32 per cent.

"The global crypto market volume rose by nearly 3 percent in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin hovered above USD 42,000 while Ethereum crossed the USD 3,000 mark returning back to the winning streak. If buyers can make a decisive move above USD 40,000, the BTC’s price can get back to its peak at USD 69,000. The next resistance level is likely to be at USD 45,000," said Edul Patel, CEO, and Co-founder of Mudrex.

"According to the market cap, the other top cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Dogecoin, Fantom, UNUS SED LEO, and Decentraland have gained good growth, while Shiba Inu has gained more than decent growth over the past day. This upward growth is a relief to all the crypto investors after the market went down last week," Edul Patel said.

Cryptocurrency will never be a legal tender in India, a government official said.

"Crypto will never be a legal tender. Legal tender means by law, it is accepted in the settlement of debts. India will not be making any crypto asset as a legal tender. Only 'Digital Rupee' of the Reserve Bank will be a legal tender in India," Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said while clearing the air on the legality of private digital currencies in the market.

The 2022-23 Budget has given clarity on taxation of virtual digital assets and proposed to impose a 30 percent tax on gains made on such trades, besides subjecting crypto transactions, beyond a threshold, to 1 percent Tax Deducted at Source (TDS).

In an interview with PTI, Somanathan said just like gold and diamond, despite being valuable, are not legal tender, private cryptocurrencies too will never be legal tender.

Except for El Salvador, which in September last year adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, no other country has made crypto a legal tender. India is working on legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies, but no draft has yet been released publicly.