Crypto prices today: Bitcoin trades near $110,000 as geopolitical tensions ease; Altcoins jump up to 5%
ADVERTISEMENT Bitcoin rebounded after the U.S. dialled back its 50% trade tariff threats on European imports, providing short-term relief to global markets. Analysts believe the crypto's next key resistance lies around $112,000.
"Bitcoin has bounced after the US backtracked its 50% trade tariff on Europe... it must break through $112,000 to continue its strong rally," said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
The rally follows a record high of $112,000 last week, driven by growing institutional demand and optimism around global crypto regulation. While recent volatility stemmed from macro events, overall sentiment remains bullish."Despite minor pullbacks, Bitcoin continues to benefit from reduced supply post-halving and increasing on-chain activity," said Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-Founder & CEO of Unocoin. "Long-term holders may view dips as opportunities."
Also Read: Why AI tokens are emerging as high-conviction investment theme in 2025
ADVERTISEMENT Corporate interest also added to the momentum. Asia-based consumer food giant DDC Enterprise acquired 21 BTC as part of a broader treasury strategy targeting 5,000 BTC. Meanwhile, Pakistan has announced a 2,000 megawatt energy allocation to support Bitcoin mining and AI data centres, according to CoinSwitch Markets Desk.Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, noted, "The quick rebound highlights BTC's resilience, supported by an 80% drop in daily exchange inflows... Bitcoin's strong fundamentals and declining sell-side activity position it well for further upside."
ADVERTISEMENT Altcoins also traded in the green. Solana rose 3.2%, Cardano gained 4.6%, Dogecoin advanced 3.6%, and Chainlink surged 4%. Avalanche led with a 5% rise, while XRP, Stellar, Shiba Inu, Sui, and Hedera posted modest gains.
Also Read: JPMorgan Chase to offer clients access to Bitcoin, despite CEO Dimon's continued criticism
ADVERTISEMENT Bitcoin's dominance in the crypto market rose to 63.2%, with its market cap touching $2.184 trillion. However, daily trading volume dipped 3.2% to $47.57 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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Mint
17 minutes ago
- Mint
Growth hunters and margin hawks: The two blocs in India's IT industry
India's $283-billion information technology (IT) industry appears to be fragmenting into two distinct blocs, one prioritizing growth through large deal wins and the other pursuing profitability at a time when artificial intelligence (AI)-led automation and global uncertainty have made clients both demanding and cautious. Two large IT services firms—HCL Technologies Ltd (HCLTech) and Wipro Ltd—and at least two smaller peers—Hexaware Technologies Ltd and Mphasis Ltd—are concentrating on growth at the cost of profitability, underscoring the large deal wins by these companies, analysts said. Last month, HCLTech lowered its full-year operating margin target to 17-18% from its earlier stated 18-19%. Although the management of the country's third-largest IT services firm attributed it to restructuring costs, many analysts believe it reflects the Noida-based company's flexibility in winning more business. 'One potential conclusion that the Street may draw is that HCLTech is trading off margins for revenue growth. This perception is reinforced by the downward revision of its Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes) margin guidance band—from 19-20% in FY2022 to 17-18% for FY2026, marking the second cut in four years," said Kotak Institutional Equities analysts Kawaljeet Saluja, Sathishkumar S., and Vamshi Krishna, in a note dated 14 July. Similarly, Bengaluru-based Wipro, which has secured about $8 billion of large deals under chief executive Srini Palia's one-year stint, has stated that growth remains a priority. "For now, our number one priority would be growth," said Aparna Iyer, chief financial officer of Wipro, during the company's post-earnings call on 17 July. The management attributed this to upfront investments in its deal wins. 'But looking forward, our focus is going to be conversion of some of these mega deal wins that we have had, large deal wins that we have had. And some of these large deal wins will come with upfront investment and lower margins, right? So, there are going to be pressures that are going to get created," said Iyer, during the post-earnings analyst call. HCLTech and Wipro's approach is in contrast to Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), which continues to emphasise that it remains committed to its aspirational profitability band of 26-28% in the long term. TCS ended with 24.3% operating profit margin last year. On 28 July, TCS also announced that it would be cutting 2% of its workforce, or about 12,200 employees, as part of various 'strategic initiatives' being undertaken by the company. This exercise, the country's largest private employer said, was aimed at its middle and senior management. At any IT outsourcer, employees at middle and senior levels come with fatter paychecks, pressuring the company's profitability. According to a Mint report on 28 July, TCS's layoff decision was an attempt by the Mumbai-based company to mitigate the impact of AI on operating margins. Clients are demanding up to 30% price discounts on deals, as AI is reducing cost. India's fifth-largest IT firm Tech Mahindra also laid out a plan to boost operating margins when it announced its three-year roadmap in April last year. As part of this plan, the company is looking at increasing its operating margins to 15% by FY27. The Pune-based IT outsourcer is also not considering any acquisition and is embarking on cost-saving initiatives, which help reduce expenses by $250 million every year. It ended last year with operating margins of 9.7%. The country's second-largest outsourcer Infosys Ltd is trying to balance both revenue growth and margins, without sacrificing either. Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research, said that larger IT outsourcers are more likely to protect margins because of shareholder pressure than their smaller peers, which are willing to pay the price for growth because new logos and deals have the ability to change their market position. 'The large services firms like TCS, Infosys and Tech Mahindra, are doubling down on protecting margins because that's their contract with investors— consistent profitability over volatility. Many of the midcaps such as Coforge and Persistent, are signalling they'll sacrifice some near-term margin to grab market share and win large deals," said Fersht. TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra ended last year with revenues of $30.18 billion, $19.28 billion, $13.84 billion, $10.51 billion, and $6.26 billion, respectively. While TCS, Infosys, and HCLTech reported a revenue increase of 3.78%, 3.85%, and 4.3%, respectively, Wipro and Tech Mahindra's revenue declined by 2.7% and 0.2%, respectively. Smaller IT firms such as Mphasis and Hexaware are unambiguously focussed on winning more deals now in order to secure their long-term growth. 'The prioritization for growth by holding margins, that's the kind of the North Star that we're still following," said Nitin Rakesh, chief executive of Mphasis, during the company's post-earnings call with analysts on 25 July. Mphasis, the country's eighth-largest IT firm, reported $1.68 billion in revenue last year, up 4.43%. Its operating margins jumped 20 basis points last year to 15.3%. Hexaware has adopted a similar approach. '... will some of these deals require some sacrifice in margins? If that is what it takes, we will happily do so. We're not quite at that point yet, but if that's what it comes to, we'll happily do so," said Ramakarthikeyan Srikrishna, chief executive officer of Hexaware, during the company's post-earnings conference call on 25 July. The tenth-largest software firm Hexaware Technologies ended last year with $1.43 billion in revenue, up 13.7%. Its margins jumped 100 basis points to 13.6% in this time. The emergence of two blocs in the Indian IT sector comes as companies battle uncertain macroeconomic conditions subduing demand, stiff competition, AI leading to restructuring, and dwindling margins. 'IT service providers are between a rock and a hard place: go after growth and compromise margins, or the other way around," said Thomas Reuner, principal analyst at Pierre Audoin Consultants. 'On the one hand, the market recovery was pushed out yet again. On the other hand, reflecting on the geopolitical headwinds, customer requirements demand tangible outcomes, acceleration of their AI journey, and cost reduction. The answer to those requirements is not a more nuanced account mining to be able to react selectively, but finding new models and answers to respond to all of them," said Reuner. Fersht said AI was responsible for the two fronts in the country's IT industry. 'AI is redrawing the rules, and the future is unsettled. That's why we're seeing a clear split, with some (IT) services firms gunning for growth, chasing large AI-led transformation deals even at the cost of margins, while others are protecting profitability at all costs. This divergence will only widen as clients demand more AI-driven value, and firms are forced to show whether they are builders of future growth or guardians of current margins," said Fersht.


Mint
17 minutes ago
- Mint
Data centres in non-metro cities a non-starter as AI warrants scale over speed
New Delhi/Mumbai: Edge data centres, which were expected three years ago to boost India's cloud services market with proliferation in smaller cities, have remained a pipe dream as applications requiring high connection speeds have failed to take off as predicted. These smaller data centres, designated to be less than 10 megawatt (MW) in capacity as against a hyperscaler facility's 50MW-plus size, serve local data demand within districts. They provide high connectivity speeds, or low latency in technical parlance, by reducing the physical distance to the end user. They were planned to come up in tier 2 cities such as Guwahati, Patna, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Pune and others to serve applications like smart cars, augmented reality headsets, automated traffic management and more. However, these applications have not scaled as predicted by analysts, resulting in edge data centres falling out of favour after some initial growth spurts. After a brief burst of enthusiasm, operators are pouring money into expanding large facilities in established hubs like Mumbai and Chennai, where enterprise and big-tech demand is deep and revenue visibility stronger. Icra Ltd estimates India's edge capacity will rise from 70MW in 2024 to about 200MW by end-2027—just 8% of the projected 2.5GW total. Anupama Reddy, vice president and co-group head of corporate ratings at Icra, noted the barriers for edge: security risks from remote deployments, rapid tech shifts and obsolescence risk, talent scarcity, and interoperability challenges with core data centres. She added that rentals are structurally higher for edge, reflecting higher capex per unit of data and a retail-heavy customer mix. Real estate consultant JLL, in a report in June, concurred with Icra's analysis. Hyperscalers up speed Meanwhile, hyperscale—or large–data centres—have been cutting down on latency, eating into the key selling point for edge data centres, said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive of technology advisory firm Greyhound Research. 'The industry miscalculated how quickly core network improvements and submarine cable projects would help hyperscale data centres close much of the latency gap," he said. As of today, only a fifth of chief information officers at enterprises report active investment in edge data centres beyond primary metros, as per Greyhound. 'After years of hype, deployments have lagged due to the absence of widespread latency-critical workloads, and the rapid maturity of backbone networks and data distribution architectures," Gogia said. Reddy and Gogia's projections are backed by the data centre firms, too. Operators such as Singapore-headquartered Princeton Data Group, Hiranandani-backed Yotta, Bharti Airtel's Nxtra and US-based Equinix, among others, are all looking to build large data centres—instead of edge facilities. 'Edge data centres are not a part of our strategy, and we expect hyperscalers to be the largest demand driver," said Vipin Shirsat, managing director for India at Princeton Data Group. Use cases of edge data centres include content distribution and low-latency applications like gaming or autonomous cars, he said. While these use cases are growing, they don't really require significant capacity, he explained. 'The uptake of these applications is not what many had anticipated three years ago," Shirsat said. 'Applications that require lower latency are rare, and tier 2 locations face hurdles such as higher per-MW build costs for edge facilities, limited redundant networks, and a smaller pool of skilled technical talent," said Manoj Paul, managing director of Equinix India, adding that the company will continue to concentrate its investments in Mumbai and Chennai. Edge lacks demand Sunil Gupta, chief executive of Yotta, echoed Shirsat and Paul—stating that while the company 'already has the land in various cities for edge expansion, the client demand isn't at a scale that warrants us to invest in edge data centres right away." 'When demand builds, we'll definitely ramp up based on client needs," he added. Bharti Airtel-owned Nxtra, meanwhile, is different from the rest. Ashish Arora, chief executive of Nxtra, said that the company currently has 150 edge data centres in 65 locations, with plans to add 10 more in the next two years. 'For edge facilities, most of the demand comes from within the Bharti group, but in terms of our overall business, clients from outside of the group now contribute to the majority of our revenue," he said. Even then, Arora said that edge data centres are not a mainstay of the company's data centre growth plan. 'Edge data centres won't be the industry's primary growth driver going forward—tech-driven services are still seeing investments made towards innovation, and consumer-end demand is limited. Hence, for data centres, most of the demand will be for traditional data centres in established hubs," he added. Arora further said that AI applications have not created demand in smaller districts, for now. 'You may want lower latencies in consumer-end AI applications, and in inferencing from running AI models. But, training AI models—the main data centre use case—needs large capacities and not fast deliveries, which is why such use cases are very low and limited for now," he added. Companies that set up large data centres have announced expansion plans such as Princeton Data which, in September last year, said it would establish 230MW in net India data centre capacity, with the first phase targeted to be brought live by the end of next year. Equinix, too, announced a large-scale expansion plan last year. Yotta's Greater Noida facility, announced in October 2022, can expand up to 250MW by next year. However, there are no specific expansion plans for edge data centres. As a result, industry stakeholders believe there are little to no business benefits for edge data centres for now. As Greyhound's Gogia said, 'A national edge rollout plan was shelved after content distribution upgrades reduced data latency significantly. While edge data centres delivered initial gains, their incremental advantage could not justify the additional capital and operational burden."


Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
In industrial belt near Delhi, Trump's tariffs cloud outlook for export of engineering goods
In one of the many cavernous sheds dotting Ghaziabad, the industrial suburb on the outskirts of the Capital, a giant stands silent. The massive metal forging machine, hauled from China only months ago at a cost of Rs 20 crore, glints under the dim factory lights, its steel body collecting a fine coat of dust. It was meant to be the future: sleek, electric-powered, capable of shaping metal with precision and scale. Yet, in its shadow, the old ritual continues. A knot of workers, sleeves rolled, faces flushed with heat, gather around a much smaller press, striking molten metal with steady, rhythmic blows. The clangs echo through the workshop like the heartbeat of an older era. For Ghaziabad-based CD Industries, a manufacturer of metal flanges feeding oil and gas exploration rigs across the US, the dormant machinery was supposed to answer the shifting demands of its overseas clients. Instead, it waits, inert. 'Baal mundwaate hi ole padne lage (It started raining hail stones as soon as one got his hair shaved),' Pankaj Agarwal, Director, CD Industries, told The Indian Express at his manufacturing plant in one of Ghaziabad's biggest industrial belts on the Bulandshahr Road. Agarwal had purchased the electric metal forge to exclusively service client requests from the US, who had asked him to make flanges of up to 16 inches, as opposed to his current capacity of eight-inch flanges. But, with US President Donald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on several Indian goods – to 25 per cent, with a further 25 per cent increase threatened by August 27 – new orders have dried up for Agarwal, and many engineering goods exporters like him. Increasingly, several US-based vendors are even cancelling earlier orders, resulting in significant financial losses for several Indian medium and small enterprises. Engineering is the largest industrial sector in India and accounts for 3.53 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The engineering goods export of India had a share of 25.22 per cent out of the total exports during the financial year FY24, as they jumped to $109.22 billion as compared to $106.93 billion during FY23. In FY25 (April to December), India's top five export destinations in the sector were the US (15.82%), the UAE (7.36%), Saudi Arabia (5.24%), Singapore (4.46%) and Germany (3.52%). Industries like auto components and metal works are particularly at a disadvantage. For CD Industries, the US is its exclusive export market, accounting for 50 per cent of the company's turnover. 'While we are continuing to deliver the previously placed orders, new enquiries have stopped coming in. For some companies, their previous orders have been cancelled, as importers are seeking a discount, which many manufacturers are not in a position to accept,' Agarwal said. His products are supplied across the length and breadth of the US, from the West Coast to the East Coast, and Texas to New York. 'The tariff situation is bothering us, haunting us, and we are really, really worried,' he said. His plant in Ghaziabad employs 225 people, including floor workers, project managers and quality control managers. For now, he says the older orders not getting cancelled – a fact he attributes to his long-standing relationship with his vendors, dating back 20 to 30 years – has allowed him to not trim the workforce. But if the situation continues for a longer time, he may have to let go of some workers, Agarwal said. Sanjeev Sachdev, general secretary of the Industrial Area Manufacturers' Association in Ghaziabad, said there are more than 400 manufacturing plants in the belt, which employ over 75,000 people. 'If the tariff situation is not resolved, and the government does not alternatively help the industry financially in the meantime, easily 5,000-7,000 people will lose their jobs. Many companies, who have purchased raw material and made finished goods, are staring at generations getting into debt,' Sachdev said. Pankaj Chadha, chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India, said about $5 billion worth of engineering goods exports are at risk due to US tariffs. 'Unlike other sectors, for us the pain started early on when the US announced 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium. At this tariff rate, we cannot be competitive and we are not in a position to retain our market share in the US,' he said. Sachdev speaks with the quiet fatalism of someone who is anticipating to see too many balance sheets bleed red. Between raw metal and a gleaming finished part lies a steep markup – not just in price, but in labour, skill, and the hours of heat and noise that shape it. Yet that value can vanish in an instant. If an overseas buyer pulls the plug, the goods, tailored to a single client's specifications, are suddenly orphaned, with no other market to call home. In that moment, there are only two doors left open: swallow the buyer's demand for a deep discount, or consign the work to the scrap heap, where months of craft and capital dissolve into a fraction of their worth. For some manufacturers, it is not just a bad deal – it is the slow tightening of a noose. One too many of such blows, and the factory floor falls silent. Many in the industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that the real weight of the new tariffs will fall not on the industry's giants, but on the small and medium enterprises. The big players can simply pivot, scouting for new markets, absorbing the shock with the comfort of deep reserves. For the smaller firms, there is no such cushion, no easy escape route. The blow, when it lands, goes straight to the bone. Agarwal, Chadha and Sachdev, all said that the government's help to support companies in distress is the need of the hour. 'We expect the government to extend Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) to the steel sector and restart the interest subvention scheme to ease the pain,' Chadha said. Vinod Kumar, president of the India SME Forum, said that export-focused countries like China have heavily invested in promoting their products globally. 'India has not done that over the years. This is a systemic problem. The nature of trade has changed over the years. Only production is not going to solve your problem, we have to market them effectively,' he said.