Russia’s war on Ukraine crashes crypto market
Over $150 billion in total market value has been wiped from cryptocurrencies, following the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine today.
This data comes from Coinmarketcap. The price of all major coins declined, with the largest, Bitcoin, slumping to the lowest it had been in a month, at US$34,413. It has since clawed back some of the losses and, at the time of writing, sits at US$35,302.
It is worth noting that crypto was by no means the only market to be shaken by the attack. Major equity markets across the US, Europe and Australia all reported massive declines. The Russian stock market itself crashed by 50%.
The declines in crypto are being attributed to the correlation to the declines in these other risk assets. However, beyond the tragic costs of the war in terms of human life and to the nation of Ukraine, there is also likely to be some impact on the global crypto industry. Ukraine had previously been cited as a global leader in the space. Despite struggling to deal with illegal mining operations, the lack of other investment opportunities had led Ukrainians to embrace crypto. The country had also been rated as #1 for IT outsourcing attractiveness, which is a key metric for crypto interests.
The disruption to Ukraine’s crypto industry will extend well beyond the scope of the war. Coming off the back of earlier instability in the market this year, experts are now predicting that the next big bull market for crypto will not occur until 2024.
