The crypto world has focused more heavily on environmental issues than the social and governance aspects of different projects; major cryptos were in the red on Sunday as the Russian invasion intensified.
Bitcoin began falling late Friday and continued to drop through the early part of the weekend before coming to a temporary rest at about $39,000. At the time of publication, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading below $38,500. Ether and major altcoins were in the red on Sunday.
Bitcoin’s decline began as bad news throughout last week quashed even the faintest hopes of a resolution to the Russian onslaught and erased gains from earlier in the week when investors saw Ukraine and Russia’s separate use of crypto as proof of its potential.
“The drop on Friday was a reversion to prices that shot up when people believed there might be more of an escape to crypto in the wake of fiat banks and payment gateways in Russia and Ukraine restricting access,” Joe DiPasquale, CEO of fund manager BitBull Capital. “The price would be buoyed if there were a de-escalation with the Russia/Ukraine conflict.”
That seemed unlikely on Sunday as Russia continued its brutal attacks against Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin rejecting all overtures for a ceasefire, even to a targeted truce that would allow citizens of Mariupol, a besieged port of roughly 500,000 people, to flee. Russia has been targeting Mariupol and other Black Sea ports to isolate Ukraine’s southern coast with its access to shipping and industry.
Russian forces pounded other major Ukraine cities with artillery and rocket fire, according to multiple reports. In one instance, mortar fired killed a mother and two children as they evacuated the town of Irpin near the capital of Kyiv. European and North American media outlets reporting on the invasion even found themselves under attack on at least one occasion.
Meanwhile, the three largest credit card companies, American Express, Visa and Mastercard announced over the weekend that they would be suspending operations in Russia. The decision added to a flurry of sanctions by countries aligned against Russia in hopes of crippling its economy. Already there are signs that the sanctions are biting hard as the ruble’s value against the dollar has plummeted to less than a penny.
At the time of publication, Bitcoin was down about 2.5% over the past 24 hours and over 7% from early Friday when the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was still trading at roughly 41,600. Ether was changing hands at about $2,550 on Sunday, off over 4% from a day ago.
DiPasquale believes that bitcoin could hit “its next resistance just below $36,000 before bouncing back up to $40,000,” and noted that “many, long-term investors” may see this as “a buying opportunity.” But he added that that “new investors are skittish given global uncertainty, as well as uncertainty” about the Biden Administration’s executive order on crypto in the near future.
Source: Crypto Insider