Cryptocurrencies plunged on Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Russia’s attack by land, air and sea was the largest by one state against another in Europe since World War II, in what President Biden called a “catastrophic and needless war of choice.”
Mere hours after Russia’s declaration of war, cryptocurrencies took a nosedive, with the overall market falling 7.97%, erasing over $150 billion within 24 hours, according to market tracker CoinMarketCap.
The current price of Bitcoin is $35,730.95, which is more than $33,000 off its all-time high of $68,789.63, according to Coinbase. Bitcoin has fallen 7.42% today alone, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ethereum is down 9.23% in the last 24 hours, currently priced at $2,443.58, according to CoinMarketCap.
The cryptocurrencies have fallen in correlation with other assets like stocks, prompting market observers to say that crypto’s status as a safe haven was a myth, after all, as Fortune previously reported. The American stock market is in freefall, as of 11:00 am, the Dow has fallen 584 points, or 1.76% and at least 20 S&P 500 stocks plummeted a minimum of 5%. Global stock markets have plunged,with the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index dropping 3.21% and the UK FTSE 100 falling 3.52%. And Russia’s main stock market was down more than 35% Thursday, with the MOEX index shedding more than $150 billion in value. In the U.S., what had been a correction suddenly began to look like a bear market, off more than 20% from its high.
As cryptocurrency markets fall, buyers are moving away from Bitcoin—previously hailed as “digital gold”—and seeking safer havens like the U.S. dollar and literal gold. Gold traded as high at $1,974 on Thursday, the most since September 2020, a year characterized by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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