Carnage in Cryptocurrency markets over Russia-Ukraine clash, digital currencies in a tailspin

New Delhi: After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” the cryptocurrency market capitalisation dropped to half in less than five months to stand at the $1.5 trillion mark. The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin declined about 10% to trade at $34,618. The cryptocurrency market capitalisation on Thursday was down by 7.9% in the last 24 hours.

Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a “special military operation” in Ukraine made global markets trade in deep red. Besides, the Russian President warned others countries making any attempt to interfere with Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba taking to Twitter said that the country’s larger neighbour had “launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine” and that its cities were under attack.

Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 24, 2022

Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain also plunged about 10% to $2,373. Other major cryptocurrencies such as Solana, XRP, Terra, Avalanche, Stellar, Cardano, Polygon, Polkadot also suffered a downfall between the range of 8-15%.

Memecoin SHIB tumbled about 10% to $0.000022, while Dogecoin was 12% lower at $0.11.

“Crypto market began to fall since the start of this year, thanks to various reasons including new Covid variant, high inflation, and geopolitical concerns. This led crypto investors to offload their portfolios,” said Edul Patel, CEO, and Co-founder, Mudrex.

Seconding Patel’s statement, Sharat Chandra, VP- Research & Strategy, EarthID said the Biden administration is expected to soon come out with executive order on crypto. There are fears about the un-hosted wallet rule put forward by the US Treasury to be a part of major legislative discussions.”

“Equities are held on as a long-term investment plan while cryptocurrencies are volatile assets that can give you great profits,” Patel said. Hence, the losses in cryptos are steeper too, he further added.

The crypto market experts suggested that despite a plunge in market prices, one should try to buy crypto markets on dips after the geopolitical worries ease down. They are bullish on major themes Metaverse, GameFi, DeFi, and more.