President Putin’s Comments on Potential Bloodshed in Ukraine Sending Bitcoin And Ethereum Crashing

As tensions between Russia and Ukraine heighten, prices of global assets have suffered huge losses. 

The crypto market was on the receiving end of recent developments in the Russia-Ukraine tension, as they continued to shred a significant percentage of their values in the last seven days. 

Several digital assets, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), were first affected by the news of Russia sending over 150,000 troops to the borders of Ukraine last week.  

However, things became worse in the early hours of today after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, commented on an imminent crisis in a televised speech to the nation. 

“As for those who captured and are holding on to power in Kyiv, we demand that they immediately cease military action. If not, the complete responsibility for the possibility of bloodshed will be fully and wholly on the conscience of the regime ruling the territory of Ukraine,” President Putin was quoted as saying. 

Putin further declared support for Eastern Ukraine’s independence in the speech, which sent the price of crypto assets crashing. 

Reuters writes:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing them as independent on Monday, accelerating a crisis the West fears could unleash a major war.”

With Russia’s announcement of support for the independence of eastern Ukraine, in the past 12 hours, Bitcoin fell below $37,000.

Bitcoin & Ethereum Dip 13% in Seven Days

In the last seven days, both Bitcoin and Ethereum have dipped over 13%, respectively, while the prices of other cryptocurrencies were not spared in the aftermath of Putin’s comments. 

Bitcoin, which had rebounded $39,000 yesterday, fell below $37,000, subsequently sending shock waves to investors. 

With Bitcoin suffering a loss of over 6% in the last 24 hours, investors fear a repeat of the January crash is imminent when the price of BTC dipped below $33,000.  

Similarly, Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, was not spared. ETH, which rebounded at $2,700 yesterday, traded around $2,500 earlier today, representing an 8.3% dip within the last 24 hours. So far, Ethereum has been down over 13% in the previous seven days.  

XRP, ADA, SOL & BNB Dip Over 9%

Meanwhile, the dip’s impact was mainly felt by the altcoins in the top 10 ranking by market capitalization. 

In the last 24 hours, Binance Coin (BNB) dipped 9.6%, Ripple (XRP) lost 14.6%, Cardano (ADA) suffered 15.8%, while Solana (SOL) and Terra (LUNA) crashed 13.9% and 3.9%, respectively. 

Stock futures fell sharply on Monday night as traders monitored brewing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down by 542 points or 1.59%. S&P 500 futures slid 1.83%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were off by 2.46%. Oil prices rose 2.89% to $93.70 per barrel.