Following a short rally to new highs on the heels of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bitcoin as well as other digital assets have plummeted in value.
Bitcoin’s price has decreased by nearly 5% in the last 24 hours, falling below the £30,200 level. The world’s leading cryptocurrency was selling at over £33,300 earlier this week, so this is a significant decline.
Bitcoin was trading at about £31,000 in the early hours of Friday, but quickly plunged to £29,500 due to a sell-off trend, prompting analysts to forecast a further decrease in the value over the weekend, possibly to around £28,700.
Bitcoin’s movement, according to Rekt Capital, may follow a similar pattern to that of the past, when it was at £32,500 by the end of a week and “price rejected to the red £28,700 area for a retest.” At this point it’s difficult to safely forecast whether Bitcoin will return to £37,800 by the end of the month, as some have projected.
Avalanche, BNB, Cardano, Solana, and even high performing Terra were among the top ten digital assets by market cap that dropped more than 3% of their value. Ripple’s XRP, on the other hand, was the only exception to this trend, gaining nearly 3.2%.
The industry has lost over £75.6 billion in total, with the market capitalisation of the sector dropping to £1.36 trillion after shedding over 4% in the last 24 hours.
Crypto markets, including Bitcoin, appear to be visibly reacting proportionately to the unfortunate situation that continues to develop as the US and its allies increase their efforts to exclude Russia from financial systems following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite exchanges claiming that they are blacklisting known addresses of political figures, celebrities, and allies who intend to aid Russia in funneling funds, some expert are of the opinion that the country can evade many of the sanctions through crypto. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Biden Administration recently launched ‘KleptoCapture’ on top the economic sanctions imposed on the nation.
Although the claims of evasion are unfounded, they have fueled fears of stricter crypto laws.
Bitcoin was trading at £29,600 at the time of writing.