The crypto market witnessed a second serious plunge in the last three days after Russian forces launched missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and crossed the country’s northern and southern borders in the early morning today.
Bitcoin went down by 11% to $34,472 minutes after the air raids and explosions targeted Ukrainian cities. The leading crypto later corrected and sits at around $35,100 at the time of writing.
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Ethereum dropped even harder and lost more than 15% of its value within the past 12 hours as it dropped to $2,314 levels. It recovered to $2,380 an hour later, but still is at the lowest lows since January 24.
The global cryptocurrency market lost 8.41% within the past 24 hours and is at $1.59 trillion. In the meantime, the demand for stablecoins keeps increasing, with the total market capitalization of pegged coins soaring to $180 billion. Just a year ago, the stablecoin market cap was nearly five times lower at $38 billion.
Asian stock markets and the United States futures reacted accordingly with the sharp declines. Crude oil has hit $100 a barrel already.
War Against Democratic West
Russian troops moved into eastern Ukraine territories on Monday, after Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of two Ukrainian regions, which Moscow-backed separatists occupied in 2014.
Tonight at almost 5:55 AM Moscow time, Vladimir Putin announced a “military operation” in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas territory. His troops crossed Ukrainian borders in multiple directions, and launched missiles that hit Ukraine’s infrastructure minutes later. Various cities including the capital Kyiv suffered explosions. Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Russia, and reported shooting seven Russian fighter jets down.
Russia went into “unprovoked and unjustified” war against sovereign Ukraine, said US President Joe Biden today.
President Zelenskyy reached out to me tonight and we just finished speaking. I condemned this unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. I briefed him on the steps we are taking to rally international condemnation, including tonight at the UN Security Council.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 24, 2022
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the war actions “a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, responded that Europe will not let Putin tear down Europe’s security architecture.
“He should not underestimate the resolve and strength of our democracies. The European Union stands with Ukraine and its people. Ukraine will prevail,”
she said.
“We are facing a blatant attempt to rewrite the rules of our international system,”
she stated at the Munich Security Conference 2022 last week.
Von der Leyen said that the Kremlin is trying to undermine the entire European security architecture and the UN Charter, where countries agreed to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The leaders of Eastern NATO countries on borders with Russia and its counterpart Belarus warn of Putin testing the strength of the whole European region. As Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tweeted today:
“Ukraine is fighting not just for Ukraine, but for us in the region, Europe and everyone in the democratic world. It is our obligation not just to punish Russia for its actions but to help Ukraine with all and every means available. Now.”
