The investor flight began last Friday, a day of steep declines on Wall Street, when bitcoin plunged along with all other risk assets following reports that the United States believes Russia was planning to invade Ukraine as early as this week.
Bitcoin falls for a fourth consecutive day and fails to break above US$42,000. The leader of the cryptocurrencies is down less than 1%, casting doubt among investors about the possibility of a rally in the short term. Ethereum, meanwhile, falls sharply by more than 2% and trades below US$3,000. The cryptocurrency market trades in declines led by XRP (5%), Dogecoin (3%) and Cardano (3%).
The price of bitcoin has been falling for four consecutive sessions amid rising tensions on the border with Ukraine, with several countries evacuating their populations as the conflict between Russia and the US heats up. Washington warned that the Kremlin could invade Ukraine this week, which has caused a generalized flight of risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
“Bitcoin is widely regarded as a valuable store of value and medium of exchange, but geopolitical issues have tested its other core values of being a viable, decentralized, tamper-proof and non-confiscatable monetary system,” explains Nigel Green CEO of deVere Group. “These real-life use cases will further increase Bitcoin’s mass adoption and drive prices higher this year.”
Despite the recent drop in bitcoin prices, investment in the blockchain space continues to rise with almost US$1.19 billion injected into the digital sector last week alone. Notable investments include Binance, which invested US$200 million in Forbes, and Polygon’s sale of a token worth US$450 million.
Other good news in the market is the Bitcoin (BTC) network recorded a new all-time high hash rate of 248.11 million TH/s as of 12 February 2022, further securing the decentralized ecosystem through a growing network of BTC miners globally.
