The Bitcoin price continues to fall, down 7.58% today to $38,950.72.
Bitcoin price falls in step with the stock markets. The Dow Jones closed down 179 points on Friday (March 4), despite the release of employment figures that were higher than expected. The ongoing unrest in Ukraine and the announcement by the U.S. Federal Reserve to slowly raise interest rates are now visibly affecting the markets.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 179.86 points, or 0.53%, to close at 33,614.80.
- The S&P 500 fell 0.79% to close at 4,328.87 points.
- The NASDAQ fell 1.66% to close at 13,313.44 points.
Crypto Market Movements
Crypto trading volume on Russian exchanges drops by over 50%.
Data from blockchain analytics companies shows that cryptocurrency trading volumes on leading Russian exchanges have dropped to less than half. This disproves the theory that Russia will switch to cryptocurrencies to avoid sanctions.
When the bitcoin price had increased by more than 15% last week, some industry experts had observed a rapid increase in the trading volume of cryptocurrencies. This was said to be due to Russia turning to Bitcoin in order to avoid economic sanctions. Nevertheless, the trading volume of cryptocurrencies on Russian exchanges has decreased by more than half.
Data from Chainalysis shows that crypto trading volume against the ruble was $34.1 million on March 3, about half of last week’s peak of $70.7 million.
“Russian volumes have been relatively small so far, suggesting that the price action is more due to investors positioning for an expected uptick in demand from Russia, rather than Russian demand itself,”
said Citigroup analyst Alexander Saunders in an interview with Bloomberg.
While experts reject the theory that cryptocurrencies could help Russia evade economic sanctions, the U.S. and EU continue to tighten regulatory controls on digital assets.
New York State has already increased its blockchain surveillance capabilities to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies or digital assets to support Russian interests.