Cryptos plunged, but a lot more than the global stock markets, as news emerged of the long-feared Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Overall crypto currency market capitalization has fallen more than 10 percent in the past 24 hours to $1.58 trillion versus $1.8 trillion on Wednesday and $1.69 trillion on Tuesday.
The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 1.81 percent, the Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite shed 1.70 percent and other major Asian bourses lost between 1 and 5 percent. European benchmarks too are trending down, with the German DAX, French CAC-40 and pan-European Stoxx 50, each declining over 5 percent. American stock futures gauges indicate more than 2 percent losses in Thursday’s opening.
Crude Oil Futures soared around 8 percent whereas Gold Futures surged around 3 percent. Dollar Index jumped more than a percent. The USD-Ruble rate is hovering near 85.37 after oscillating between 81.1453 and 87.9909.
Bitcoin traded between $34,459.22 and $38,979.29 in the past 24 hours. It is currently trading at $35,483.12, implying a decline of 8.78 percent in the past 24 hours.
Ethereum traded between $2,308.91 and $2733.54 in the past 24 hours. It is now trading at $2,389.52, implying a decline of 12.03 percent in the past 24 hours.
BNB (BNB), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), Cronos (CRO), Litecoin (LTC), Cosmos (ATOM) and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) have shed more than 10 percent in the past 24 hours.
Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), Dogecoin (DOGE), SHIBA INU (SHIB), Polygon (MATIC), and Chainlink (LINK) have slid more than 15 percent in the past 24 hours.
Stablecoin market capitalization edged up to $182 billion even though the overall market capitalization fell to $1.58 trillion. Tether (USDT) is at top spot with $80 billion market cap, followed by USD Coin (USDC) with $53 billion, Binance USD (BUSD) with $18 billion, Terra USD(USDT) with $12 billion and Dai (Dai) with $10 billion).
In tandem with the risk-off sentiment across the crypto sphere, stablecoins’ dominance has surged to 11.47 percent from 10.33 percent a day ago.
On the contrary, smart contracts shed dominance by around a percent to 26.75 percent of the overall market. DeFi dominance dropped 0.23 percent, closely followed by NFTs and Collectibles which recorded a 0.19 percent drop. Research lost 0.18 percent market share whereas Web 3 category lost 0.17 percent. Meme category saw a 0.15 percent reduction in market capitalization. Scaling and Metaverse categories are down around 0.13 percent each. Gaming lost 0.11 percent. Exchange-based cryptocurrencies lost between 0.10 and 0.08 percent.
The war-led price sensitivity that cryptocurrencies witnessed that is much higher vis-à-vis stocks, raises important questions on its utility as a store of value. Adding to the problem of magnitude of price sensitivity, the opposite directions in which Gold and Bitcoin have moved in today’s escalation have triggered debates on whether the lead cryptocurrency can indeed aspire for a safe haven status.
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