Market Summary: Cryptocurrencies and Stocks Fall as Russia-Ukraine Tensions Escalate

On Friday, the market oscillated due to geopolitical risks, with BTC falling below $43,000. Stocks were also lower, while traditional safe-haven assets such as gold and the U.S. dollar rose. Markets eventually stabilized late in the New York session.

Most cryptocurrencies fell on Friday as traders reacted to geopolitical risks from Russia and Ukraine.

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden urged U.S. citizens to leave Ukraine immediately, warning that "an invasion could begin at any time." For now, the United States has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine despite Russian military activity.

Bitcoin (BTC) is down as much as 5% in the past 24 hours, while ETH is down 4% and SOL is down 7%. Stocks were also lower, while traditional safe-haven assets such as gold and the U.S. dollar rose. Markets eventually stabilized late in the New York session.

Technical indicators are mostly neutral for Bitcoin, showing support at $35,000-40,000 and resistance at $46,000.

According to Jason Pagoulatos, an analyst at cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital, most of the volume has occurred in the $41K-41.5K price range over the past 10 days. “If this level falls below, we are likely to head towards the volume gap left, which happens to coincide with resistance at $38.5K.”

Bitcoin market share recovers

Bitcoin’s market cap rose more than 40% this week relative to the entire crypto market cap. Typically, traders are overweight Bitcoin during market downturns because of its lower risk relative to other cryptocurrencies (i.e. altcoins).

During the 2018 cryptocurrency bear market, BTC’s market share rose from a low of 35% to a high of 72%. And over the past year, the ratio has dropped 30 percentage points as altcoins have rallied ahead of bitcoin.

Some analysts expect Bitcoin to remain under pressure for several more months. “It took bitcoin about six months to recover from last spring’s fall,” bitcoin holding firm NYDIG wrote in a newsletter this week. "In the current decline, a similar timeline would see a recovery date sometime in May."

Altcoin Market at a Glance

Polkadot Incentives: Astar Network, one of the parachains of the Polkadot network, announced the $100 million Astar Boost Program fund, which aims to provide liquidity and provide capital support and incentive programs for smart contract developers. The company told CoinDesk that the program was funded through a $22 million fundraiser, as well as an allocation of ASTR’s native token.

Tether blacklists Ethereum address linked to Multichain hack: According to Etherscan's flagging of transactions involving the wallet and analysis by CoinDesk, the address dates back to nearly a month ago in the theft of $3 million on the cross-chain bridge Multichain Cryptocurrency hacker. Regardless of who controls the address, as long as it is frozen, funds cannot be transferred.

NFT-linked home sells for $650,000: Real estate startup Propy announced Friday that it has sold its first NFT-based property in the United States. The 2,164-square-foot home in Gulfport, Florida fetched $653,000 (210 ETH) at auction, and the winning bidder will receive an NFT as proof of home ownership.