Bitcoin, ETH Extend Gains As Equity Markets Continue Fall

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high in rubles and continued to rise in dollars on Tuesday. The sanctions on Russia have caused The value of the ruble is crashing, and Russians fear funds in their bank account could be seized to help stave off a recession, which could push them to invest in bitcoin.

While Bitcoin continued to rise, stock markets deepened their decline, leading some to speculate that Bitcoin may be regaining its status as a safe and risk-free asset.

“I see Bitcoin moving from a risky to a risky asset, and so far in 2022, crypto has made good progress on this trajectory.” said Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Others pointed out that bitcoin works best in circumstances like those seen in recent days.

“When freedom and individual freedom are threatened, the price of bitcoin goes up,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and managing partner of Nexo.

The S&P 500 fell 1.55% while the Nasdaq and the Dow fell 1.63% and 1.76% respectively.

Bitcoin, ether and most of the major cryptocurrencies continued to rise. Bitcoin surged more than 2% at the end of stock trading, taking its rise to more than 14% in the past five days. Ether is up 1.44% and is also up over 14% in the last five days.

The biggest gainer of the day among the top coins in the crypto market was RUNE, which saw an increase of more than 32% in the last 24 hours.

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Going forward

With markets likely to remain highly volatile amid the conflict in Ukraine, it will be hard to tell if Bitcoin is truly becoming a risk asset. Jerome Powell's scheduled testimony before Congress on Wednesday only adds to the uncertainty.

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