Bitcoin’s price spike, which briefly exceeded $44,500 Tuesday afternoon, is now easing. BTC has retreated to roughly $43,912 on Wednesday, but is still up nearly $10,000 in the last five days and is on the verge of reclaiming January levels. Bitcoin price rose more than 5% Monday as markets processed new developments in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite risk aversion pushing down blue-chip and technology sectors, which cryptocurrencies have been linked to for weeks. Markets may be underestimating the economic repercussions of Russia’s financial isolation. Sanctions against Russia were placed to cripple its economy and financial systems. To safeguard the plummeting ruble, which has lost more than 20% of its value, the Russian central bank closed the stock market and more than doubled its key interest rate to 20%. Related Article | Bitcoin Staggers After Putin’s Nuclear Deterrence Alert Warning “At that point, Europe and the United States would have to put pressure on the largest exchanges — FTX, Coinbase and Binance — to ban the addresses linked with Russia, and no other major exchange would want to engage with funds that came from those addresses,” Michael Rinko, a venture associate at AscendEx, said. Bitcoin’s Price Up 17% In 24 Hours Buyer demand for Bitcoin sparked a 17% increase in price in just 24 hours late Monday. Although it is too soon to identify a trend, crypto-analysts a...
