Bitcoin drops to $34,704 amid the market plunges into extreme fear

Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen to a new two-week low as tensions between Russia and Ukraine continue to escalate. Global equity prices fell across the board on market reactions to the latest moves from Russia, and crypto prices were no different.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has been falling since February 15, when it was rejected near the $44,200 resistance area for the second time. So far, it has reached a low of $34,704 on February 22.

The latest enhanced volatility in the cryptocurrency market caused significant pain for over-leveraged investors. Coinglass data shows $400 million worth of liquidations since yesterday from more than 120,000 liquidated traders. The single-largest order happened on OKEx and was worth just shy of $4 million.

What next for Bitcoin, frankly nobody knows. As is often the case with crypto, there’s a lot of conflicting information out there. Some analysts are urging people to buy the dip in the belief that the granddaddy of crypto will go to $100,000 this year, while others are talking about an upcoming “crypto winter.”

There are too many factors at play. If the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalates further and Russia does invade, it will hit stock and crypto prices worldwide, not to mention the human cost. If the situation improves and conflict can be avoided, market confidence may increase.

Analysts aren’t convinced the rebound will last. The Kremlin has ruled out the prospect of a dialogue soon between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, President Joe Biden, an idea proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday. Ukraine, meantime, has reported shelling from Russia-backed separatists.

“It seems like a full ‘de-risk’ across the board, presumably a flight to cash as it’s hard to find an asset that is actually performing against the current uncertainty,” said Jason Deane, an analyst at Quantum Economics. “Markets could be very messy if military action actually does transpire.”

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has lost 23.8% over the last seven days, struggling to stay above $2,336.15.

In contrast, metaverse and GameFi tokens are mostly higher on the day. Decentraland games (MANA) is also positive, with a 3% increase, while the Sandbox token (SAND) up 2.8%. Yield guild games (YGG) has added 2.5%.

Axie infinity (AXS), the leader in crypto’s still-nascent “play-to-earn” sector, is trading up 5% in the last 24 hours. The advance comes as the game surpassed $4 billion in lifetime sales of non-fungible tokens (NFT), according to data from DappRadar. The game was launched in 2018 and now has a market capitalization of $3.2 billion.