By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - Cryptocurrency markets declined broadly on Tuesday as a looming Russian invasion of Ukraine hit risk-sensitive assets. In a televised address to his country, Russia President Vladimir Putin said he would recognize two pro-Russia breakaway republics in Eastern Ukraine and made a case for invading Ukraine, saying that the country's pro-Western government was a threat to Russia.
Following Putin's speech, the U.S. President Joe Biden announced penalties against the breakaway Ukraine republics. In recent weeks, market participants have been adopting more risk-averse strategies as the ongoing conflict will likely affect the global economy which is already struggling with surging inflation and supply chain delays.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading at about $36,500, down 6.56% while Ethereum was 6.92% lower.
Meantime, U.S. equity markets were closed for the national Presidents Day holiday, but leading European stock exchanges, including the FTSE 100, the DAX in Frankfurt and CAC 40 in Paris finished in the red. Most major Asian indexes also lost ground on Tuesday, including Nikkei 225 and the Hang Seng. Global stocks also declined while gold, a traditional safe haven, continued to climb higher.
Among other cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin was 10.06% lower, XRP was down 14.5%, Cardano fell 14.42%, Solana lost 13.7%.