Cryptocurrency markets dropped late Friday—along with U.S. stocks—as investors dumped riskier assets amid fears Russia could invade Ukraine.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was down nearly 4% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. It was trading for $42,469.06 at the time of writing.
But the altcoin market was what took the biggest beating. Solana, the eighth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was down 10%, priced at $98.02.
While XRP, the asset that underpins payments platform Ripple, and the sixth biggest cryptocurrency, was down by 8.29%, trading for $0.7751.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, also tumbled: down 5.6% in 24 hours at $2,932.73.
Why is this happening? It could be because of increased tensions between Ukraine and Russia. Talk of war is making headlines as Russia amasses troops at the Ukrainian border. And today the White House said that Russia could invade the country within the next few days.
Fears of inflation, too, have played a part in spooking investors. U.S. inflation yesterday hit its highest level in 40 years.
This has caused investors to get rid of riskier assets—be it equities or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Crypto previously was thought to do its own thing and not follow the stock market but it has become increasingly correlated in recent years.
At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.4% or 501 points, to about 34,740. And the S&P 500 SPX fell 90 points—or 2%—to about 4,414.