Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum decline as Russia-Ukraine war intensifies

The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell 5.21 percent over the last 24 hours to $1.83 trillion while trading volumes declined 10.69 percent to $85.22 billion during the period.

Over the last 24 hours, total volume in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space stood at $14.55 billion, around 17.08 percent of the 24-hour cryptocurrency trading volume. The total volume in stablecoins stood at $71.87 billion, around 84.33 percent of the 24-hour cryptocurrency trading volume.

Global cryptocurrency markets plunged again as Russia intensified its attack on Ukraine, capturing the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and ramping up offensive on Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Bitcoin's market dominance fell 0.11 percent to 43.06 percent and the currency was trading at $41,430.77 on the morning of March 4.

In rupee terms, Bitcoin declined 5.19 percent to trade at Rs 32,65,396 while Ethereum fell 7.04 percent to Rs 2,15,643.5.

Cardano was down 5.3 percent to Rs 69.84 and Avalanche fell 6.6 percent to Rs 6,113.1. Polkadot was down 5.4 percent to Rs 1,373.99 and Litecoin fell 2.25 percent to Rs 8,489.89 in the last 24 hours. Tether was up 0.39 percent to Rs 78.92.

Memecoin SHIB fell 5.21 percent while Dogecoin was down by 4.65 percent to trade at Rs 9.93. Terra (LUNA) fell 1.98 percent to Rs 7,133.99

In other news, the Ukrainian crypto crowdfunding efforts have now racked up $50.9 million, per figures published by blockchain analytics platform Elliptic. “The Ukrainian government—and an NGO providing support to the military—have raised $50.9 million, through more than 89,000 crypto asset donations since the start of the Russian invasion,” Elliptic wrote in a blog post.

Ukraine’s crypto crowdfunding push began on February 26, when the Ukrainian government’s official Twitter account announced it was “now accepting cryptocurrency donations".

When the Ukrainian government first announced it was accepting cryptocurrency donations, it shared a Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet address for interested donors. Per blockchain records, those two addresses have now received $10 million and $16 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively.

Separately, decentralised autonomous organisation Ukraine DAO raised 2,258 ETH (around $6.75 million) in an auction that began on February 26 and ended on March 2. After a market dip, the amount is worth roughly $6.4 million today. Launched last month, Ukraine DAO is the brainchild of Alona Shevchenko, a Ukrainian activist living in England. Shevchenko says that Ukraine DAO came together after she connected with members of the digital artist collective PleasrDAO and Nadya Tolokonnikova, founder of the conceptual protest art group, Pussy Riot.

Also, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said she is “disappointed” in some crypto exchanges that have not banned Russian users from their platforms.

“I was disappointed to see that some of the so-called crypto exchanges, not all of them, but some of them, are refusing to end transactions with Russia,” Clinton said during a recent interview on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC.

She added, “Everybody should do as much as possible to isolate Russian economic activity right now.” Notably, several crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, have declined the option to ban all Russian users, stating there are no legal grounds to do so.

As of 7:40 am, these were the prices of various cryptocurrencies in the Indian market (Data from WazirX)