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. 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. Read more here.

EU ‘Taking Measures’ to Prevent Russia Evading Sanctions With Crypto: Le Maire

The European Union is set to crack down on Russia’s ability to evade economic sanctions using cryptocurrencies, according to France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
“We are taking measures, in particular on cryptocurrencies or crypto assets which should not be used to circumvent the financial sanctions decided upon by the 27 EU countries,” Le Maire reportedly said. This is not the first time public officials have raised concerns about Russia using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions. Amid the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on cryptocurrency exchanges to ban Russian users.
Earlier this week, several Senate Democrats also asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen how the U.S. could ensure crypto would not be used by Russia to evade sanctions. Read more here.

Ethereum's Infura Cuts Off Users to Separatist Areas in Ukraine, Accidentally Blocks Venezuela

Venezuelan users of two major ConsenSys software products, MetaMask and Infura, found themselves all but cut off from the Ethereum network today, with many reporting they had been blocked from their wallets. But the blockade wasn't meant for them, but rather was the result of adding IP addresses from two separatist regions in Ukraine: Donetsk and Luhansk. Infura, which hosts Ethereum nodes and operates blockchain infrastructure on behalf of companies, says the problem was accidental and has been resolved. It came about, Infura says, due to accidentally reconfiguring settings "more broadly than they needed to be" to comply with "new sanctions directives." Read here.

NFT Market Cools as Trading on Ethereum and Solana Dips

Following a record-shattering month of NFT trading volume for leading marketplace OpenSea in January, trading volume across the wider NFT market cooled in February, based on data shared from multiple sources. OpenSea recorded nearly $3.65 billion worth of trading volume in February between NFT sales on Ethereum and Polygon, the latter a sidechain scaling solution for Ethereum that cuts down on transaction fees. That data comes from Dune Analytics, which shows an approximate 27 percent month-over-month dip in trading volume on the platform. Although the marketplace recorded three separate days with more than $200 million worth of Ethereum NFT trading volume, the daily volume chart suggests a general downward trend over the course of the month. Read more here.