Why bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices are falling today

Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith details cryptocurrency price slumps amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, bitcoin and ethereum's losses, and the comparison between crypto and traditional high-risk assets.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, cryptocurrencies are declining alongside equities, as investors continue to keep a close watch on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bitcoin now trading below that $37,000 handle, hitting a one-month low. Let's bring in Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith, who's tracking the latest market action. And David, we've spoken about this for some time here. But it feels increasingly like Bitcoin trades as a risk asset as we watch the equity space, too.

DAVID HOLLERITH: Absolutely, Akiko. The correlation with Bitcoin and the S&P 500 actually hit its all-time high yesterday. And, you know, what that tells us is that it's a similar narrative that we've seen since cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have been sort of bought up by these larger, more institutional investors. You know, it's-- the asset class is focusing like a risk-on, high risk equity. So that's actually unsurprising, even though it is at an all-time high.

Now that being said, since the drawdown yesterday, which was fairly significant, almost 11% in less than 24 hours, there has been some recovery. So now Bitcoin is trading, it looks like, right around $36,000. Ethereum also is taking a higher hit. Other major cryptocurrencies that have probably been hit the hardest are Avalanche, Cardano, and Dogecoin, which have each seen more than a 15% drawdown on the day.

So I've spoken with a few brokers who have seen trading. And when the sell-off sort of happened yesterday, they had sort of noted that there was increased selling. And, you know, this buy the dip mentality we've seen from crypto investors is not really shaping up right now. So it does seem like, you know, prices could fall further once we see more developments on sort of the geopolitical situation that's happening right now.

Another thing I'll add, too, is that cryptocurrencies are a lot more liquid than other types of assets. They trade 24/7, which means when something like this happens, for any investor who holds multiple assets, the very first thing they can trade typically is something like a cryptocurrency because the market's never closed, as opposed to something like stocks. So that's why we typically see cryptocurrencies leading a drawdown.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Interesting commentary there. Yeah, especially given that the developments were overnight, maybe those who looked at Bitcoin could have been able to predict exactly what was going to go on in the broader equities markets. But Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith, thanks so much.