Weekly Bitpanda Market Recap #17 - Insights from the world of investing

News from the crypto world 

The crypto market, as well as the wider financial market, plunged significantly on Thursday, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During that day, the crypto total market cap fell below €1.4T briefly, but managed to get back to over €1.5T on Friday. Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies followed a similar trend, dropping on February 24 and regaining some of the losses the following day.

More than $30M raised in crypto for Ukraine

Donations in the form of crypto are pouring in support of Ukraine, which has already received more than $30M in crypto. Ukraine has made it known via the country’s official Twitter account that donations in crypto are accepted, and shared its Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether and Polkadot wallet addresses. Fundraising is also gaining momentum thanks to many DAOs formed to simplify gathering crypto for Ukraine, providing the crypto community with a decentralised and anonymous environment to send contributions.

NFTs for Ukraine

An influential niche of the crypto industry that decided to swing into action was the NFT community. OpenSea, the biggest Ethereum-based NFT platform, and many other NTF marketplaces have seen plenty of NFT collections gearing up to raise and send funds to charities in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainian artists saw considerable increase in their sales from Thursday on, also aided by Web3 initiatives.

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Wendy's (WEN): March 1
  

• Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF): March 2

• Bilibili (BILI): March 3

Stock market performance

European and Asian indices closed the week in the red, with the first group experiencing widespread selling pressure after the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. U.S. major indices saw more positive performances, with the Top 500 US Stocks* and Dow Jones closing in the green by over 2 percentage points.

The EU commission’s sanctions to Russia’s central bank 

In view of Russia’s military move against Ukraine, both the EU Commission and the Federal Reserve sanctioned Russia’s central bank. The sanctions against Russia are expected to put a strain on the national economy, in anticipation of slowing down expenditures on the military. As part of the sanctions, the assets of Russia’s central bank, which had over $630B in reserves, have been frozen. 

Russia’s access to SWIFT cut 

The sanctions issued to Russia also exclude parts of the nation from SWIFT. Short for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, SWIFT is the underlying technology connecting banks with each other worldwide. Preventing Russia from further accessing SWIFT means isolating it financially, as the country won’t be able to easily process payments and stay connected with the world. Sanctions don’t only affect governments and financial institutions: they can also directly impact individuals, who could find themselves unable to move their funds the way they had been used to. 

Our support to Ukraine: Bitpanda Emergency Response Fund

The terrible events going on in Ukraine are deeply saddening and shocking. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those who are suffering, both physically and emotionally, for this terrible war. We wanted to show our support for Ukraine and to take action in this difficult time. This is why we’re setting up the Bitpanda Emergency Response Fund, a crowdfunding platform that allows our community to contribute the crypto assets of their choice to causes that provide humanitarian support to people affected by the war. The first beneficiaries will be the organisations Save the Children - Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund and Doctors Without Borders - Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

We will kickstart the donations with a €100,000 contribution on behalf of Bitpanda, and we then match every donation up to €500,000 in total. On top of that, our founders will each individually contribute a personal donation of €50,000. Find out more in the message from Bitpanda’s founders and on the Bitpanda Emergency Response Fund page. 

Check out the price developments of your favourite cryptocurrencies, stocks*, ETFs* and precious metals on our app for iOS and Android or on our web app. Check our blog and follow our social media channels to always be up to speed. Don’t forget to subscribe to the official Bitpanda YouTube channel for our weekly recaps and video content. 

Disclaimer

This article does not constitute investment advice, nor is it an offer or invitation to purchase any digital assets.

This article is for general purposes of information only and no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of this article or opinions contained herein. *Bitpanda Stocks are contracts replicating an underlying stock or ETF. More information and the PRIIPs key information document (KID) are available at bitpanda.com.