Weekly Bitpanda Market Recap #18 - Insights from the world of investing

News from the crypto world

Last week didn’t end positively for the crypto market. Bitcoin’s price fell over the weekend and kept going down on Monday, but showed a change of trend the day after. Ethereum started plummeting on Friday and reached a one week low on Monday, but it still managed to stay above €2,200. LUNA, XRP and other major altcoins had similar performances and closed the week in the red.

Crypto for Ukraine: more than $50M raised

Ever since the start of the war, Ukraine has been accepting donations in crypto. The country is not a newbie in terms of cryptocurrency, as a recent report showed that Ukraine had already been trading more crypto than fiat. As of now, more than $50M worth of crypto have been raised for the Ukrainian government and for NGOs operating in the country. 

At Bitpanda, we’ve set up the Bitpanda Emergency Response Fund to allow our community to donate crypto assets of their choice to NGOs, bringing humanitarian support to people affected by the war. Donate here. 

LUNA surpasses ETH in terms of total staked value ($30B)

Terra (LUNA) became the second biggest crypto in terms of total staked value, surpassing Ethereum (ETH). The stablecoin protocol has a total staked value of over $26B, and is second after Solana (SOL), with $32B. 

LUNA is considered one of the fastest growing cryptocurrencies in the industry and has earned itself a place among the top ten cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap within a very short period of time. On March 9, 2021, LUNA was trading for just under €10 and had a total market cap of €3.9B. Terra reached an all-time high on December, 27, 2021 at €94.85. LUNA is now trading at around €75, with a market cap of over €27B. 

Watch our Weekly Recap - this week with a special focus on the International Women’s Day

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Oracle (ORCL): March 8

• Campbell Soup (CPB): March 9

Stock market performance

The escalation of the war in Ukraine, now in its second week, has contributed to creating a highly volatile stock market. Major European indices closed the week deeply in the red, with losses of more than -9%, reporting the worst week since 2020. U.S. and Asian indices followed suit, but managed to keep the losses smaller. 

Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal suspend services in Russia

Payment giants Visa*, Mastercard* and American Express* have decided to suspend their services in Russia following the country’s war against Ukraine. Owners of Mastercard and Visa cards will still be able to use their cards for domestic transactions in Russia, but international transactions - payments online and abroad - won’t be possible anymore for customers with Russian cards. American Express took another route: regardless of their respective country of issuance, all American Express cards won’t work anymore in Russia and all cards issued by Russian banks using the company’s network won’t either. American Express has also interrupted all business operations in Belarus.

Since the start of the war, several companies have halted services in Russia, including Zara, TikTok, Netflix, Nike, Microsoft, and many more. 

Oil price the highest since 2008

Europe, U.S. and other partner countries are currently discussing issuing an import ban on Russian oil. 

At the moment, Russian oil constitutes more than a third of the European oil supply, and about 60% of all the oil that Russia exports goes to Europe. In the midst of a probable import ban and a potential cut of the gas supplies to Europe, the price of this resource has risen to its highest since 2008, reaching almost $140 a barrel.

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.