Bitcoin Takes $63,000 on Russia Ukraine Tensions and Coinbase Listing

Bitcoin has risen to a new high of $63,300 with it jumping by $2,000 at around 8AM euro time this morning as pictured above.

That suggests Europe is driving its rise and the reason is probably because of the standoff between the Ukrainian and Russian army.

“We will of course do everything possible to ensure our own security and the security of our citizens wherever they are,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“I do believe we have all tools available not only to prevent Russia from making a single step forward, but also to make it withdraw from the occupied territories of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said as quoted by Politico.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenber has called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

“Russia must end this military build-up in and around Ukraine, stop its provocations and deescalate immediately,” he said.

A ceasefire agreement with Russian backed rebels broke down in March with tensions escalating after a military buildup in the Russia-Ukraine border and in the Russian occupied Crimea.

Two US ships are now to arrive at the Black Sea tomorrow and will stay there until May the 5th with Russia warning them to not get near Crimea.

In addition Russia has suspended tourism flights to Turkey until June, ostensibly due to the pandemic following Turkey expressing clear support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Canada apparently has troops on the ground in Ukraine training their forces since long. Whether they would boost them if it came to anything is not clear, but apparently Ukrainians are one of Canada’s biggest minority.

The west for its part is speaking with one voice, stating: “we reaffirm our unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.”

The Russian Ruble is weakening, down 15% since last summer to 77 per dollar. Investors are getting concerned especially as talks of new sanctions increase, with Ukrainian bonds also suffering due to the tensions.

Bitcoin has been rising instead presumably as Russians and Ukrainians hedge with the store of value.

It may also be due to the Coinbase listing tomorrow as the first global crypto exchange debuts on the stock markets.

In addition bitcoin was consolidating just under $60,000 for long, so it may be just a technical breakout.

However studies have found a correlation between geopolitics and bitcoin’s price, with this buildup being the biggest geopolitical event in Europe in a decade and if we combine it with the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, it is arguably the biggest geopolitical event in Europe in nearly a century since the war.

That’s because since then, there has been no such annexation within the continent with Ukraine now effectively not sovereign as it stands because Russia dictates its policies through controlling the separatist regions and occupied Crimea.

That is after Ukraine chose democracy in 2014, with Russia then providing ‘protection’ through a seven years long ‘civil’ war.

Much has changed since then however, including a new rising power that makes that ‘protection’ business very complicated because there are many ethnicities to ‘protect’ in Ukraine, including Ukrainians themselves as far as Canada is concerned.

If anything comes to anything it would apparently be in early May according to analysts, so in two weeks.

Where troops are concerned they seem to be an even match as far as the ones deployed to the border, so tech would decide and there Ukraine would probably have the upper hand.

Making it difficult to understand who is planning what because Putin may well feel he is running out of time to ‘secure’ eastern Ukraine and get a land bridge to Transnistria in Moldova, which he has also not-occupied.

So consolidating his significant encroachment in the European continent both in hard power and the significant soft power that would come from successfully achieving that.

That could explain the rising activity among the rebels as Ukrainian soldiers keep getting killed, some 27 this year, with the country effectively not quite independent as it stands, something that must worry the other NATO bordering members like Poland or the Baltic.

If Ukraine has any tech superiority that gap might also close. So it may well be both sides have time pressures and thus if it comes to anything, the one who started it would obviously be Russia by occupying Crimea while controlling Donbas and the like just because Ukraine wants to be a democracy.

Making it effectively an attack on democracy itself, something that may well mean Biden in particular and also other democracies might provide any support that is needed if it comes to anything.

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