Crypto On Feb 22: Top Coins Follow A Bearish Trend; Industry Seems Confident Of Future Gains

The cryptocurrency market plunged Tuesday as the Russia-Ukraine crisis sizzles, increasing investors' stress levels. The global market cap fell 7.32% to $1.66 trillion as of 2.53 a.m. ET.

Bitcoin tumbled 6.14% to $36,862. Ethereum, too, dropped 7.99% to $2525, CoinMarketCap data showed. All of the top coins traded in the red along with meme cryptos Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.

Industry insiders believe that along with the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the broader sell-off across financial markets due to inflationary concerns is putting immense pressure on crypto prices.

"The US Federal Reserve has announced an aggressive approach towards hiking interest rates this year which might be driving investors to consolidate their holdings across digital assets to create a more stable and inflation-proof investment strategy," Charles Tan, head of marketing at Coinstore, told International Business Times.

Even as the market continues to follow a downward slope, experts are confident that institutional investors will drive the market by supporting developments in the sector.

Sovereign wealth fund Temasek and leading technology venture capital firm Sequoia Capital have reaffirmed their commitment to crypto projects, fueling trust and credibility in the industry.

"As we saw the total value of crypto fundraising deals increase by 645% in 2021 from the year before, amounting to US$34.3 billion, we can expect the strong institutional support to maintain inflows of funding, minimizing the impact of the upcoming crypto winter on innovations in the sector," Indian exchange CoinDCX told International Business Times.

The crypto market is extremely volatile, and experts recommend investors not make decisions based on the sudden shift in prices.