Facebook Twitter

Gold is up and bitcoin is down amid Russia attack on Ukraine

What to know about bitcoin and gold as Russia continues attack on Ukraine

SHARE Gold is up and bitcoin is down amid Russia attack on Ukraine
Bitcoin, one of the cryptocurrencies, is displayed.

An advertisement for Bitcoin, one of many cryptocurrencies, is displayed on a building in Hong Kong, on Nov. 18, 2021.

Kin Cheung, Associated Press

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has upended the global investment market as gold has seen a major spike in value and bitcoin saw a tremendous dip.

What happened: Gold has jumped to its highest levels in more than a year amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, CNBC reports.

  • Gold was trading at about $1,968.01 per ounce by Wednesday morning, which is about 3.17% higher than the previous day and the highest since late 2020, according to CNBC.
  • Gold is expected to climb to $1,969.30 per ounce, according to CNBC.

Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin dropped below $35,000 Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine, per CNN.

  • The coin has hovered around $35,000 in the hours after the attack, suffering at least an 8% drop compared to the day before, according to Coin Market Cap.

Why it matters: Bitcoin has often been considered digital gold, but the crisis between Russia and Ukraine shows the tremendous risk with the coin, per NBC News.

  • “The correlation between crypto and stocks has been high over the last few months on both inflation-related macro news and the Russia-Ukraine geopolitical situation,” said Chris Dick, a quantitative trader at crypto market maker B2C2, according to NBC News.
  • “This correlation shows that bitcoin is firmly behaving like a risk asset at the moment — not the safe haven it was touted to be a few years ago.”