Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins fell further on Feb. 17 as the situation in Ukraine worsened, with Russia expelling Bart Gorman, the deputy head of the U.S. diplomatic mission, after President Biden reiterated his threat to invade Ukraine.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed that selling pressure rebounded in the afternoon, and the price of Bitcoin fell to a daily low of $40,081, as bulls frantically blocked it, trying to prevent Bitcoin from falling below $40,000.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
According to analysts, the bullish case for Bitcoin continues to weaken as factors influencing the crypto market mount.
Real interest rates and inflation are major concerns
David Lifchitz, managing partner and chief investment officer at ExoAlpha, spoke about the impact of the Ukraine-Russia situation, noting that the situation "will definitely put pressure on risk assets, up like they were on Feb. 15, down like they are today."
While the Ukraine-Russia incident is currently dominating headlines and causing broad weakness in global markets, Lifchitz said the situation "seems to be a distraction from real interest rate/inflation issues."
According to Lifchitz, the current conflict is likely to last only a few months, while "the inflation/interest rate issue is a multi-year issue that may be affected more broadly and over a longer period of time."
Lifchitz says:
“Since we’re still in a trader’s market, Bitcoin is just falling back into the $30,000 to $50,000 range right now. So unless there’s a big drop below $33,000 or above $48,000, choppy trading will continue and altcoins will follow the trend, more big."
Bitcoin remains a strong asset
Despite the recent weakness, market analyst and anonymous Twitter trader "IncomeSharks" offered the following words of reassurance to help add a little perspective to BTC's long-term prospects.
With all that has happened over the years, how can you not be bullish that #Bitcoin is still worth $40K? Its value has risen every year since its inception. This is a more powerful asset than people give it credit for.
— IncomeSharks (@IncomeSharks) February 17, 2022
The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization is currently $1.85 trillion, with Bitcoin dominance at 41.7%.
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