Ukraine Conflict Leads to $242M Crypto Liquidation

Russia’s incursion into the Ukraine early Thursday (Feb. 24) triggered more than $242 million in liquidations in the crypto market.

As Coindesk reported, most of those liquidations — $72 million — were in Bitcoin-tracked futures, followed by ether futures at $70 million. Losses on Solana’s SOL futures hit $6.46 million, while XRP futures hit $5.18 million, and Dogecoin’s DOGE futures were at $6.81 million.

The report noted the liquidations were part of more than $411 million in liquidations seen over the last 24 hours. Around 114,700 traders were liquidated, with the biggest single liquidation order happening on OKX, a LINK trade valued at more than $3.21 million.

The total market capitalization of crypto dropped nearly 7.8% in early Asian hours, Coindesk said. Bitcoin fell almost 8%, while stock futures in Asia and Europe dropped 1.5% on average.

Russian tanks, troops and planes entered Ukraine early Thursday, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” and what the U.S. has condemned as an outright invasion.

Read more: US, Europe Levy Russia Sanctions, but All-out SWIFT Ban Not Likely Yet

U.S. President Joe Biden said the attack on Ukraine had zero justification and vowed further action against Russia.

“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way,” Biden said in a statement. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”

Biden was expected to announce a new round of sanctions against Russia that, coupled with measures imposed by U.S. allies, would cut off Russia from vital technologies and markets, while putting pressure on the country’s banks.

These new sanctions follow more precise efforts announced this week by Biden that singled out a few banks and elite families in Russia.

Some of the new measures could include preventing Russia from accessing semiconductors or cutting off the country’s access to global financial system SWIFT. In other actions that would target individual companies, Russian firms could be delisted from stock exchanges (the Russian equity markets fell more than 30% on Thursday). Sanctions against Russia’s financial system could be crucial, as about half of its trade is carried out in dollars.