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SOL, ETH Rise With Bitcoin as War Continues After Russia, Ukraine Hold Peace Talks

Bitcoin's record-breaking daily gains trickled down to Solana, ether, and other layer-1s as the market factors in a possible end to the war in Ukraine.

Updated May 11, 2023, 4:44 p.m. Published Mar 1, 2022, 4:21 a.m.
(Zack Seward/CoinDesk)
(Zack Seward/CoinDesk)

Bitcoin's push past $40,000 with a 15% daily gain, a new record for the world's largest digital asset by market cap, has been felt in ether and other layer 1 protocol tokens as the total crypto market cap inches back toward the $2 trillion mark.

  • Fighting continued after peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended with no resolution other than to meet again, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
  • By late morning Asia time, was trading at around $43,000, according to CoinGecko.
  • Macroeconomic strategist Lynn Alden noted on Twitter that "a week into a significant geopolitical/military event, bitcoin is outperforming gold," pointing to Ukraine and Russia's comparatively high crypto adoption. Ukraine is fourth on Chainalysis' crypto adoption index, while Russia is 18th.
  • was up 11.4% to $97 at time of writing, per CoinGecko, while ether was up to $2,900, or 11% on-day.
  • According to open interest data curated by CoinAlyze, open interest on solana is up 14% to $726 million.
  • Open interest on ether is up 11%.
  • Other tokens also saw double-digit gains. was up 17% to $86.70 at time of writing, while Cardano's ADA token was up 9.7% to 96 cents. Cosmos' ATOM token posted gains of 16%, bringing its price to $31.75.
  • Glassnode data shows the number of unique stablecoin transfers hit a monthly high, inferring that traders who had cashed out during the initial uncertainty of the war in Ukraine are moving assets around to prepare for a re-entry into the market.

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Exchange Review - March 2025

Exchange Review March 2025

CoinDesk Data's monthly Exchange Review captures the key developments within the cryptocurrency exchange market. The report includes analyses that relate to exchange volumes, crypto derivatives trading, market segmentation by fees, fiat trading, and more.

What to know:

Trading activity softened in March as market uncertainty grew amid escalating tariff tensions between the U.S. and global trading partners. Centralized exchanges recorded their lowest combined trading volume since October, declining 6.24% to $6.79tn. This marked the third consecutive monthly decline across both market segments, with spot trading volume falling 14.1% to $1.98tn and derivatives trading slipping 2.56% to $4.81tn.

  • Trading Volumes Decline for Third Consecutive Month: Combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell by 6.24% to $6.79tn in March 2025, reaching the lowest level since October. Both spot and derivatives markets recorded their third consecutive monthly decline, falling 14.1% and 2.56% to $1.98tn and $4.81tn respectively.
  • Institutional Crypto Trading Volume on CME Falls 23.5%: In March, total derivatives trading volume on the CME exchange fell by 23.5% to $175bn, the lowest monthly volume since October 2024. CME's market share among derivatives exchanges dropped from 4.63% to 3.64%, suggesting declining institutional interest amid current macroeconomic conditions. 
  • Bybit Spot Market Share Slides in March: Spot trading volume on Bybit fell by 52.1% to $81.1bn in March, coinciding with decreased trading activity following the hack of the exchange's cold wallets in February. Bybit's spot market share dropped from 7.35% to 4.10%, its lowest since July 2023.

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What to know:

  • Ethena's USDe becomes fifth stablecoin to surpass $10 billion market cap in just 609 days, while Tether's dominance continues to slip.