Multiple factors contributed to Bitcoin breaking through $44,000

Since Monday night, Bitcoin has continued to rise. In the early hours of Tuesday, Bitcoin rose by $2,000 in the short term, breaking through the $44,000 mark, and once rose by more than 17%.

Data shows that starting at 6:30 am today, the price of Bitcoin jumped more than $2,000 in 10 minutes and hit a daily high of $44,198, with a 15.6% increase in the past 24 hours. In addition, the prices of other cryptocurrencies including Terra, Cardano and Solana also rose simultaneously, pushing the entire cryptocurrency market value to increase by $200 billion in the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, the global cryptocurrency market value has reached $1.99 trillion, with a 24-hour increase of 10.1%.

Previously, due to the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Western countries imposed severe financial sanctions on Russia, and the Russian legal currency ruble plummeted to a record low. Based on this, the trading volume of Russian rubles against Bitcoin continued to rise. According to data tracked by Kaiko, a cryptocurrency research provider, the trading volume of Bitcoin denominated in rubles soared to nearly 1.5 billion rubles on Thursday, the highest level since May last year. In addition, the trading volume of USDT/RUB also rose to 1.3 billion rubles last Thursday, an 8-month high.

The rise in trading volumes was mainly due to investors panicking over the sanctions and their potential impact on the ruble flocking to safe-haven assets.

Another potential factor affecting the cryptocurrency market is Switzerland’s attitude.

At the beginning of Russia's attack on Ukraine, the Swiss government condemned the aggression in the harshest terms, but due to its neutral status, Switzerland said it would not fully adopt the EU's sanctions against Russia and would not freeze the assets of Russian individuals and companies. But on February 28, the Swiss government announced that it would withdraw its previous position and decided to adopt all the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia. Switzerland will freeze the assets of 363 Russian individuals and 4 companies. Switzerland's sanctions list also includes Russian Prime Minister Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The above sanctions take effect immediately. This move is considered by analysts to have made more people realize the charm of crypto assets and attracted more people to the cryptocurrency market.

However, it is worth noting that the U.S. Treasury Department issued new regulations prohibiting Americans from providing any support to Russian oligarchs and entities, including through transactions using digital currencies or encrypted assets. The rules came into effect on March 1. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department has asked Binance, FTX, and Coinbase to block sanctioned persons and addresses.