What happened

Today, it is a real bloodbath on the financial markets. Besides bonds, which are doing well, stocks and cryptocurrencies are absolutely devastated by the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last night. As of noon ET, top 10 cryptocurrencies Binance Coin (IN B), XRP ( XRP -0.29% )and Solana ( GROUND -1.03% ) had fallen 9.4%, 10.7% and 6.1% respectively in the past 24 hours.

These moves reflect growing concern over the higher correlation we’ve seen between stocks and cryptocurrencies. Specifically, this correlation between more speculative high-growth stocks and most digital tokens is of concern to all crypto investors.

So what

Binance Coin, XRP, and Solana are three projects generally considered to be among the most stable long-term holdings a crypto investor can hold. Many may have purchased these tokens knowing that crypto is a low-correlation asset, or one that may move less in line with stocks than other asset classes.

Lately, this hypothesis has been tested and it is starting to break down. Like other risk assets driven by incredible capital inflows in recent years, this macro environment is inherently bad for growth stocks. For cryptocurrencies, one could argue that the heightened concern over financial sanctions may actually boost major tokens like XRP that are used for cross-border payments. No such view is embraced today by investors, many of whom are liquidating positions and asking questions later.

Now what

For crypto investors looking at a sea of ​​red today, it’s really hard to tell which perspective to take to add to positions or take cream (if any) from the top. Profit taking has been happening for a while and may continue to put downward pressure on assets that have risen incredibly through the end of 2021. So the ultimate floor in this crypto bear market is very hard to see right now.