Bitcoin edges higher as tensions mount between Ukraine and Russia

Bitcoin moved higher Tuesday even as other risk assets sold off amid rising geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by less than 1% at $92,003.28, according to Coin Metrics, just below the all-time high of $93,469.08 reached last week. Shares of MicroStrategy, which trade as a bitcoin proxy, rose 3%.

Meanwhile, ether fell more than 1%, as did shares of Coinbase, and Robinhood was under pressure. Both stocks benefit from the trading of other, non-bitcoin assets across the crypto market.

Investors reacted overnight to reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. that the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons had come down in response to President Joe Biden allowing Ukraine to use U.S. missiles to strike military targets inside Russia.

Bitcoin has recently benefited from enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies after the U.S. presidential election. That drove bitcoin to fresh records and sent smaller crypto assets soaring. Like gold, crypto assets are seen by many investors as a “non-confiscatable,” long-term hedge against geopolitical uncertainty.

“The most significant long-term correlations for bitcoin are a negative correlation with the U.S. dollar and a positive correlation with money supply growth,” Matt Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, said Oct. 28 on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“Bitcoin is a chameleon,” Sigel added. “Its correlations change over time; it’s hard to predict what it’s going to be correlated with over the short term.”

Bitcoin has behaved as a safe haven before. It outperformed during the crisis in the regional banking system in early 2023, for example. But because bitcoin is also a risky asset without a long history, with extreme volatility that can benefit short-term traders, some have a hard time arguing that bitcoin is necessarily attractive forever. Citigroup, for example, in a note Monday reiterated the bank’s view that bitcoin doesn’t exhibit store-of-value properties.