Bitcoin stuck under $40K, but BTC price hits another all-time high vs. Russian ruble

Bitcoin (BTC) recovered from one-week lows on March 8 after a lack of progress in Russia-Ukraine talks sent markets tumbling.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Commodities “trading like meme stocks”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD bouncing at $37,170 on Bitstamp after Mondayโ€™s Wall Street open.

Overnight progress maintained support, with the pair trading at around $38,500 at the time of writing.

Crypto and stocks had reacted badly to the third round of negotiations to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine ending in a lack of consensus.

โ€œThere are small positive subductions in improving the logistics of humanitarian corridors… Intensive consultations have continued on the basic political block of the regulations, along with a ceasefire and security guarantees,โ€ negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak nonetheless tweeted as part of feedback following conclusion of the talks.

The news was not enough to provide any form of hope, however โ€” U.S. stocks trended down throughout the session, the S&P 500 ending Monday with 2.95% losses.

Commodities, meanwhile, saw spikes which were often unprecedented, such as nickel jumping past $100,000 per ton on the London Metal Exchange.

At the same time, pain continued for Russia, with only ruble-exposed investors hedging in BTC seeing some form of relief. On Monday evening, BTC/RUB hit new all-time highs of just over 5 million on Binance.

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

Amid the mayhem, and despite Bitcoinโ€™s lackluster price reaction as a safe haven paradoxically correlated with stocks, there were nonetheless votes of confidence from diehard supporters.

โ€œThe world is watching trust get repriced in real time,โ€ Marty Bent, founder of Bitcoin media company TFTC summarized.

โ€œWhen the dust settles bitcoin will be the biggest benefactor bc the masses will realize a distributed system that cannot be controlled by a single person, government, corporation or coalition is the only thing they can trust.โ€

Regulatory concerns from the U.S. meanwhile also contributed to the market’s cold feet.

$40,000 becomes short-term target

For low timeframe trades, Bitcoin nonetheless looked fairly unappealing for many, with upside potential decidedly limited.

Related:ย 3 reasons why Bitcoin can rally back to $60K despite erasing last week’s gains

For popular traders Anbessa and Crypto Ed, $40,000 remained an obvious target for a bullish divergence.

โ€œTarget can be defined better when that correction is finished, but for now sticking with ~40k,โ€ Crypto Ed added.

As Cointelegraph reported, upcoming events in the U.S., notably consumer price index (CPI) data due Thursday and a decision on interest rate hikes next week, were apt to disrupt sentiment in the short term.