Markets extremely jittery

Bitcoin and Ethereum each went slightly green (+1%) in the first hour of daylight on the U.S. East Coast waking to the news of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Over 24 hours, as of 7:15 a.m. (EST), BTC was down roughly 9% but still holding strong above $35,000.

ETH fell 12.7% to just below $2,400.

Oil prices jumped 8%.

Explosions in the Ukrainian capital continue to reverberate around global markets. Some $200 billion worth of crypto market was erased in the past 24 hours. Hardest hit among the Big Ten was Cardano (ADA) which fell 18% to $0.76. Since last year at this time, ADA has declined 20%. Most altcoins in the Top 100 are off 10%-20% overnight.

As feared, Russia is going ahead with a full-scale attack on Ukraine. Dow futures plummeted this morning, possibly signaling a stock market crash, or the kind of day that'll retroactively see the word "Black" prefixed to it. Crypto is viewed these days as being lock-step correlated with stocks and other global risk assets. If there is a port-in-storm aspect to the burgeoning digital asset class now would be an appropriate time for market participants to tease it into the foreground.

“This is extremely serious,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared during a news conference in Brussels today.

Stoltenberg said the powerful military alliance is set to reinforce its presence in the region.

Russian president Vladimir Putin went on state television to announce a military operation against Ukraine.

Responding, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to Twitter. "Very upset by Putin's decision to abandon the possibility of a peaceful solution to the dispute with Ukraine and go to war instead," Buterin wrote in his native Russian language, calling the invasion of Ukraine a "crime against both the Ukrainian and Russian people."

Prominent figures in the crypto community have responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Decrypt pointed out. "And they haven't minced their words."

Least minced was a tweet from Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert who went with "F--- war."

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, added: "F--- all this price stuff. Go outside and do something nice for someone."

Crass word choices, perhaps. But Silbert and "SBF" seem to be channeling a shellshocked mood that transcends percentage gains.

To summarize, and very loosely paraphrasing ancient philosophers, oh look, ETH over 60 minutes is now solidly green, up 1.3%. And so it goes.