Despite unease, Bitcoin level-headed

Gold jumped to fresh highs earlier today as Russia ordered troops into Ukraine. Bitcoin just sat there.

As of 7:30 a.m. (EST), BTC over 24 hours was somehow green, albeit barely 0.1%, taking its time until some catalyst lends it a hand.

To start off Tuesday, the largest crypto did sharply drop to as low as $36,370 but leveled off in the vicinity of $37,700 as traders divined geopolitical tarot cards, and while many news outlets pulled the trigger on "Bitcoin plunges" headlines.

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of "peacekeeping forces" to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing their independence, possibly igniting a war.

Reuters reports tanks and assorted military hardware moving through the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk.

A crypto sell-off indeed ensued in the wake of Putin's Monday afternoon marching orders. But in the wee hours of Tuesday, headline-processing traders shifted to the beat of a different drum as Bitcoin bounced back. Still, BTC has shed 10% in the past week.

Cardano (ADA) fell more sharply in that same seven-day span, losing 18%. In terms of 24-hour declines among Big Ten coins, XRP endured the brunt, down 8% compared to this time yesterday. The total crypto market has lost $400 billion since touching $2 trillion last week.

Also falling apart is the case for BTC as “digital gold." As more institutional investors start to trade BTC, it appears more closely aligned with fluctuations in equities (CoinDesk).

More than two-thirds of U.S. consumers surveyed by Deutsche Bank said that they plan to increase (either significantly or slightly) their crypto activity in the next six months (Cointelegraph).

“It is interesting to note the deep bullishness for crypto," said Marion Laboure, a DB director of macro strategy.

The global banking giant surveyed 3,250 U.S. consumers in early December; 680 of the respondents held some crypto. Some 80% of that subset said they had invested in crypto in the past six months. About one-third of them said they "traded" crypto. Roughly half of that sub-subset said they'd keep trading at current levels, even in an extremely bearish crypto market; roughly the other half said in such conditions that they would reduce their trading.

Greater Manchester Police say they recovered a USB stick containing $9.5 million worth of Ethereum that had been sent to scammers by duped victims from around the world (Decrypt).

The GMP Economic and Cyber Crime Unit months ago discovered that those orchestrating the scam had been in Manchester for a period of time and eventually tracked them down. A large portion of the funds are now starting to be returned to victims.