The first half of March has been all about the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. After launching an invasion of Ukraine in late February, the world condemned Russia's actions and several western nations imposed sanctions on the country. Crypto has been put in the spotlight as donations of Bitcoin flood into Ukraine and governments call on exchanges to block Russian crypto wallets.

Despite many Bitcoin proponents claiming it's a safe haven in times of conflict, crypto prices went down while gold prices rose. Early leaks of U.S. President Joe Biden's executive order on cryptocurrencies spoke favourably of the industry, but only gave Bitcoin a momentary boost above A$55k before it returned to previous levels.

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Bitcoin Pumps on Positive News from Biden Executive Order

Bitcoin jumped back above US$40,000 after a statement from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was leaked early Wednesday morning, March 9th. The statement said U.S. President Joe Biden will sign an executive order "outlining the first-ever whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets."

The release featured several statements that spoke positively about digital assets and mentioned the research and development of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which would act as a digital dollar.

Crypto Exchanges Pressured to Sanction Russia

Major financial institutions like VISA, Mastercard and PayPal have imposed sanctions on Russia in response to the Ukrainian invasion. Now, governments are requesting that major cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase block Russian users so that they can't use crypto to avoid sanctions.

Some exchanges have complied with the sanction requests but the topic remains controversial because many innocent Russians who are against the war may need crypto as a lifeline during this difficult time.

Andre Cronje Quits DeFi

South African developer Andre Cronje has unexpectedly announced that he is quitting the crypto and DeFi sector without reason. Cronje is famous for his work on the Fantom (FTM) platform and yearn.finance (YFI) defi app, which provided a means of earning dividends through yield farming.

As a result, some sites that Cronje and colleague Anton Nell were running will be shut down but the majority of platforms will continue operating, including yearn.finance. However, with the major developers leaving and investors' confidence shook, the price of YFI and FTM tokens could take a hit. The YFI token dropped briefly on the news but has managed to recover most of its losses.

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The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

On 23 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of the neighbouring nation of Ukraine. It's the first time since World War II that such a large-scale military event has occurred on European soil. While Putin feels Russia has historical rights to Ukraine dating back to USSR times, the western world condemned the invasion and quickly imposed sanctions on Russia. Despite having a considerably smaller army than Russia, Ukraine has fought back fiercely, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refusing to back down or flee the country.

Now, as major financial corporations around the world begin blocking Russian activity, cryptocurrency has been put in the crosshairs. Several governments including the U.S. are concerned that Russia could use cryptocurrency channels to circumvent sanctions and continue funding the illegal invasion. While most crypto exchanges undoubtedly condemn the invasion, some may feel that banning users from a specific country is not in the best interests of crypto, considering that it's meant to be an impartial financial system.

The situation has raised serious questions about the nature of cryptocurrency and whether a ban would go against the principles of the community. Coinbase has complied with sanctions and blocked 25,000 Russian-linked addresses but Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says crypto is too small to make a difference in Russia.

With that, you're all caught up on the latest news in the crypto space.