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

There are few winners among Bitcoin hodlers this week as stocks get squashed while commodities run wild.

Bitcoin (BTC) recovered from one-week lows on March 8 after a lack of progress in Russia-Ukraine talks that 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 Monday‘s Wall Street open.

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

Crypto and stocks reacted badly to the lack of consensus that ended the third round of negotiations to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.

“There 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,” 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. United States stocks trended down throughout the session with 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.

Commodities are trading like meme stocks.

Wheat +17%, +75% YTD. pic.twitter.com/04T2h5aRmR

— Dylan LeClair (@DylanLeClair_) March 8, 2022

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 rubles on Binance.

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

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

“The world is watching trust get repriced in real time,” Marty Bent, founder of Bitcoin media company TFTC summarized.

“When 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.”

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

$40,000 becomes short-term target

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

Related: 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.

#BTC LTF Intraday Update ✅

bullish divergence playing out up 3% pic.twitter.com/Gabh2xSF5P

— AN₿ESSA (@Anbessa100) March 7, 2022

“Target can be defined better when that correction is finished, but for now sticking with ~40k,” 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.