After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his country's forces would conduct a "special military operation" in Ukraine, the price of Ethereum fell below $2,400 on Wednesday night. Ethereum has now fallen to its lowest level since late January, while Bitcoin and US stock futures have also fallen.
After hovering around $3,000 for much of the month, Ethereum has been losing value since late last week, when it fell below $2,900 on Thursday. Since then, the price has continued to fall.
Ethereum has had a rocky start to the year, with the price falling below $2,200 in January — the lowest it has been since July 2021.
The recent volatility in Ethereum comes amid rising inflation, the stock market's worst month since March 2020, and ongoing indications that the Federal Reserve will begin raising rates at its next meeting in March to combat inflation. Government officials have also expressed an interest in more crypto regulation and even the creation of a government-issued digital currency.
Bitcoin, like Ethereum, has stalled over the last month after a strong November; Bitcoin set a new all-time high when it crossed $68,000 on November 10. The price of Bitcoin and Ethereum is likely to fluctuate further in the future, and experts' advice to investors remains unchanged. Despite the late slump, Ethereum finished the year far above where it began: in January 2021, the price of Ethereum was just over $1,000.
What Should Ethereum Investors Do?Experts advise ignoring the ups and downs, as with any long-term investment. The recent high price does not imply that Ethereum's volatility has subsided.
"The real question is whether or not people who own these coins will continue to see compound, exponential growth." "Nothing in the fundamentals of cryptocurrency leads me to believe that answer is yes," says Jeremy Schnieder, the investing expert behind Personal Finance Club.
Because there is no guarantee that the value of any cryptocurrency will rise, experts advise never investing more than 5% of your portfolio in cryptocurrency. Never invest at the risk of failing to meet other financial objectives, such as paying off high-interest debt or saving for retirement.
If you've met all of those criteria, the best thing you can do is ignore the buzz surrounding new record highs and lows. As with traditional long-term investing, the best thing you can do is "set it and forget it," according to Humphrey Yang, the personal finance expert behind Humphrey Talks.
