Bitcoin hits $39,000 – here’s who has held it up amid Ukraine crisis

• Bitcoin has recovered slightly with a 2 percent gain, although it’s 10 percent down for the week as it struggles to brush aside the Ukraine tension.
• While technical factors indicate it should have dropped harder, young hodlers are the ones holding it up as they look at BTC as a long-term investment asset.

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When Russia invaded Ukraine, the world was caught in a daze as some claimed it would be the beginning of World War III. Assets tumbled as fear struck at the heart of investors, and Bitcoin wasn’t exempted, dipping by over 10 percent on the first day of the invasion. However, since then, it has fought to stay above $40,000 and it trades above its level just before the invasion. And it could all be down to one group of investors who are unfazed by the short-term volatility.

At press time, BTC is trading at $39,100, up by 2.38 percent in the past day, with an intra-day high of $39,430. The trading volume has shot up by 35 percent to hit $30 billion.

Other cryptocurrencies have also gained slightly, with Ether up 2.5 percent to trade at $2,600, as Polygon, Binance Coin and Polkadot all gained over 3 percent. The biggest gainer in the top 50 was Waves at 29 percent.

Even as BTC fights back to former highs, it’s yet to recover from the blow that the Ukraine-Russia geopolitical tensions dealt it. It’s currently 10.3 percent below its price level from a week ago.

It all goes back to February 24 when Russia began the march towards its invasion of Ukraine. The top crypto dipped by about 14 percent in a day as investors dumped risk assets, where BTC currently occupies a top spot. Since then, BTC has shown great resilience to recover, and it has gained 15 percent since that dip to trade about 5 percent higher than it did before the crisis.

Read More: Bitcoin tanks as Russia goes to war with Ukraine, here’s what the charts suggest

The traders holding Bitcoin up amid the Ukraine crisis

Bitcoin’s resilience could be down to one group of traders – the young investors who are ready to hodl through the ups and downs. Many of these hodlers see Bitcoin as an asset for the long term, not a get-rich-quick scheme. Even when BTC has tumbled, they have been ready to keep hold of their satoshis as some major traders dumped.

The statistics support this. eToro’s study found that investors aged between 18 and 34 are most likely to invest in crypto, with about two-thirds of the people in that age bracket having owned crypto at some point. Even more critically, about a third of these crypto owners said they see BTC as a transformative asset class for the long term.

Another exchange, Currency.com, says its clients are between 23 and 30 years of age and 20 percent are in their teens.

“People who believe in the technology, they’re going to be less likely to sell when scary headlines cross the tape,” Callie Cox, an investment analyst at eToro US commented. She told Reuters that she expects more retail traders to buy future dips and hodl through the good times and bad.

Larissa Bundziak is one such young investor ready to hodl through it all. The 28-year-old who resides in the US but was born in Ukraine told the business news outlet:

I don’t think crypto is a get-rich-quick kind of thing. That’s not the whole story. It’s about being able to send it as and when I want to, to my family in Ukraine or wherever I want to in the world, and not have my money made by a bank or a third party where I don’t know what’s going on with it.