• Choppy market condition due to worsening Russia – Ukraine crisis weighs on the king crypto.
• Moscow’s recent actions breaks trust on the peace talks.
• Hawkish Fed Chair Powell comments on the rate hike and the recent risk aversion wave favors the USD bulls.

Bitcoin dropped against the greenback during Friday trading session as Choppy market conditions dominated the cryptocurrency landscape as the global economy continues to face challenges on multiple fronts and uncertainty about the future weighs heavily on asset prices.

Russia’s shelling of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, which is one of the largest in Europe, puts pressure on the market sentiment. Even if the radiation fears were turned down and the fire-safety team took control of the matters, The recent steps from Moscow defies the peace talks that agreed on the safe passage of Kyiv’s civilians the previous day.

The geopolitical tension weighs on the crypto market. Billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska said “The economic pressure Western sanctions are putting on Russia is worse than anything the country has encountered before and will have lasting repercussions” “The crisis will be most severe for a minimum of three years,” he said at an economic conference Thursday, according to reports. “Take the 1998 crisis and multiply it by three.”

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his support for a 0.25% rate hike, also showed readiness for a 0.50% rate-lift if needed in the March meeting, during the second round testimony the previous day. While portraying the market implications from Powell’s comments, CME’s FedWatch Tool marks around 89% odds favoring the same rate-lift in the next month’s Fed meeting.

However, the hawkish comment from Powell couldn’t find support from the US data but highlight today’s US jobs report for February.

Moving on to US data, US ISM Services PMI eased at 56.5 against the expectation of 65.6  in its latest release but the second-tier job data and Factory Orders came in positive on Thursday favoring the USD.

BTC/USD 4 Hour Chart:

Support: 41200.0 (S1), 40292.0 (S2), 38736.4 (S3).

Resistance: 43663.7 (R1), 45219.2 (R2), 46127.3 (R3).

Worsening of Russia – Ukraine jitters weighs on the market sentiment and risk-aversion wave favors the US dollar bulls. We expect a bearish trend for BTC/USD.