After a Wild Ride, Stocks Take a Breather and Crypto Bounces Back

Cryptocurrency markets stabilized as traditional financial markets found some footing Tuesday. Most crypto prices have been in the green over the past 24 hours. 

As of 18:00 UTC, bitcoin was changing hands at $5,371, up 7 percent over the past 24 hours. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index eked out a slight gain, up 0.06 percent as of session close on March 17 at 5:00 UTC.

Lately, trading in Japanese markets seems to be one indicator of how bitcoin will perform in the following hours. Despite an obvious downward slump overall for Japan’s key equity index when the Nikkei traded in a tight range of limited up or down swings, so did bitcoin.

It’s clear many markets are performing similarly – at least for the time being. 

“This is not the first time that bitcoin traded in tandem with other assets,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research for London-based digital asset firm Bequant. “Other examples include the China trade war and geographic tensions in Iran, but every time the correlation…