Data from Kaiko, a Paris-based cryptocurrency research provider, shows that the volume of ruble-denominated bitcoins surged to almost 1.5 billion RUB on Thursday when the war broke out, reaching its highest level since May.
Cryptocurrencies are popular in Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine ranked fourth in a global adoption index created by analytics firm Chainalysis. A Russian government report estimates that there were more than 12 million cryptocurrency wallets held by Russian citizens with around 2 trillion (million) rubles, which is equivalent to about $20 billion.
“The situation in Ukraine has highlighted the value of bitcoin as an alternative currency network,” said Timo Lehes, co-founder of trading platform Swarm Markets. A demand-driven rally specific to bitcoin is a break from its recent pattern, which has been trading in line with risky assets like tech stocks.
Kaiko, another specialized source dedicated to investigating the adoption of cryptocurrencies, reported that the volume of bitcoins traded in the country increased to 1.5 billion Russian rubles and reached a new maximum since May 2021. In addition, Kaiko confirmed that the stable cryptocurrency USDT also gained special relevance among savers and calculates a total movement of 1,300 million rubles in this digital currency.
In this framework, the Finance Ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) and the European Union (EU) confirmed to Bloomberg that they are working to prevent Russia from using cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions. This was confirmed by the German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner.
“The issue is known and we are working on it,” Lidner told Welt TV. “It’s about isolating Russia as much as possible at all levels” and having a “maximum sanctioning capacity and that also includes crypto assets.” Some cryptocurrency exchanges are based in jurisdictions that are outside the scope of sanctions and others do not require customer identification, making it difficult to impose restrictions. Fears have already begun among cryptocurrency investors that the US will ban crypto assets.
Source: Ambito
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