new Delhi: According to a Bloomberg report, harsh Western sanctions have failed to deter Russian investors from transacting in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Ruble-denominated bitcoin trading volume reached its highest level this year on Saturday, data from blockchain analytics firm Kaiko, although the overall inflow appears to be relatively small.
Meanwhile, most ruble-denominated crypto trading volume is conducted with the Tether stablecoin, which claims to be backed one-to-one with fiat.
Kaiko said that the ruble denominated bitcoin trading pair saw a higher increase by ‘magnitude’ on March 5. The average trade size of bitcoin ruble transactions on Binance reached a 10-month high of around $580 on February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Efforts to cut cryptocurrency as a sanctions solution follow broad penalties imposed on Russia by the US and its allies, including a move to ban some banks from the SWIFT messaging system that connects financial institutions around the world. Is. The move also underscores the important role that digital assets are playing in conflict testing global security.
Andrew Too, business development manager at crypto algorithmic trading firm Efficient Frontier, said, “Perhaps more Russian retail investors will want to opt out of legal risk entirely in favor of BTC. While technically, the US dollar sanctions can be applied to USDT holders in real terms.” But I think some people are just taking extra precautions.”
Trade from Russia only counts as a fraction of the total amount of bitcoins globally.
According to Kaiko, the average daily trading volume of bitcoin varies between $20 billion and $40 billion. On March 5, BTC/RUB had a total trading volume of approximately $14.2 million.
Only three global crypto exchanges, Binance, Yobit and LocalBitcoins, offer ruble-denominated crypto trading pairs, Kaiko said.
While exchanges including Binance and Coinbase said they would not ban ordinary Russians from using their service, there are increasing efforts to block users belonging to approved individuals and entities. For example, Coinbase reported that they blocked over 25,000 addresses belonging to the sanctions list.
Carolyn Bowler, chief executive of Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets, said her company is blocking Russian entities that are under sanctions. Also, there has been an increase in trade by persons associated with Russia.
“This uptick in bitcoin is particularly concerning to retail, who are buying aggressively from there in small amounts,” she said.
Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of USDT issuer Tether, said on Twitter on March 4 that USDT, as a centralized stablecoin, “has to comply with the requirements of central authorities.”