On Monday afternoon, the world’s most popular digital currency was trading around $41,200, while ethereum was up 7.3 percent at $2,800.
According to Marc van der Chijs of First Block Capital, the spike can be explained in part by Russians fleeing the ruble, which has plummeted due to severe US and EU sanctions.
On Monday, Van der Chijs said he saw bitcoin trading for up to $46,000 on some Russian markets, a $5,000 premium above its US pricing.
“Normally, there isn’t a difference [between the Russian and US bitcoin prices] since arbitrage opportunities exist,” van der Chijs told The Post. “This appears to show that Russian buying is driving up the price of bitcoin.”
Russians concerned about the currency’s and banking system’s stability may see bitcoin as a method to safeguard their savings, he said.
Sanctions have been imposed on Russian financial institutions, notably the state-owned Sberbank.
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According to statistics provided Monday by Kaiko Research, bitcoin to Russian ruble and Ukrainian hryvnia conversions jumped to their highest levels in months after Vladimir Putin launched the invasion last week.
“We see some signs of a spike in bitcoin-ruble volume,” said Blockchain.com research chief Garrick Hileman to The Washington Post, but he cautioned that it was uncertain whether Monday’s price changes could be entirely ascribed to such deals.
Hileman, who is also a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, said, “There’s obviously a substantial spike there compared to what the average was previously.” “Is it significant enough to change the price this much?” “I’m afraid I can’t say.”
It could also be due to non-war-related issues, such as a tight schedule, he noted.
He replied, “It’s quite difficult to establish a clear interpretation here.”
Many prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Coinbase and FTX, are not available in Russia.
As a result, many Russians have resorted to Binance, a crypto exchange established in the Cayman Islands that enables trading between the ruble and bitcoin.
Binance refused to prohibit Russian users after Ukraine’s vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov demanded it on Sunday.
Binance’s representative told CNBC, “We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent customers’ accounts.” “Crypto is designed to provide people all across the world more financial freedom. To decide unilaterally to deny people access to their crypto would be a direct violation of the purpose of crypto.”
Cryptocurrencies originally plummeted in lockstep with markets when Russia invaded Ukraine last week, but have since outperformed. Over the last five days, Bitcoin has gained 10.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 1.0 percent.
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