Russian crypto market continues to grow

According to a Bloomberg report, sanctions against Russia did not dampen the enthusiasm of crypto investors. The trading volume of BTC in the Russian national currency, ruble, according to the analytical company Kaiko, has exceeded its highs this year.

Russian crypto market on the rise

Notably, most cryptocurrency trading by Russian investors relies on stablecoin Tether (USDT), which are pegged to the US dollar and covered by one-on-one fiat currency. Kaiko analysts also revealed that BTC trading pairs with the ruble recorded the highest growth on March 5, and the average value of transactions with BTC-denominated rubles rose on the Binance exchange to almost $ 580.

The attempt to stop the cryptocurrency trade resulted in tougher sanctions on Russia by the United States and its allies, along with a move to ban several Swift banks.

Andrew Tuier, Efficient Frontier’s business development manager for the algorithmic trading platform, commented;

Technically, US dollar sanctions probably can’t really be applied to USDT holders, I think some people are just taking further action.

Perhaps more Russian retail investors are trying to completely break out of their exposure to Fiat in favor of BTC.

Although the total volume of cryptocurrency trading in Russia is only a fraction of BTC traded worldwide – the average daily volume of BTC trading is between $ 20 billion and $ 40 billion, according to available data – the total amount of BTC / RUB traded is still growing every day, Kaiko noted. .

Currently, only three global crypto-exchanges, Binance, Yobit and LocalBitcoins, offer ruble-denominated crypto trading pairs, analysts said.

In response to government sanctions requiring crypto-trading platforms to block Russian users, Coinbase and Binance decided to block only sanctioned individuals. They refused to ban regular users from using their services. Thus, Coinbase recently blocked 25,000 wallet addresses included in the sanctions list.

In addition, another Australian crypto exchange, BTC Markets, has announced the blocking of Russian accounts. Immediately after the announcement, there was a rapid increase in the business activities of Russian individuals. The executive director of the exchange, Caroline Bowler, said;

This increase mainly concerns small investors who aggressively buy in small quantities.