Imposing capital controls and banning the use of rubles to buy USD could push Bitcoin prices in Russia to new highs.
According to data from the Binance exchange, the BTC/RUB price pair has been on the rise since February 24. On the evening of March 9, the exchange rate between Bitcoin and RUB hit a new peak at 5,824,000 RUB/BTC. The transaction volume reached nearly 4 billion RUB, equivalent to more than 33.3 million USD.
The BTC/RUB price pair was corrected after the spike. According to CoinTelegraph, through technical analysis, the Bitcoin price in Russia could make a new high at 11,000,000 RUB/BTC.
Cointelegraph said bullish expectations according to technical analysis come as Russians are “running away” from the country’s currency, and at the same time, the European Commission has expanded sanctions, removing remove some Russian banks from the cross-border payment network.
Therefore, the Moscow Exchange has suspended trading from February 28 until further notice. Similarly, shares of Russian-backed companies abroad have been hit hard.
In addition to the action from lawmakers, major credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard have also announced the shutdown of operations in Russia and Belarus amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Binance exchange also announced that it cannot pay with these two credit cards in Russia.
According to Arcane Research, trading data from cryptocurrency exchanges shows that Ukrainians and Russians are viewing crypto as a “shelter” asset class. Activity on the Binance exchange shows that the buying power of cryptocurrencies comes mostly from the people of the two countries. On February 28, the trading volume of currency pairs of RUB increased. At the same time, the volume between stablecoin Tether (USDT) and RUB hit an all-time high, hovering around $35 billion.
“The high volume of RUB to USDT conversion shows that people are ‘running away’ from the Russian currency in the face of sanctions. However, the increased trading volume can also be determined by market makers,” said an analyst from Arcane Research.
Previously, on February 24, the trading volume of the BTC/RUB pair reached more than 16 million USD. Besides, analysts say that Ukrainians are also gradually getting access to cryptocurrencies. On February 24, the trading volume of BTC/UAH and USDT/UAH pairs increased significantly over the same period. BTC/UAH trading volume reached about 3 million USD on 24/2.
@ Zing News
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Source: Vietnam Insider