Bitcoin
Bitcoin Climbs
Cryptocurrency prices are rising higher after Russia’s ruble sank to another record low and Moscow was hit with new sanctions. As of 5:25 a.m. ET on Tuesday, bitcoin had jumped 13%over the last 24 hours to $43,163, according to cryptocurrency tracker API CoinDesk.
Other cryptocurrencies moved higher, too. Ethereum has climbed 10% Tuesday to reach $2,878. Dogecoin rose nearly 6% to about 13 cents apiece.
Global Investors scurrying and “trying to get out of the ruble” due to its “drastic devaluation after all the sanctions,”said Bendik Schei, head of research at Arcane.
Although Virtual currencies are traditionally seen as a risky bet, but as convention fiat alassets experience curbs and sees greater volatility because of geopolitical tensions, some analysts believe they will gain more traction.
According to Arcane Research, an Oslo-based cryptocurrency research firm, the trading volume between ruble and cryptocurrencies has spiked in recent days on Binance,one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Schei added that more people were switching to tether rather than bitcoin. While bitcoin is the world’s most valuable cryptocurency, tether is known as a “stablecoin” since it is pegged to the US dollar.
“This is where they find the most comfort at the moment,” Schei said of investors. “Under the current market conditions, I’m not surprised to see investors, at least those in Russia, seeking stablecoins …This is about saving their funds, not investing.”
Falling Ruble
The caution came as the ruble plunged Monday, trading at 104 to the US dollar. It was little changed early on Tuesday.
Western powers have frozen the assets of Russia’s central bank with the aim of making it harder for Russia to mitigate the effect of US sanctions on some of its biggest lenders and other companies.
The steps are meant to prevent Russia from accessing a “rainy day fund” that officials said Moscow had been expecting to rely upon during the invasion of Ukraine. Instead of using the reserves to buffer a plummeting ruble, Russia will no longer be able to access many of the funds it keeps in US dollars.
Fiat instability
Apart from offering investors a nice little safe haven, cryptocurrencies could offer Russians a way of evading International sanctions, according to financial experts.
US and EU sanctions rely heavily on banks to enforce rules. If a sanctioned business or individual wants to make a transaction denominated in traditional currencies such as dollars or euros, it’s the bank’s responsibility to flag and block those transactions.
Albeit digital currencies operate outside the realm of standard global banking, with transactions recorded on a public ledger known as blockchain. Time will tell, however Bitcoin/ crypto currencies will to continue to rise as the conflict continues and fiat currencies continue to move with uncertainty in the global markets.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Google+
LinkedIn
RSS