Between volatility and recent gains, Bitcoin The Russian currency now has a higher market capitalization than the ruble, which is shrinking under the weight of Western sanctions being imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military operation in Ukraine last month.
Bitcoin has overtaken the Russian ruble in terms of total value as the price of bitcoin has increased as the ruble goes into freefall. data from fiat market cap showed that the cryptocurrency has overtaken the ruble in the global ranking of fiat currencies by market cap in BTC, as the crypto ranks 14th, while the RUB ranks 17th on the list.
As reported by Bloomberg, trading volume in bitcoin using the ruble has soared to the highest level since May, suggesting that Russians are potentially shifting their money to crypto as the ruble is being used by Russia. And the record is cut short amid the intense war between Ukraine.
The world’s most popular and largest cryptocurrency is up more than 20% since falling to lows of less than $35,000 last week, even though it is still far from its record high of $69,000 that hit last year. Was hit in November. Meanwhile, the Russian currency has crashed nearly 30% following new Western sanctions imposed on the country over the weekend.
Russia has responded to currency weakness by doubling its benchmark interest rate to more than 20% and asking companies to divert 80% of their foreign exchange revenue to the domestic market as the central bank, now under Western sanctions, has stopped foreign exchange. Interference
Rating agency Moody’s has downgraded Russia’s rating to ‘junk’. On the other hand, Fitch has also downgraded the country’s credit rating by six levels, while widely-tracked global indices MSCI Inc and FTSE Russell are removing Russian equities from their emerging-market (EM) index.
(with inputs from agencies)
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