The crippling sanctions on Russia after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine have led to the collapse of the ruble. At the same time, Bitcoin's value has once again risen.
In this shifting dynamic, Bitcoin's market cap has now eclipsed that of the Russian ruble.Bitcoin has a market cap of $839.1 billion while ruble's market cap as of February 1 was around $629 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.Sanctions by the US, UK, France, Germany, NATO allies, EU, Japan, and Australia have caused the ruble to collapse almost overnight with the current exchange rate being $1 = 109 ruble, compared to 77 ruble on February 20.At the same time, Bitcoin has once again defied expectations by reversing its bearish trends and climbing back up to above $44,000. Bitcoin is up by over 15 percent in the past week, paring much of the losses it had suffered earlier in the year.The sudden change in Bitcoin's fortunes comes as a result of the ruble's collapse.
Russians have stored their wealth in Bitcoin as a measure of safety against further erosion of wealth.“Bitcoin was created for the same purpose where it acts as a store of value on one side and also to enable fast and free transactions on the other side. Both these utilities are becoming visible now.
A lot of people in Russia are going in for Bitcoin due to the ruble drop. Ukraine’s government had also announced accepting Bitcoin as donations.
This is a very good use where governments are looking at cryptos during such crisis and anonymously people are also able to contribute,” Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder, Unocoin, said to Financial Express Online.“In these uncertain times, we have seen an uptick in the utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It goes without saying
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