Cryptoverse: Bitcoin gains conflict currency credentials

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bitcoin has leapt since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, bolstered by people in those countries looking to store and move money in anonymous and decentralised crypto. Bitcoin trading denominated in the Russian rouble went into overdrive when the invasion began on Thursday, with daily volumes rising 259% from a day earlier to 1.3 billion rouble ($13.1 million), according to data from CryptoCompare. In Ukraine, meanwhile, crypto exchange Kuna saw its daily trading volume more than treble to 150 million hryvnias ($5 million). Bea O'Carroll, managing director at Radkl, a digital asset investment firm, said the war and Western sanctions had seen a trend emerge of bitcoin being used to transfer value.

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«Basically, having a currency that is not controlled by the government, that is not affected by the emergency acts… is really interesting,» she added. «Maybe this is how Russia gets its value moved around. Equally, on the other side, there was 'this is how people are going to get value to the Ukrainians'.» In the five days since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, bitcoin has risen 13%, while the S&P 500 U.S. stock index that it often mimics is up around 2% and traditional safety play gold is now largely flat after gaining as much as 3.5% on the day of the invasion. On the day of the attack, about $300 million short bitcoin positions were liquidated, Coinglass data showed, while Singapore-based QCP Capital said «a good portion» of leveraged long positions had been taken out. As well as being largely anonymous, crypto holdings and transactions are often held in wallets on decentralised platforms that can be accessed from