Facing global sanctions, do cryptocurrencies present a way out for Russia

ambcrypto.com:

As the war in Ukraine rages on, an interesting phenomenon that has emerged is the role cryptocurrencies can play during a global crisis of this scale, and the ways in which it can be utilized by both sides to either circumvent financial measures against them or rally international economic support.

Ever since many major nations imposed economic sanctions against Russia and its top leaders in response to its attack on Ukraine, experts have pointed out the possibility of Russia using the crypto route to carry out transactions instead, especially after moves were made to remove it from the global SWIFT system.

In preparation for the same, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has sent letters to 8 crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance, Huobi, KuCoin, Bybit, Gate.io, Whitebit, and Ukraine-based Kuna to stop offering their services to Russian users in a bid to restrict the country from using cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions. This was promptly refused by leading exchanges such as Binance, Kraken and Coinbase have already denied these requests, citing issues of discrimination and financial warfare.

Nevertheless, it turns out circumventing sanctions through digital currencies might not be as easy as previously thought, according to RippleNet’s general manager Asheesh Birla. Taking to Twitter, the executive noted that the first issue was with the accurate tracking of transactions that is possible through blockchain technology. Furthermore, he noted that there “simply isn’t enough global liquidity to support Russia’s needs.”

Birla noted that Russia conducts nearly $50 billion in foreign exchange transactions in a day, while the Bitcoin network’s daily volume sits somewhere around $20-50 billion a day. This means