According to Reuters citing reports by the Interfax news outlet, the Russian officials are “actively” discussing the idea of using cryptocurrencies in “transactions for international settlements.” The leading official in the country’s finance ministry policy department, Ivan Chebeskov, revealed that cryptocurrencies could be a viable option for the country to partly bypass Western sanctions.
On Thursday, Binance announced that accounts belonging to Russian nationals living in the country or overseas will be subject to new restrictions. According to the company’s announcement, accounts that have digital assets in excess of 10,000 EUR ($10,900) will no longer be allowed to use deposit or trading functionality going forward. This means that affected accounts will only be able to request withdrawals.
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The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been the biggest geopolitical development of the year. Following the Russian invasion, a series of developments have left global markets rattled. Given that this is the first major, global-scale conflict since the crypto market became mainstream, analysts are eager to see how cryptocurrencies have performed thus far.
Hong Kong-based gaming and venture capital company Animoca Brands has announced it will no longer allow Russian citizens access to its services. One of the company’s co-founders, Yat Siu, told Bloomberg that the decision to leave the Russian market was made after receiving legal advice.
In light of strict and extensive economic sanctions enforced against Russian financial institutions, global payments giants Visa and Mastercard have now joined the list of companies refusing to provide their services to Russian banks.
The cryptocurrency market performed a pronounced zig-zag movement in the last 24 hours. The majority of digital assets followed in the footsteps of Bitcoin, which dropped more than 10% yesterday only to bounce back over its Thursday highs.
The tensions between Russia and Ukraine reached a boiling point earlier today as the Russian army crossed the border with its western neighbor and began an air raid on Kyiv and surrounding areas.
On Saturday, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate reached its highest value to date. In a single day, the computational capabilities of the world’s largest Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain platform jumped from 188.4 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 248.1 EH/s.
Prominent tech and political executives have come out in opposition to Russia’s central bank’s recently proposed cryptocurrency ban, which would outlaw all cryptocurrency-related activities in the country apart from individual crypto ownership.