On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase highlighted in a report that there may be more upside in the crypto market as more Russians turn to cryptocurrencies as the Russian ruble depreciates sharply.
The stablecoin’s market share in the overall cryptocurrency market has soared to an all-time high of about 10%, JPMorgan said, which usually means people use it to buy cryptocurrencies.
Ruble-denominated bitcoin volumes surged to nearly 1.5 billion rubles on Thursday, the day of the geopolitical conflict, and again on Monday, the bank said, suggesting some Russians are responding by buying bitcoin. Devaluation of fiat currency.
According to previous media reports, due to the strong demand for bitcoin, buying bitcoin on local Russian exchanges usually requires paying a high premium.
The bank added that in recent years, the collapse of fiat currencies in some countries has also led their citizens to choose to buy cryptocurrencies, such as Venezuela, Brazil, Turkey.
Last week, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov took to social media to appeal to all major cryptocurrency exchanges to block addresses of Russian users. He not only called for the freezing of encrypted addresses associated with Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also the addresses of ordinary users.