On Tuesday, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency Bitcoin soared 13 percent on the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict as Russia continues to receive more sanctions.
According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin was up over 13 percent as of 3:03 a.m. ET and was trading at $43,500.16. The coin had hit a 24-hour high of $44,165.90. The gains recorded come on the heels of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At first, the cryptocurrency market suffered a decline but it has seen a rebound as they are being used to give donations to the Russian government and military.
Ether, on the other hand, was up more than 10 percent and was trading at $2,922.86.
Bitcoin’s rally follows further sanctions imposed on Russia by the US – Americans have been prohibited from engaging in business involving Russia’s central bank and Russian assets within the US have been frozen, as part of sanctions targeted at Russia’s central bank. Other sanctions have targeted Russian oligarchs and Russia’s sovereign debt with the aim of putting up a barrier against Russia, limiting its ability to participate in the global financial system.
Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister, on Sunday, urged various cryptocurrency platforms to block the accounts of Russian users. While Binance said it isn’t blocking Russian users on its platforms, it assured Ukraine that it is “taking the steps necessary to ensure we take action against those that have had sanctions levied against them while minimizing impact to innocent users”.
The CEO of crypto platform Kraken said that the company “cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so”.
However, DMarket, a platform that gives people access to trade virtual in-game items, however, said via Twitter that it has halted “all relationships with Russia and Belarus due to the invasion of Ukraine”. Accounts from Russia and ally Belarus have been frozen and new registrations cannot take place.
Meanwhile, more than $10 million have been raised in crypto donations to the Ukraine government through two crypto wallet addresses (one for Bitcoin and the other for Ether) the government shared via its official Twitter account. NGOs raising support for the military have also raised more than $4 million in crypto donations.
As of the time of this writing, Bitcoin was trading at $43,610.60.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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