Russians withdraw cash in bulk, Ruble falls 30%, Bitcoin price surges above $43,000

After surging above $43,000 this morning, Bitcoin’s market cap has surpassed that of the Russian ruble.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin’s market cap has grown to around $822 billion today, while the price has risen 13.4% to $43,360 over the past 24 hours.

Source: TradingView

The market cap of BTC exceeds the money supply of the Russian ruble, which was 65.3 trillion rubles as of Feb. 1 — roughly $629 billion at press time, according to the Central Bank of Russia.

After Monday’s market open, the dollar rose to over 108 rubles from just 83 rubles last week. Bitcoin is also skyrocketing against the bearish coin, which is currently trading at RUB3,820,000 at press time – its highest price ever recorded this year.

The decline is likely due to inflation of the Russian ruble amid sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Reuters reported that the Central Bank of Russia doubled interest rates from 9.5% to 20% on Monday and the European Commission announced plans to “kick” Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.

On the contrary, many residents of Russia and Ukraine appear to have encouraged trading activity on exchanges, possibly due to concerns about the stability of fiat currencies and the use of cryptocurrencies as a fundraising tool. As of Feb. 24 — the same day Russian forces launched the attack — Ukraine-based crypto exchange Kuna had a total 24-hour token trading volume of nearly $4.4 million.

Bank run in Russia

A bank run has begun in Russia as people rush to withdraw cash amid escalating sanctions. The Central Bank of Russia had to increase its supply of ATMs as cash demand hit the highest level since March 2020.

Some people have posted photos and videos of long lines at ATMs in Russia. User Jason Corcoran said:

“There is a long queue in front of the Tinkoff ATM in the Liga Shopping Center in Khimki. There were about 70 people in line. According to eyewitnesses, the money in the ATM was gone within 40 minutes.

The Central Bank of Russian has urged residents to remain calm, saying on Sunday that it has “the necessary resources and tools to maintain financial stability and ensure the region’s operational continuity”.

However, people still stand in long lines to withdraw cash. A resident in St. Petersburg said:

“Since Thursday, people have been walking around ATMs to withdraw cash. Some are lucky enough to get everything, while others don’t get too much money.”

Another person who was waiting to withdraw cash from an ATM shared that “was in line for an hour, but the foreign currency evaporated, rubles are flooded everywhere.”

Bitcoin demand in Russia is increasing

Bitcoin trading volume pegged to Russian ruble pairs has surged over the past few days. Figures recorded by crypto analytics provider Kaiko show that Bitcoin volume valued in rubles (RUB) reached almost 1.5 billion rubles four days ago, on February 24, the global average.

Source: Kaiko

Demand for Bitcoin in Russia began almost immediately after the country invaded the Ukrainian border.

“Operations are centralized on Binance. Hryvnia (Ukraine) Volume – Bitcoin is also up, but not as much as October. BTC-UAH is only sent to[zwei Börsen – Binance und Localbitcoin.com]traded.”[haisàngiaodịch–BinancevàLocalbitcoincom”[haisàngiaodịch–BinancevàLocalbitcoincom”

Source: Coinecko

In addition to the surge in BTC-RUB volume, Bitcoin has seen a divergence above the recorded global average price. Data from Coingecko.com shows the BTC-RUB price surged as high as 4.33 million rubles ($46,453) on Monday.

Data from Kuna shows that UAH trading pairs are still at a premium versus BTC, USDT and ETH, while RUB trading pairs have closed and there have been no RUB swaps in the last 48 hours.

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