Amid the conflict in Ukraine with Russia, bitcoin trade volumes tied to Russian ruble pairs have surged in recent days. Metrics recorded by the crypto analytics provider Kaiko indicate that ruble (RUB)-denominated bitcoin volume reached close to 1.5 billion rubles four days ago, on February 24. Data also shows that bitcoin-ruble pairs saw a significant premium on February 28, jumping 16% higher than the global average.
Russian Bitcoin Demand Rises Driving BTC-RUB Bounties
Statistics show that there has been a lot of demand for bitcoin (BTC) from Russia in the past 96 hours. It started almost immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine’s borders and as the war between the two countries escalated.
Data from the crypto analytics provider Kaiko shared with the crypto-journalist Omkar Godbole shows that ruble-denominated BTC trade volume has spiked a great deal. Kaiko’s data showed that ruble-denominated BTC volume tapped a nine-month high reaching nearly 1.5 billion rubles on Thursday.
“The activity was focused on Binance,” Kaiko analyst Clara Medalie told the reporter. “Bitcoin-Ukrainian hryvnia volume also increased, but not as high as October levels. BTC-UAH only trades on [two] exchanges – Binance and Localbitcoin.com,” Medalie added.
In addition to the BTC-RUB volume increase, bitcoin has seen a premium in contrast to the recorded global average prices. Currently, via Sberbank transfers, Localbitcoins.com traders are selling bitcoin (BTC) for 3.69 million rubles ($39,656) or $1,206 above the current $38,450 global average. Data derived from Coingecko.com indicates that BTC-RUB prices went as high as 4.33 million rubles ($46,453) on Monday.
The all-time high premium was $7,853 above the global average on Monday and BTC-RUB premiums are $6,797 lower, but still above the global average at the time of writing. Bitcoin.com News reported on Feb. 26 that Kuna, a cryptocurrency exchange that offers trading in hryvnia, has also seen significant bounties and higher trading volumes.
Data from Kuna shows premiums still exist for hryvnia trading pairs with BTC, USDT, and ETH. Kuna recently told the publication Forklog that ruble (RUB) pairs have been closed and data shows there have been zero RUB swaps in the last 48 hours. In terms of the Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH), however, tether (USDT) is trading for $1.10 per unit. BTC-UAH is trading at $42,026 per unit and ETH-UAH is $2,903 per ether.
