Amid ongoing war and several sanctions imposed on Russia, the leading cryptocurrency in the market, Bitcoin, has recently overtaken the Russian ruble in the list of largest currencies in the world by market cap.
According to live data from the popular cryptocurrency price tracking platform, CoinMarketCap, bitcoin is currently the 14th largest currency in the world, with the Russian ruble falling back to 18th place.
Russian Ruble Plummets Following Sanctions
In the light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, several countries from around the world have imposed quite a number of economic sanctions on Russia.
The U.S., EU, UK, and Canada have all taken massive steps to cripple Russia’s economy. Several Russian banks have been cut out of the Swift international payments system by the EU, US, UK, and Canada.
This move is targeted at preventing these banks from carrying out international operations, which will effectively block the country’s imports and exports.
Amid this whole chaos, the value of the country’s official currency, the ruble, has been adversely affected. The ruble has fallen by over 60%, dropping to a new record low of under 1 U.S. cent earlier today.
Ukraine Taps into Bitcoin for Payments
Bitcoin’s popularity as a means of facilitating cross-border payments has reached new heights amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
The cryptocurrency has been praised for its use in sending payments to different parts of the world in record time, with very little charges levied on the transactions.
The Ukrainian government had recently decided to tap into the digital asset’s potential and adopted a law that establishes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal in the country.
Since the adoption, the Ukrainian government has received over $10 million in crypto donations from different parts of the world to support it in the war.
Several NGOs in the country have also set up crowdfunding accounts and have received cryptocurrencies worth millions of dollars within the past few days, both from individual and institutional supporters from across the globe.
