Despite Russia’s efforts to evade sanctions through cryptocurrency, the country witnessed its ruble-dominated crypto trading volume falling rapidly from March 7, according to the data from Chainalysis, a blockchain-analytic firm.
At around $7.4 million, the ruble trading volume only counts as a fraction of volume globally. Bitcoin’s daily total volume averages between $20 billion to $40 billion.
Cryptocurrency trading conducted in rubles on exchanges appears to continue to decline while regulators remain adamant that digital assets are being used by Russians to evade sanctions.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that signs are showing Russians are trying to bypass sanctions by using cryptocurrencies. Lagarde didn’t provide specific examples.
The data only shows potential crypto activities conducted by Russian investors on crypto exchanges, said Madeleine Kennedy, Chainalysis’ senior director of communications. It does not include all transactions conducted on blockchains.
Data provided by crypto data firm Kaiko also shows that ruble-denominated Tether stable coin activities, the most popular ruble trading pair, are down from a March 7 peak of roughly $38 million. Less than $5 million worth of RUB/USDT volume was reported on March 22, according to Kaiko. The firm also noted that there are only three global crypto exchanges, Binance, Yobit, and LocalBitcoins, offering ruble-denominated crypto trading pairs.
In conclusion, crypto forensics firm Elliptic’s co-founder stated that even crypto won’t be able to facilitate sanctioned entities or individuals in any large-scale evasion. Furthermore, as the following action, the firm reported its findings of a digital wallet linked to sanctioned Russian officials and oligarchs to the authorities.
