Technologists and military analysts are wondering how significant a role crypto will play in the war between Russia and Ukraine. After all, Russia held more than 10% of the average monthly hashrate share in August 2021 while Ukraine is one of the top countries in terms of crypto adoption.
In the meantime, Chainalysis had some insights to share.
The crypto analytics firm revealed that demand for the Russian ruble/Ukrainian hryvnia trading pair registered a sharp spike.
<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>However, exchange order book data reveals one interesting trend. Over the last few days, there’s been a large uptick in transaction volumes for trading pairs involving the Russian ruble and Ukrainian hryvnia (credit @KaikoData). pic.twitter.com/oeqmtKnTjS— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) February 25, 2022
Chainalysis noted,
“Between 2/19 and 2/24, ruble trade pairs’ daily tx volumes have grown 8.6x to $124M USD, while hryvnia volumes have grown 8.2x to $42M.”
The firm theorized that while this could be due to “illicit actors” turning their money into crypto, it might also be a way of hedging against the falling value of both Russia and Ukraine’s currencies.
What’s interesting here, is that Ukraine is also developing an electronic hryvnia based on the Stellar blockchain. However, the e-hryvnia is very different from a central bank issued digital currency. In an interview with AMBCrypto, Stellar Development Foundation spokesperson Carolyn Yi said,
“It’s important to specify that the electronic hryvnia pilot is not a CBDC. It will be privately issued e-money on blockchain technology, built under Ukraine’s current e-money legislation.”
While millions in crypto donations are being sent to Ukraine, it remains to be seen whether digital
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