Russians are again stocking up on cryptocurrencies amid mobilization and mass exodus from the country. Citizens are buying first of all, the USDT stablecoin, which is pegged to the US dollar, writes “Kommersant”.
Stablecoins are bought by those who urgently need to withdraw a large amount, more than what is allowed for cash withdrawal (now it is $50,000). Most often, cryptocurrency is taken on p2p exchanges like Binance or Garantex, says Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation. At the same time, the number of offers with large lots has significantly decreased on Binance. “More often they sell in small lots for a couple of thousand USDT,” the expert notes.
In addition, the demand for hardware crypto wallets has also increased, which allow you to store assets on a hard drive. On the Ozon marketplace, since September 20, daily sales volumes have tripled – from 300 to 911 thousand rubles. However, the excitement is not as great as in the spring. At that time, market participants recorded an increase in demand by 5-8 times.
Meanwhile, the European Union intends to complicate the procedure for the Russians to purchase digital assets and store them. Yes, portal. CoinDesk found outthat the new package of sanctions, timed to coincide with the annexation of Ukrainian territories, is planned to include a ban on the opening of Russian citizens crypto wallets on European platforms. In April, the EU authorities banned crypto exchanges from opening wallets for Russian individuals and legal entities in the amount of more than €10,000. Under the new rules, this amount can be reduced to zero.
Earlier, in early September 2022, the UK authorities obliged centralized cryptocurrency exchanges to inform officials about the crypto assets of Russian citizens and companies that fell under sanctions after the start of the war in Ukraine. The platform will be held criminally liable for concealing such information. In addition to digital currencies such as bitcoin, ether and tether, non-fungible tokens can also be classified as crypto assets.