Share this article
Ruble-Denominated Bitcoin Volume Surges to 9-Month High
The increase comes as the West's sanctions on Russia trigger a flight from the ruble.
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:27 p.m. Published Feb 28, 2022, 6:28 a.m.
Trading volumes between the Russian ruble and bitcoin increased to a nine-month high as the country's fiat currency plunged to record lows due to the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine.
Data tracked by Kaiko, a Paris-based cryptocurrency research provider, shows that ruble (RUB)-denominated bitcoin volume surged to nearly 1.5 billion RUB on Thursday, hitting its highest level since May.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
"The activity was concentrated on Binance," Kaiko research analyst Clara Medalie told CoinDesk in an email. "Bitcoin-Ukrainian hryvnia volume has also spiked, but not as high as October levels. BTC-UAH only trades on 2 exchanges – Binance and LocalBitcoin."
Similar trends were observed in tether-ruble and tether-hryvnia trading volumes, Medalie added. Tether , the world's largest stablecoin by market value, offers price stability in the often volatile world of cryptocurrencies by maintaining a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar.
Kaiko data shows USDT/RUB trading volume also rose to an eight-month high of 1.3 billion RUB on Thursday.
The spike in the ruble-based crypto trading volumes came as investors scrambled to move out of the ruble, fearing stricter sanctions from the West.
The Russian currency plunged over 8% to 90 per U.S. dollar last week and extended the slide by another 28% early today, reaching a record low of 118 per dollar, according to Bloomberg data. Gold, U.S. Treasurys, the U.S. dollar and the Swiss franc have been the beneficiaries of the flight to safety.
Over the weekend, the U.S. and its allies stepped up punitive measures against Russia, intending to stop its banks from accessing SWIFT, the messaging network underpinning global financial transactions. The European Union banned all transactions with the Russian central bank in a bid to prevent it from selling overseas assets to support its banks.
Early Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's nuclear deterrence force to be on high alert. According to reports, the Russian central bank has asked brokers to ban nonresident investors from selling securities.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin Market Echoes Early 2022 as Onchain Stress Mounts: Glassnode
Rising bitcoin supply in loss, weakening spot demand and cautious derivatives positioning were among the issues raised by the data provider in its weekly newsletter.
What to know:
- Glassnode's weekly newsletter shows multiple onchain metrics now resemble conditions seen at the start of the 2022 bear market, including elevated top buyer stress and a sharp rise in supply held at a loss.
- Off chain indicators show softening demand and fading risk appetite, with declining ETF flows and weakening spot volumes.
Top Stories
